GENTRY -- In a brief meeting on Jan. 6, council members in Gentry amended the 2013 budget, passed a budget for the new year and adopted a revised salary schedule.
Though numerous line items were adjusted upward in the 2013 budget to reflect actual expenditures, overall expenses did not exceed the total amount of budgeted expenditures. The city had budgeted incoming revenues of $1,194.250 and expenditures of $1,314,397. However, incoming revenues received during 2013 were $1,412,956 and actual expenditures were $1,258,738.
The budget approved for 2014 includes general fund carry-over balances of $20,980.19 in checking, $278,894.74 in savings and $19,699.90 in highway improvement. It anticipates additional incoming revenues totaling $1,044,410. Total expenses budgeted in the general fund totaled $1,409,955, leaving a carry-over balance of $163,530 at the end of the year.
From county tax revenues, an incoming $720,538 was anticipated. Expenditures were budgeted at $558,000, leaving an ending balance of $162,538.
Budgeted income for the street and alley department was $1,120,755. Expenses were estimated at $996,315, leaving $124,440.
Anticipated income for the library was $123,925, with expenses budgeted at $114,078.
$3,979,934 was estimated as incoming revenue for the water and sewer department. Expenses were budgeted at $3,616,550.
A full copy of the 2014 budget, with all funds and line items, is available at city hall and on the city's website.
Also passed by the council were salary schedules for 2014, reflecting a 2 percent pay increase for city employees.
An ordinance passed by the council on three readings with a single vote assigns lands recently annexed into the city from Section 34, Township 19 North, Range 33 West, on the north side of Gentry, to voting Ward 2.
Also passed was a resolution approving a grant application for a 100-percent grant from the state in the amount of up to $5,000 for a "Kids in the Woods" festival at the newly-developed Flint Creek Nature Center. The three-day event, coordinated by a certified science teacher and a certified elementary instructor, will give children, ages 7 to 12, the opportunity to explore and learn the importance of forestry at the Nature Center. On each day of the event, children from a different age group would be taken to the Center for activities, which include a nature hike to identify trees and wildflowers, a program on the importance of trees in the world, a program on management practices for trees in neighborhoods, fishing and bird watching.
Also discussed was the holiday meeting schedule, with council members voicing approval to rescheduling the meeting which would have fallen on Labor Day to Sept. 8.
In the council packet, council members were also informed that city sales and use tax for the last month of 2013 was $48,044, up from $42,275 in 2012 and from $28,576 in 2011. County tax for December of 2013 was $42,825, up from $41,212 in 2012 and $37,879 in 2011.
General News on 01/15/2014