City Hall 3Jamestown, ND (KCSi-T.V. August 26, 2013) — The Jamestown City Council held the second budget meeting for the 2014 calendar year, Monday afternoon at City Hall.

Council Member Gumke was not present.

Mayor Andersen said the budget is scheduled for the First Reading at the September 3, 2013 City Council meeting. At that time the budget figures may be reduced but not increased.

Highlights:

First Monday, the City Fire Department request was approved for the 2014 budget, for over $500,000.

The Police Department’s requests for an unmarked, marked patrol cars, body cameras on officers, and computer desks, and five computers for patrol units, due to the software becoming obsolete, were approved. Mayor Andersen said she was not in favor of another marked patrol unit.

The Council voted unanimously to approve the budget.

The Finance and Assessment budget was approved.

With Engineering,, approved was storm water structure modifications, as was Schools and Conventions. Removal of trees at the James River, (around 1,000 trees are estimated to be removed) was not currently budgeted for, nor was infrastructure planning services, or a portion of consulting engineering services.  Those items may be budgeted for individually as need from other budget areas, or from sales tax dollars.

Civic Center, expenses, items moved to Convention and Promotion fund from the Sales Tax Fund, was approved.

Street Department, railroad crossing signal control changes was not specifically budgeted for, at this time. Other items in the budget except for the band saw was approved.

Equipment replacment and vehicle depreciation funds were approved.

The Visitors Capital Construction fund items as submitted were approved.

Public Building Site Fund, had the Civic Center grass seeding replacement costs, was added for approval.

Mayor Andersen said another budget meeting will be held for Utilities, at the September City Council meeting.

 

The budget meeting then turned to hearing other budget requests.

City Beautification Committee, request of  $7,500 was approved.  Chairperson Kathy Larson outlined projects accomplished.

The Community Service budget was approved, with the city’s share at $12,500.

The Fine Arts Association budget was at $5,000 was approved.  Arts Center Director Taylor Barnes said the dollars are matched by the North Dakota Council on the Arts with grant requests. She noted the Arts Center is applying to Arts Midwest for funding for the Arts Park. She presented information on how the Arts Center has served the community.

Victim Witness Advocates, request was approved at $6,000.

Buffalo City Tourism Foundation request was approved at $323,320 in conjunction with the Enterprise agreement between the city and tourism, an 8% increase. The Mayor asked the BCTF for an outline of goals the Foundation is working on.

The meeting was shown live on CSi 67.