City of Lincoln set to approve $22 million 2019-20 budget
Part four: Building and grounds discussions reveal some big challenges

 

[April 11, 2019] 

LINCOLN 

Though it is one of the smaller line items in the general fund of the city of Lincoln budget, when aldermen met for budget planning for the new fiscal year, they found that the Building and Grounds had some of the most significant increases. In the 2018-19 fiscal year the total budget for building and grounds was $93,160. In the 2019-20 budget draft presented on March 25th it increased by 62 percent to total $151,500.

Lincoln Fire Chief Mark Miller discussed some of the bigger changes and explained why so much more money is going to be needed in the new year.

He noted that a very large increase is in the custodian contract. To put this in perspective. In 2017-18 that budget was $7,500. In the 2018-19 budget the amount was $18,500 and in the new budget for 2019-20 the amount has been increased to $30,000.

Miller said that the current contract is with Scales Cleaning Service. The service does custodial work at City Hall twice per week and at the Lincoln Police station twice per week.

At the Lincoln Depot, the train waiting area is the responsibility of the city. The cleaning there has to be done daily. Miller said the waiting station was “very well used.” So daily cleaning is a necessity. This is helping to hike up the prices that the city is paying for the custodial contract.

Miller said that Scales is charging $30 per day for the waiting station. They go in after the doors are officially locked for the night and clean windows, mop floors, and clean bathrooms.

Miller said he was looking to receive a new bid for the cleaning services.

Miller said that with the addition of new buildings, he has worked to track costs for all the city buildings in the area of electricity, phone, cable/internet services and more, and had used those figures to estimate the new budget.

As Miller talked about some of the work he does maintaining the buildings and grounds, the topic of what will happen after he retires came up. Michelle Bauer asked if the new fire chief, Bob Dunovsky, would be taking on those duties. He will not.

Tracy Welch said that there have been discussions about outsourcing those services. He said that would equate to hiring someone specifically for the building and grounds management or designate the duties to someone already ‘in house.”

City Administrator Beth Kavelman said that she could take on some of the responsibility for the facilities. Welch said he would prefer not to burden the city administrator with this responsibility. He said that her contract had specific duties and he felt that was enough.

Kavelman also noted that the city used to have a building and grounds committee that handled all this. Jeff Hoinacki said that wasn’t entirely correct. The task had been designated to City Engineer Mark Mathon. However, when Mathon left several years ago, it was Miller who stepped up and took on the task.

City Clerk Peggy Bateman said that some of the paperwork that Miller performs could be passed on to the clerk's office, and she said that the clerk's office could help with some of the “light duty” custodial work at city hall.

Moving on, Dayne Dalpoas asked about the increase in the electricity costs. Was it due to the new police station? For the new fiscal year, that line will increase from $10,000 to $50,000. Miller said yes, much of it was due to the new police station.

Police Chief Paul Adams added some notes to the discussion. He said that the utility fees at the new station are a concern and he’s been working to find some answers. He said that Trane (HVAC) had come out to the station to do some evaluations.

One thing that was discovered was that the insulation above the ceiling tiles was not sufficient, so heat is escaping into the dead air space above the ceiling. More insulation will help keep the heat where it belongs.

Adams said that Trane also has some technology that may help. He explained that sensors could be placed in specific areas to detect when the room is unoccupied. When no one is in a room, the heat (or cooling) to that room would be shut down. That could save costs, but at the same time, when someone enters the room it would take a while for the HVAC to bring that room to a comfortable temperature.

Back tracking to the issue of custodial services, Kevin Bateman, who will take office May 1st as Ward 4 Alderman, suggested that the city seek out someone who is retired and needs a part time job to specifically hire for general maintenance and janitorial services.

Welch said he would like to see what that would look like in the budget. He asked that it be added as a contracted person, not a city employee. City Treasurer Chuck Conzo asked how much money should be added, and there was no clear answer. Miller said he would research that and try to come up with a good figure. At the April 2nd follow up meeting, there was no change to show the increase. However, when the budget was reviewed again on April 9th, the contractual services had been increased by $10,000 with the Custodian Contract remaining at $30,000, bringing the total budget for Buildings and Grounds to $161,508.

The next and final segment of the General Fund budget was the Street and Alley budget. The discussions on that topic will be covered in part five on Friday.

[Nila Smith]