Riverside trustees got a first look at the village’s budget for next year at their Oct. 16 village board meeting.
Finance Director Yvette Zavala said the most recent data shows revenues for 2026 are up by about $14,000 from the 2025 projections for a total budgeted amount of $12,592,164. She said the figure includes about $40,000 in revenue from a possible amusement tax on television streaming services that was discussed in September and no longer includes about $50,000 that the village previously earned each year from the sunsetting grocery tax, which Riverside will not implement locally.
The village’s budgeted expenditures for 2026 are up by about $515,000 from this year’s projections due to an increase in contributions to police officer pensions and increased expenses related to the village’s liability insurance.
The total expenditures are budgeted at $12,551,721, meaning Riverside expects to have a net surplus of $40,443, Zavala said.
A public hearing where residents can comment on the proposed budget will take place Thursday, Nov. 6, at 6:30 p.m., immediately preceding that day’s board meeting.
Zavala asked village trustees for guidance on some possible projects next year in order to allocate them within the budget.
First, she asked about an addition to the village’s public works building to increase storage space that is needed for equipment to seal cracks in pavement and stripe yellow lines on streets, which Riverside previously outsourced but now accomplishes in-house.
Public Works Director Dan Tabb said the space would also act as temporary storage for items currently held in the youth center should plans to renovate the village’s public safety facilities proceed, including a spare ambulance, antique fire vehicles and village files, among other things.
Zavala said the project would cost about $300,000, split between the village’s existing $1 million facilities bond and its water and sewer fund. The board was supportive of the addition.
Next, Zavala asked if staff should expand Riverside’s downtown facade improvement grant program by $20,000 so it can include dumpster enclosures and art, like murals or new signage. She said the village’s economic development commission supported the expansion at their last meeting.
While the board was supportive, Trustee Cristin Evans said she felt a similar program should be offered to businesses along Harlem Avenue. Village Manager Jessica Frances said such a program exists for each of Riverside’s business districts, with improvements funded through sales tax collected within each respective district. Frances said the programs in other business districts are self-sustaining, which is not the case for Riverside’s central business district.
Zavala then asked trustees about Riverside’s enterprise resource planning software, which integrates the village’s main financial and business processes. She said Riverside uses software from a firm called BS&A that requires its own server and maintenance work from the village’s IT vendor. The server-based version of the software is likely to become obsolete in the near future in favor of the cloud-based version, she said, and BS&A had quoted the village about $112,000 in total, paid in installments, to make the switch early, a figure that would likely rise if Riverside waited to swap over until it was necessary.
She said making the switch would save money on IT upkeep over the long-term and that the contract would come before the board later this year for specific approval. Trustees supported making the change in 2026 if there was room for it in the village’s budget.
Lastly, Zavala asked the board about a parks and recreation initiative to rent the pool at Riverside Brookfield High School to offer it for use to residents, which would cost about $15,000 in rental-related fees and $3,000 more in staff costs.
Parks and Recreation Director Ron Malchiodi said staff were not in favor of offering the program as described, as it would require deferring other planned projects, like playground improvements.
“We realized it’s an amenity that we’re lacking. It’s the funding that is the challenging part. At $18,000, it’s something that we wouldn’t want to offer and then roll back, so we’re committing in perpetuity without knowing what the usage would be,” Malchiodi said.
He said he had spoken with staff at North Riverside, who reported low resident usage at the high school’s pool, to which North Riverside has secured free access for its residents on select Sundays in exchange for the use of the village’s baseball and softball fields.
Malchiodi said he had also reached out to the Pav YMCA in Berwyn about allowing residents to use its pool or asking North Riverside if Riverside could co-opt its agreement with RB, for which North Riverside only pays the cost of a pool manager. He said Riverside could offer to pay the cost of the manager in exchange for residents having similar access, though he said he had not yet discussed it with North Riverside staff.
The village board was supportive of having parks and recreation continue to look into an agreement, though they agreed not to include any related costs in the 2026 budget at this time.
