Jan 31 council meeting

Had the first go around on our 2011/2012 budget tonite. We muddled thru, as our city clerk Deneen is still out of service. But she was helpful in getting us some starting numbers. So we were able to talk about them, and make an initial looksee.

The good news is, all departments and boards submitted close, or very close budgets to last year. The city council will have the final say on what every department gets, but it is nice to see when everybody presents realistic budgets.

We are still a little fuzzy with the park board, and we need to work with them on their plans for Britson Park. They didn't have anybody at the meeting tonite, so we will get that worked out with them.

Both the Library and the Pool Boards have similar total dollar amounts, and requests. Both were around $84000 this year, and $87000 next year (not exact, but those are pretty close ballpark)

Streets is going to be the same, though we want to get nailed down future plans, and how to set that aside. Part of that will depend if we get the grant for sewer upgrades, and if so, we may be digging up some streets. But that would be a special project, and not really covered in what we are budgeting now.

Water and Wastewater, pun intended, what goes in, comes out. We try to set the rates/revenues to fund operations. That is looking to be about the same as last year. Though we are making an effort to televise all our sewer lines, so we can document the problems, and know where to concentrate our repair efforts.

Our Fire and Roland Response Teams submitted budgets within a couple hundred dollars of last year. Our Police (contract with County Sheriff) rate is going up, as that fee has been raised. Total bill may go up or down depending on the census. We pay a per capita to the sheriff for our police protection.

Also, on that line, we get money from our share of the gas tax, based on population. So if our population goes up, we will get more road use (gas tax) money from the state, but we will pay more to the county for police protection. If our population goes down, we get less road use money, but we pay less for police protection too.

Then there are the various expenses, like Adminstration expenses, like the fall 2011 election, mosquito spraying, and the Roland Museum, along with other smaller things like that. We will also need to plan what, if any, raises will be awarded to the city employees.

So this meeting was just the first look at it. There will be public hearings, and of course citizens are invited to speak at a council meeting on the topic. However my advice would be to get involved sooner than later, if you have a concern. It helps the council to get feedback earlier in the process.

Stay tuned to this spot for more details on the budget.