The City held a public hearing at the special meeting Monday, August 27 on the 2019 fiscal year budget. Following the public hearing, the City Council passed the 2019 budget. The total budget expenditures for the City is $13,967,997.00 which includes the $2,220,000.00 budgeted of budget expenditure for the W.9th Street project and $100,000 budgeted for refinishing the swimming pool. Also included in the budget is $60,000 for the Street Department to work on ADA improvements for the Idaho Transportation Department. This is work the State pays the City to do on their road system so it is listed as a revenue and expenditure in the budget. Included in the budget are expected or potential grant monies.
Revenue sources include property tax levies which make up 12% of the total budget; grants and government agencies which make up 31% of the revenue and revenue from fees and services which makes up 57% of the City’s revenue sources.
Of the 12% included in the tax levies, there are five separate department levies: general fund, library, street department, and the recreation department. Each of these departments has a levy and these monies can only be used in those departments. The money cannot be taken from one levy to be used in another area without a direct nexus or connection to the project. The same is true with fees. Those monies have to be used in the departments that generate the fee or have a direct connection to the services provided by the department. For example, the City cannot buy a police car out of Electric Department funds.
Over the next couple of weeks, I will try to give some additional insight in the budget and its make-up.
We’ve received reports of people going through garbage cans, even tearing into bags in the cans. Be cautious, they may not only be looking for recyclables. They may be looking for personal information on letters or papers. Do not think it is just an innocent habit. If you are concerned contact the WPD and give them identification of individuals and watch your neighbors’ cans as well.
There was a good group of people at the groundbreaking for Ridley’s. I think the number of people surprised the store people. It was great to see the construction crew ready to begin. It will probably be a couple of weeks before major work will begin because of paperwork from the EPA and DEQ but the crew expects to begin in earnest around September 12. Wahoo! The date I was given for completion was May 1, 2019 so we should have a great store before our visitors come for Fiddle Contest.
The Street Department crew will begin working on the stormwater pipes down W. 9th, south of Pioneer in the next couple of weeks. They will also be spraying weeds in the alleys to get some of the puncture vine (goatheads).
Two-a-week garbage pickup is expected to continue through October if the weather stays warm. Alley cleanup will not occur until later in the fall.
Loved this humorous quote from my friend, Lyle. “I’d be more enthusiastic about encouraging ‘thinking outside the box’ if there was some evidence of any thinking going on ‘inside it’.” (Terry Pratchett)
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