Council continues to review budget

Council members continued their review of the city’s projected 2024 budget at the July 24 Janesville City Council meeting. The Janesville Police Department’s general fund budget is expected to increase by nearly 9% to $720,389 in 2024, compared to $661,610 in 2023. Like other aspects of the city’s budget that have increased, it was said by the council to be partially due to a rise in insurance costs. The cost of natural gas for heating was said to have been underestimated last year and was raised for 2024. Finally, human resource allotments were also raised because of an expected increased need. City administrator Clinton Rogers reminded the council that they have until September to “run preliminary numbers” on all aspects of the budget. Then, it will be sent for review at the Waseca County Courthouse.

Janesville’s current accounts receivable were accepted by the council. It was noted that while the city received the first half of its local government aid (LGA) at the end of the previous week, that payment was not reflected in the documents available at the meeting. The closing of three streets near Veterans Memorial Park for the Janesville Night Out on Sunday, July 30 was approved by the council as well.

Police Chief Dave Ulmen reported that two candidates had been interviewed for a new sergeant position in the Janesville Police Department. Steve Johnson was chosen for the position by the department; the council approved his hiring. 

The council discussed updated designs for new playground equipment to be installed at Veterans Memorial Park. Although the equipment cost about $2,000 more than originally planned, the council agreed to pay the additional costs with Park Forward funds. 

The council reported receiving a quote from ISG of Mankato, regarding the cost of building a city community center, an item that will be handled at future meetings. While the possibility of adding a sales tax to fund the project was discussed at the previous meeting, members were since made aware that due to a recent law, no new sales tax decisions can be made until after a moratorium set to end on June 1, 2025.

Kelsey Carson CPA from Abdo appeared to deliver the company’s audit of Janesville’s 2022 budget. Carson said that the company was planning on finalizing the report within the next week. She said that under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), Abdo found no evidence of misstatements or non-compliance of Minnesota law in the budget.

One auditor recommendation was made to the council. “The majority of your cash is sitting in an account that earns 0.5% interest,” said Carson. “The current market rate is much higher than that,” she added, saying that finding a better interest rate would be worth looking into. 

2022’s general fund balance was $2,132,419. Revenues above anticipated amounts included an extra $71,000 in property taxes and two years of Fire State Aid from the Minnesota Department of Revenue. However, other miscellaneous revenues fell short of what was anticipated by about $35,000.

Some expenses were also over budget, due to safety personnel services and increased engineering costs for the “safe routes to school” project. Carson reported that a main cause for decreased fund balances was transfers out to other accounts or projects. The “safe routes to school” transfer amounted to $67,000 that was not budgeted for. 

In general revenues, Carson said that taxes saw “quite an increase,” due to an uptick in levy and delinquent collection. Carson said that the city had about $146,000 in leftover revenues from 2022 to spend, which are expected to be used on street improvements. 

Carson said that the Prairie Ridge Golf Course’s fund “had a great year,” with operating receipts over $450,000 and operating disbursements of $350,000. Carson said that this showed a growth of profit from year to year. Council members added that while the golf course is not in debt, it had to pay interest on a PPP loan and for golf cart leases in 2022. 

Overall, Carson said that Janesville’s budget was about in line with other Class 4 Cities in Minnesota, including those in Waseca County.  

Council person Ivan Maas said he recently had a meeting with the residents of Park Road Plaza Apartments, who wanted to thank first responders for being quick to respond to an emergency call. He added that community members wanted to issue a thank you to Janesville’s power workers for fixing an outage during Hay Daze in June, despite the Father’s Day holiday.

Austin Carda of Janesville Boy Scout Troop 89 spoke about his plans to renovate Lakeview Park’s shed in September or October as his Eagle Scout project. He said that these repairs are highly necessary, as the lock to the shed is “smashed” and it has become prone to break-ins and nesting animals. Other areas of repair include cinder blocks that need to be filled in and fixing the shed’s tin roof. Carda said that the project is expected to cost about $2,500 and he is willing to solicit contributions at community businesses if he does not receive that amount from the city government. 

Arnoldt said that the city’s parks board has already discussed Carda’s project and he expects the full $2,500 to be paid from the equipment fund. “The project sounds like a terrific idea and we’re awfully thankful to have you do it,” said Arnoldt.