Zelienople's proposed $4 million budget for 2022 looks very similar to its current financial plan.

But underneath the surface there are some structural changes going into the numbers, which borough council will consider Monday.

Borough manager Don Pepe said the budget includes the creation of a new department. The proposed parks and recreation department would supplant the current park board in running the day-to-day operation of Zelienople Community Park.

Pepe said the current system — which he described as a “hybrid model” in which the borough owns the land and facilities comprising the park while the Community Park Board handles the minutiae of the park — “just had flaws.”

“Late summer, early fall, we commissioned an expert to do a complete park board administrative review,” Pepe said. “Included in (the findings) is, the model that was currently in use was not functioning well. The borough needed to take on more of those functions, including personnel and everything else. The study felt that we needed to take on more and let this be a department.”

The park board would continue, Pepe said, but as an advisory board — proposals would come through them, and they could either recommend approval or rejection of the proposals, much like a municipality's planning commission. Doing so would require a new agreement between the board and the borough.

“There's a lot that has to happen,” Pepe said. “The plan's in place, but now we have to do all the cogs and everything to make that work.”

All told, while this will change how borough government interacts with the park, residents likely will not notice any changes.

“This is all behind-the-scenes. A person walking in the park, going on a swing or going to the skatepark is not going to notice a thing,” Pepe said. “The actual services will probably look exactly the same.

“(In five years) the only thing you might see is improved operations — not because the park board didn't do their best — they did — but because they had limitations.”

Zelienople, like Lancaster Township, plans to increase its fire tax rate to 3 mills to help finance the Harmony Fire District's new fire station on Main Street in the borough.“This borough council had committed to raising it to 3 mills with the caveat that the other three municipalities (Lancaster, Jackson Township and Harmony) do the same,” Pepe said. “They're more than willing to say, 'We're going to give you that money, because you need that facility,' with the caveat that the other three” either raise the rate to 3 mills or make a payment in lieu of increasing the millage.The tax is currently at 2 mills in Zelienople, so the 1 mill increase will lead to a roughly $29,000 increase in what the borough transfers to the fire department. For an average resident, Pepe said, it will likely be less than a $50 increase.

Making up a significant portion of the borough's proposed increase from the 2021 budget comes in the form of debt service.Zelienople will begin making payments on its $3.5 million Butler County Infrastructure Bank loan this year, which comes in the form of a $377,000 repayment on the principal. The loan is financed at a 0.5% interest rate.Pepe noted the funds were used for several projects, including the massive stormwater project above Community Park “to catch all that water.” He added the borough still can reduce its debt service, if it receives grants for other expenditures.“It's there if we need it, but if we don't need it and give the money back that debt service can be considerably lowered over time,” he said. “Those projects had to be done for public safety. So the question is how do we pay for them? They're not projects we could put off.”