Bearing down on the budget

With a little more than two months until the end of the current fiscal year, the Saratoga Town Council held their first budget workshop for Fiscal Year 2020/2021. The workshop was in stark contrast to the workshops from years past in which the governing body and department heads all gathered around the table and discussed the budget line item by line item.

Due to the ongoing concerns over the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the council members sat strategically in the council chambers to ensure six feet of distance between each other. The department heads came in one at a time and worked through their preliminary budgets with the governing body.

A number of departments saw changes in their proposed budgets for the upcoming fiscal year, with either increases or reductions compared to the 2019/2020 fiscal year. The budget for Town Hall, for example, has a proposed increase of $93,057. For the current fiscal year, the Town Hall had expenditures budgeted for $429,422 and a proposed budget of $522,479 for the upcoming fiscal year.

Within that budget, however, are several line items that were not listed under Town Hall previously. These include the community garden and the medical clinic, which had been listed as enterprise funds in previous years.

“I think we talked about it last year to where the auditors were suggesting that the community garden, the medical clinic, those things were not actually enterprise funds and so we needed a different way to do that. So, the Town Hall absorbed some and the Street Department absorbed some,” said Town Clerk Suzie Cox.

Also under Town Hall was a line item for impact funds in the total of $25,000. Cox informed the council that she was leaving the decision up to the council on what to use the $25,000 from impact funds for.

“There are things that need to be done but I’m leaving the decisions up to the council of how you would like to to do that,” Cox said.

“I think a new audio system. There’s a lot of people that can’t hear … that’s one thing I’ve always thought of. We can do a video system so people always have a way to watch online,” said Councilmember Bob Keel.

Cox stated that a video system would come under the installation of new cameras and that Pine Cove Consulting had informed her they were hoping they could do that but that it might require extra money. Under capital equipment, $5,000 had been added for the installation of the new cameras. Additionally, $8,500 had been listed under capital improvements. After discussion, both were moved to the repair and maintenance line items with $8,500 being listed under repair and maintenance of buildings and $5,000 being under repair and maintenance of equipment.

The planning and zoning department also saw an increase from $70,527 for the current fiscal year to $74,538 for next fiscal year. Keel, who serves as the council representative to the Planning Commission, stated that he would share the budget with the other members of the commission. He added that he didn’t think they would have many concerns as no concerns were raised last year.

The only major point of discussion under planning and zoning was that of salary. It has been over a year since the resignation of the Town of Saratoga’s permanent zoning officer. Since then, Kent Smith has been working as acting zoning officer on an as-needed basis. As the council worked through their budget for the current fiscal year, there had been a lot of discussion about taking the part-time position to full-time. In early 2019, a budget amendment had been drafted but failed to pass the second reading.

“As far as salaries, what’s our thoughts there? I know we’re still kicking (it) back and forth. Are we going to try and get it full-time? Is $39,000 going to be enough? What’s people’s thoughts there?” asked Mayor John Zeiger

“As of right now, we’re still advertising, I think. We did receive an application recently but haven’t had the chance to speak with the planning commission about it. I don’t think there’s any plans right now. There’s no prospects for full-time,” replied Keel.

Other departments that saw changes included municipal court, with a reduced budget from $70,327 for 2019/2020 to $63,338 for 2020/2021. The swimming pool is currently showing an increase for its budget, with $61,777 in the current fiscal year to $64,011 for the upcoming fiscal year. Included within that budget for the swimming pool is $5,000 as part of a Carbon County School District No. 2 Recreation Board grant for two pumps at the facility.

Under the Recreation Department, the town council increased budgets for some of the line items in preparation for programs currently sponsored by the recreation department, such as youth basketball and soccer. Under the line item for program supplies and items, $5,000 was budgeted. That same amount was budgeted for under recreation programs.

Recreation Director Lisa Burton informed the council that she was interested in contracting with someone to do repair and maintenance on the stationary bikes at the recreation center. According to Burton, there are 21 bikes and many of them were used when they were given to the Town of Saratoga for use at the recreation department.

“The majority of the bikes are the original ones that we got 10 years ago that were already used and I think it’s important to keep replacing them and updating them as we go along,” said Burton.

While there were a few changes to the budget during the workshop, there is still some time to go before the first reading of the budget at a Saratoga Town Council meeting. In that time, it is possible that other changes could be made.