City of Urbana Updates

There's been quite a bit of news related to Urbana government lately. There was a new superintendent for Urbana schools (update here). There was financial pressure from property tax issues threatening historic buildings of the UI Greek system houses (more at this UIUC post here). But on issues more directly related to City of Urbana government I have City Council updates on the budget along with links on liquor, the Landmark hotel, lawsuits, and a library survey.


Urbana City Council Roundup:

The May 13th Committee of the Whole (preview coverage) and May 20th City Council meetings were both covered in the News-Gazette and culminated in some spending cuts and attempts to increase revenue. From yesterday's paper:

Urbana planning range of cuts in effort to fill $2.5 million budget deficit
...
Now, for the third year in a row — with a goal of cutting $500,000 — the city announced Monday that it would be continuing to make cutbacks, revenue increases and other changes to deal with the $2.5 million structural deficit in the next fiscal year, which starts in July.

That means a staffing reduction of about 5.25 full-time-equivalent employees from the current budget, in addition to five others over the past two years, putting the total at 10 full-time employees let go since 2018. That's about 4 percent of the city's workforce coming from police, public works and executive departments, City Administrator Carol Mitten said.

Funding for the Urbana Free Library will also be reduced by $59,100 — its proportionate share of the city's $500,000 expenditure reduction goal.

As for revenue increases, the city is in talks to raise its package liquor tax in an effort that is projected to generate about $220,000 a year, and an increase in late fees for unpaid parking fines will generate about $72,000 a year.

More at the full article here. WILL had additional coverage here. Some of the issues such as the liquor tax and procedures for the Council approving planning developments in coverage ahead of the Committee of the Whole meeting here. After that meeting there was additional coverage of some of the nuance of the liquor tax and an explanation of some of the funding for assistance programs. Here's an excerpt on the City and Champaign County Health Care Consumers collaborating:

In other business, Cunningham Township Supervisor Danielle Chynoweth told aldermen about the social-services agencies that have applied for Consolidated Social Service Funding money this year.

That $225,000 pool is intended to provide grants to nonprofit organizations that sponsor social services for Urbana residents and combines funds from the city, township and federal governments.

The committee tasked with finding appropriate organizations to receive the funds considered several criteria and implemented a scoring system. The top scorer, which requested $28,000, is Champaign County Health Care Consumers...

Jakobsson said the organization provides help for people who are still "falling through the cracks," adding that it is there "to provide either material help or informed advice for navigating this system."

And it's a complex system, Chynoweth said, that the township currently doesn't have the expertise to deal with in addition to its other missions. She said Health Care Consumers "is an example of an organization where we refer people to on a daily basis," as it is the primary entity that helps people apply for government programs like LINK.

More at that full article here. The Mayor's office has been making news with the Landmark Hotel and potential new buyer. The News-Gazette had more on that last week:

Urbana's Landmark Hotel may finally have a buyer
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Spiritos has also signed a letter of intent with the city of Urbana to redevelop the hotel at 210 S. Race St. into a boutique Hilton Tapestry-branded hotel.

"I started working with the city when I got the property under contract," Spiritos said Thursday.

Spiritos and Yuan declined to divulge the sale price, but the letter of intent with the city states that the maximum price for the land is $1 million...

Under the letter of intent signed Thursday, the city would reimburse the developer at least $5.2 million through its central tax-increment-financing district once the $16.8 million project is completed.

With interest on the expected 10-year bond, Marlin said the total cost to the city could be about $6.5 million.

More at the full article here, including more details about the possible sale, contract, incentives, and a history of the Landmark's previous history of sales falling through. Additional coverage at WILL here.

In an ongoing legal dispute with the City of Urbana and Stark is going to court. From Tom's Mailbag last week:

The dispute between the city and Stark Excavating Inc. has gone to Champaign County Circuit Court before Judge Jason Bohm. The city alleges a breach of and default on its contract with Stark. It wants "an amount sufficient to properly fix or remove and replace all of the cracked and defective concrete pavement" installed by Stark...

The city alleges that Stark breached the contract in several technical aspects of concrete work, such as the failure to ensure that dowel bars — short steel bars within concrete — were correctly installed and lubricated, to use a mechanical spreader for placing concrete and to ensure that the concrete "haul time" did not extend beyond specified time limits...

Urbana claims that because of defective work, "the expected lifespan of the reconstruction work performed by Stark on Windsor Road will be significantly shortened" and that the city will incur substantial costs repairing or replacing the concrete. It claims it has been damaged in excess of $2 million.

In its response Stark "admits it conferred with the city about pavement cracking but denies both that the cracking was excessive or the product of Stark's work. The city, although conferring with Stark about the pavement cracking, never definitively ordered Stark to repair or replace cracked panels."

More details, including a history of the dispute and more information on the claims of both parties here.

On the Urbana Free Library Survey (available here):

A survey asking patrons and others how they use the library and how satisfied they are with its various collections, programs and services is available online and at the library through May 27.

The library's previous strategic plan has expired, and the survey is intended to provide officials with public input for a new plan.

Full blurb here. Survey here.