Lyon County commissioners spent a large part of their action session Thursday morning discussing the 2008 budget.
Bob Agler of A&M Consultants first gave commissioners the end-of-the-month financial report. Agler said all funds have a positive balance. Revenues in the general fund are $329,000 above budget.
“There is no indication that there should be any abnormal cash-flow problems with the general fund from now until the end of the year,” Agler said, barring any major weather events such as tornadoes.
Agler said overtime is running about five percent greater than last year.
“Really, the only two that are significantly over are law enforcement and road and bridge,” he said.
County Controller Dan Slater expressed some concerns during the financial report. Slater said budgetary spending will come in right at 98 or 99 percent of the budget for the end of the year.
“There’s not any surplus,” Slater said. “You’re running about 98 percent, which is kind of scary.”
In budget matters, based on this week’s discussion, the mill levy increase now stands at 1.475, up from 1.26 last week. The levy could change again as more budgets were presented to commissioners following a budget workshop with Agler.
Agler said Lyon County is a multifaceted government with several different branches. He compared Lyon County to a conglomerate.
“You can’t treat them all the same,” Agler said. “We’ve tried to say ‘OK, people, there’s only so much pie.’”
Agler said law enforcement is critical to the county.
“But there’s some other things that are not as critical,” he added.
During public comment time, Extension Agents Amy Jordan and Brian Rees asked for an additional $17,000 in operating funds for 2008.
Rees and Jordan cited several factors for the hike, including moving expenses associated with the upcoming move to the former Deer Trail building.
“We have tremendous amounts of uncertainties of what our costs are going to be once we have moved into our new facility,” Rees said. “There’s just so much unknown with utility costs out there.”
Sheriff Gary Eichorn and Undersheriff Richard Old also asked commissioners for more money to funnel into raising the bar for employees. Old said a major portion of the budget goes toward salaries.
“These requests are based on what we think we will need to operate the office,” Old said. “We’re not putting in a lot of fluff increases.
We’re trying to run the office as responsibly as we can.”
Old said the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office needs more flexibility.
“Otherwise we can’t manage the compensation package for the sheriff’s employees,” Old said. “...We would like to do a better job at taking care of our employees.”
In other matters:
F Commissioners authorized an expenditure of $5,000 from Special Parks and Recreation Fund to support “Save the Pool” effort for the city pool in Americus.
F Commissioners authorized commission chairman to sign agreement with BG Consultants for the construction inspection for roadway improvements on Road 200 and Road U.
F Commissioners authorized commission chairman to sign agreement with BG Consultants for the engineering design and construction observation for bridge repairs.
F Commissioners voted on a request by S&S to put a fence on the property line between S&S and the former Deer Trail building. Commissioners decided to certify the property line between the two buildings. Commissioners then will direct S&S to proceed at their will and their expense.