Banner County moves to create buildings and grounds sinking fund; parking lot, roof and safety lines eyed

Banner County commissioners directed staff to create a buildings and grounds sinking fund and to add a separate safety account during a budget workshop discussion about deferred maintenance.

Commissioners and staff said the courthouse parking lot requires more than a patch; prior estimates showed chip‑seal work only addresses the surface and structural repairs could run into six figures. The sinking fund is intended to accumulate money over several years so the county can pay for major repairs without a single large levy increase.

"We can kick that can down the road 3, 4 years," one commissioner said, but added, "at some point as a board, we're gonna have to pave the parking lot." Clerks and finance staff explained the sinking fund must be created in the chart of accounts and added to the budget as a line item so money can be moved into it.

The board also asked staff to create a separate safety line to track spending on alarms, fire extinguishers and panic buttons; commissioners proposed a $25,000 placeholder for the new safety line and suggested leaving building‑repair funding at roughly $60,000 to cover major items such as a roof.

Staff said the clerk (Katie) will prepare a resolution to create the fund, consult MIPS (the county’s accounting vendor) on the correct chart‑of‑accounts treatment, and present the resolution for the board to approve at a future meeting.

Ending: The vote to create a sinking fund was direction to staff, not a formal appropriation; the board instructed the clerk to draft a resolution and return with line‑item numbers and implementation details for approval.