• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Milton council focuses on budget, facilities after election

Photo

Maxine Striegl

Photo

Dave Schumacher

Photo

Brett Frazier

MILTON — The new Milton City Council should turn its attention to aging city facilities, election winners said Tuesday night.

Studies have recommended the city repair or replace its public works building and fire station. (The city co-owns the fire station with the Town of Milton.)

“It’s going to take a bunch of planning,” David Schumacher said.

Schumacher, who was appointed to fill Bill Lipke’s council spot after Lipke’s death in September, won election Tuesday. Incumbent Maxine Striegl and write-in candidate Brett Frazier also won spots.

Striegl could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

The hard part will be addressing the facilities while keeping taxes down and maintaining city services, Schumacher and Frazier said.

“We don’t want to drive people out of town because of taxes, but we’ve got to look at what we’ve got and what we’ve got to do,” Schumacher said.

Frazier hopes the city can address its needs by finding efficiencies in the budget, he said.

“I really hope I can take a closer look at the property tax levy here in Milton and figure out how we can at least hold the line on that while increasing the services, improving the services here in town,” he said.

Raising taxes in this economy is not an option, even for a new fire station, Frazier said.

Other issues the city has to deal with are the creation of a stormwater utility, set to start July 1, and attracting development to the future Highway 59/26 bypass.

The council also will be working under a new mayor for the first time in 10 years. Council member Tom Chesmore defeated incumbent Nate Bruce by 15 votes.

Schumacher said every leader has his or her own style, but he expects the council to continue to have healthy debate under Chesmore.

“I don’t think it’s going to be any big difference that way,” Schumacher said. “We’ve all worked with him.”

Chesmore will appoint his replacement on the council with council approval. He said he might solicit applications or appoint Jeremy Hoff, the fourth-place candidate in Tuesday’s election.