The DeKalb City Council tonight will consider a proposal to fund 10 school crossing guards for the 1988-89 school year at a $41,000 cost to the city.

City Manager Mark Stevens said he had originally anticipated to help fund six crossing guards. He said he had estimated the property tax increment to be about $175,000 and the impact on the school district to be about $90,000 to $100,000.

However, Stevens said he recieved information Friday morning which determined the increment actually would be $290,000, with an impact on the school district of about $180,000.

While higher property taxes are the cause of the impact on the school district, “the best the city can do in the long-term to support quality education is to create a perpetual high property tax base. But the short-term impact requires a response from the city,” Stevens said.

Reponses from the city remove certain parcels that create the property tax impact, Stevens said. If the city would fund crossing guards, it would be beneficial to the school district in the short term, he said.

The funding picture for the 1988-89 school year is “very bleak,” Stevens said. If the city decides to fund crossing guards, the school district would save about $20,500, he said.

The funding proposal only is for the 1988-89 school year, Stevens said. “We’ll see what happens (with property tax increments during the next year) and then re-evaluate the situation next spring,” he said.

“The proposal is my recommendation to the council, but the council has not always taken my recommendations,” Stevens said.

“But I don’t think people begrudge the proposal of crossing guards. We do have the neccessity of children crossing fairly busy streets to get to school,” he said.

Stevens said most municipalities take on the responsibility of funding crossing guards for their school districts. “Most cities have thrown out the proposal of volunteer crossing guards,” he said.

In other council business, Stevens said he expects the council will have some opposition on a proposal to an amendment to the city’s revised zoning ordinance, which would allow parking lots to be constructed in residential zoning districts with a special use permit.

“Some residents opposed the ordinance when it was approved at a Plan Commission meeting on April 13, Stevens said.

Three residents, who opposed the ordinance, said on April 13 “they did not want parking lots, under any circumstances, constructed next to or near their homes,” Stevens said.

The Plan Commission recommends approval of the ordinance, but Stevens said he does not know if the council will approve the proposal.

“But (the ordinance) goes along with previous council philosophies of planning,” he said.

The only areas the ordinance would affect would be commercial districts surrounded by residential districts, Stevens said.