By Scott Smith
Tribune staff writer
— Whether Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight’s proposed 2011 city budget made a splash with Kokomo Common Council members remains to be seen.
Plans for a new Kokomo Beach attraction, however, occupied more of the 90-minute council budget hearing Tuesday than any other topic.
The proposal to install a new “splash park” for the city’s aquatic center was the only major spending item discussed in the first round of budget talks.
“I think Kokomo Beach is 10 years old, and it’s an attraction that’s been well-received,” Kokomo Common Councilman Mike Karickhoff, R-At Large, said Wednesday. “For a $7 million investment, to add a $250,000 feature to keep attendance up isn’t a bad deal.”
City director of operations Randy Morris said the new feature, which parks officials want to install for the start of next year’s pool season, would feature a zero-depth wading area.
“There’s really not an area that can be pretty much non-attended,” Morris said, noting that the zero-depth area at the pool currently is still connected to deeper parts of the pool.
City officials said they have yet to take bids on the splash park, but proposed increasing the parks budget by just over $100,000 to help pay for it.
At Tuesday’s meeting, council members cut $8,500 from line items in the emergency management budget but nothing else. Budgets for the parks, Emergency Management Agency and the city’s clerical departments were discussed at the meeting.
With everything more or less flat-lined from last year’s budget, council members had little to discuss, Karickhoff said.
That could change Tuesday, when the council meets again at 6:30 p.m., this time to discuss the police and fire department budgets.
This year, financial pressure on both departments is mitigated by $1.15 million in federal grants, which are being used to pay the salaries and benefits of 13 firefighters and five police.
Karickhoff, who chairs the council’s financial committee, said he appreciated the administration breaking out the grant funding in the budget.
“I appreciate that, just so nobody can forget we’re paying for some of these positions with soft money,” he said.
The other major budget debate could come tonight, when the council will discuss the budget for the Kokomo Board of Public Works & Safety, starting at 6:30 p.m. in the first floor conference room, City Hall, 100 S. Union St.
Tuesday, the Howard County commissioners followed the city council’s lead and approved a recommendation to consolidate city and county emergency dispatch operations.
Under the plan, the new dispatch center’s $1.4 million annual budget would come from about $600,000 in E911 funding, paid as a fee on local phone bills. The remaining $800,000 would be split 70/30 between the city and county.
Goodnight is proposing to increase the board of works budget by $548,000 to cover the city’s portion.
Overall, the $35.4 million general fund budget proposal would be a 2 percent decrease from the 2010 approved budget.
“It is a decrease in the budget, but for the third consecutive year, we’ve not had any increases in wages for our employees, and the police and firefighters have renewed their contracts accordingly,” Morris said last week.
Morris said the budget proposes to keep funding for employee health insurance at the same level for the third straight year, while investing $434,000 into the new Novia employee health care clinic.
Per-employee health-care spending had been rising rapidly for years until former Mayor Matt McKillip and then Goodnight instituted a series of measures, including higher employee contributions.
“It’s too early to actually attribute real savings numbers to it, but preliminary reports show significant savings,” Morris said of the clinic, which now also serves county employees.
The city will also attempt to save money next year by putting in a new policy of not replacing many city vehicles before 125,000 miles. The current policy is 100,000, Morris said.
Finally, next year’s general fund won’t reflect the cost of the city’s largest current capital project, the $2.1 million new Fire Station 2 on Center Road.
The city is seeking a $1 million bond, to be repaid from economic development income taxes over five years. The city council has already appropriated $600,000 from EDIT for the project, and the city will seek the rest of the funding in another appropriation this year.
• Scott Smith is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He may be reached at 765-454-8569 or via e-mail at scott.smith@kokomotribune.com
