City budget tops $40 million with big projects on the horizon

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

Steve Diers is no trapeze artist, but there is a balancing act that the city administrator has to perform to keep Charles City’s finances in order.

The long hours and hard work may find a finish on March 4 when a public hearing is held regarding the city’s new $40 million fiscal year 2019-20 budget, that will then be up to City Council members to approve.

Diers, council members and other city staff toiled over many budget sessions and workshops to work out the numbers.

This larger-than-usual budget could help pave the way for two big projects — a $12.5 million fiber-to-the-home broadband internet project, and the $20.5 million water resource recovery facility (WRRF) that has a planned completion date of 2022.

The total of all expenditures in the budget for fiscal year 2020 — which runs from July 1, 2019, until June 30, 2020 — is $40,251,814. That is an increase of almost $15 million from the current year.

“It’s a little skewed this year because we’re borrowing money to do the fiber project. We’re also going to be borrowing money to do the wastewater treatment plant,” said Diers.

The city’s total revenues and other sources are $41,917,092 and the total of all expenditures and transfers out equaled $42,362,427.

The proposed property tax levy rate jumped 7 cents from $15.83 to $15.90 per $1,000 of taxable valuation.

“This year our evaluations are up, which is helpful. They usually tick up — not always,” Diers said. “That helps with inflation because you always have expenses that are growing.”

Diers said the major driver for the small property tax rate increase is the city sharing in the cost of taking over the transit bus service with NIACOG (North Iowa Area Council of Governments).

That new transit contract started on Aug. 1 of last year. The contract was amended in November when regional trips to Mason City where offered three times a day during the week.

Diers said support for the transit service can be directly levied. That levy was for $0.16 cents per $1,000.

Just over $4 million is proposed to be collected in taxes levied on property in Charles City. The 2020 fiscal year property tax total is $4,007,807, a jump of almost $140,000 from the current year’s total of $3,868,771.

Diers has budgeted $3.07 million for public safety and $1.93million to go toward public works. A grand total of $12.39 million has been set aside for capital projects and $17.08 million for business type/enterprise. Community and Economic Development will receive $2.57 million. Culture and Recreation was listed as an amount of $1.38 million for the upcoming fiscal year.

The city is also still trying to negotiate a new contract with AMR (American Medical Response) ambulance service. The two sides are currently working with a mutual agreement after the two-decades plus contract ran out at the beginning of fiscal year 2019. Diers said money to support the ambulance service would have to come out of the public safety budget out of the general fund.

Diers said any support to the ambulance service is not something the city can specifically levy for and must be funded by the general levy or emergency levy.

“Each budget season is a tough one. It’s a lot of work. We talk about a lot of things we try and do and what we can and can’t do,” said Diers. “Nobody gets everything they want or everything they need. There’s never enough funding to go around.”

The city has to have its annual budget submitted to the state of Iowa by March 15 so it can be certified and recorded. After that the information will be given to Floyd County, which actually collects the property taxes and sends the money back to the city.

Diers meets with each department head and through budget workshops they whittle down the numbers to fit the proposed budget. Council members are present and also give initial feedback and review.

“How are we addressing our goals that we laid out? How are we able to fund those priorities? The vast majority of everything that we listed as a priority is getting funded and addressed in one way or another,” said Diers.

The city will continue to set aside $20,000 annually toward the purchase of a new fire truck, estimated at about $650,000 and probably needing to be purchased in five years.

“I try to do that whenever I can to kind of take the bite off of what I have to borrow,” said Diers.

He said the city also purchases a new squad car for about $35,000 every year for the Police Department.

The Chamber of Commerce, Area Development Corp. and Community Revitalization offices are located in the 401 N. Main building that will receive a remodel and makeover. Some of the work done on that building includes redoing the doors and windows. That project cost is $50,000, but did receive a $10,000 grant.

The 2019 Wayfinding Project, which will place informational and welcome signs around Charles City, was awarded to Signs and More for over $150,000 and is included in this budget.

Diers also said he has budgeted $90,000 over the course of the next two fiscal years for nuisance abatement activities to help fund acquiring properties that need to be demolished.

The library will need to replace its fire alarm system, and a new mower for $23,000 is also budgeted for the upcoming fiscal year.

The Wildwood Golf Course country club will have some painting and maintenance done for $15,000 and City Hall’s computer servers are set to be replaced in the new budget for $18,000.

Other expenses include the Parks and Recreation Department with new lights at Lions baseball field, a South Main sidewalk project and a total of $100,000 for touch-up and cleaning out one of the water towers.

Diers is currently president of the Iowa City/County Manager Association Board, an organization of city managers and administrators, and he said tips and insights he  receives at the board’s quarterly meetings can be helpful.

“We’re not in this alone,” said Diers, about working up a budget. “What we’ve done, we might share with another community and vice versa.”