Pleasant Hills 2020 budget holds the line on taxes

Real estate taxes will remain the same for Pleasant Hills residents in 2020.

Borough council members on Dec. 16 approved the borough’s annual budget that holds the line on real estate taxes at 6.75 mills.

Of that, 6.3855 mills goes to the borough, .2734 mills goes toward the purchase of new vehicles for the Pleasant Hills Volunteer Fire Company and .0911 mills goes to the Pleasant Hills Public Library.

Property owners with a home assessed at $100,000 will pay $675 in borough real estate taxes in 2020.

“We’re always just trying to improve things. I think council has done a great job investing in our sewers, in our parks … just trying to continue investing in all of these amenities in the community that people want to see,” outgoing council President Dan Soltesz said.

The 2020 Pleasant Hills budget includes a $10.6 million general fund, which increased by $1.8 million from the prior year, borough manager Kelly Theiss said. This is due to several projects scheduled for 2019 that will now be completed in 2020.

“We have so many projects this year,” Theiss said.

Included in the budget is work for the 2019 road program that didn’t get completed this year — the paving of West Bruceton Road. That work will be completed next year, along with the 2020 road program, according to Theiss.

Installation of a prefabricated storage building in Mowry Park where public works crews and firefighters can keep their equipment also will be completed in 2020. The project went out for bid in 2019, Theiss said.

A sewage pump station replacement project planned for Tassel Lane in 2019 also will move forward in 2020.

Also included in the budget are plans to add lights to Breisinger Field after the borough received a $100,000 grant from the state Greenways, Trails and Recreation Program. The plan is to move forward with the project in the spring.

The borough also received a $220,445 grant for a pedestrian bridge project over Old Lebanon Church Road from the state Multimodal Transportation Fund program to be completed in 2020.

The project will include repairing the concrete and metal on the bridge, Soltesz said. The total cost of the project is $314,820, he said.

The 2020 budget also increases the borough’s annual contribution to the Pleasant Hills Public Library by 10 percent, to $179,300.

The borough also plans to do renovations on the library building to make the restrooms handicap accessible, Soltesz said.

Sanitary sewage fees will remain the same for Pleasant Hills residents in 2020.

The borough’s sewer and solid waste fund totals $3.3 million next year. The borough’s liquid fuels fund totals $235,966.

With storm sewers, it’s important to keep up with them to help reduce flooding in the area, Soltesz said. For sanitary sewers, maintaining them helps save money in the long run, he said.

While residents in late November were asked to weigh in on how they would like to pay for their garbage in 2020, those payments will remain quarterly.

The borough sent out an email blast asking residents if they would like the garbage fee to be included in the municipality’s millage rate, billed annually or quarterly, as it currently is done.

“They wanted to keep it the same,” Theiss said.

After hearing from the residents, borough council members agreed to keep billing quarterly for 2020, Soltesz said.