Carmi City Council has approved appropriations for the year. That happened at the Tuesday evening meeting. Total appropriations for the year will be $26,048,854; appropriations are the legal authorization to spend public funds for specific purposes. Arlynne Davis, co-owner and Senior Manager at Botsch and Associates provides details on how this year’s appropriations stack up with 2024.
In comparison and I just brought 2024 for comparison, we were just under 26 [million]; we actually only went up $262,000. Really, the only thing different in this year’s appropriations versus last year’s and you’ll see this in the budget as well, is we’ve added some line items to separate IMRF, payroll taxes…and the reason we did that is for budgeting purposes. In your monthly packet, you’ve got budget vs actual and so the budget because we’ve added some line items is going to be more transparent as far as salaries and IMRF and payroll taxes and that sort of thing so you can see more the benefits per department that we haven’t seen in the past. That’s really the only difference from this year to last year.
Included in the budget is $10,000 for fireworks. Megan Newman, the Chamber of Commerce Executive Director was at Tuesday’s meeting to make the request for funds to help pay for this upcoming year’s show. Last year, a new law in Illinois that requires fireworks providers to have a pyrotechnic license specifically in Illinois resulted in Newman having to scramble to find a new provider which led to fireworks having to be held on a date other than July 4th. That will be the case again this year and for the foreseeable future as most municipalities book years in advance. Newman is aiming to make the best of it however with the goal of getting the community to make a full day of it.
I’m hoping that by having them on June 28th, we’ll be able to have a lot of community spirit. Hopefully, some food trucks and different things throughout the day to keep people in town and to stay and watch the fireworks.
The total cost of this year’s 20 minute fireworks display comes in at $14,000. The city agreed to give $10,000 to help with that investment.
The only other note from Tuesday’s gathering was discussion over a new roof for the Carmi Police Department which isn’t in the budget and purchasing a new vehicle for the department which is in the budget. Chief Jason Carter explains.
The back side of the building, we were having water come into the stairway, into the garage, and into the back hallway. City guys got up there and apparently one of the gutters was stopped up or wasn’t ran where it was supposed to be ran and was backflowing back underneath the roof which caused the back side of that roof to rot. By that point in time, it was already coming into those places. Brad [Attebury] reached out to Veterans Roofing; they were going to come and repair it at no cost as long as we gave them some kudos on facebook. He has since reached back out to them; my understanding they haven’t communicated anything any longer. We can’t continue to wait any longer. We’re at a point where we’ve got to do something. The city guys were back up there again today trying to fix some of the flashing to stop some of the issues until somebody can get there to fix it.
Carmi Police just moved into that building in 2022. Alderperson Lacey Bradshaw, who works in insurance said she thought roof repairs on the police department would cost upwards of $50,000-$60,000. At this point, council approved the seeking of bids. The department typically purchases a new vehicle each year and then rotates the oldest out to the city for use by another department. The budget allows $45,000 for that purchase and Carter says a 2025 Durango with a HEMI will cost just over $40,000 thanks to state bid pricing. If it’s not ordered by early April, they’ll have to wait a year however. After a lengthy discussion on whether the city could/should put off the purchase of a police department vehicle until they find out what the department roof is going to cost, council decided it was in the city’s best interest to move forward on the Durango purchase with only Bradshaw voting no. Council member Jeremy Courson was absent.
With no reports from the mayor or council members, no comments from visitors, and no executive session, city leaders adjourned at 6:04pm.
