Citizen Report: The top take-a-ways from the Sykesville Town Council Meeting on April 10, 2023:

Annual Budget (Ordinance NO. 2023-02): The Council unanimously approved the introduction of the FY2023-2024 Annual Budget and Set Tax Rates for the Town of Sykesville.  Town Manager went through the budget.  The budget has proposed to keep the real estate tax rate at .33/$100 of the assessed value.  Income tax and Highway user fees are estimated to be $945,000 and $249,000 respectively.  

The Town Manager walked through the main expenses listed in the budget including police charging station, public works used dump truck and leaf collection program, parks and recreation upgrades (funded by grants), capital grant for the Cannery Building, downtown street and parking improvements, storm water improvements, as well as reserve funds. 

Discussion continued about Main Street is a state road will be turned over to the Town once streetscaping is completed or funding is provided to the Town for streetscaping. Councilmembers discussed the possibility of lowering the tax rate to the constant yield rate.  All agreed that the goal would be to lower the rate.  For now, the Town is still building the Police and Public Works department felt it best to discuss this again in September in the Strategic Plan.  

There will be additional meetings for public information and comment.  For more information on the budget proposal, the FY24 Budget draft can be viewed at https://townofsykesville.org/DocumentCenter/View/3340/2023-02—FY24-Budget—draft

Downtown Sykesville Connection Advance for Building Purchase (Resolution 2023-03): The Council unanimously passed Resolution 2023-03 which established of a one-time annual contribution advance to the Downtown Sykesville Connection for the purpose of a building purchase. Because the DSC is such a new 503c, they couldn’t secure favorable loan parameters.  Since the Town provides the DSC $50K per year to offset DSC operating expenses, the DSC requested that the Town advance $500K to the DSC to purchase this building in lieu of providing the $50K/year for 10 years. This advance will come from the Town’s unencumbered funds and is not from any reserve money. The purchase date is April 17, 2023. The resolution can be found at https://townofsykesville.org/DocumentCenter/View/3341/2023-03—One-Time-DSC-Advance—passed

Road Work: The State continues work on Main Street which will be completed in time for the July 4^th parade.  Springfield will continue with completion around September as they have finally identified the storm water problem and come up with a design to solve this.  The State work on Springfield will tie into the work the Town will be doing on Central. Once the bidding is complete by the State, the State contractor will be doing both Springfield and Central.