Here's some additional stuff since my last budget post--the stuff that got finalized. Also, there will be a public hearing about the budget at our City Council meeting on March 7. And if I can digress, I don't get those mandated public hearings. They do give the public a chance to comment, but they are not going to change anything. We have deadlines for the state, and publication, so even if somebody came up with a really good idea at the public hearing, there isn't much we could do about it. The time for public commentary is when we are crunching the numbers in February.
We set the employee raises at 2% effective July 1. Also $20,000 was cut from proposed capital expenditures from the pool (which also includes the park and tennis courts just south of the pool)
The water budget went from 141,000 to 185,000. But that jump includes setting aside $55,000 for water tower repainting. It has not been painted since its installation in 1995. We also need to paint the inside. Not that I ever thought about it, but the inside of the water tower is painted as well, in case you didn't know that.
The sewer budget went from 163,000 to 199,000. Much of that new expenditure is to help us meet regulations regarding the sewer. We are setting money aside for upgrades and we will have an added cost for sump pump inspections.
Another note, our debt payment for the new Bryan and Arthur Street additions went up from 25,000 to 30,000. That was planned in the payment. We also have $8000 or so less in spending in the coming year, as we do not need an audit.
Let me know if you have any specific questions about the budget.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
City Website
If you haven't been by the City's website lately, you should check it out. Our webmaster Jerry has made some updates, or maybe better stated, some tweaks. Still the same basic format, but has pull downs at the top of the page, instead of the side. It was done about a month ago, but I forgot to mention it here.
There is a lot of good stuff on there. It is a good way to keep up with some of the "business" of our city government.
Don't forget, you can also like the city on Facebook. Search under "City of Roland", and our page should pop up. You can also follow us on Twitter at @cityofroland
There is a lot of good stuff on there. It is a good way to keep up with some of the "business" of our city government.
Don't forget, you can also like the city on Facebook. Search under "City of Roland", and our page should pop up. You can also follow us on Twitter at @cityofroland
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Feb 15 Council meeting
Before the public meeting regarding the sewer, we held our regularly scheduled council meeting. We knocked out a few items.
The biggest was finalizing the numbers for the 12-13 budget. It had been mostly set, but we needed to finalize a couple departments. Also we had to plan on the revenue side in the water and sewer departments. We will need to raise rates come July 1. We are setting money aside to upgrade the system, and the raise in rates will be going to that.
We also set employee raises at 2% effective July 1.
On another note, we discussed (as we had no choice) that the city received "ownership" of Drainage District #50. 100 some years ago, the county set up drainage districts to assess property owners in a given area to build tile to drain rain water away. Well, if more than 25% of a district falls within a city limits, the county supervisors can turn it over to a city. Well, they did.
This particular district starts in the farm field SE of Roland, and then runs thru the area just east of the school, and thru the school property, and continuing westward to Bear Creek.
So now, the city, instead of the county, could assess people in that area for upgrades or maintenance of drainage tile in that area. The county actually did about 10 years ago, to fix the outlet and all that.
I don't know that it is that big of a deal either way. We have no particular plans with that. I suppose when the drain tile needs repaired, we can decide whether to ding the people in that drainage district, or the town as a whole. But again, it does end up in our lap.
Kinda like Hiway 221/E18. The state decided they didn't want Hiway 221 any more, so they just gave it to the county and the city. Here, you take care of it. So now the county has to maintain the road from Roland to the interstate and it became County E18 instead of State Hiway 221. Likewise, the parts within the city are ours now. Here, have this bridge. As they say, sh!t rolls down hill. But I digress...
The last major thing from the meeting was the discussion around getting a person hired to maintain our parks. That is moving forward now.
The biggest was finalizing the numbers for the 12-13 budget. It had been mostly set, but we needed to finalize a couple departments. Also we had to plan on the revenue side in the water and sewer departments. We will need to raise rates come July 1. We are setting money aside to upgrade the system, and the raise in rates will be going to that.
