On a split roll-call vote, the Trenton City Council adopted ordinances regarding budgets and employee salaries for the city of Trenton and for Trenton Municipal Utilities. Both budgets start May 1st beginning of the fiscal year. The council also met in a closed executive session for real estate.
In the open session, the city of Trenton’s budget was approved seven to one with Councilman Danny Brewer opposed. The TMU budget passed on a vote of six to two with Councilmen Brewer and Marvin Humphreys opposed.
During the discussion on the city of Trenton’s budget, Humphreys questioned a proposed expenditure of $750,000 for the engineering of the airport runway project. City Clerk Cindy Simpson said a federal grant of $648,000 shows on the revenue side and thus greatly offsets the expenditure.
City Administrator Ron Urton said the council has approved a portion of the engineering which is the hydraulic study. Other studies are to be presented for council consideration as part of the engineering costs. Urton said Trenton needs to have a shovel-ready project when it comes time to apply for more federal funds. The ultimate goal, over the course of a few years, is to have the airport runway raised by three feet so it’s out of the flood plain. Engineering also will address changes involving drainage at the airport.
Trenton Finance Committee chairman John Dolan said all line items in the city budget were reviewed, meetings held with department heads, and expenses are limited to what he said, the city needs to have.
As previously reported following a finance committee meeting, no raises nor changes in benefits are offered at this time with the city budget. Last fall, raises were authorized by the council for the employees because of greater than anticipated sales of asphalt. Dolan told the council only a modest increase is budgeted for asphalt sales, compared to the amount budgeted one year ago which turned out to be low. Budget detail shows asphalt sales last year were more than $2,258,000. For the upcoming year, asphalt sales were placed at $1,380,000.
Brewer told KTTN that he voted no on the budget due to there being no raises for employees included in the budget.
Salaries in the new budget are $91,763 dollars for city administrator Ron Urton, one half of that amount is from TMU as the utility director. For City Clerk Cindy Simpson, a salary of $57,486. For Police Chief Rex Ross, $66,139, Fire Chief Brandon Gibler, $54,761. For the Street Supervisor Gary Dryer, the salary is $57,096. The salary for Trenton Mayor remains $3,000, and for the eight members of the city council, it’s $1,200 each.
The general fund projects a one-year deficit of $469,000 when comparing expenses to revenue. Expenses are listed at more than $5,077,000. Revenues, including the road use transfer, are projected at more than $4,608,000. The April 30th fund balance is predicted to be nearly $3,100,000.
In discussing the Trenton Municipal Utilities budget, Councilman Humphreys questioned expenditures to maintain the diesel generators. Utility Director Urton said
the city gets about $140,000 in credits through the Missouri Public Utility Alliance for having generators that could produce power when requested. The city also is reimbursed for fuel consumed during the operation of the generators. The two most recent occasions were due to extreme cold weather. Urton stated the city doesn’t “lose money” when running the generators.
An overview of the TMU budget shows gross revenues combined from electric, water, and wastewater at nearly $13,320,000 with expenses of $11,395,000, which leaves a one-year balance of $1,924,000. With $2,000,000 listed for depreciation, the net revenues (after depreciation) is a negative $86,136 for the fiscal year.
From the $1,900,000 in gross revenues, principal payments on debt are $1,410,000 for the year. That leaves a net cash increase of $514,625.
More than $6,000,000 is proposed in capital project outlays for the year. That reduces the projected TMU unrestricted cash and investments from $14,740,000 as of May 1st to $9,139,000 one year from now.
The budget also notes the electric and water funds have amounts that are above the council-established minimum cash reserves, however, waste water is $2,000,000 shy of reaching the desired, minimum cash reserves.
