City department heads went over their budget requests during a council work session Tuesday afternoon.
City Manager Kelly Traynham told the council afterward at the next meeting there will be a first pass of a balanced budget proposal presented and then “see where we go from there. As far as our revenue outlook, I think most things would be relatively flat — there’s not really any substantial increases in things, but hopefully no substantial decreases.”
She said the revenue project memo received from the North Carolina League of Municipalities does require some analysis and looking at prior year data to anticipate what the local situation will be. “We’re looking for some stability and to make the best use of funds to impact the greatest amount of people within our community.”
In February Traynham told the council the budget is being prepared with no adjustment to the tax rate and in March she said it’s not anticipated that federal cuts will impact the financial plan for the upcoming fiscal year.
(The parks and recreation and police department requests will be detailed in separate stories Thursday)
Public works
Department Director Larry Chalker said his proposed budget will essentially be the same as this year’s with some adjustments, particularly for vehicle maintenance.
He has requested $500,000 for street resurfacing. “We’ve committed to spending our Powell Bill funding on streets. This year the Powell Bill funding was $565,000. We haven’t gotten our allotment for the upcoming year yet so we’re going to plug it in at $500,000 and adjust from there.”
In capital, Chalker is requesting a John Deere or similar model backhoe with a sales price of $135,481.37 and a John Deere or similar model loader with a sales price of $170,387.
He also presented the council with several financing options.
Finance Director Carmen Johnson said she would like to explore zero interest financing on that equipment.
Planning and development
Planning Director Krysten Anderson said she is requesting support for some budgetary increases which emphasize the necessity to safeguard the public through timely demolitions and infrastructure improvements.
Her biggest request is $500,000 to address the demolition of hazardous commercial structures. “The strategic reduction of unsafe buildings is critical to protecting public safety and facilitating future development.”
While she said she understands $500,000 is a lot, she added, however, “There’s a lot of structures under demolition orders right now.”
A half-million dollars, she said, would not take all of them down. “In the grand scheme of things it’s a lot smaller amount than what it could potentially be.”
She is also looking to purchase a drone so code inspectors, once FAA licenses are obtained, can survey unsafe conditions.
Human resources
HR Director Christina Caudle said her department has “been pretty spot on this year. So with the exception of one line item, everything is the same.”
That one item is all of the free employment screening at $13,000 which is $500 more than in this fiscal year. “That’s to account for the announced rate hike through the FMRT Group and that is the vendor that we’re using for police candidate psych evaluations so it’s a requirement. They’re pretty much the only vendor throughout the state that we can utilize for that portion of their pre-employment screening.”
Fire department
Chief Jason Patrick made the following capital needs requests:
$8,000 for HVAC at Station 1 living quarters to replace a split unit that was previously installed to save money years back.
“With us in the process of enclosing the sleeping cubicles for more privacy we will need to install the original style HVAC unit,” he said, explaining each cubicle will have an HVAC vent for proper ventilation.
$75,000 for cab and chassis to replace the department’s F-550 vehicle. The body would be removed and placed on the new cab and chassis. The current cab and chassis was donated years ago by Dominion Energy. It is a 1999 Ford F-550 4x4 diesel which currently has 205,053 miles on it. This truck carries an assortment of equipment on it that includes firefighting, first responder, spill control, along with basic extrication tools. This truck is used by Station 2 to respond to first responder calls in the area which keeps the larger engines off the road.
$40,000 for four self-contained breathing apparatus units.
“We need four air packs for the newest truck which should be delivered in the coming months,” he said. “When ordering this apparatus, we had planned to use four older packs to try and save money, but over the last year and half these 20-year-old packs have had some major issues with the pass device system.”
$105,000 for generator replacement at Station 1.
The current generator will only run portions of the building with the air conditioners not being part of it.
