Fallon County commissioners held a budget work session in which they reviewed proposed budgets across numerous county departments, raised clarifying questions about several line items and flagged issues for follow-up, including cemetery mill rates, capital planning for the golf course pond, and how to allocate certain 9-1-1/dispatch costs.

Key items discussed

Cemetery tractor repayment and mills: Commissioners discussed a tractor purchase used at the cemetery that had been funded temporarily from the road department and that the cemetery fund should repay the road department. They noted the cemetery levy can be increased up to 2 mills and directed staff to examine whether raising the cemetery millage to the maximum would be needed to repay the road department; exact repayment timing and amounts were not finalized during the session.

Golf course pond lining: Commissioner Varner asked about a potential half-million-dollar pond lining project at the county golf course. Commissioners agreed the work belongs in the county capital-improvement plan (CIP) rather than the golf-course operating budget and asked staff to make a notation in the CIP so the expense is visible for future budgeting.

9-1-1 and dispatch funding allocation: Commissioners reviewed several line items for dispatch and the 9-1-1 fund and debated whether training and certain dispatch costs should be paid from the 9-1-1 fund or from the dispatch payroll account. Commissioners deferred a final decision and added the issue to a follow-up list so the commission can examine the accounting and fund flows before final budget adoption.

Department-level reviews and other notes: The group otherwise moved through departmental budgets with mostly technical adjustments: senior center parking timing (deferred to the next budget), justice court staffing timing, road department capital needs (notably blades and a supervisor pickup), ambulance/EMS training and equipment lines, museum and fair capital requests (some items deferred), and county building maintenance requests (some items slated for the next budget year). Commissioners also discussed a number of smaller program budgets (Baker Plevna TV, rural fire, extension, county attorney, and others) and took note of missing or pending information where needed (for example, inventory lists for shooting-range targets and state-provided wage numbers for extension staff).

Why it matters: many of the items discussed will be reflected in the county’s fiscal-year budget and affect capital planning, levy decisions and service budgets for residents. Several items require follow-up before final adoption to confirm funding sources or to finalize repayment plans.

What’s next: commissioners asked staff (including Clerk/Treasurer staff and department heads) to follow up on the cemetery repayment calculation, add the golf-course pond lining to the CIP, clarify 9-1-1 versus dispatch fund accounting, and return with the required figures during the next budget cycle.