Council adopts maximum preliminary budget, reviews new and increased fees

The Sandpoint City Council adopted their maximum preliminary budget at Wednesday’s meeting for fiscal year 2022, which will have a ceiling of $40,597,593.

That preliminary budget is an increase of almost $6 million, or 17.33% over the fiscal year 2021 budget.

A major part of that change is due to the point powers agreement for Selkirk Fire, which transfers the employees of the Westside Fire District and the Sagle Fire District to the city of Sandpoint payroll to the tune of approximately $1.4 million, said City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton. That payroll is reimbursed by the Sagle and Westside respectively but administered by Sandpoint.

Additionally, she said, the city was awarded the American Rescue Plan Act grant. Although it is a federal grant, because of the size of the city, that funding will be administered through the state.

“We've received part of that distribution already,” Stapleton said. “We will see 50% of that will receive the final amount about a year from now.”

The ARPA grant will help pay for projects including stormwater improvements and health and safety measures for the public and city employees. The city is currently looking at a remodel for the police department, as well as stormwater improvements at Farmin’s Landing.

The city also budgeted carryover dollars from this year’s improvements to the Sandpoint City Hall, Stapleton said, as well as $525,000 for the next phase of the Great Northern Road project.

The city also has $600,000 budgeted from savings over the past several years for an emergency repair project on North Boyer Road, north of the Bonner County Fairgrounds.

“We have a failure of a culvert, and we have had engineers taking a look at that project now for about the last month to determine how long we can wait and exactly what the fix is,” she said. “We budgeted $600,000 in next year's budget [anticipating] that we need to get that road repair done or there's a possibility that we [will] have the whole road slough off there. We've got significant drainage issues up there.”

The council will hold a further budget workshop at their August 4 meeting, with a budget hearing on August 18.

Council also reviewed new and existing city fees that exceed 5%. New fees under this category included a $3,539.08 fee for tour boat moorage and a $5.25 dog tag replacement fee. Mechanical and HVAC permits were also updated to be in line with what the state of Idaho charges for these services, with residential permits now including a base permit charge of $100 as well as charges per appliance and duct, as well as other specific job charges.

Proposed fee changes over 5% included increases in garbage and sanitation fees for “extra cans,” “roll-out cart over 15 feet,” and “contamination charge.”

It also included changes to parking citations, such as an increase from $10 to $25 for second offenses, and from $50 to $75 for third offenses, said Police Chief Corey Coon.

Council members Kate McAlister, Deb Ruehle and Andy Groat said they would like to see fees that are harsher for out-of-state visitors.

“I would like to consider charging out-of-staters a lot more money at City Beach,” she said. “As [Coon] said, you know, one person said she just bought herself a $50 parking space.”

Ruehle noted she would also like to consider increasing fees for out-of-stater boat moorage, as many local residents are on a waiting list.

“To use this as an example, if you want to come into the house and wipe your feet, you don't have to pay for the carpet, but I'm going to charge you to clean it,” Groat said. “I love helping people coming up here. I love it, that they're enjoying our town, and then they get to come and go with a lot of wear and tear on our shoulder seasons, and our citizens should not bear the full burden.”

Parking citations – The first, second and third offense charges have not been increased since 2014. The parking in violation of signage has been updated to make this in general versus specific to just ‘marked for RV or boat only’. A general ‘All other parking offenses’ category has been made and several citations have been moved under that and updated to make this general as well, effective October 1, 2021.

Council members also approved an avigation easement for the Sandpoint airport on three different parcels at their meeting Wednesday, which will allow the airport to limit use of properties surrounding the airport.

Of those three parcels, the airport’s right-of-way parcel, also known as lot 53, will cost the airport $24,500.

The lot, which is directly adjacent to the airport on its east side, has the most restrictions. A portion of that easement is included in the airport’s runway object-free area, which will also require the county to realign the construct a new fence directly adjacent to Boyer Avenue.

Because the easement restricts any objects within three inches of the ground, the value is higher than the other parcels.

Lot number 30, which sits farther east of the airport, will limit buildings, trees and other obstructions between 70 and 95 feet above the ground to allow and will cost their airport $7,500.

“The purpose of the avigation easement is for the airport to be able to manage that airspace above, so it's essentially a ceiling,” Airport Manager Dave Schuck said. “We want to be able to not allow cell towers, buildings, trees, things like that to grow up into that space that a pilot would expect to be clear.”

The third parcel, lot number 56, is a small parcel north of the airport. The entirety of the parcel is located in the approach surface area, and the airport is paying $300 for it.

A runway protection zone will also affect portions of all three parcels surrounding the runway, which allows for public use but limits buildings that would encourage public gatherings such as amphitheaters or grandstands.

“The runway protection zone is not to protect the runway, it’s to protect the public from what can happen on the ends of the runway,” Schuck said.