Mill Creek residents shared their opinions about city operations July 21 at the second and final town hall meeting addressing the city’s budget. The first meeting was on July 19.
At the meetings, participants got a chance to use the city’s new survey system which allows people to express their views anonymously by using touch pads that work like TV remote controls.
The information gathered from these meetings will be used to determine priorities for the upcoming year’s city budget. City officials hope to reduce expenses between $175,000 and $450,000 in the next two-year budget.
Results from the second meeting were similar to those from the first, with residents happy with the city government and quality of services.
The first meeting had 30 attendees while the second meeting had 20, with participants differing on only a few issues.
Of the participants at the July 21 meeting, 55 percent favored more taxes or fees in order to increase the level of service from the city, while only 33 percent were in favor at the first meeting.
The most noticeable differences of opinion were between possible reductions to services to balance the budget. The services in question included park maintenance, code enforcement, traffic patrol, park design, recreation programs, police community services, school resource officers and citizen communication.
When asked which service residents would reduce first, 35 percent of July 21 attendees favored reducing citizen communication such as web services and newsletter.
Only 10 percent of July 19 attendees favored cutting communication, instead favoring park design and construction at 31 percent.
Residents at both meetings preferred to reduce traffic patrols last at 45 percent for the July 21 meeting and 33 percent at the July 19 meeting.
Thirty-three percent of attendees at the July 19 meeting also would chose to reduce police community services such as block watch and vacation house checks last.
At the second meeting, 45 percent of attendees were older than 56, the first meeting had 76 percent over the age of 56.
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