We also set employee raises at 2% effective July 1.
On another note, we discussed (as we had no choice) that the city received "ownership" of Drainage District #50. 100 some years ago, the county set up drainage districts to assess property owners in a given area to build tile to drain rain water away. Well, if more than 25% of a district falls within a city limits, the county supervisors can turn it over to a city. Well, they did.
This particular district starts in the farm field SE of Roland, and then runs thru the area just east of the school, and thru the school property, and continuing westward to Bear Creek.
So now, the city, instead of the county, could assess people in that area for upgrades or maintenance of drainage tile in that area. The county actually did about 10 years ago, to fix the outlet and all that.
I don't know that it is that big of a deal either way. We have no particular plans with that. I suppose when the drain tile needs repaired, we can decide whether to ding the people in that drainage district, or the town as a whole. But again, it does end up in our lap.
Kinda like Hiway 221/E18. The state decided they didn't want Hiway 221 any more, so they just gave it to the county and the city. Here, you take care of it. So now the county has to maintain the road from Roland to the interstate and it became County E18 instead of State Hiway 221. Likewise, the parts within the city are ours now. Here, have this bridge. As they say, sh!t rolls down hill. But I digress...
The last major thing from the meeting was the discussion around getting a person hired to maintain our parks. That is moving forward now.
Public Meeting on Feb 15
Been a busy guy lately, so hadn't had time to mention the public meeting regarding sewer upgrades in Roland. First off, wow! You are never really sure how big of a crowd you will get for something like that. We had about 75 people there, so that was nice to see.
I was one of the hosts/presenters, so I am not really sure how it went from an observer's viewpoint. But I thought it went really well from my view upfront. Hopefully we got the opportunity to answer a lot of questions, and get the buzz going in Roland to have folks talk about the problems we have.
As noted in the meeting, no decisions were being made. It was to offer information, answer questions, and help the city council get some feedback as to what the concerns are of the citizens of Roland.
As I see it, we have two problems. One is that our sewer main to the sewer plant is too small. In high rain events, that causes backups in basements.
Problem two is we have too much non-sanitary sewer water entering our sanitary sewer system. It comes from leaky sewer lines, letting ground water in. It also involves sump pumps dumping into the sanitary sewer system, instead of the storm sewers.
So we talked about those issues, and some of the costs. I liked the meeting, because for the most part, everybody was respectful, and limited sidebar conversations. When somebody "had the floor", everybody else kept quiet and listened to their neighbor. Meetings are not as useful, when there is a whole bunch of talking in the background and things like that.
So whether you were there or not, talk to your friends and neighbors about the costs, and benefits of various fixes, and let your opinion be known to the city council members. They have some tough decisions to make, that involve a lot of money. Obviously not everybody is going to agree on the course chosen, but the council wants to do what is best for Roland in the long term, and they are certainly receptive to various ideas.
So for those of you that came to the meeting, thanks for attending!
I was one of the hosts/presenters, so I am not really sure how it went from an observer's viewpoint. But I thought it went really well from my view upfront. Hopefully we got the opportunity to answer a lot of questions, and get the buzz going in Roland to have folks talk about the problems we have.
As noted in the meeting, no decisions were being made. It was to offer information, answer questions, and help the city council get some feedback as to what the concerns are of the citizens of Roland.
As I see it, we have two problems. One is that our sewer main to the sewer plant is too small. In high rain events, that causes backups in basements.
Problem two is we have too much non-sanitary sewer water entering our sanitary sewer system. It comes from leaky sewer lines, letting ground water in. It also involves sump pumps dumping into the sanitary sewer system, instead of the storm sewers.
So we talked about those issues, and some of the costs. I liked the meeting, because for the most part, everybody was respectful, and limited sidebar conversations. When somebody "had the floor", everybody else kept quiet and listened to their neighbor. Meetings are not as useful, when there is a whole bunch of talking in the background and things like that.
