City considers budget
Future considerations occupied much of the Hillsboro City Council's time during its bi-weekly meeting held Tuesday afternoon.
As the summer progresses, Council members will soon be taking a hard look at Hillsboro's budget. And with that contemplation comes a decision about the mill levy, said City Administrator Steve Garrett.
Although revenue coming in from utilities should remain strong, the overall general fund will be lower in the next budget cycle, Garrett said. That's partly because more local properties are qualifying as tax-exempt, and a drastic change in trash fees may be on the horizon.
"We're going to have some pretty major budget decisions to be made," Garrett said.
But there's no need to overreact just yet — the city should be able to keep the mill levy stable, Garrett said. Council members Shelby Dirks, Len Coryea, and Byron McCarty agreed that the city shouldn't raise the mill levy.
If the mill levy does remain the same, the city will have to keep a watchful eye on the way it spends its money, Garrett said.
In other City Council business:
The alleyway behind the city building is now complete, except for two cracks along the east side of the concrete, Garrett said. The concrete cracked after problems with saw cuts — they're supposed to be made 24 hours after the concrete is poured, but instead they were made three days after the pouring.
Barkley Construction, the company in charge of the project, will work to repair the cracks, Garrett said.
Hillsboro United Methodist Church has asked the city if it may use the circular drive around Memorial Field to display drive-through nativity scene at Christmas time.
Council members present saw no problem with the proposal, but city attorney Dan Baldwin said that the church should be charged a reasonable amount to use the drive, since the church is a private religious institution.
Said Mayor Delores Dalke, "We definitely want to work with them."
Len Coryea said that he'd been asked, by a constituent, why the city didn't hire local residents to fill summer job vacancies.
Garrett said that this summer, there was just one city vacancy, and that was filled by a nonHillsboro resident who'd held the job in previous years. The city does hire all local students to work at the municipal pool, he said.
The city has made a $6,500 down payment to Flaming Metal Systems for the construction of the new electrical shop.
