It’s August, which means the city begins talking budgets for the next year. On Monday, during the city’s common council meeting, six departments talked about their proposed budgets for 2022, which included the cemetery, parks and recreation, police, street, clerk and mayor.
Oakwood Cemetery sexton Hal Heagy was the first to present, bringing forward his proposed budget of $746,167, down about two percent from 2021.
Next was Parks Superintendent Larry Plummer, whose department budget is proposed at just over $2.9 million, about a 13 percent increase from last year. Plummer mentioned one of the big projects in this year’s budget was the new parks and maintenance building that will be constructed near Central Park. Plummer said he was asked to put about $100,000 for a potential mortgage payment over a 10 year period.
After parks was the police department and Chief Scott Whitaker. The police department budget is up nearly 11.4 percent from 2021, proposed at $5.9 million. Whitaker said that he recently met with the wage committee to talk about what to include in the budget. Some of those inclusions are incentives such as special positions and certifications (such as dive team, firearm and/or taser instructors, forensics, etc.). An increase for those positions was $13,500 of special/incentive pay.
He also discussed the police forfeiture fund, law continuing education fund and police pension.
Street Superintendent Dustin Dillon went next, proposing the street department budget at just under $5.7 million, up about 7.5 percent. Three additional employees were added into this budget, along with money budgeted for capital overlays for some new machinery and equipment including trucks, trailers and a rear-loading garbage truck.
Other budgets included increases in the wheel tax, motor vehicle highway, local streets, and motor vehicle highway restricted.
City Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen had three budgets to discuss, including a general budget down 7.7 percent at $179,370, the general obligation bond for the fire station at $260,700 and the cumulative capital improvement fund at $75,000.
Mayor Joe Thallemer’s office budget was proposed at $246,170, up about $12,000 from last year. The common council’s budget went up nearly 31 percent to $1.95 million, which includes non-profit requests.
Also discussed was the American Rescue Plan funds, which the city is expected to receive the second half of in 2022. The economic development income tax was at $2.14 million, down about six percent, and $750,000 of that was for the new Parks office relocation. The riverboat fund was proposed at $250,000, the cumulative capital development fund at $505,000 (down 37.3 percent), and the EDIT revolving loan fund at $50,000.
The next set of budget talks will happen at the Monday, August 16th meeting which will begin at 6 PM.
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING WITH TIPPECANOE-CHAPMAN SEWER DISTRICT
An MOU between the city of Warsaw and the Tippecanoe-Chapman Sewer District was unanimously approved during the common council meeting before presentation of budgets.
What this entails is that the city will accept the flow that comes from the Tippecanoe-Chapman district, which needs the MOU for their state revolving funds and loans through the US Department of Agriculture.
Warsaw wastewater treatment utility manager Brian Davison, who also serves on the T-C sewer board, says the recent expansion of Warsaw’s wastewater plant takes it up to a six million gallon capacity. Taking in the new flow from the T-C district will not hurt the 20-year life expectancy of the plant and it also expands the customer base, which helps in sharing of cost treatment for the facility.
Overall, communications between the city and the district will talk about the capacity that is wanted to be purchased, and like many services, if more is used that what was allotted, a penalty will be tacked on.
