Council looking to trim budget by cutting back on paper

Sparta - Cutting back on paper costs may help the township trim some of the municipal budget down the road, according to the township manager. Henry Underhill has asked the township council to consider purchasing an electronic imaging system that will enable staff to retrieve and review documents without the use of paper. “It’s our anticipation that we’ll cut down the cost of our storage bins so that we’ll save about a few thousand dollars a year,” he said. The proposal was made during a series of public budget hearings before the township council last week that included presentations by different departments, including water and sewer operations, the township clerk, elections, township council, and engineering. “There are a lot of things that department heads propose to accomplish or would like to accomplish,” said Underhill, who will now review the costs associated with specific services, make recommendations, and amend various line items with the council before members vote on the proposed budget. “These are just numbers that give us a starting point to know what the department heads would like to propose and improve services.” Sparta Township Clerk Miriam Tower said the imaging system, valued at $16,000, would include a scanner, software, and training. It would be used by the tax assessor, construction and health departments. Tower said the equipment would allow the township to dispose of about 90 percent of the paper records it is currently required to maintain filed. “We are constantly disposing of records, but we can’t keep up with the amount of records we have to keep and dispose of,” said Tower. According to Tower, the clerk’s office processes about 20 requests each week under the Open Public Records Act. Retrieving some of those documents can take upward of seven days, said Tower. Like department heads that preceded him before the council, the township engineer could not put a definitive finger on expected gasoline costs for the upcoming year. Charles Ryan requested an increase of approximately $10,000 to cover the cost of fueling seven vehicles each with about 1,300 gallons of gas for the upcoming year. “That sure looks like a real big jump,” said councilman Scott Seelagy, who pressed to know at which rate per gallon the increase would be justified. Ryan said he based the department’s gas allowance on $3 per gallon, but even that figure was difficult to quantify. He said, for example, the cost of gasoline at the beginning of 2005 was $1.30 a gallon, but averaged $1.83 for the entire year. The same was true for propane, for which Ryan proposed a $3,300 increase at $1.75 per gallon. He said the proposed expenditures of $9,000 for propane and $4,000 for electricity this year for the Germany Flats pumping station, are offset by the fees paid by the residents who use the services. Ryan said an increase in gas and electricity was also needed in 2006 to meet the demand from the added sewer connections made last year.