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Goldendale presents first-quarter budget review; wastewater treatment plant upgrades underway
Summary
City finance staff reported first-quarter budget results showing revenues and expenses near expected quarterly proportions; the City Administrator updated council on wastewater treatment plant upgrades, including a new screw press and ongoing engineering work.
The Goldendale City Council received a first-quarter budget review from the city’s CPA and a status update on wastewater treatment plant upgrades on May 5.
Teresa, the CPA presenting the financial review, reported general fund revenues at 18.64% of the 2025 budget compared with 20.4% at the same point in 2024. She said expense levels were roughly on target—around 25% of budget for many funds—but noted some differences across funds: utility fund revenues were 23.4% of budget in 2025 versus 7% in 2024, attributable to prior-year program rate increases; utility fund expenses were 21% of budget in 2025 versus 7.5% in 2024. Street fund revenues were 3.5% of budget in 2025 compared with 5.4% in 2024, though first-quarter actual revenues rose about 6% year‑over‑year largely due to sales tax increases. Teresa highlighted that street-fund expenditures rose roughly 32.6% from the prior year because of the South Columbus Avenue overlay, noting the project has a budget of about $1,000,000 and approximately $1.53 has been spent to date on that line item in the packet presentation (staff explained capital-year budget comparisons affect percent-of-budget calculations).
City Administrator Sandy Wells briefed the council on wastewater treatment plant upgrades. She said she toured the plant with the wastewater supervisor, public works director, and project engineers and observed the new screw press the plant will use. She described seeing the operational processes and deferred technical questions to plant staff and engineers during the council discussion. Sandy said the upgrades were progressing and that staff had attended project meetings.
Teresa closed her presentation noting most other funds were within expected first-quarter spending percentages and that the economic development fund’s percentage was not directly comparable quarter-to-quarter because of intergovernmental revenue timing. Councilmembers had no substantive questions at the meeting’s conclusion.
Council asked staff to continue routine quarterly reporting; no action was required beyond receiving the presentation.
