By Megan Kelley

Review Writer

Lake Orion’s Downtown Development Authority Board of Directors convened for their annual budget workshop meeting last week.

The Board had previously discussed their budget at their March 8 meeting.

This year, the DDA has tightened up their budget quite a bit in order to utilize their remaining finances to help fund their list of priority projects.

The DDA’s priority projects for the 2022-23 fiscal year include a parking deck ($104,178), electrical charging stations (budgeted at $15,000), downtown lighting (budgeted at $75,000), dumpster enclosures (budgeted at $60,000) and park electrical improvements (budgeted at $5,000).

These projects, especially the parking deck, are expected to cost quite a bit of money, most of which the DDA does not currently have budgeted. Because of this the DDA budget also includes several cuts/decreases to event promotion in order to retain more funds.

Despite the plans to decrease or just flat out cut several areas of the budget, the budget also calls for the increase in several services provided to the DDA from the village.

Based on the budget documents provided, contracted services for the DPW maintenance is expected to increase $3,800 to a total of $30,000, administrative services will likely increase $2,000 for a total of $70,000 annually, police parking and code enforcement increases $1,000 to a total of $21,000, police crowed control is up $10,000 for a total of $20,000, DPW event support will increase $5,000 for a total of $10,000, and DPW snow removal is expected to increase $3,000 to a total of $15,000. The total recommended increase in these services rounds out to a $24,800 increase.

LaLone, has been vocal in the past about her belief that the DDA does not pay the village enough for their contracted services. However, it is important to note that during a special meeting of the DDA board earlier this month, where village manager Joe Young presented numbers showing the DDA being charged less for contracted services than they should be, both Young and village council president Ken Van Portfleit assured the board that the village was not asking for more money from the DDA, just simply presenting the numbers.

Orion Township Supervisor Chris Barnett, who sits on the DDA board and has, in the past, expressed his concerns with increasing the amount the DDA is paying for services provided by the village, again spoke specifically to question why the DDA would pay more for crowd control stating that the DDA has paid the full amount for crowd control even during the pandemic when there were no events downtown.

LaLone explained that because the DDA plans to return the money collected from the police millage back to the Lake Orion Police Department, the increase in services is simply the DDA’s attempt to get as close to the full millage return as possible.

Also discussed in the meeting was the possibility of an ice rink in downtown during the winter months. The rink would need to be 100% sponsored and a location is yet to be decided should 100% sponsorship be reached.

The budget is set to be discussed again the board and village council during their special meeting on March 29, after Review press time.