Summer trolley funding cut, Ice Den over budget
A few items that were part of Whitefish’s original 2014 preliminary budget document have been removed.
The use of $250,000 of tax increment finance funds for infrastructure for the proposed hotel at Block 46 has been removed. Investors in the project to create a downtown hotel canceled the project last month after having difficulty with securing financing.
Council also decided to remove a $100,000 line item from the budget set aside for a summer trolley bus. The money had been set to come from the TIF fund.
The fire department budget removed the purchase of a brush engine at a cost of $165,000. The Whitefish Firefighters Association will purchase the truck and give it to the department.
Other expenses were added to the budget.
The city has set aside $5,000 for the development of a new city website.
The planning department will remodel a room to create an office for its new planner that is set to be hired under the 2014 budget. The remodel, along with installing new flooring in a conference room, is listed at a cost of $8,600.
Continuing in the 2014 budget is $10,000 for wayfinding signs. The city is requesting replacing the three of the signs.
Those signs with decimal points will be swapped out for signs that do not have decimal points in the distances. There were complaints that the decimal points made the distances difficult to read and one sign that says it’s 2.2 miles to Whitefish Lake instead appeared to read “22 miles” to the lake.
The city is still seeking a bid for the cost of replacing the signs.
Lighting districts
The budget is expected to include a 10 percent increase in the rates for the residential and commercial street lighting districts. The districts provide funds for servicing street lights.
The average homeowner is expected to pay an increase of $1.30 per year for the lighting assessment. However, taxpayers won’t see any actual increase to their bill because the change will be offset by the mill levy.
The last time the city raised its lighting assessments was before 1987.
Stearns said the city would either have to raise rates or cut expenses to keep the funds from having a shortfall.
The districts 2014 budgets include the purchase of a new truck at a cost of $58,000.
“It probably makes sense for us to do a small increase now so we don’t have a large increase later,” Anderson said. “That way the fund pays for itself.”
Parks and recreation
The parks and recreation department ended fiscal year 2013 over budget. The two biggest contributors to the deficit were the Stumptown Ice Den and the adult and youth recreation programs.
The city’s subsidy of the Stumptown Ice Den for the season was $30,000. The shortfall left the parks department $63,000 over budget for 2013.
“We’re looking to see what can be done to avoid this situation again,” Stearns said. “The Ice Den merits looking at unless the council wants to keep subsidizing it.”
Parks director Karl Cozad said he would look at increasing fees and reducing staffing to ensure a balanced budget.
“We’ll make modifications in fiscal year 2014 to cover that deficit,” he said.
The department also had accounting issues that had to be resolved because funds were received after the end of fiscal year in June. A state loan totaling $70,000 for improvements to the ice rink was received late. Also the Glacier Nationals hockey team was late to pay its ice rental fee of $20,000.
There will be a change in how payment is taken to rent the Ice Den, Cozad noted.
“It will be pay before you skate,” he said.
Legally the city can’t have any of its funds end the year with a deficit, the city council directed staff to cover the overage by using general fund money.