City Manager Eric Budds told council members he was recommending a budget that was prepared to “maintain services.” He added that no new activity for the city was proposed “unless there is a dedicated source of revenue” to fund it.
The general operating portion of the budget actually declined slightly from what was approved for fiscal year 2009, from $8.2 million to $8.1 million. The new general fund budget is slightly higher than what the city had approved after adjustments in the middle of the last fiscal year, after cuts to live within a reduction in income. The adjusted mid-year general fund budget was $7.9 million.
There are no salary increases or additional staff planned for in the fiscal year 2010 budget. There also are no millage increases planned.
However, total budget numbers do come in at more than $6 million higher than the previous year, mainly due to money the city is preparing to spend on phase two of the upgrades at its wastewater treatment plant. Recommended by Budds and approved by council Tuesday was $7,750,000 in spending for special capital projects in the utility fund.
Fiscal year 2010’s budget total is $40 million, up from $32.7 million in FY 2009.
The city plans to pass through a 5 percent increase for wholesale electricity. Also, a previously planned 7.5 percent increase in sewer rates will fund the debt payments on the improvements for the wastewater treatment plant. The council voted Tuesday to award the bid to M. B. Kahn Construction Company, Inc. in the amount of $16,930,618 for phase two work on the plant.
Other capital requests the city is looking to implement with the new budget are wireless meter reading, repairs and rehabilitation to the underground electrical wires in the Forest Ridge subdivision and to the line feeding Louis Rich’s plant on Louis Rich Road, water and sewer infrastructure improvements in the city’s mill villages, including work anticipated in the Oakland neighborhood where a real estate development involving the closed mill is in progress.
Budds said the underground supply wires at Forest Ridge were reaching the end of their anticipated life expectancy at 30 years.
In addition to funding the wastewater treatment plant upgrades through a federal loan program, part of the stimulus act, the city is seeking $500,000 through an Environmental Protection Agency earmark and $1 million in Economic Development Administration funding. Council gave the go-ahead Tuesday to finance $19,236,065 through the State Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund for the project. Four million dollars of the loan will be at 0 percent interest due to federal stimulus funding. The remainder of the 20-year loan is to be loaned at 3.5 percent interest.
Council also passed a resolution giving city administrators permission to go after a Community Development Block Grant to fund water and wastewater system upgrades in the Oakland area. The required local cash match for this anticipated grant, $42,000, was figured into the staff’s proposed budget.
“This is also federal stimulus money and we anticipate a positive response to this application,” Budds said of the grant. He added that the city would apply for the maximum available at this time, $475,000 and they are hopeful that more would be available later to fund the work further. Although it is federal stimulus money, the funding is funneled through the state’s previously existing Community Development Block Grant program which funds all sorts of neighborhood improvements.
Future applications could include seeking money for further wastewater and water supply improvements in the Mollohon community or projects like installing sidewalks around the Oakland area. None of the applications can be done until the city finishes up work on its wireless program which received grant money from the same source. Budds said the city expects to be done with that work soon.
In other business, City Council:
• Approved a request for out-of-city water service at 943 Pine Meadow Road. The property owner agreed to sign an annexation covenant saying they were willing to annex their property to the city if it ever came to touch on city limits. A city water line is adjacent to the property located off of S.C. Highway 121/34 by the Silverstreet split, and only a normal tap is required to serve the property.
• Recognized Sgt. Randy Malloy for five years of service at the Newberry Police Department.
• Named Robert Lake as the city’s new attorney.
• Appointed Mark Senn, replacing Charlie Banks, and re-appointed George Summer to the city’s planning commission.
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