BEDFORD — A handful of Bedford nonprofits and agencies asked Bedford City Council on Tuesday to continue funding contributions despite a tough budget year.
“Times are tough and everyone knows that,” said Ira Doom, director of Bedford Ride, a nonprofit that provides transportation to the Bedford area.
Doom said 160 volunteers devoted 12,000 hours to the city and Bedford County in the past year and asked that council continue its current contribution of just more than $7,000. The city’s contribution was $15,000 the year before, he said.
Bedford City Manager Charles Kolakowski said the city has scaled back its giving to “outside agencies” over the past few year’s because of economic cutbacks.
The Bedford County Board of Supervisors is considering cutting contributions to such agencies by 5 percent, which County Administrator Kathleen Guzi said would save nearly $50,000. The board faces a deficit of nearly $1.5 million in the county’s proposed 2010-2011 budget.
William McIntosh, president of the National D-Day Memorial Foundation, told council members Tuesday he would be “grateful for anything you can do for us.” The memorial opened in 2001 and receives more than 70,000 visitors annually — the foundation laid off nearly half its workforce in 2009 due to budget cuts.
Kolakowski is expected to present a city budget recommendation to council in April that would affect more than 100 city employees.
At a council finance committee meeting in February, Vice Mayor Robert Wandrei said the city might need to consider placing departments and services in categories of “desirable” or “essential” in bracing for potential cuts. The city would not be “too wise” to raise taxes again this year, he said.
Council last year approved a 5-cent increase in the real estate tax rate, bumping it from 81 cents per $100 of assessed value to 86 cents, along with tax increases on personal property and cigarettes. The purpose, Kolakowski said last June, was to add savings in the current budget and not to create any new spending.
While the city waits on final figures from the state budget and Bedford County’s budget, Kolakowski said this could be the worst budget year he’s ever seen.
“We’re trying to hold off on displacing people,” Kolakowski said during the recent committee meeting. “We’re rapidly getting to the point of minimal staffing and minimal projects.”
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