So whether you were there or not, talk to your friends and neighbors about the costs, and benefits of various fixes, and let your opinion be known to the city council members. They have some tough decisions to make, that involve a lot of money. Obviously not everybody is going to agree on the course chosen, but the council wants to do what is best for Roland in the long term, and they are certainly receptive to various ideas.
So for those of you that came to the meeting, thanks for attending!
Thursday, February 16, 2012
RAGBRAI to Roland
Got a letter from the Des Moines Register informing me that Roland has been chosen as a pass thru town on RAGBRAI, on Wednesday, July 25, as riders go from Webster City to Marshalltown.
However, they ask for a few things, and they need the info by March 1. Basically, if the city will support that all vendors shut down by (in our case) 2:30 PM. And they also want to know who our co-chairs for planning our town's events are.
Obviously we just found out, so we don't have any co-chairs for that. So we need to find interested citizens who want to lead various parts of whatever Roland may come up with the day's events.
We can also tell the Register, "Nah, we aren't interested." They will potentially find another route, or they may still pass thru, with no noted support from Roland.
My take: It takes a lot of work from a few people, or some work from a lot of people. It is also a lot of fun on the day of. It is also an opportunity for local clubs to make some money.
I worked in a bar, just to help out, in Pocahontas 2 years ago when Ragbrai passed thru there. It was a lot of fun just meeting all the different people.
I also recall Ragbrai when it last came thru Roland, in 1997. I had just moved here so I didn't really participate. I recall there were some successes and strikeouts. Vendors on Main Street and the Legion did well. Vendors in Erickson Park did not do very well.
So, if you are interested in being a co-chair, please let me know, or let City Hall know. If you think we should tell Ragbrai to go around, let's hear that too. We have until March 1 to get the ball rolling.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
The Budget
We are going to get our budget finalized at the meeting on Wednesday. We are pretty close to done. Really the only thing left is deciding on the pool's budget, and what employee raises may be in order.
We are in really good shape for the 12-13 fiscal year, which is nice. On the revenue side, we are projecting an extra $20,000 in property tax revenue, based on increased valuation in the city, and then projecting another $10,000 in local option sales tax money. We also have paid off the bond for the newest well. So with that, the levy rate will go down from $10.38 per $1000 to $10.07. That is nice to have levy rates able to go down.
All departments did a pretty good job in watching dollars. Here's the high level expenditures. The Sheriff is billing us more for police protection. Even though we lost 40 people in the last census, police protection is up from $59,900 to $63,558.
Fire department down some. 33330 to 33226
Roland Response team 24320 to 24370
Streets from property tax the same at 110,000. And streets money that comes from gas tax from 120780 to 122696.
Library up 84148 to 92455. We are having to pick up some additional costs in the library.
Park 34559 to 29200
Administration 31619 to 77814. The big jump here is we are budgeting for a new location for City Hall. We are planning on starting fixup of the old library building, and moving in there once this budget year is upon us, in July 2012. We have $50,000 set aside for that. So minus that, the administration budget is actually going down a bit.
Other notes, still waiting on the pool budget,(It will be around 80,000) and all numbers above are if the employees got a 5% raise. I'm speculating that won't happen, so the numbers for the coming year will still go down a little bit.
We have other minor expenditures too, but they are all pretty much the same, like museum, cemetery, mosquito spraying, etc.
I didn't include water or sewer, because they are run more like a non-profit business, we estimate costs, and set the rates to come out even, with money set aside for capital projects, like new lines and such. We are setting aside money to paint the water tower. It has not been painted since it was constructed in 1995. So it is approaching 20 years, so it has served us well for the past 17 years. Also expect an increase in the sewer bills, as we need to start setting aside money for major sewer projects, many due to requirements placed upon us by the DNR.
So there is the high level run down. Hope that makes sense!
We are in really good shape for the 12-13 fiscal year, which is nice. On the revenue side, we are projecting an extra $20,000 in property tax revenue, based on increased valuation in the city, and then projecting another $10,000 in local option sales tax money. We also have paid off the bond for the newest well. So with that, the levy rate will go down from $10.38 per $1000 to $10.07. That is nice to have levy rates able to go down.
