By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com

As the Bucyrus City Council Finance Committee reviewed the city’s 2017 budget Thursday night, they made special note of the money being set aside for a Tree City USA designation.

Mayor Jeff Reser proposed the Tree City USA certification in September as part of a “Bicentennial Plan.” Over the last year he has been pushing the idea of improving the tree canopy and ridding the tree lawns of old stumps and diseased or rotten trees.

“You look around town we have a lot of stumps that need to be removed,” Reser told the Finance Committee Thursday night. “I’m looking ahead 10 to 20 years – long after we’ll be in these seats. We’re competing in this community for residents; we’re competing with every community of our size – some larger, some smaller – in the area.”

Reser noted the decline in population over the last few decades and argued that they needed to make the town attractive to bring in families.

“One of the ways to make our town attractive is to have good parks, have tree-lined streets,” he added. “You don’t notice those things; you take them for granted.”

The Finance Committee approved $24,000 – an annual budget of at $2 per capita, a standard set by Tree City USA – at its Nov. 10 meeting and the funds were added into the city’s budget for 2017. That money, which will completely remain in the community, will be used to remove stumps and make trees safer during the first couple of years. After taking an inventory and setting a plan, Reser said they could start planting trees in three or four years.

“The plan would be to line Sandusky Avenue, our main thoroughfare, with trees,” he explained. “We need to attract young families. Our population is aging. We need to do everything we can do as administration, as council, to make sure we leave the city in a better position than when we first arrived. A tree program is a small way we can do that.”

Other standards for a designation include establishing a tree board or department and a tree care ordinance, along with issuing an Arbor Day observance and proclamation. Reser acknowledged that a Tree City USA designation is a goal right now, mainly because the city is not yet in a position to meet the standards.

Ohio leads in the nation in Tree Cities. Crestline is the only other municipality in Crawford County with such a designation and has done so for the past four years. Other area Tree City USA communities in the area are Mansfield (21 years), Shelby (33 years), Tiffin (35 years), Upper Sandusky (28 years), and Willard (36 years).

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The Finance Committee passed a motion to prepare the 2017 budget for the next council meeting. Included in the budget were numerous street projects.

“Spend a lot of money on streets next year, but you might find it a little difficult to get around town,” said councilman Steve Pifer. “If you think you’re one of the streets that doesn’t get any love, this year might be the year you get paved.”

Wavelinc owner Kurt Fankhauser approached the joint committees about an issue he discovered with a legislation request dating back to 2015. Fankhauser’s company is contracted through February 2018 with the city to provide internet, web, and email services, but legislation was requested at a July 9, 2015 joint committee meeting to use GoDaddy for email and website hosting.

Fankhauser pointed out that he was in the ninth year of his 10-year contract with the city and was providing them the services free of cost in exchange for Wavelinc’s access to the city’s water towers.

Law Director Rob Ratliff said he was not sure what the city was using GoDaddy for, but would discuss the matter with John Rostash, who maintains the city’s website.

Quotes for a new phone system would cost the city $50,000 over the next five years, Fankhauser estimated. He also believed fiber optic connections would cost the city $2,000 a month and questioned why they would be spending those amounts if they were already saving with his company.

“Nobody’s contacted me. Nobody,” Fankhauser said. “Transparency is not happening here . . . I think the city is going to end up costing itself more money and the residents are not going to get as much as they could be getting if they could sit down at the proper negotiating table.”