Nov 15, 2019 2 min read

Canonsburg council approved Tuesday a $5.41 million preliminary 2020 budget with a tax increase.

According to borough Manager Denise Lesnock, the increase of 0.000308 mills will bring the borough’s total millage rate to 3.94 mills. The increase will cost the owner of a home valued at $100,000 an additional $30.80 per year, she said.

Lesnock said the balanced preliminary budget isn’t expected to change much before it goes before council next month for final approval.

“It’s not a huge increase,” council President R.T. Bell said. “Unfortunately, sometimes you have to give it a little boost, and we’d rather do that than wait a long time and increase it by a lot.”

Bell said the increase is “for public safety,” providing one additional full-time public works employee and helping the volunteer fire department purchase a new engine. The engine is expected to cost about $350,000, as it’s smaller than an average fire engine, according to fire Chief Tim Solobay.

“It still has the same pumping capacity, but it won’t have the same amount of storage compartments, and the tank will be a little smaller,” he said.

Solobay said the new pump engine was a recommendation from their most recent ISO insurance inspection, for which they are rated “Class 4.” He said if they get the new pumper in service by the next five-year inspection, it could bring them to a preferred Class 3 rating. The Class 3 rating could potentially get borough home owners better fire insurance rates, he said.

Meeting that inspection rating with a smaller engine will also give them better movability on some of the smaller, narrower borough streets, too, Solobay said. He anticipates the new engine going into service next year or early 2021.

The volunteer department is still paying for an engine it bought three years ago, Solobay said, which is why the department asked the borough for help with purchasing this one.

“We have done so well with managing our money and completing our fleet on our own,” he said. “This time we were just to the point where we needed the help.”

Lesnock said the borough agreed to contribute an additional $60,000 a year for the next 10 years to the fire department. Some of those funds may also go toward minimal staffing overnight and incentives for volunteers.