{"id":5262,"date":"2023-08-16T09:10:49","date_gmt":"2023-08-16T13:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=5262"},"modified":"2023-08-16T09:10:51","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T13:10:51","slug":"new-decatur-budget-coming-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/16\/new-decatur-budget-coming-together\/","title":{"rendered":"New Decatur budget coming together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decatur City Council took a giant step toward finalizing its 2024 budget at its meeting Tuesday night, spending an hour and 14 minutes going over the figures prepared by Clerk-Treasurer Phyllis Whitright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The figure council was given to work with amounted to $13,800,759. But that will be changed in the days ahead with additions and subtractions having come from the lengthy discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Department heads were questioned as each item was looked over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All departments and funds showed increases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Following are some things learned and heard from the budget discussions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* City employees will be getting a 3% salary increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Kim Brandt, director of The HIVE arts center, will have her hours increased from 20 per week to 30. The downtown center has become a huge asset. \u201cRentals have really taken off, Mayor Dan Rickord said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe has really taken ownership of the place,\u201d Councilman Matt Dyer added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* A total of $50,000 is in the Building\/Zoning Department to replace a 2008 model vehicle \u201cthat’s nickeling and diming us,\u201d according to Superintendent Curt Witte. \u201cBut we’ve checked everywhere and can’t get a price (on a new model) from anyone,\u201d Witte said. \u201cThey say they don’t know what the prices will be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* The city’s share of the county’s animal control budget amounts to 34%, but city officials want further details on what is going on with that department, in particular the relatively-new animal shelter. Mayor Rickord said he has heard some complaints about its operation; Dyer and City Attorney Anna Razo said they have as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Talk continues about much-needed changes in the restroom facilities at Riverside Center– which are mostly the same as they were when the structure was built in the mid-1950s. No funds for a renovation are in the 2024 budget, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt would need a total gut,\u201d City Operations Manager Jeremy Gilbert said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* The city is not in need of one, but an aerial ladder fire truck would cost over $1 million today and it would take as long four years to get one, Fire Chief Jeff Sheets said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* The popular facade program is going back into the budget after a one-year absence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com Decatur City Council took a giant step toward finalizing its 2024 budget at its<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-5262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/A9EBDC37964A47C08F26ECBEB88C5B70.jpg?fit=432%2C256&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}