City council reviews general fund as first portion of proposed FY 2020-21 budget

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Tuesday, May 26, 2020 — The Bardstown City Council spent more than an hour Tuesday night reviewing a draft of the General Fund part of the proposed Fiscal Year 2020-21 city budget.

With a project surplus of just $100,000, Mayor Dick Heaton cited the loss of revenue in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic when he called the General Fund portion of the budget “tight.”

Some requested expenses were cut from the proposed budget, and some planned city projects will be split between the next two fiscal year budgets.

GENERAL FUND REVIEW. Aaron Boles, the city’s chief financial officer, introduced the General Fund budget to the council, which he said is based on an expected 4 percent property tax revenue increase.

The budget includes a 2.5 percent cost-of-living increase for city employees.

The city’s medical insurance costs are 20 percent higher than last year due to increases in claims and administrative costs, Boles explained

Boles — along with each department head — reviewed each department’s budget with the council and answered questions.

POLICE BUDGET. The city police department’s request to purchase seven new cruisers was cut to five, and two officer positions were not funded.

Chief Kim Kraeszig told the council she felt one of those cut positions — funding for a new K-9 officer — was very important and deserved to be funded.

The police department’s existing K-9 officer is also a supervisor, which means the officer’s time is split between supervisor duties and K-9 duties. The canine is also at retirement age and needs to be replaced.

Kraeszig said there was interest among her officers who would like to apply for a K-9 position, provided the funding is available.

The dog and related equipment would cost about about $12,000, and the officer’s salary — including pension and insurance costs — would run about $89,000. Kraeszig anticipated an existing officer would be promoted to K-9 officer, and an additional officer would be hired to replace the officer who was promoted.

The proposed budget for the city police department is basically flat, Heaton explained. The council may take a look at the budget again in December to see if the funding could be found to add back some of the projects and positions that aren’t being funded right now.

FIRE DEPARTMENT. The biggest request from the city’s fire department is for a new $650,000 pumper truck. While there’s no money in the budget to pay for the truck, Chief Billy Mattingly recommended the city go ahead and order the truck because it will take 14 months to build the apparatus and have it ready for delivery.

Heaton said the new truck is needed to replace a 1993 fire truck that’s currently costing $2,000 a month in maintenance and repairs. In the last four years, the city has spent $64,000 just on repairs on the truck.

While the old pumper was recently en route to a garage fire, after passing over bumpy railroad tracks the truck died and had to be towed back to the fire station.

To pay off the new truck, the city will spread the cost of the truck out over a 20-year span, just like it did when the city purchased new self-contained breathing apparatus equipment for the fire department. That loan will be paid off soon, and the money budgeted for that expense can be used to pay for the new fire truck.

The new pumper truck will be stationed at the City Hall fire station at Fifth and Broadway. Once the new fire station is operational, the new truck will be the first truck out on fire and emergency calls, Mattingly said.

“We’re not only risking lives of the citizens, but that of firefighters,” Mattingly said of continued use of the old pumper. “Its gotten to the point its just not dependable.”

The fire budget will also include money to convert a water truck into a foam unit.

PARKS & RECREATION. The proposed budget includes some needed repairs to the Rec. Center gym building, according to Daniel Jeffries, the recreation director.

The floor in the front side of the building and restrooms has some rotting floor joists and subfloor. The plan is to make repairs to the floors and then rebuild the bathrooms to make them more handicap accessible.

The budget also will include creation of an actual handicapped parking spot on the west side of the gym. The new parking area will initially be gravel, with paving planned in Fiscal Years 2022.

STREET DEPARTMENT. The city will receive about $50,000 less from the state for street paving and repairs, but still has a proposed paving budget of approximately $500,000.

City Engineer Jessica Filiatreau said that the costs of the new 9,000-square-foot city shop building being built behind Krogers will be split between the water, sewer, street and garbage departments.

Heaton said he considered the budget a tentative six-month budget, and said the city will look at it again at year’s end to see how revenue and expenses are tracking.

In the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, “[the budget] is an area that’s difficult to predict, so you want to err on the conservative side.”

NEXT UP. The council’s next tentative meeting is a working session scheduled for 6 p.m. June 2, 2020.

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