LOCKPORT, N.Y. -- Facing a multi-million dollar deficit and with few places left to turn, the City of Lockport reached out to the state for help last fall.
"The city's plight financially is similar to other communities in New York state and the state has seen this happen in other communities and they have a mechanism in place to provide assistance to communities that do get into fiscal distress," said Mayor Anne McCaffrey, R-Lockport.
"It was good news for Lockport, for the City of Lockport," said state Sen. Rob Ortt, R-North Tonawanda. "Obviously, they're in a tough financial situation. I think they're improving."
On Tuesday, the New York State Financial Restructuring Board agreed to do a comprehensive review of city operations.
"Basically what they'll do is look at how we do business and make recommendations on how we could do business more efficiently," McCaffrey said.
According to the city, this fiscal year it has stabilized the budget, but too many unexpected costs from the winter or anything else could cause even more problems.
"The budget covers the employees and the labor that we anticipate for this year but certainly with an old city and the old infrastructure like we have, there are always unexpected things that come up and anything like that has not been planned for so we'll have to adjust when that happens," said McCaffrey.
At the end of 2014, the city completed the bonding process to pay off its immediate debts.
"We do have that financing in place. We have received the funds and we will be paying that debt service off for future years."
McCaffrey said she's not sure if the restructuring board will be able to help with those costs.
"I think what it really is in place to do is to help the city facilitate shared services in anyway the state deems possible."
If the city agrees to recommendations made by the board, McCaffrey says there could be grant money and funding attached to implement those changes.