In case Wall Street and the big bank bail out seem light years away, try a local budget shortfall as a result of the economic troubles.

In Mammoth Lakes, Town Manager Rob Clark expects the possibility of a $1 million shortfall this year. Bottom line – the general state of the economy has shrunk building plans and revenues for the Town.

Manager Clark said that about a month ago, building permits went down and definitely the value of projects dropped. This month, Clark said, there was a slowdown on the planning side with zone changes and use permits. “Given where the economy is,” said Clark, “we have to take action.”

The Town Manager said he would give the Town Council broad options for cutbacks and time to look at consequences. He said officials would start discussions at the Town Council meeting Wednesday night.

Revealing more about the nature of the downslide, Manager Clark said that the Town has almost the same number of building permits as last year; but the jobs involved are small and not construction of full homes.

Clark added that Mammoth has seen a lot of people at work on district plans and master plans but with the slow down, the developers don’t know about the financial side.

Discover more from Sierra Wave: Eastern Sierra News

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading