President's Letter:

Hello VRA members,

There’s a lot of exciting news to cover this month!

Our annual holiday decorating contest is back for the 7th year - this fantastic idea from Sally Zelonis to make our Village brighter in the winter has continued to thrive. This year we’re adding a few new elements. Keep reading below for more details.

The show must go on, and so must Christmas in the Village. There are a lot of changes but old favorites will return. While children can still visit Santa, he’ll be safely behind a plexiglass window (no one wants Santa to get sick). Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Allyson Gutwein has provided a full list of amazing activities, including an easy way to sponsor a business. Sponsorship helps pay for Chamber activities to bring in new visitors, which in turn helps our businesses thrive, so please consider doing this!

Annual leaf collection is happening now through Dec 4. For those new to the village, simply rake your leaves to the curb in long narrow piles. The town will collect them (via a vacuum cleaner on a truck) and use the leaves for mulch. Only leaves please; sticks, gravel, pine cones, etc can damage the vacuum and cause a delay in service.

If anyone is interested in assisting with the Village Voice or the weekly newsletter, either through contributing content or compiling information, let me know. We’re always in need of volunteers.

And please check on your neighbors, even if it’s just a quick “how you doin'?” Continued contact and showing care and concern for one another is part of what makes our Village so special.

Stay well and sanitize often, 

Heather Lusk 

president@zvra.com

Town Council:

Greetings

It’s been a very busy month for Town Council here in October. One of the most pressing and time-sensitive matters is our 2021 budget. As is sometimes the case with government, the process itself is not straightforward and also time-compressed. Here is a brief outline:

1. The Mayor, working with department heads and sometimes Town Council, will create a proposed budget based on anticipated revenues (property taxes, LIT, food and beverage, etc.).
   
   

2. The budget is presented to Town Council as a draft, and published initially with the State.
   
   

3. The State provides revised revenue numbers that are more accurate and the budget may be revised.
   
   

4. The budget will go through a series of Town Council meetings with eventual adoption before October 31^st. If a budget is not approved by October 31^st, the State assigns a budget to the Town at last year’s revenue numbers, which is not a good thing.

This year the State dropped our expected revenues by almost 10% after their initial budget was created. This had the Mayor / department heads reduce some of their spending initiatives for 2021.

The revised budget that was presented to Town Council still had a deficit of $3.2 million. This was worrying for the Council because of the unknown revenue numbers that will be coming next year. While Zionsville has a strong local economy, our funding is somewhat driven by Boone County as a whole, and troubles they have can impact us from a revenue standpoint.

While we do have cash reserves, we felt it was important to pass a balanced budget to make sure those reserves are used appropriately. My personal feeling on those reserves is to build them up in the good times, and use them in the bad times, so that levels of services to residents remain constant and consistent.

The Town Council has the ultimate authority on the budget, however we wanted to give the Mayor the opportunity to balance her proposed budget. The compromise we reached was that certain capital asks (land for a roundabout at Oak and Kissell, 2 new fire trucks, reconfiguration of Town Hall, etc.) would be asked later in the year when we had a better picture of our financial situation. Council did approve a new accounting package, and a sustainability report, that should make our finances easier to read and predict, both for Town Council and for the public.

There were other capital projects that we did allow such as re-paving of our local roads. In addition, the operational items that were important to the department heads (police, fire, economic development, DPW and parks) were approved so that residents will continue to see an effective and efficient local government.

While it’s been a lot of work, I’m happy with how our budget has turned out.