CHICKASHA — The budgets approved for the Municipal Authority, the Airport Authority, and the city’s General Fund for Fiscal Year 2023-24 are all higher than last year’s.
General Fund expenditures for FY 24 are projected at $21.44 million, a 1.25% increase over FY 23. The Municipal Authority budget for FY 24 is $16.5 million, a little more than $1.5 million (10%) higher than the FY 23 budget.
City employees received a pay raise of “about 2% across-the-board,” and a few other salary adjustments were made, too, City Manager Keith Johnson said.
Fiscal Year 2023 ended June 30, and Fiscal Year 2024 started July 1.
Major expenditures from the General Fund are for public safety: $3.55 million for the Police Department and $3.349 million for the Fire Department.
The Police Department budget includes $10,000 for overtime this year because the department has more than a dozen vacancies, Johnson said. “It’s difficult to recruit new officers,” he said, in part because higher salaries are offered in larger cities.
“The bulk of our applicants – about 75% of them – do not meet deadlines and do not turn in their own paperwork,” Police Chief Goebel Music said. “You can’t get hired if you don’t have a background check.”
“We’re understaffed in Public Works, too,” Johnson said. “It’s tough to find entry-level employees.”
Streets and storm drainage are budgeted for $1.23 million. That includes $483,403 for salaries and benefits; $278,000 for vehicle and equipment maintenance and repairs; $200,000 for maintenance of streets and sidewalks, buildings and grounds; $150,000 for utilities; $10,000 for street lighting; and $35,000 for traffic signal service calls and repairs performed by Traffic Signals Inc. The annual street overlay program is budgeted $155,500.
Almost $269,000 is earmarked for animal control. More than half of that, $156,599, is attributed to wages and benefits; food for animals is budgeted $18,000; medical supplies and vaccinations, $2,500; vehicle and equipment maintenance, $18,400; and veterinary services, $15,000.
The sports complex is budgeted $391,165. That includes wages, benefits, and contract labor; vehicle maintenance; building maintenance and repair; utilities; and supplies.
Maintenance of the city’s two cemeteries is budgeted $216,570 for this year, $11,000 less than last year. The allocation includes $148,570 for wages and fringe benefits plus $20,000 for contract labor, $50,000 for burials, and $15,000 for equipment replacement. The Cemetery Care Fund for FY 24 is projected to remain flat at $175,000 for road maintenance, landscaping and equipment.
The public library is budgeted $484,452, which includes $28,000 for new books and periodicals.
Code compliance is budgeted $276,622 this year, an increase of $48,667 from last year. Abatement of weeds and dilapidated/abandoned buildings is to receive $95,000, which is $40,000 more than last year.
The building services budget is $761,925. Almost two-thirds of that allocation, $500,000, is for a floodplain mitigation project. “We commissioned a master drainage program, because a lot of our city is in federal state flood zones,” Johnson said. “We have requested federal assistance to provide detention and storage facilities to enable us to better manage frequent flooding episodes.”
General Fund expenditures also include $135,000 for an information technology managed-services contract, $13,500 for elections, and $450,000 for insurance coverage. “Our health insurance costs dropped by 18% this year,” Johnson said.
Municipal Authority
More than half of the Municipal Authority’s $16.5 million in projected revenues are expected to come from utility services: $9,588,000.
Likewise, the Authority’s biggest anticipated expenditures are for utilities:
• $2.84 million for sanitation, which includes $2.5 million for garbage/trash collection by Waste Connections, $112,000 for wages and benefits, and $225,000 for contingencies.
• $2.43 million for the water treatment plant. That includes $1.4 million in payments to U.S. Water Services Corporation to operate the treatment plant, $550,000 for water purchases from Fort Cobb Reservoir, $110,000 for a couple of upgrades in the treatment plant building, and $350,000 for utilities, particularly electricity to run the facility.
The city has applied to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board for a $70 million loan to finance construction of a new and larger water treatment plant to replace its 60-year-old water plant. An election is scheduled Aug. 8 at which voters will decide whether to retire that loan with the proceeds from a 1.25% sales tax or an 82% increase in water rates.
• $1.6 million for the wastewater treatment plant. That includes approximately $732,000 in payments to USW to operate the facility, $210,000 for utility bills, and $645,000 for upgrades to the facility.
