City pondering 'conservative' budget

SANDPOINT — No lurches or spikes are in store for most city departments as Sandpoint officials plan for next year’s budget cycle.

The city’s proposed 2010-’11 budget will grow slightly with many departments feeling small up-and-down bumps.

The city’s projected $42 million budget, if it is approved by the city council and withstands the scrutiny of the public at a hearing later this summer, includes a three percent increase spread across 21 departments.

“It’s a conservative budget this year,” said council member Stephen Snedden. “We’re trying to gauge revenue coming from the state.”

Forecasting state outlays is not a concrete science.

“It’s unclear what that is going to look like,” Snedden said. “So, we’re trying to be conservative with our numbers.”

This year’s proposed budget hits hardest at the city’s urban forestry department, which could see a 36-percent decrease from $22,455 last year to a proposed $13,600 budget in the next fiscal year.

The cuts to the forestry department are not a result of depleted grants.

“They are significant cuts,” Stephen Drinkard, the city’s urban forester, said.

Proposed cuts include reductions in hazardous tree removal, consulting by botanists and horticulturists, as well as a reduction in downtown pruning and arborist services, he said.

“I tried to go through it as judiciously as possible,” Drinkard said.

The city’s planning department will also take a hit, at least on paper.

The planning department budget will likely be reduced by 33 percent, dropping from $579,124 to $385,959 next year. However, much of the cuts come in the form of grant money that is no longer available. Grant funding that has been depleted includes a $25,000 growth management grant, a $75,000 grant for the Renova site’s Brownfield assessment, and a $50,000 economic stimulus grant.

City council has met in three workshops to hammer out budget issues with the hope that a preliminary budget can be voted on by the council’s July 16 regular meeting.

Once the preliminary budget is set, it cannot be increased, council member Carrie Logan said.

“The goal is to set the preliminary budget at this month’s council meeting,” Logan said. “I’m anticipating at that point, if anyone has specific changes they will be suggested then.”

The biggest capital expenditures call for $460,000 for additional moorage at the city’s docks, and a big chunk of money could be used to rebuild Washington Avenue. The city has budgeted $800,000 for the Washington Avenue street project.

Snedden called the street project one of the most ambitious the city has proposed in a decade. It benefits Sandpoint’s north side, he said, which is an underserved portion of the city.

“We are looking to begin work immediately in order to take advantage of low material costs,” he said. “We’ve been saving money for a year in order to complete this project.”

Next fiscal year’s budget includes a 17 percent increase in the park department’s Memorial Field budget from $68,236 to $79,579.

It also calls for a decrease in the street department budget from $1.09 million to $1.06 million and for an increase in the police department budget — in part for vehicle replacement — from $1.8 million to $1.9 million.