 Early this year Mayor Beth Davis-Kavelman asked Alderman Buzz Busy
to temporarily take over as finance chairman, as Alderman Verl
Prather needed some time off. Busby led the budget proceedings that
involved all the department heads and members of the council meeting
on Saturday mornings in March and for a few minutes, one last time,
Monday night before the committee-of-the-whole meeting.
The major differences in fixed costs in the new budget were
increases for energy. Most heavily hit are the departments that use
vehicles heavily in their daily operation. The police, fire and
streets departments each have vehicles that must be kept running for
long periods of time, are high in fuel consumption or log high mile
numbers.
Fuel increases:
-
Fire department:
$15,000 to $20,000
(up $5,000)
-
Police department:
$43,000 to $56,000
(up $13,000)
-
Streets and alleys: $58,000 to $70,000
(up $12,000)
The wastewater treatment plant estimated $25,000 would be needed
for energy, increasing that budget from $325,000 to $350,000 a year.
The streets department, which pays the street lighting and other
high energy consumption bills, has increased its budget the last two
years to cover increasing electric bills.
A half-million dollars is slated to go into sewer system
improvements. About 15 line items are in the $550,000 budgeted.
These include the replacement of the Singleton lift station,
concrete and clarifier work, and insulating some valves, manager
Dave Kitzmiller explained during the budget hearings. From the
total, $100,000 would be budgeted toward a consolidated sewer
overflow study.
A consolidated sewer overflow would help prevent sewer backups
during heavy rains, bypassing the main sewer system when floodwaters
reach certain levels. Storm runoff would be channeled more directly
to discharge in Salt Creek, near the sewer plant.
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Kitzmiller presented an overview on Tuesday of how a consolidated
sewer overflow system works. Approval of the study was placed on
next week's agenda. The project was a measure negotiated with the
EPA at the time the city did the wastewater treatment plant upgrade
several years ago.
A total of $510,000 from projects budgeted last year that are
still in process would be rolled over to the new budget. Some of
these funds are for sewer department projects that are taking place
in stages.
Another large part of the funds was for the big street project
for the year, an upgrade for Sherman Street. The project could not
be started when it was discovered that private property owners had a
fence and patio that had been built on city right of way. The
current owners were not deemed at fault and an amiable resolution
was sought. It was announced Monday evening that an agreement has
been reached with the Heath family and the project can now move
forward.
Busby said, "I'd like to thank everyone who worked to keep the
budget as low as possible. We are afloat and thankfully we're not
sinking."
[By JAN YOUNGQUIST]
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