All departments did a pretty good job in watching dollars. Here's the high level expenditures. The Sheriff is billing us more for police protection. Even though we lost 40 people in the last census, police protection is up from $59,900 to $63,558.
Fire department down some. 33330 to 33226
Roland Response team 24320 to 24370
Streets from property tax the same at 110,000. And streets money that comes from gas tax from 120780 to 122696.
Library up 84148 to 92455. We are having to pick up some additional costs in the library.
Park 34559 to 29200
Administration 31619 to 77814. The big jump here is we are budgeting for a new location for City Hall. We are planning on starting fixup of the old library building, and moving in there once this budget year is upon us, in July 2012. We have $50,000 set aside for that. So minus that, the administration budget is actually going down a bit.
Other notes, still waiting on the pool budget,(It will be around 80,000) and all numbers above are if the employees got a 5% raise. I'm speculating that won't happen, so the numbers for the coming year will still go down a little bit.
We have other minor expenditures too, but they are all pretty much the same, like museum, cemetery, mosquito spraying, etc.
I didn't include water or sewer, because they are run more like a non-profit business, we estimate costs, and set the rates to come out even, with money set aside for capital projects, like new lines and such. We are setting aside money to paint the water tower. It has not been painted since it was constructed in 1995. So it is approaching 20 years, so it has served us well for the past 17 years. Also expect an increase in the sewer bills, as we need to start setting aside money for major sewer projects, many due to requirements placed upon us by the DNR.
So there is the high level run down. Hope that makes sense!
Sewer meeting on the Wednesday
On Wednesday the city council will have their regular meeting at 6PM at the Community Center. Following that, at 7PM, the council will be hosting a public input meeting regarding upgrades and repairs to the city's sewer system. If you are a Roland resident, you should have gotten a mailing on the topic.
HERE it is on the city's website.
No decisions will be made at the meeting. The purpose is to gather citizen input. For now, costs are estimated from 600,000 to 2.1 million dollars, spread out over many years.
So there will be a presentation surrounding the options, and then time for questions and input. The council is tasked with making a pretty expensive decision coming up. We want to make sure the public is given the opportunity to offer their insight to help us make the right decision for Roland.
After the meeting, you can sit around and watch dirty movies. (remote video of some of our worst sewer lines). That is not going to be part of the official presentation, but if you want to see what the inside of a sewer line looks like, we are going to show it.
HERE it is on the city's website.
No decisions will be made at the meeting. The purpose is to gather citizen input. For now, costs are estimated from 600,000 to 2.1 million dollars, spread out over many years.
So there will be a presentation surrounding the options, and then time for questions and input. The council is tasked with making a pretty expensive decision coming up. We want to make sure the public is given the opportunity to offer their insight to help us make the right decision for Roland.
After the meeting, you can sit around and watch dirty movies. (remote video of some of our worst sewer lines). That is not going to be part of the official presentation, but if you want to see what the inside of a sewer line looks like, we are going to show it.
Friday, February 3, 2012
February 1 Council Meeting
A few things on the agenda for this one. We got a reminder that we are having a public input meeting on Wednesday, Feb 15, at 7PM at the Community Center, after our council meeting, regarding our city's sewers. The council is interested in getting the input of citizens on what we should do with our sewer system. I will have more on that on a future blog post.
We updated our speed limit ordinances for Roland. The new streets in west Roland didn't legally have speed limit, so we put that in. Now, everywhere in Roland is 25 MPH, except some spots still in the city limits in and out of town on E18 and R77.
We gave a raise to Nathan, our water/wastewater superintendent for getting is Grade 2 certification for wastewater treatment. That is nice for Nathan to have, and for the city. Good job outta him for completing the course work to get that certification.
