Borger reports near-balanced general fund, better-than-expected hotel revenue; water/sewer deficit smaller than planned

City Manager Brandon reported that the city’s general fund finished the year about $114,944 under its amended revenue budget, roughly 0.5 percent, and roughly $48,000 above the original adopted estimate. Expenditures were about $240,000 under budget, and after transfers — including a move to finance new skate park equipment — the fund’s year-end position was approximately $64,000 in surplus.

Brandon said sales tax receipts totaled $4,138,840 for the year, about $132,000 below budget and roughly 3 percent lower than the previous year. He noted October receipts reflect August collections and the city will monitor whether recent influxes of turnaround workers increase future collections.

The water and sewer fund, Brandon reported, finished with about a $2.3 million deficit compared with a budgeted $2.7 million deficit. Revenues were $278,663 below the amended budget but $421,336 above the original revenue estimate; expenditures were about $700,131 below the amended budget. He said the city shifted some internal funds to cover expenses such as the youth swimming pool, and overall the fund ended about $421,000 better than planned.

On infrastructure, Brandon said the screw pumps for the wastewater treatment plant have arrived and contractor Beau Simon anticipates a two-week installation window that will end the city’s rental-pump costs. Staff are continuing engineering work on the Cloverleaf sewer replacement after a portion of the line began to fail; the engineer’s order of probable cost (OPC) came in near $550,000 against a $440,000 budget that included an $80,000 contingency.

Street work this year included chip sealing and microsurfacing (cape seal) from Main Street to Florida Street and single-coat chip sealing on other corridors. Total street maintenance spending was about $440,000 this year; Brandon said the transportation user fund is expected to end the year with slightly more than $500,000 and staff plan to accelerate chip sealing and microsurfacing next year, estimating $700,000–$800,000 in possible work.

Brandon also briefed council on insurance and personnel costs. Initial renewal offers showed an increase near 19 percent; through negotiations and carrier consolidation (moving vision, dental and some hospital coverages to UHC), the city reduced the net renewal to about 14 percent. Brandon said that 14 percent represents roughly $120,000 more than the amount budgeted (the city had assumed a 9 percent renewal) and that staff plan to spread employee premium deductions over 26 pay periods to reduce the per-paycheck impact. He announced the hiring of Raven Hall as the city’s new HR specialist.

On grants and emergency management, Brandon said the city is close to completing Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) reimbursements for Smokehouse Creek and Windy Deuce incidents. He also said a Third Street hazard-mitigation project previously placed on an alternate list will be refiled under another grant that currently has $900,000 allocated; Brandon cited an OPC for that project of about $1.4 million and said the $900,000 would reduce the city’s shortfall.

IT and emergency communications updates included a planned rollout of two-factor authentication for staff accounts and new ID badges with RFID, and the deployment of a new PRPC 911 system that can send automated texts, accept texts to 911 and accept photos and video uploads. Brandon said those improvements should help emergency response and public notification but will require public education.

Brandon said the fire marshal and plan-review staff are preparing for adoption of the next International Code Council (ICC) code cycle (building, electrical and plumbing codes), since the city’s current adoption is the 2018 cycle and an outdated code can affect insurance and ISO ratings. He expected formal adoption within three to six months.

He also reported event, downtown and economic-development items: Boomtoberfest attendance and social-media engagement increased, the Texas Historical Commission will consider the city’s Main Street program application on Nov. 7, and Centennial Committee planning continues with a logo rollout planned for Jan. 1 as part of 2026 centennial branding.