City of Marysville and County officials seem ready to commit to Nixle.
The city’s finance committee discussed allocating additional money to upgrade the city and county’s free Nixle usage to a premium version. Nixle is a program used to inform residents of area crashes, hazardous conditions and other emergencies via social media and smart devices.
City Finance Director Justin Nahvi said right now city police and fire departments use both Nixle and a program called Code Red.
“Working with the Union County Sheriff’s Office, the city and county want to move exclusively to Nixle,” Nahvi said.
The cost of the city to move to the paid version of Nixle will cost the city just under $6,400, according to Nahvi. That’s just under the roughly $13,000 it will take to implement Nixle county wide.
Various agencies and municipalities around Union County will pay for the rest.
Right now, the city pays about $3,500, so Nahvi is asking the city to set aside an additional $2,880 to cover the new cost.
Nahvi said the city and county currently splits costs evenly, each paying $3,500.
This version has “a lot more functionality.” Officials have said committing to Nixle will allow local agencies to ditch Code Red and streamline ways information is shared with residents.
City Manager Terry Emery said many people throughout the community use the service.
“It’s worked out very well,” Emery said.
The legislation to allow these new funds will appear at a future city council meeting.
The Colemans Crossing TIF could soon get a bit smaller, as discussed at the meeting.
Nahvi said the tax paid from the property toward the TIF last year was about $15,700. Since then, the Airport Authority has gone to the board of revision and had the valuation of the property reduced “significantly.” The property is now set to bring in $1,450.
“I think their concern last year was they couldn’t afford $15,000 a year,” Nahvi said.
County officials are now asking the city to remove the property from the TIF. Officials say taking it out of the TIF will help ensure it isn’t developed.
Nahvi said the Airport Authority paid about $500,000 for the parcel years ago, with most of that money coming from the Federal Aviation Administration. That purchase allowed the airport to restrict construction there and keep the area around the runway clear.
“Since the valuation’s gone down so much, it’s not going to have a huge financial impact,” Nahvi said.
Committee member Mark Reams came out against removing the property from the TIF. He said even with the restrictions on what can be built there, it could still be developed.
“A car dealer, I mean, the appraised value would be a lot more,” Reams said.
Nahvi clarified that part of the Airport’s FAA grant included the condition that nothing could be built there.
Reams also said what the airport will pay going forward is better than nothing.
“At least they’re paying a little bit toward that infrastructure,” Reams said.
He also expressed confusion at the apparent contradiction in building a fire station on the land.
“We talked on the one hand about nothing being able to be built there, but on the other hand we talked about a potential fire station,” Reams said.
Nahvi responded by saying that in discussions with the Union County Prosecutor’s office, there could be an exemption for some type of government, height-restricted building.
Nahvi also noted that the hotels in the Colemans Crossing area would bump up the TIF revenue in the area.
Nahvi said the city has considered building a fire/police substation on the property.
Emery asked committee member if they’d prefer Thayne Gray with the county prosecutor’s office to be present when legislation comes to council.
In other committee news:
-Nevin Taylor, who was absent from the meeting, was elected Chair of the Marysville Finance Committee.