District, Allouez to meet about traffic Cars line Woodrow Way as parents pick up children after classes at Webster School Tuesday (photo by H. Marc Larson). School and village officials will come up with options by the next board meeting By Christopher Clough News-Chronicle ALLOUEZ - The Green Bay School District and the village will schedule a meeting today to look at ideas for resolving traffic issues at Webster Elementary School. A discussion and possible decision on the subject was on the agenda for Tuesday night's Village Board meeting. But school Superintendent Daniel Nerad asked in a letter to postpone the item until its representatives could meet with village officials. Nerad requested the delay after village attorney Tom Condon determined the deed restriction on Webster Park extended to the entrance to the park. There had been some question of whether the deed would prohibit the school from using the park's driveway for its exit; Condon said it would. Concerns were also raised about water runoff and liability, since Jourdain Lane is several feet lower than Woodrow Way. School and district officials fielded many complaints and concerns from parents of Webster students about traffic in the school parking lot and on Woodrow Way, a block-long residential street where the only access to the Webster parking lot is located. It asked the village in March for time to work out arrangements with neighboring property owners for alternatives, but came back in October asking the village to reconsider the Jourdain exit again. The Village Board said it wanted to study the problem further before making a decision. Village Board member Mark Denis drew up seven possible solutions to the traffic problems at the school. Those plans will be presented to school district officials and Webster principal Nancy Schultz before the next regular board meeting on Dec. 11. "The ideal situation is to bring one workable idea to that meeting," said village administrator Susan Foxworthy. "But we might end up with a couple." Foxworthy said this gives the village and the district the chance to brainstorm solutions privately to give them a better chance to narrow those options. - The village board also passed its 2002 budget with a property tax rate of $6.26 per $1,000 of assessed value, a four percent (25 cent) increase from $6.01 in 2001. That means the owner of a property with an assessed value of $100,000 will pay $625.90 in village property taxes, compared to $600.70 last year. Budgeted revenues for 2002 are $6.047 million, also a four percent increase from 2001. The original budget asked for $7.39 per $1,000, an increase of $1.38. Village accountant Julie Beauchamp said most of the paring down came from trimming the proposed number of street projects. The only street with planned reconstruction in the village during 2002 is Broadview Drive between Webster Avenue and Libal Street. The board also applied $250,000 from its fund balance to its total revenues to reduce the tax rate. Chairman Cameron McCain noted that the village received its first increase in state aid in more than 10 years, a one percent increase to $726,000, compared to decreases of about five percent a year over that time. "The board and the village is very conservative with its dollars," Beauchamp said. "But everything increases. Health insurance went up, other things went up, yet the assessed value is no greater in Allouez. Basically there's nowhere to grow, it's pretty much landlocked. Most of the questions and comments during the public hearing portion of the meeting came from former administrator Clarence Matuszek, who wondered why the board was content with a four percent increase in taxes when he said inflation is at three percent. But McCain said that Allouez's budget is one of the tightest in the state compared to other similarly-sized municipalities. He read from a state report showing that among communities with populations between 15,000 and 30,000, Allouez was lowest in per capita cost for general government expenses ($34 a person versus the state high of $106 and median of $60) and law enforcement costs. He said the survey also shows the village below the median in street reconstruction and fire and rescue costs per person. "I think the board has always been pretty frugal," McCain said. "I would have a difficult time apologizing for any part of the budget."