Trenton City Council’s Finance Committee met last night with department heads of the city and Trenton Municipal Utilities prior to beginning the process for preparing budgets for the upcoming fiscal year.
Trenton’s fiscal year runs from May through April and City Administrator Ron Urton reported discussion included projections on general fund revenues, potential capital projects, and major expenses for the next fiscal year as well as in the short term covering a two to three year period.
The finance committee voted to recommend financing of a new street sweeper through use of reserve funds. The city council last week voted to purchase a Schwarz A7 Tornado Sweeper from the Elliott Equipment Company. The cost is $217,859 with $25,000 in insurance proceeds used toward the purchase, which reduces the net cost to the city down to about $193,000.
Urton said there was a discussion about financing half of the cost and using reserve funds for the rest. But financing requires additional funds to be spent on interest over a period of years. And the committee decided since reserve funds were available, to buy the equipment outright. Final action on street sweeper spending is up to the city council.
The finance committee approved a fire department request to re-direct some of its budgeted money to allow for the purchase of an ice machine. Urton said the cost is about $2,100. The fire department had $6,000 waiting to be used as a local match toward a grant on new air packs. But Trenton did not receive the grant.
