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Silver Creek: Back in black

Village aims to invest in improvements

OBSERVER Photo by Rebecca Cuthbert. The fountain in Silver Creek’s village square may be dark and silent now, but after it gets a facelift and a checkup thanks to the village board’s careful saving, it will be ready to roar to life for the summer months.

SILVER CREEK — While Silver Creek leaders can’t promise that financial troubles won’t strike again in the future, for now the village is solidly in the black, according to Mayor Nick Piccolo.

At Tuesday’s village board meeting, officials voted on several financial matters, such as transferring funds and creating accounts. Eyebrows were raised in pleasant surprise in the audience — was this good news?

Yes, said Piccolo.

“You’re probably wondering why we’re doing a lot of transferring of money,” he stated. “What we’re doing is we’re trying to move money around so that we can purchase a new dump truck for the DPW (Department of Public Works) building, and also we want to restore the fountain in the square, and upgrade the cameras in the ballpark to cut down on vandalism and things like that.”

Piccolo then said people were probably curious about where all the money would come from for the projects.

“Over the last three years, we’ve been very conservative. We’ve also received some FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) money and some other funding, which basically allowed us to put this into a reserve, which gives us the possibility of buying things that are duly needed in this village.”

Piccolo said the village trustees deserved credit for their hard work; without it, Silver Creek could still be in a frightening amount of debt.

“They’ve done a lot of creative work as far as getting things ready for our budget and everything,” he said.

Piccolo said that as budget season approaches, the board will once again be tapping those creative problem solving reserves to come up with a way to hopefully stay under the tax cap set by the state.

“Then … everybody would still be able to get their (rebate) checks, (but) I can’t promise that right now,” he said. “We’re getting ready to go into our budget talks and looking at what we can do.”

Those improvements will begin happening this spring, Piccolo said. The fountain in the square will have its masonry refurbished, get new water lines and a new spout, and maybe even some new colorful light bulbs. Better cameras in the park will further deter crime, especially since improvements are happening there, too. The village board has already dedicated funds to refacing one tennis court and turning the other court into a pickleball court for families, hobbyists and leagues.

“That material has already been purchased,” Piccolo said. “We just need the good weather to start (the project).”

Reportedly, the village was in the red a few years ago, with no money for amenities. Mandated improvements to infrastructure and an angry Mother Nature had wiped out anything in the village piggy banks and then some. That situation didn’t change overnight, but the board was able to improve it with careful spending and saving.

“I just want to say once again that we’re not moving money that we don’t have,” Piccolo said. “It is money that we have. We may not have a lot, but we have enough that we’ve saved over the years. It’s been tough. … When I first took over as mayor, we were in the red in all accounts. And that wasn’t anybody’s fault. The fact is, with the flood and every other thing that happened, plus the upgrades, things that had to be done, they cost a lot of money.”

All of these improvements to the downtown area will happen at an opportune time, since the Festival of Grapes will celebrate its 50th anniversary this fall with the biggest (and purplest) party the village has seen in decades!

After all, what better way to toast a summer full of village improvement projects than with a cup of Welch’s grape juice?

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