KOUTS | The Town Council approved the proposed 2013 budget Monday calling for an increase of about $130,000 over this year's budget despite lower revenue expected in some funds because of property tax caps.
The biggest impact will be in the town's general fund, which is expected to decrease by about $35,000 to $443,295. The cumulative fire fund will drop $1,765 to $18,000, and the park budget will be down almost $700 to $10,724. A decrease of almost $12,000 is expected in the motor vehicle highway fund, which comes from gasoline taxes.
Most of the other funds will show increases that pretty much offset those losses. The biggest increase will be in the county economic development income tax line item.
Clerk-Treasurer Laurie Tribble said the town saved the $132,484 from this year's budget to buy some land. The result is the town will have $295,082 in its CEDIT budget.
Tribble said the council plans to use a portion of the money to buy land for a proposed industrial park, while other land will be used for a downtown park.
The budget now goes to the state's Department of Local Government Finance for final approval.
The council approved a contract extension with Republic for trash pickup through 2013 at the same price as the current contract. Residential customers pay $12.68 a month for pickup. Republic, of DeMotte, has been the town's trash hauler for more than 10 years, Tribble said.
With the first leaf pickup scheduled for Oct. 29, the council rejected the two bids it received for leaf and brush pickup because of confusion over the dates of the service. Tribble said one company had too many weeks in its proposal and the other had too few.
The bid request has been rewritten, and the council will hold a special meeting Monday to open new bids and award a contract.
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