Terrace Park reviews finances, EMS class plans and snow response

The Village of Terrace Park’s finance officer reported on Jan. 14 that the village’s ending balance increased to 8.7 months of cash on hand at Dec. 31, 2024 — an improvement from the prior year — with an ending balance reported at about $1.8 million.

Speaker 5 (finance) presented multi-year graphs comparing revenues (green) and expenses (yellow) and highlighted that revenue was higher than the prior year while spending was lower; the officer said increases in property and local taxes were a key driver. The finance officer also said water-assessment receipts totaled about $80,000 (two or three quarters) and that money is earmarked for the Elm Street water-line project; officials expect to combine those receipts with future assessments to reach a project budget and are targeting late 2025 to begin work.

On public-safety operational matters, EMS Chief John Mack reported that an EMS training class will start Jan. 21 with eight confirmed village participants plus additional students from partner schools. Police/maintenance staff reported substantial overtime for snow response (about 46 hours each for maintenance staff across the recent storms) and that crews used approximately 144,000 pounds (72 tons) of salt; the village has ordered 100 tons to replenish supplies.

Separately, a council speaker explained that a recent state-level change (House Bill 315) allows local agencies to recover some costs when preparing or redacting law-enforcement video records, which could apply to in-car camera footage and potentially allow charges to defray personnel and software costs for fulfilling public-record requests.

Council scheduled a finance committee meeting for Jan. 21 to discuss a 10-year budget outlook and next steps on capital projects.