“Our wastewater plant has some of the same kinds of problems as the water plant does,” the city manager said. “We have to make some significant capital investments to keep it running.”
Scheduled improvements in FY 2024 include $400,000 for repairs to the headworks, $137,000 to upgrade some pumps, $14,500 to replace bearings, $48,000 to renovate aeration basin blower control panels, $25,000 to replace gate valves on the chlorine contact chamber, $18,000 to rehabilitate or replace a grinder, and $2,500 to replace scum skimmers on clarifiers.
• $5.24 million in capital improvements that include $1.26 million in debt service payments on loans plus repairs to the water and sewer plant buildings, $1.5 million for replacement of old water lines and $750,000 to replace dilapidated sewer lines, and $1.5 million for other infrastructure repairs.
• $77,605 for Lake Chickasha. This includes $30,000 for removal of some more dilapidated structures and some old dock pilings, $1,500 for the annual bridge/dam inspection, $10,000 for property maintenance, $22,000 for utilities, and $10,905 for employee wages and fringe benefits.
• $663,000 for line maintenance. That includes $473,500 in wages and benefits plus $65,000 in overtime; $115,500 for vehicle and equipment maintenance, $15,000 for tools and supplies, and $10,000 for communications.
• $369,556 for utility billing. This includes $254,000 for wages, fringe benefits, and $18,000 in anticipated overtime payments; $11,000 for vehicle maintenance; and $96,000 for service contracts.
Also included is $3,000 for a training conference on maintaining the software that communicates with electronic water meters. The city has installed “many, but not all,” of those ‘smart’ meters, Johnson said. “It’s currently ongoing.”
Airport Authority
At first glance, Municipal Airport Authority funding appears to have taken a nosedive. The $1.188 million budgeted for FY 24 is 22.5% less than the FY 23 budget.
However, “We will spend more on the airport this year than we did last year,” Johnson said.
For example, the Airport Authority budgeted $750,000 for new hangars, which would be financed largely by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Authority awarded Parkhill an $87,500 contract in February to provide final design services on a prefabricated metal 10-unit aircraft T-hangar. “We have hangars but need more,” said Shae Mortimer, the city’s marketing and civic engagement director. The project will include topographic surveys, field surveys, and utility mapping; the Authority will use the documents to solicit construction bids.
In addition, “We plan to work on the existing hangars this year, too,” Johnson said, such as repairing leaks in hangar doors.
Park facelift planned
Park maintenance is budgeted $840,427. The amount allocated for operation of Shannon Springs Park increased almost $26,000, to $118,290; personnel costs increased by half, from a little over $60,000 to $91,290, including $45,000 in contract labor.
In addition, the FY 2024 Capital Projects Fund includes $1,440,000 that Chickasha will receive from an 80/20 federal grant administered by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation; the grant will be coupled with $360,000 from city coffers.
The $1.8 million project will entail tearing out the existing asphalt trails in 50-acre Shannon Springs Park and replacing them with concrete paths, and enacting erosion control measures around the east and west sides of the park’s 4.5-acre pond, Parks and Recreation Director Spencer Winzenried said.
Various funds
American Rescue Plan Act grants are budgeted at $2.25 million, including $1.54 million for replacement of vehicles in the Fire, Police, and Public Works departments.
The Capital Projects Fund is budgeted at $1.8 million.
Oil and gas royalty revenue is projected to be $30,000, a mere fraction of the $2.95 million in royalties the city received by April 30 this year. In a related matter, the city council recently approved an oil/gas lease with Todco Properties of Norman for 300 city-owned acres in Caddo County, in the vicinity of Lake Chickasha, and an oil/gas lease with Camino Natural Resources of Denver, Colorado, for 39 city-owned acres in Grady County.
The FY 24 budget for the CIP dedicated sales tax is $2,252,990, or $657,621 less than the FY 23 budget. It includes a $775,860 debt service payment on a water treatment plant improvement project loan.
The Economic Development sales tax budget for economic incentives this year is calculated to be $1.52 million, 18.7% lower than last year’s budget.
Chickasha’s FY 2024 budget can be found online at https://www.chickasha.org/512/Financial-Transparency.