Budget presentations continued for the City of Lisbon ahead of the city setting its next fiscal year budget.
Lisbon History CenterThe Lisbon History center was seeking increases for utilities, citing the cold air infiltrating due to exterior bricks allowing more wind through the building. There was also a request of $5,000 to patch and caulk areas in the interior of the building and the apartments.
Another $20,000 is reserved for potential repairs to the building, but that is under discussion with the historic preservation commission for the amount that should be in the budget this year.
Southeast Linn Community Center There’s no slated increase for Southeast Linn Community Center for this year.
“So far, we have a surplus in donations and funding from the community, and our fundraising efforts continue extremely well,” said Nicole McAlexander.
McAlexander said they have seen continued heightened use of the food pantry and other resources.
The center was asking for consideration of a community garden to be part of the nature park at Meyers Meadow, noting the roughly two tons of vegetables grown at the current community garden location.
“We’re currently operating at a space behind Brothers Market that hasn’t been fully developed yet, but we know that’s only a matter of time until development happens there,” McAlexander said.
The center also had a busy holiday season, with more than 132 food boxes for Thanksgiving and 147 for Christmas.
More than 200 people and 77 seniors were provided with gifts with the adopt-a-family program.
Lisbon-Mount Vernon Ambulance ServiceLisbon-Mount Vernon Ambulance Service was asking for an increase of roughly $10,000 this year, to help transition to more of a hybrid service.
Currently, LMVAS director Jacob Lindauer is the only staff member for the service. The hybrid model would hire part-time paramedics to serve with the service on a rotating schedule.
“I look at this as a way to help increase the training and community health programs for the service,” Lindauer said. “This position would be able to assist with a portion of these programs and half their time being on call for the ambulance service per week.”
The $10,000 cost would be similar to requests made by LMVAS years ago. At that time, LMVAS would request upwards of $25,000 a year from the city. The additional $10,000 would take the request up to $18,458.
“A $10,000 increase to add the part-time help Jacob is requesting is actually not a hard sell,” said Brandon Siggins, Lisbon city administrator.
Lisbon parks and recreation Budgets were slated to increase for the Lisbon Parks and Recreation commission, due to the roughly 20 acres of new park grounds the city will have to mow and maintain beginning this summer.
Lisbon parks and recreation director Drayton Kamberling was requesting an additional part-time helper for maintenance, as well as summer help for other projects.
There would also be the purchase of a new mower.
Recreation budgets were also seeing increases, but those were due to increased numbers enrolled in the programs, calling for more officials and equipment.
As well, Halloweentown expenses are slated to increase, as new equipment for the popular festival needs to be invested in this year.
Council member Sara Nost also asked that dram shop insurance for the commission be included in the budget if they are going to be operating a liquor booth as part of the softball tournament this summer.
“I just don’t want that unexpected expense to not be in the budget if we can plan for it now,” Nost said.
Lisbon fireThe change for the Lisbon fire department budget amounted to roughly $4,000 between this year and last year. The increases was mostly due to medial supplies and insurance rates increasing. Capital improvement fund was also increased to help the city save for the next purchase of a new fire truck.
“We increased that by $10,000 because $15,000 isn’t putting a large dent in the cost of saving for a new fire truck,” Siggins said. “We’ll still need supplemental funding when buying a truck, but this gets us more money saved for those capital improvements.”
Streets and roadsThe roads department was looking to trade in some equipment to purchase a telescoping end loader. That would make it easier to set up concrete barriers at Sauerkraut Days festival, as well as help on a number of projects throughout the city.
The city would eliminate a hoe/mini backhoe from its fleet of vehicles with the purchase of the endloader.
Public works director Travis Bagby said it would be beneficial for dealing with areas that are wet, especially water main breaks.
“Currently, we have to borrow my personal skidloader to get to any areas that are wet, and the tracks on that can tear up the ground if it’s too soft,” Bagby said. “With a telescoping end loader, it can sit on an adjacent street or sidewalk and reach to the area we need it to attach and move an item, minimizing that damage.”
Bagby also noted running a skidloader from one end of town to another takes a great deal of time.
In later comments at the council meeting, Bagby noted the increased miles of roads and parks that the city is now responsible for maintaining as yet another reason for the potential equipment purchase. In 2010, the city had roughly 22 lane miles of roads to cover. Now, that’s closer to 40 miles and the park space for the city has more than doubled.
“We aren’t the same city we were in 2010, and we need equipment that helps us do our jobs more efficiently,” Bagby said.
The endloader could have a snow blade attached, which would help with clean-up in downtown Lisbon as well. A portion of the cost for the new endloader would come from LOSST funds.
Water/sewer Water and sewer rates will slightly increase again this summer, with a projected one to two percent increase for water rates and three percent increase in sewer rates.
City administrator Brandon Siggins said those rates do not reflect the Well 5 project or the water main repairs the city will be conducting this year, as those were budgeted in previous fiscal years and are now being completed.
General fundMinor increases in general fund were proposed to deal with costs for items like cleaning of city hall and a needed server update.
LOSST fundingThe continued expenses for streetlights, insurance, as well as an annual donation to Southeast Linn community Center, the Friends of the Lisbon Library for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program and Sauerkraut Days funding are some of the expenses slated to continue in LOSST funding. A $400,000 transfer for the sports complex and $50,000 for the telescoping endloader were disbursements for this coming fiscal year. Siggins said the importance is that funds made from this fund have to benefit all citizens in Lisbon in some capacity, and revenues come from sales taxes spent in the county.
LOSST funding this year, according to city clerk Christina McGraine, is coming from actual spending in the county, as opposed to the past where it was estimated revenues.
“By the end of the year, we will have spent $200,000 more than we take in to the account, but we also have more than $800,000 In the account at the moment,” McGraine said. “It’s a very healthy account.”
TIFThe Tax Increment Funding account had fewer withdrawals in it this coming fiscal year, as the Brothers Market abatement has completed and the borrowing for the park land has also concluded.
Budget Blinds is the only property tax rebate in the account.