STURGIS, Ky. (WEHT)- The city of Sturgis has been struggling financially for quite some time.
In June, the doors to its city hall closed. At the time, former mayor, Kent Sayle, said he expected it to re-open sometime in the middle of August. Now, there’s a new city council and mayor in Sturgis, but city hall is still closed.
Newly appointed mayor, Billy Adams, tells us that while they do want city hall to open, steps must be taken before that can happen. He says, “We want city hall open. It’s a process to make that happen the right way… If we were to open and get swamped and have to close again, that would be several steps back. We’re trying to do it in small steps and not get too far ahead of ourselves.”
Also on the to-do list, getting the books caught up. As we previously reported, they’re a few years behind.
Mayor Adams explains, “When you open the computer, it looks like scrambled eggs…You have to get all those things posted and coded correctly and then you still have to balance the accounts, so it’s quite the task.”
Mayor Adams tells Eyewitness News that looking ahead, taxes are likely to rise.
He says, “Our evaluation of Sturgis went up… That’s where the increase is going to come from.”
Adams says they were given options, explaining “We could’ve taken a lower rate, a compensating rate they call it. But obviously we need the income.”
Monday’s meeting included the first reading of this– so it has not been approved yet.
