Last night's February Glen Elder City Council meeting included a 20-minute discussion with board members from the ABC Learning Center in town. The board members were in to discuss money issues at the daycare. The board was invited to the meeting after council members expressed concerns about the daycare's finances and city subsidies at their January meeting.
Board President Michele Hahn spoke for the group. She told the council the daycare center is currently operating month-to-month in paying its bills. She also said that recent staff cuts and reduced payroll expenses have netted a savings of about $150 a month.
During the course of the discussion, Hahn presented the council with a list of goals designed to help reduce the amount of money the city has to contribute to keep the daycare solvent. The list of goals got a pretty positive reception from the council. Council Member Larry Wheeler said, "We'd like to see you self-sufficient. We've spent a lot of money over the years and it looks like you're doing some good things to get this turned around. I think your goals are super."
Hahn's response, "We want to have open discussions about your expectations, but understand that our focus must continue to be providing a community service."
The discussion ended with both sides agreeing to keep the lines of communication open and the daycare center supplying monthly financial statements to the council.
In other action last night, the council agreed to raise the cost of water at the Farmer's Well. The current $1.75 a thousand will go up to $2.00 a thousand.
There was also a short discussion concerning updating the city's web site. Mayor Ryan Duskie told the council that an update is imminent because of software program improvements. He said the city shouldn't be paying for all of the information contained on the current web site. The web site currently contains 75-pages which includes a large number of links to community and civic group pages.
And finally, City Code Enforcement Officer Chris Wagner told the council he planned to have a specific proposal for their consideration at the March meeting. The proposal would deal with habitual city code offenders. Wagner said, "If I put a specific time on paper, I want to be able to stick to it." The streamlined ordinance would basically include an initial notice, a second letter as a reminder and then a certified letter notifying the offender what will happen and the time frame for action by the city.