Preliminary city budget tops out at $7.5 million

The Columbia Falls City Council had a “sneak peek” at next year’s city budget on July 21. Including the general fund and depreciation, the preliminary budget for fiscal year 2014-2015 calls for nearly $7.5 million in expenditures, about 2 percent more than last year.

City manager Susan Nicosia said she doesn’t expect to learn from the Montana Department of Revenue what the city’s taxable value is until August, so some figures found in the budget work as place holders.

The general fund, which uses property taxes to pay for administration, police, fire, city court, parks and recreation, building maintenance, planning and zoning, and building inspections tops out at about $2.7 million, about 5 percent more than last year.

The council will hold a public hearing on the preliminary budget during their regular Aug. 4 meeting. Among the highlights:

• Salaries for the police department’s chief, eight officers and clerk totals $483,044.

• Digiticket hardware and training will cost about $7,300. Whitefish police have been using the system for a while with good results, Nicosia said. Digiticket was included in last year’s budget but never implemented. About $2,000 will be spent for the FullCourt software interface to tie the system to city court.

• A new Ford Interceptor patrol car will cost about $35,000. The police department was scheduled to get a new patrol car last year but it didn’t happen.

• The cost of a new fire department command vehicle is $36,000, but the rural fire district will pick up 60 percent of the cost.

• About $20,000 is earmarked for Sands Surveying to provide contracted planning services, about 21 percent more than last year.

• Salaries for street workers will be about 19 percent higher as some of them are shifted to cleaning sewer and stormwater mains and maintaining city rights-of-way. Columbia Falls has 39 miles of streets and 32 miles of alleys.

• Revenue from city court fines is projected to be about 15 percent less.

• City Hall capital improvements include $15,000 for a long overdue alarm system, $20,000 for an upgraded heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, and $25,000 to upgrade phones that, Nicosia said, don’t always work.

• About $12,000 is allocated for the city’s tree program, including salaries, tools and contracted tree removal.

• Putting in sidewalks on Railroad Street from the viaduct to Nucleus Avenue could cost $112,000.

• About $25,000 will go to Forestoration, the Whitefish-based company that will develop the city’s new Welcome Park at U.S. 2 and Meadow Lake Boulevard; $10,000 will go to fencing in a one-acre dogpark, location not yet chosen; $3,000 already went to painting the Shay Locomotive in time for Heritage Days; and $600 will go to planning for landscaping the entrance to Nucleus Avenue at U.S. 2.

• About $10,000 will go to Myrtha Pools to finish gutter replacement at the city pool.

• The cost of electing and training local government review committee candidates will be about $12,000. Columbia Falls voters called for the review in the June election.

• The cost of health insurance premiums for city employees will increase by about 51 percent because three positions were filled and some employees changed their insurance plans. The city is small enough that it doesn’t take much to dramatically change its insurance payments, Nicosia said.

• The Cedar Creek Trust will grow from the sale of a lot in the Cedar Creek South subdivision and payments on a loan to street projects. Money from the trust is unrestricted, and $34,800 is available for the city’s sidewalk program. The city will pay half the cost of new sidewalks, and property owners can pay off the rest on their taxes over five years. Several businesses have asked for help on sidewalks, but the program currently is for residential properties only.

• About $6,500 from the gas tax fund will pay for a much needed striper.

• The street reconstruction fund will reach $195,000 as the city saves up for some big projects.

• The city’s water enterprise fund is in much better shape debt-wise than the sewer fund, and the city will try to catch up on its 10-year water meter replacement program.

• Capital projects for the sewer fund include $25,000 for a building to protect ultraviolet equipment and nonpotable water pumps at the treatment plant, $25,000 for a half-ton truck, $20,000 to rebuild two dewatering pumps, and $48,000 for work on two of the system’s nine lift stations.

_____________

As part of the normal budget process, the Columbia Falls City Council approved a resolution on July 21 setting the salaries for certain city officials and workers. They include:

• City manager to be negotiated per contract

• Police chief $62,993

• Fire chief $60,890

• Public works director $59,740

• City judge $45,462

• City treasurer $26.50 per hour (this position is vacant and needs to be filled)

• City clerk $23.69 per hour