Verona budget survey expanded in effort to begin building comprehensive plan

Verona’s annual budget survey was released to borough residents and included a few extra questions that hadn’t been asked in previous surveys.

The fresh questions are thanks to Local Government Academy intern Josie Cantelmo, 20, who will be a senior in her political science program at the University of Pittsburgh in August.

Cantelmo said she was brought into Verona to start a comprehensive plan, a document she equated to a handbook for the future of the borough.

“(The comprehensive plan) outlines goals for the future and the logistics of accomplishing them,” Cantelmo said.

A traditional comprehensive plan typically looks out five years. Cantelmo said that while she’s helping “lay the groundwork” during her internship, comprehensive plans take a long time to create and Verona’s likely won’t be ready for a year.

Trish Hredzak, vice president of Verona Council, said the borough’s last comprehensive plan was made and carried out in the 1970s.

Cantelmo said the borough has received a steady stream of survey responses from residents. Budgetwise, she said she received every possible answer for how the borough should focus its spending.

“It’s funny,” she said. “Everybody wants different things. I’ve been shocked by how diverse the answers have been.”

Cantelmo said a lot of people have shown concern for public safety and want the borough to prioritize improving the police presence in the area. The borough already has made efforts to hire more police officers including expanding full-time officer benefit packages. She said other popular answers have been to increase attention on infrastructure and road paving.

“We want to learn the community’s priorities,” she said. “We’ll see what needs to be addressed first. For example, if we get a grant, where should that money go first?”

Cantelmo added about six questions to the survey to gather demographic information such as whether the person taking the survey lives in Verona, works in the borough or both.

“(The questions) are geared toward what people want to see in the borough and what they’re dissatisfied with,” Cantelmo said.

Hredzak said the borough wants to use the comprehensive plan to get away from being reactive to problems and have more safety nets built into the plan that will lead to more preventative actions.

“This survey is kind of like kick-starting our longer-term thinking of what we hope will evolve into our comprehensive plan and also guide our budget discussion ahead of budget season this fall,” Hredzak said.

She said the borough will begin collecting and implementing data from survey results in August. The survey can be accessed online at survey.zohopublic.com/zs/VzCOL3. Paper copies are available at the borough building.