Most of the meeting was to discuss the budget. Fortunately we are sitting pretty good. All departments and boards did a good job of getting reasonable budgets to us. We may have a little snipping here and there, and we still need to decide what percent pay raise is appropriate for the city employees.
I will have more discussion on budget in a future post. The good news is the city's levy will actually go down. We have paid off the bond for one of our wells, so that is around $35,000 a year we don't have to pay. My quick estimate is that on a $150,000 house, that will save that homeowner around $50 a year. Not a lot, but 50 bucks is 50 bucks.
I can't guarantee your property taxes will go down tho. It appears overall valuation in Roland went up, which kind of surprised me, considering the housing market and all. We do have a few new properties, and some coming off tax abatement which helps increase the total valuation of all properties in the city. So for any given homeowner, you will need to refer what the assessor came up with for your home. Also, the city only collects around 29% of your property tax. The school takes half or a little more, and the the county, DMACC, and others claim the rest.
But as I mentioned, our levy is going down. We are holding everything else at last year's rate, then minus the well bond payment. So I am happy about that as a property tax payer.
That was pretty much it for the meeting. Stay tuned for more on the meeting on the 15th, and more for a more in depth discussion of the budget.
We updated our speed limit ordinances for Roland. The new streets in west Roland didn't legally have speed limit, so we put that in. Now, everywhere in Roland is 25 MPH, except some spots still in the city limits in and out of town on E18 and R77.
We gave a raise to Nathan, our water/wastewater superintendent for getting is Grade 2 certification for wastewater treatment. That is nice for Nathan to have, and for the city. Good job outta him for completing the course work to get that certification.
Most of the meeting was to discuss the budget. Fortunately we are sitting pretty good. All departments and boards did a good job of getting reasonable budgets to us. We may have a little snipping here and there, and we still need to decide what percent pay raise is appropriate for the city employees.
I will have more discussion on budget in a future post. The good news is the city's levy will actually go down. We have paid off the bond for one of our wells, so that is around $35,000 a year we don't have to pay. My quick estimate is that on a $150,000 house, that will save that homeowner around $50 a year. Not a lot, but 50 bucks is 50 bucks.
I can't guarantee your property taxes will go down tho. It appears overall valuation in Roland went up, which kind of surprised me, considering the housing market and all. We do have a few new properties, and some coming off tax abatement which helps increase the total valuation of all properties in the city. So for any given homeowner, you will need to refer what the assessor came up with for your home. Also, the city only collects around 29% of your property tax. The school takes half or a little more, and the the county, DMACC, and others claim the rest.
But as I mentioned, our levy is going down. We are holding everything else at last year's rate, then minus the well bond payment. So I am happy about that as a property tax payer.
That was pretty much it for the meeting. Stay tuned for more on the meeting on the 15th, and more for a more in depth discussion of the budget.
Spring Training 5k Run
In my close to 15 years in Roland, I don't know if we have ever had a fun run in town. Maybe right at the 15 years ago, but certainly not lately. That is all to change on Saturday, March 31, as the Britson Park & Athletic Complex fundraising committee will be hosting the Spring Training 5k Run and Pancake Feed.
The run will go thru Roland to make up the 5k (3.1 miles). All participants, for $20, get to run, get a shirt, and get to eat pancakes. If you don't want to run, pancakes will be served for $5 at the American Legion, with the help of the Kiwanis folks.
The proceeds will go to field construction at Britson Park. If you don't want to run, but would like to help with the race, the group is soliciting volunteers--to watch intersections, hand out water, and so on.
1st and 2nd place in each age group will get a medal, and the top overall male and female winner will get a $100 brick for installation on the walkway at Britson Park.
HERE is the signup form with more info. I'm excited to once again have an event like this in Roland.
Smoke Alarms for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
As mayor, I get notices for grants and other benefits available to citizens. I just got one from the State Fire Marshall's office about visual smoke detectors that are available for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. It is from a grant from State Farm Insurance. If you know anyone who might benefit from this, HERE is a link regarding the program.
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