Spring City Council reviews budget amendment; no vote recorded

Spring City Council met in a special session to review proposed amendments to the city's fiscal-year budget, focusing on capital transfers, fire-department equipment needs and sewer project funding; no formal vote was recorded.

Council members were reminded the city must adopt a final budget by July 1 and that the meeting's sole purpose was to review amendments to the preliminary budget adopted earlier. Dave Oxman, the city's financial adviser, summarized the changes and the reasons behind them.

"Overall, our budget only changed by about 5% minus out some capital project transfer, and that is just to maintain state compliance with cash on hand in the general fund," Dave Oxman said. He said that 5% change amounted to "just barely over $1,000,000." Oxman identified several items driving the adjustment: equipment for the fire department, a maintenance allocation for the old school gym and transfers tied to capital-project timing.

The council discussed specific line items Oxman flagged. The amendment includes $18,000 for maintenance of the old school gym project, and a transfer out of up to $200,000 identified on the budget worksheet as needed to meet state cash-on-hand requirements; council members were told much of that transfer reflects a road project that was not completed this spring and therefore will shift funding into the next fiscal year.

A council speaker noted negotiations with the CIB had converted a previously structured part-loan, part-grant project into an all-grant award, but the CIB grant does not cover equipment costs. "We were successful in talking to the CIB to convert our part loan, part grant project to all grant. So that's helpful. But they don't cover equipment costs in that. So that's why we have to, in the budget, anticipate what we'll have to do for equipment," the presiding official said.

Oxman also reported a separate funding improvement for the sewer project: a $285,000 design-advance loan previously provided to start work before other funding arrived was converted to a grant by the Division of Water Quality. "I met yesterday with the division of water quality... and they agreed to convert that to a grant yesterday," the presiding official said.

During public comment, a resident asked whether hydrant pressure problems are being addressed in the budget. "...some of them don't have pressure, some of them are dead. Like the one in front of my house, it doesn't have adequate pressure to meet code. Is that being addressed as part of the budget that we're doing now?" the resident asked. The presiding official responded: "Part of the project was to make it so that we had appropriate pressure at all those hydrons. So that's one of the reasons... we're doing that."

The council opened the floor for questions and public comment, heard the representations described above and then adjourned the special meeting to proceed with a scheduled series of follow-up meetings; no formal motion or recorded vote to adopt the amendment was made during the session.

The council indicated it would proceed to the next scheduled meeting in the series after a short break to reset agendas and materials.