The Vermilion County Board Finance and Personnel Committee has forwarded the proposed Fiscal Year 2024 budget to the full County Board for the Tuesday October 10th meeting. Approval there would put it on public display for 30 days, with the final vote coming at the November meeting. The new fiscal year begins on December 1st.
The proposed Vermilion County budget is $52,774,306, an increase of about $5 million from last year.
Also during the committee meeting, Land Bank president Dr. Wes Bieritz had some interesting news, in that Land Bank Executive Director Mike Davis has secured a $1 million dollar grant for housing demolition. .
The amount would be divided by three among Vermilion, Champaign, and Macon Counties. Bieritz is hoping for bids to go out soon, and for demolition to begin before next summer.
Meanwhile, Bieritz continues to campaign for up to $570,000 in Vermilion County COVID relief money for the Land Bank. Seventy-thousand would be to help with annual funding to run the Land Bank. The remaining $500,000 would be for the proposed roof repair program that the Land Bank has been asking for to help keep residents in their homes and keep the homes on the tax roles. Bieritz emphasized once again that any home approved for that would be very carefully considered.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: It’ll be a very rigorous selection; because you don’t want to put a new roof on a house that already has a foundation that’s caving in; doesn’t make much sense. But if we can find one that’s got a canvas on the roof and has got a while in the roof, we might be able to save that house.
The loan for the roof repair would be forgiven if the owners remain in the home for five years.
Land Bank president Dr. Wes Bieritz explains plans for the updated Land Bank bylaws
In addition, the Land Bank is planning to change its bylaws. Instead of having between two and three dozen or more board members, there would be six. Two each from Vermilion, Champaign, and Macon Counties. Vermilion County Board Chairman Larry Baughn says that’s probably a good idea.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: It was a rather robust board; countless members. A lot of the smaller communities here in Vermilion County had seats on that board originally, when the original Land Bank was only a Vermilion County Land Bank. So, in their defense, it’s hard to find a quorum. Well, I know that that was their thought process behind that, was to make it smaller and downsize it.
Baughn says the next step will be figuring out how to appoint Vermilion County’s new pair of Land Bank representatives; perhaps similar to how the County Board appoints individuals to other boards.
