 The fiscal year for the city of Lincoln begins May 1, and the
council is now working to put together the budget for that upcoming
year.Inside the council chambers the setting is somewhat like
that of a multimillion-dollar conglomerate board meeting. Each
department is essentially its own little subsidiary of the bigger
"parent company."
To that end, each department must prepare what they believe is an
accurate as possible picture of the expenditures they will incur
between May 1, 2010, and April 30, 2011.
In addition, there are entities outside of city
government that are partially supported by city dollars, and they
too come before the council and submit their annual request for
funding.
At the first meeting on Saturday, those who presented their
requests were Joel Smiley of the Lincoln & Logan County Development
Partnership, Andi Hake and Heidi Brown of the Lincoln/Logan County
Chamber of Commerce, Darlene Begolka of the Logan Railsplitting
Association, and Roger Matson representing Main Street Lincoln. Also
present were Dr. Kristen Green-Morrow, president of the Lincoln &
Logan County Development Partnership; Geoff Ladd of the Abraham
Lincoln Tourism Bureau, who spoke briefly; and Wanda Lee Rohlfs of
Main Street Lincoln, who offered comments on a downtown
beautification project.
Lincoln & Logan County Development Partnership
Green-Morrow opened for Smiley, offering the council her
appreciation for the funding they have provided the partnership
in the past and commenting on the good work Smiley has done for
the partnership.
For the 2010-11 fiscal year, the partnership is asking for the
same amount as they received last year: $25,000 for the partnership
and $5,000 for the Logan County Comprehensive Economic Development
Strategy.
Before making his request, Smiley offered some updates on current
projects and coming events.
The partnership will be applying for a new grant available
through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. If won, the money will
be used to help acquire a central location for the business
incubator program.
For the first time since its inception, the development
partnership will undergo a financial audit. Smiley said that
Estes Bridgewater and Ogden of Springfield, the same firm that
conducted the city audit this past year, will be providing the
service to the partnership.
The consultants for the Economic Development Master Plan have
been selected and will be signing their contract with the
partnership within the next week or two. These consultants are being
hired with funds from a Department of Agriculture grant amounting to
$50,000.
Smiley anticipates coming back to the city this September with a
draft of the master plan, then having a public unveiling of the plan
sometime during October.
The CEDS documents for Logan County are back in Peoria and ready
for submission to the state. There is approximately $7,500 to
$10,000 in the partnership budget this year for CEDS. Smiley said that $5,000 of that was the annual fee to
participate, and the other $2,500 to $5,000 is for the prep work
that went into the CEDS applications.
The arrival of Helitech to Logan County is drawing ever closer.
The company has signed and submitted a contract to a property
developer, and it is awaiting his signature. Smiley anticipates
further announcements regarding this within the next week.
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 Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce
Chamber director Andi Hake and Heidi Browne, events coordinator,
spoke to the council jointly expressing their appreciation to the
city for their sponsorship at the annual Lincoln Art & Balloon
Festival.
Hake said that this past summer it was "guesstimated" that during
the festival weekend the population of the city doubled.
Hake and Brown discussed the successes of the weekend, including
the addition of the professional wrestlers at the airport. Hake said
that the wrestling team had asked to come at no charge. They
requested only that the chamber provide them with a tent for their
wardrobe changes. In the end, the attraction ended up being fairly
popular, which surprised even Hake and Browne.
Another change last year was the relocation of the live
entertainment out of the beer tent. The two said that it worked out
very well, and they plan to continue that this year.
Browne said that in the downtown area, they are going to be
working to fill Kickapoo Street between Pulaski and Clinton, to
complete the walking connection between Latham and Scully Park.
She added that the cold-air balloon inflation downtown was one of
her personal favorites, it had gone very well, and would be taking
place again this year.
Hake said the chamber's greatest obstacle has been parking at the
airport, and they are trying to come up with a reasonable solution.
She said they are looking at the possibility of running shuttles to
and from the airport.
And finally, something new this year will be a group of stilt
walkers. These walkers will work the crowd and interact with them
throughout the event, plus there will be a teaching area where
people can learn to walk on stilts themselves.
Hake said that they too were asking for no increases this year.
The city's annual sponsorship for the festival includes the
special-shape balloon each year and will take $5,000 out of the
city's annual budget.
The next segment of this report on city budget requests from
community partners and civic organization will include
discussions from Begolka regarding the annual Railsplitting
Festival, comments from Ladd regarding tourism and a discussion
presented by Roger Matson, this year's president of Main Street
Lincoln.
[By NILA SMITH]
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