Latest news with #Grea
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
While DOGE slashes, Cincinnati can find smarter ways to run more efficiently
With rising costs and increased demands for more efficient services, the city of Cincinnati has a projected $27 million budget deficit in the Fiscal Year 2027, a deficit that will grow north of $40 million per year absent any major change. While the "DOGE bros" take a chainsaw to federal spending, in Cincinnati, we have an opportunity to showcase a smarter way to make government work better for our residents based on shared values. The Cincinnati Futures Commission had multiple ideas, some of which are being vetted more fully. There are several other ideas we should pursue that fall under three major themes. First, stop irresponsible behavior pushing costs onto the government. Stop vacant property owners from pushing $8.5 million in cost per year onto taxpayers. With the recently passed vacant building registry, we will reduce much of this expense. Charge institutions who call firefighters for non-emergency and non-health lift assistance services. It's not right that these costs are thrown onto taxpayers, which is why other cities such as Chicago and Indianapolis now charge "lift fees" to recoup the millions in cost to taxpayers. "You break it, you pay for it." It's not right that reckless drivers destroy public property and the cost is borne by taxpayers. In other cities such as Columbus and Kansas City, they charge these drivers for the cost of fixing that damage. It's time we recoup some of that cost. Second, stop doing other people's jobs, or at least get reimbursed for it. If State of Ohio agencies are providing services to rural and suburban jurisdictions, then they should provide the same to us. Have the Ohio Highway Patrol do speeding enforcement and crash responses/investigations on our interstates as they do in other parts of the state so our officers can be put back in our neighborhoods, or have OHP reimburse Cincinnati the millions of dollars we are spending doing the job that OHP is doing on interstates in other jurisdictions. Get reimbursement from the Ohio Department of Transportation for snow removal on the 20-30 miles of state routes that run through the city of Cincinnati. With ODOT treating and clearing snow on state routes that run through rural and suburban communities, there's no reason our taxpayers should be stuck with the cost of doing ODOT's job on state routes that run through our city. Third, combine services for greater efficiencies. The Futures Commission recommended a few ideas on parks and recreation, but we should take it further. Cincinnati Parks should manage the 654 acres of green space under the Cincinnati Recreation Commission instead of having two sets of people cut adjacent sets of grass. This lets both organizations focus on what they do well: managing green space (Parks) and great programming (CRC), and it saves $25 million over 10 years. Ask Great Parks of Hamilton County to manage more Cincinnati Parks beyond the two parks that they manage today, especially since Cincinnati taxpayers pay 37% of the Great Parks levy. Having Great Parks − who are our neighbors and do a great job − manage more acreage is fair and would save our taxpayers over $25 million over 10 years. Establish a joint city/county task force to identify shared services savings for both the city and county with a target of at least 5% reduction in costs. Unlike DOGE, we can pursue smart, methodical, and targeted savings with back-office savings over the next few years and do it humanely. Making government run more efficiently is about giving citizens confidence that we are being good stewards of their hard-earned tax dollars, but it's also about improving the quality of life for our citizens based on shared values. These measures are a sensible and fair approach − just common sense. Cincinnati Councilman Mark Jeffreys is chairman of the Equitable Growth and Housing Committee. He is also vice president of the Ohio Regional Council of Governments. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati must clean up budget without burdening residents | Opinion
CBC
18-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
New boat launch, water treatment facility on horizon for Giant Mine site
Social Sharing Team members with the Giant Mine Remediation Project gave an annual presentation at the City of Yellowknife's governance and priorities meeting on Monday, outlining what can be expected in the near future at the contaminated site. Remediation of the Giant Mine site began in 2021. It's expected to continue until 2038, after which work will shift to a post-care framework, including ongoing water management. The $4-billion project addresses the long-term containment and management of the 237,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide waste that remained on site after the mine closed, the demolition and removal of buildings, and remediation of surface areas including the tailings ponds. The deputy director of the remediation project, Natalie Plato, says this year the mill will be demolished. "The big remaining structures to the mill, those reprocessing plants you see from the highway, most of the big buildings. The contract has been awarded" for their demolition, said Plato. Work to demolish additional buildings will continue into 2026. City councillors question water spill risks Presenters at Monday's meeting said there's been progress on building a new water treatment plant at the site; the exterior is well underway and now they're working on the interior. It's expected to be operational in 2026. Currently, contaminated water at Giant Mine is pumped then stored in its northwest pond prior to treatment. A catastrophic spill at the pond is one of the biggest risks for water contaminating Yellowknife Bay, which was identified in a recent report to the city. City councillors have been weighing whether to continue taking the city's drinking water from the Yellowknife River or from Yellowknife Bay — a cheaper option but one that comes with historic concerns about arsenic contamination from Giant Mine operations. Plato said actively pumping water into the pond will stop next year once the new water treatment plant is ready for use. "We will stop pumping to the northwest pond in 2026. Then we will pump that down and then it will have to dry out," said Plato. She added that the treatment plant will run continuously, 365 days a year, and it will go "indefinitely into perpetuity or until it's no longer needed and the water doesn't need treatment." City Coun. Tom McLennan asked Plato if the remediation team could present on specific spill risks identified in the report. Plato agreed, saying thorough risk assessments have already being done, and offered to prepare a presentation. New boat launch to be built for 2031 As part of the cleanup and remediation, the nearby boat launch and sailing club will need to close, which has been a contentious issue for years. But the project team says it will first build a new boat launch that residents can use while the remediation is taking place. Erika Nyyssonen, the territorial government's senior advisor for the remediation project, said the government is responsible for the public use area and sub-leases it to the Great Slave Sailing Club and the Yellowknife Historical Society. Nyyssonen said the existing boat launch will remain as is until 2029, when they start building the new dock. Then things will get busier as they replace soil and construct the new boat launch and floating dock nearby. She added that the new boat launch will be comparable in size to the existing one, and the design will include parking on site. Nyyssonen recognized that people will probably have questions about the change. "That is the responsibility of [the Government of N.W.T.] and I'm working closely with our [Department of] Lands admin folks to make sure that we can plan accordingly and make it less hectic than it needs to be," said Nyyssonen. When the new boat launch opens in 2031, access to the existing boat launch and parking will be restricted due to the ongoing work in the area.
