By Susan Bromley
Staff Writer
Ortonville-The village council unanimously approved the 2017-18 fiscal year budget at their June 26 meeting.
The budget has matching revenues and expenditures of $834,477, with the council approving a transfer of about $63,000 from fund equity to help pay for road improvements. The current fund balance is about $548,000.
“We are in overall good fiscal health for a community our size,” said Village Manager David Trent. “We have a reasonable fund balance and based on the council’s directiion, they want to make sure we have adequate resources available to us without depleting our reserves to a level they would have concerns with.”
Council President Wayne Wills said at the meeting it was “not to his liking” that sidewalk improvements were not part of the approved budget. The council had previously approved by a 6-0 vote at their April 24 meeting a proposal from Rowe Professional Services Company to provide design and engineering services for the construction of sidewalks along Narrin, Myron and Ball Streets. But with passage of this budget, construction will be put on hold.
Councilman Dan Eschmann explained at the meeting that sidewalk improvements would have required dipping into the fund balance significantly and he believes road improvements to be more important, noting that “Mill Street is falling apart” and there is “significant cost to repair roads.”
The village is planning a road project this fall in which Cedar Street will be repaved from Mill Street to Ball Street and Schoolhouse Street will also be repaved. The total project cost is $200,000, but the village funds half at $100,000 with the remaining $100,000 coming from a DEQ scrap tire match grant.
Trent noted that Rowe Engineering will continue to investigate the costs of establishing a pathway from Narrin Street to Bueche’s Food World.