This month I would like to discuss Garretson’s 2020 budget. The city is required by law to maintain a balanced budget. In September the city council met for a special meeting to discuss the budget and set the final numbers. The final deadline for submitting the budget to the county is October 1st. There is a safeguard in place to prevent any inappropriate use of budgeted money, the city has an annual report completed by an independent auditor submitted for review by the SD Department of Legislative Audit. Every 2 years, an audit and review is completed by a secondary firm which is also submitted to SD Department of Legislative Audit.
Anna Uhl is the city’s finance officer. Most people know her as the friendly face of city hall, but Anna wears many hats with her job. Her most important job is maintaining the finances of our community. She is also a great resource when it comes to calculating the upcoming year’s budget.
The city’s budget for 2020 has a large milestone. We will be paying our final payment for the natural gas utility. This loan was a 25 year loan but was refinanced in 1998. There were extra payments made and we are slightly ahead of schedule for paying the loan off.
The city receives numerous requests from non-profit groups for a subsidy. These subsidies go to promote or improve our community. All of the subsidy requests were approved. The largest of these was the Garretson Fire Department and Garretson Ambulance. Both of these groups are extremely vital to our community and received the full amounts that they requested. The money for both groups is used for equipment, buildings and vehicles.
The city has used a capital outlay program for many years. This fund holds a set amount of money for equipment that the city needs. Each year we set a portion of money for things like a front end loader, pickup, and mower, just to name a few things. It is much easier to set aside a small amount each year than trying to find money from the budget for the entire amount of a piece of equipment.
The city has also budgeted for 2 street projects this coming year. The first will be the completion of the 3rd Street/Main Street/Truck Route project. Anna has been working with the project engineer and state in an attempt to receive more grant money because of all of the difficulties we’ve had with this project. The second project is the 5th Street bridge project and this project is more difficult financially. The state will cover 80% of the project, but the city will need to completely pay for the project before we can submit to receive the state grant money.
Some changes to the budget for 2020 will be adding 1 full-time employee for the street department and 1 part-time employee for office staff. The full-time position will allow Craig to start mapping the infrastructure of the city. The part-time employee will help in the office during busy periods. In addition to the new employees, another change was that a couple of projects will be put on hold for 2020; tuck pointing the bathhouse and repairing the leak on the west side of the dam at Splitrock Park. Both projects need more studying to be done and we need to research if there is grant money available from the state.
The city council and staff work hard on the yearly budget. We have done everything we can to eliminate unintended expenses. A surprise will quickly ruin a budget. The budget is so important that the council holds a special meeting to plan and work on it and there is discussion months before that final meeting. As always please contact your city council members if you have any questions. Thank you.
