Running a Surplus, Grantwood Village to Step Up Roadwork

At its monthly meeting Tuesday, the Board of Trustees passed the budget for the village’s 2011-2012 fiscal year. The village is currently running a surplus and will put some of that increased revenue into funding road maintenance.

The village took in an estimated $408,126 in revenue this past fiscal year, up more than $20,000 from 2010. Spending was estimated to have been $351,022 in 2011, down by around $24,000 from 2010. Altogether, the municipality has a surplus of $57,105 for 2011.

Much of the boost in revenue comes from fines handed out by the city’s traffic court, likely due to changes in the village’s policing contract with the St. Louis County Police, which have increased patrols.

With similar revenue expected for 2012, the board has decided to increase spending on road maintenance next year by around an estimated 60,000. This maintenance will be targeted mostly in the Forest Haven area.

“We need to do a lot of work over here in Forest Haven,” Board of Trustees Chairman Cathy Forand said, citing potholes and cracked pavement. “We’re playing a little catch up.”

The street maintenance contract for slab work was awarded to Stika Brothers Concrete at last week’s meeting, and the repairs are scheduled to begin mid-June.

Grantwood Village remains in the black this year despite losing an estimated $22,000 on a failed bid to annex a section part of unincorporated St. Louis County across Gravois Road, next to .

The land had been caught up in a controversy after being sold to developers by Andy Busch in 2005. A group of residents sued to stop the construction of a large apartment and duplex complex, and the developer pulled out. The property was sold again, but the new owner went bankrupt. Seeing an opportunity to prevent unwanted development, the village applied to annex the land from the county.

However, the county boundary commission rejected the village’s proposal in March.

“We budget conservatively for instances like this. We were ready to pursue it,” Forand said in an earlier interview.

The village cut costs by $20,000 last year when it went from two municipal police officers down to one. Then an unexpected drop in the policing contract’s price this year saved the village a budgeted $4000.

Along with the new roadwork, the village is working to join the Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree City USA program. The program requires that interested municipalities put $2 per capita to planting trees, so this year’s budget includes $2,000 for that effort.

Forand said she was pleased with the budget and was happy that the village was in such good financial shape.

“We are very stable and secure. We have no debt. We haven’t had any debt in the last 25 years,” she said.