City department heads outline priority budget requests as council readies 2026 spending plan

Conway City Council heard a wide-ranging set of budget requests from department directors at a workshop Wednesday, with presentations emphasizing additional staffing, equipment replacements and capital repairs ahead of 2026 budget decisions and a public sales-tax question this fall.

Directors pressed for money to address immediate maintenance and safety needs — requests ranged from a new tractor and side-by-side utility vehicle for physical plant work to multi-million-dollar apparatus and ambulance investments for the fire department — while several departments also asked for pay adjustments to help retain staff.

Why it matters: Council members and staff said the city faces a short-term squeeze as routers, radios and vehicles age, major street projects and airport loan payments loom, and recruiting and retention pressures increase. Several department heads asked the council to consider targeted increases or new revenue options (including a sales tax measure on the November ballot and a possible business-license revenue stream) to prevent service gaps and reduce longer-term costs from deferred maintenance.

Most prominent requests

- Physical plant, code enforcement and animal services (Spencer Claussen): Claussen sought funds for equipment and personnel across physical plant and animal services. Specific asks included a John Deere tractor and attachments quoted at $32,912; a Kawasaki Mule SX side-by-side priced “All in $11,006.63”; $9,000 added overtime for the physical plant general fund line; restoration of printing/binding funding to $2,500; an increased building-maintenance allocation (noted historically at $16,000); and creation of a Maintenance Specialist I position with a stated salary of $36,771 to allow internal promotion and backfill. In animal services, Claussen requested a Kennel Tech II position, an adoption coordinator (cross-trained to work events and the front desk), infrastructure upgrades including synthetic turf estimated at $24,140 and a 36x30 A-frame carport at $7,290.08, and an adoption-trailer wrap quoted at $5,905. He also asked that call-out pay be aligned with the street department’s rate (transcript: “increase the call out pay to $4.50 a week”) and noted pay compression for code and animal officers (current base cited as ~$39,000)…