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The Finance Committee began the meeting by looking at a draft of
the next fiscal year’s budget. At this stage in creating the budget,
the committee looked at a few corrections that needed to be made to
the draft.
- A line item referred to as Circuit Clerk Special under the
Circuit Clerk’s office was lowered from $320,000 to $300,000.
This line item is a revenue line item that concerns
miscellaneous fees brought in by the Circuit Clerk. Chuck Ruben
said this line item is a guess from year to year.
- The utilities item under Buildings and Grounds was raised
from $55,000 to $60,000 for next year. Jan Schumacher said she
wondered if there were ways the county could work towards
reducing utility costs in the future.
- The amount budgeted for county economic development was put
in as $5,000. This money is used for groups such as the
Development Partnership or the CEDS region Logan County is part
of.
- The county farm line item was brought back up to $100,000
from $60,000. Recently money was moved from the farm account to
Buildings and Grounds for upcoming projects. Ruben said he would
like to see the farm account with more money in revenue for next
year.
- Sally Gosda provided a copy of the Health Department budget
to the committee. The Health Department passed their budget the
night before.
With these changes made, Pam Meagher said the county would
end with a projected balance of $79,363.
“It’s not going to hurt to have fund balance available,” said
Ruben. “I would like to put $40,000 in the Bridge fund if we’ve
got that kind of a fund balance.” Ruben added that the County
has shorted the bridge fund for the past few years, and he would
like to see them receive more funding. Parternship could
move to John Logan Building after next summer
The committee also discussed the use of office space by the
Economic Development Partnership in the future. Currently, the
Partnership is moving from their offices in the same building
with the Chamber of Commerce to an interim location at the Farm
Bureau.
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Ruben said he would like to see the Partnership use the
office that is currently used by the Regional Superintendent at
the John Logan Building. The Superintendent’s office will no
longer be in use after next summer, when the county will join
the educational region led by McLean County.
“I don’t foresee that space being used by anyone else, and it
would be a minimal cost to the county,” said Ruben. Ruben said
he would like to see the office used by the Partnership in-kind,
meaning there would be no payment of rent on the Partnership’s
part. Currently, the space used utilized by the Partnership at
the Chamber building is handled the same way.
“It would be better than where they are now,” said Schumacher.
Ruben said that at most, he imagines Bill Thomas and a secretary
as being in the office the most. In addition, the building would
continue to be shared by the Assessor’s office.
A motion was made and approved unanimously by the committee to
allow the Partnership to use the building in the future.
Before the end of the meeting, Gosda told the committee this
would be the last meeting of the Finance Committee she will be
attending on behalf of the Health Department. Gosda said she
will be starting a new job at State Farm next month as an
Actuarial Technician. The committee members expressed that they enjoyed
working with her and they wish her luck at her new job.
Committee members present for the meeting were Chuck Ruben,
David Blankenship, Jan Schumacher and Rick Aylesworth. Guests
included Pam Meagher, Treasurer Vicki Dugan and Sally Gosda of
the Health Department.
[By DEREK HURLEY]
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