20 - CAPE GAZETTE, Friday, August I - August 7, 1997
Milton Council faces zoning, 1997-98 budget matters Aug. 4
By Rosanne Pack
Milton Town Council members
have a full evening ahead of them
next week when they stack tax as-
sessment appeals, a zoning hear-
ing and the regular council meet-
ing into one night. Monday, Aug.
4, council convenes at 6:30 p.m.
in the library to hear appeals to
property tax assessments. Follow-
ing the appeal session, at 7 p.m., a
zoning hearing is scheduled, and
the council meeting is at 7:30 p.m.
The council meeting agenda in-
cludes revisiting several issues
that have come before the elected
officials in the last few months as
well as the first look at a draft of
the town's 1997-98 budget. The
budget must be finalized and ap-
proved by the end of September.
According to Mayor Jack
Bushey, the budget is expected to
be approximately $750,000. He
said Jackie Moore, town clerk, is
in the process of meeting with de-
partment heads and she is compil-
ing their tentative budgets along
with projected town income and
expenses. Representatives of the
town's accounting firm, Thomas
S. Sombar P.A., attended the July
23 council workshop and dis-
cussed methods of accounting and
projecting that should help the
town move some areas of opera-
tion out of the loss column. It was
pointed out that some town ser-
vices, such as sanitation (sewer),
are budgeted at a loss. Accountant
Gordon Harman showed that at
the current tax rate, the amount of
money collected for sewer is less
than the amount required to oper-
ate the service.
Harman and Sombar are work-
ing with the town clerk to estab-
lish book keeping methods that
will allow council members and
city officials to track income and
expenses on a monthly basis, and
to compare current figures with
those of the same time period in
previous years.
In the spring, some council
members had requested the
monthly financial reports in order
to track the town's financial status
and know what percentage of the
budgeted amount had been col-
lected and spent in any given
month. The zoning hearing set for
7 p.m. should be the final determi-
nation of zoning designation for
Swann Point (formerly River Mil-
ton). The Milton Planning and
Zoning Commission recommend-
ed that the developers be granted
R-2, medium density multi-family
residential, and council members
are expected to vote on the recom-
mendation Monday night.
A vote to approve would give
the go-ahead to the deAntonio
Group to construct a 60+ unit de-
velopment of single and semi-de-
tached (duplex),homes on 16
acres roughly bounded by
Behringer and Atlantic avenues.
Milton council will hear reports
on the status of surveillance and
review of the situation at "the
Coops," 116 Collins St. Neighbor-
ing resident Richard Moonblatt
submitted a petition at last
month's council meeting, com-
plaining of conditions at the rental
property and requesting that the
town take appropriate action. The
petition circulated by Moonblatt
alleges that nuisance conditions at
the site include drug activity, un-
sanitary conditions, unsafe hous-
ing, loud music and loitering.
Contacted earlier this week,
Moonblatt said he received copies
of letters that the town sent to the
county health department and to
the fire marshal's office regarding
the Coops. He said he understands
that the town police have in-
creased patrols of the area, and
logs are being kept of patrols and
any activity that should be moni-
tored. He said a representative of
petition signers will be present at
all town council meetings to fol-
low progress of improving what
they see as a problem situation.
"We are responding to the peti-
tion," Mayor Bushey said. "We
have requested that the health de-
partment inspect and determine if
the property is suitable for habita-
tion. We are asking that the fire
marshal's office check to make
sure the property meets fire safety
codes. Bushey said that no legal
action has been taken on Milton
property owned by Damalier J.
Molina. His property, at the cor-
ner of Behringer and Atlantic
streets, attracted unfavorable at-
tention since it has been the site of
unfinished construction for more
than six months. The condition of
leaving an open foundation pit
since February caused the town to
give him a deadline for complet-
ing foundation block work and
laying the first floor deck for his
vacation home. The July 22 dead-
line passed without Molina com-
plying with the town's directive.
Molina could be charged with
allowing a building nuisance to
exist, a misdemeanor that can lead
to fines of up to $50 a day until the
property is brought into compli-
ance. "We put the matter into the
hands of our lawyer" he said.
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