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Crawford council moves multiple budget items into contingency, approves $55,000 for hatchery repairs
Summary
At an Aug. 6 budget workshop, the Crawford City Council moved several capital and program line items into general contingency, approved $55,000 (contingent on estimates) for former hatchery repairs, and delayed several equipment purchases while reviewing revenue and debt obligations.
Crawford — The City Council of the City of Crawford met for a budget workshop on Aug. 6, 2024, at the Crawford Community Building to review the proposed fiscal year 2024–25 budget and to decide how to handle capital requests and rising debt obligations. Mayor Shane Norman and council members discussed trimming equipment purchases, reallocating funds into general contingency, and a contingent $55,000 approval for repairs to former hatchery buildings.
The workshop began at 1:30 p.m. and included Council President April Grant, Council Members Robert Tovmassian and Christopher Dean, and City Clerk Julia Butler. Copies of the budget worksheet and bond-and-loan information were distributed to Amanda Uhrich and Mike Scow of Dana F. Cole & Company, LLP (DFCC) for review and fiscal guidance.
Council members agreed to suspend or delay several equipment acquisitions for Streets, Parks, and Golf pending a review of revenue and outstanding debt. Streets will keep a planned skid steer (approximately $40,000) in the Streets budget, approve a new trailer (about $14,000) to be split with Parks, and reduce gravel spending to $15,000. Systems repairs for general street maintenance were left at $129,000.
Parks requested a new mower, spray equipment, a utility vehicle and a water-reel sprinkler traveler; the council agreed to move budgeted pool wages into the Parks budget to help cover equipment needs. The council approved $55,000 for repairs to former hatchery buildings but made the disbursement contingent on receiving demolition, cleanup and repair estimates for painting, doors and windows.
"You want to build contingency into your budgets, so that if you go over in one place, you have that contingency to support it," said Mike Scow of Dana F. Cole & Company, LLP, who advised the council that the State Auditor typically flags budgets only when the total budget is exceeded.
Other budget adjustments: a $30,000 community-building capital improvement item was moved into general contingency; cemetery budgets added $5,000 for removal of the old water tower and $3,400 for gravel; the library budget remained unchanged; and fire contract services were revised to $141,050 to reflect the current contract amount. Council directed staff to research Ready-to-Serve funds for water (2023) and moved $60,000 from Wastewater into General contingency.
Council members also discussed Keno proceeds after staff reported a letter indicating the percentage of revenue from Keno will be reduced. The council asked staff to check with the governing agency about whether a portion of Keno funds can be invested.
On recreation finances, council members deferred golf-course pond dewatering costs to the next fiscal year while the Golf Course Superintendent compiles estimates. "Municipal courses are never self-sustaining and always have to be funded from outside sources," Scow said.
ARPA funds were earmarked for the Infiltration Overflow Outlet Relocation project; USDA brokerage-held capital remains set to zero. The workshop concluded at 3:41 p.m.; minutes were prepared by City Clerk Julia Butler and approved by Mayor Shane Norman.
Decisions recorded at the workshop were administrative budget allocations and contingent approvals; no formal roll-call vote tallies were recorded in the minutes for the items summarized above.
