By DAVID GREEN 

It was as late December 2003 when Fayette council members received a strong jolt of reality about village finances.

Following the death of clerk/ treasurer Phil McKinney, the village hired interim bookkeeper Karin Sauerlender to help with financial chores. At the Dec. 18 council meeting, she presented a budget for 2004 and remarked that, unless big changes were made, the village was on course to deplete its

cash reserves before 2006 ended.

For 2004, the village would see a shortfall of a quarter million dollars—a figure that just about equaled the annual loss in revenue from the closure of Fayette Tubular Products a few years earlier.

Council members responded by cutting back services, holding wages steady and raising water and sewer rates.

Ever since the closure of what was once Fulton County’s largest employer, Fayette has been behind the eight ball, dodging economic challenges while moving forward when it could on big-ticket items such as sewer system improvements and water distribution upgrades.

Now, with a seemingly endless list of costly needs still on the docket, the options appear fewer. As village council member Gerry Gonzales notes, there’s not much flexibility remaining.

Grants and low-interest loans have carried the village through several projects, but now even those are running out. Increased federal spending coupled with tax cuts have resulted in a huge deficit in Washington, D.C. That, in turn, affects state spending and in this part of the country, general economic conditions makes money even more scarce.

The needs, however, remain: $100,000 for water treatment upgrades, $120,000 for curbing and more for sidewalks, $2 million for wastewater upgrades, to name the biggest challenges.

Councilors learned last week that careful control of finances may be a hindrance, that grants might be going to communities in even worse shape.

There’s nothing like getting punished for doing a good job, but Fayette might soon join those who are in the class of “even worse off,” depending on the mercy of the Ohio EPA regarding wastewater treatment upgrades.

That leads to one more statement by Gonzales: What happens when a village goes bankrupt?

Village officials have shown strong concern for careful spending in recent years and we’re sure that will continue.

But in the end, there’s only so much a village can do.