Council hears from department heads

    The Washington City Council pored over the budgets of its various municipal departments Monday night. Fire Chief Tom Wide presented the fire department?s budget. The council talked about the department?s utility bill, which some councilors thought was very high. The department spent about $8,000 on utilities over a six-month span.

    Wide remarked, ?We?ve got to keep the trucks from freezing.?

    City Administrator Dave Plyman joked, ?That?s 32, not 72.?

    Wide spoke about how the department tries to spread its requests for new gear over several years rather than to save the requests for a single year.

    Mayor Sandra Johnson asked Wide how many volunteers he trains in a typical year. Wide said he trained three volunteers in 2010.

    ?Some years we don?t have any, but other years we?ve had as many as five,? said Wide.

    Wide said he?s fortunate there is so little turnover from year to year. The department has a total of 36 volunteers. Wide said there are a few others who have the title of ?honorary firemen.? These firemen do not go to the scene of a fire but help out in other ways such as manning the radios.

    Rick Wagenknecht presented the cemetery?s budget. Wagenknecht said he wants to get a new mower, which will cost about $7,500 after trade-in. He wants a new pickup, too. He said his current truck is 17 years old. He said a diesel truck would be less expensive to operate. 

    ?You fill up on gas twice a day, but with diesel you fill up every other day,? he said.

    Johnson asked Wagenknecht how he would use the pickup. He said he would use it to move snow. She asked him how he moves snow now, and he said he puts a blade on a dump truck. He said he?d prefer to move snow with the pickup, and added that it could be used to clear snow elsewhere, such as at the airport.

    Tim Widmer spoke on behalf of the Parks Department. He said his department has a great deal of seasonal labor.

    ?We had a lot of capable staff last summer,? said Widmer. ?They did more than usual. Their skill set was certainly better than average.?

    Widmer said they need to replace some steps in the sidewalk that leads from the pool up the hill to West Madison. He said one of the shelters needs to be re-roofed.

    Johnson asked Widmer if he has a problem with vandalism. He said there has been vandalism at the bathroom in Central Park. Councilor Karen Wilson-Johnson asked Widmer if he has a camera in Central Park he could use to catch the perpetrators. Widmer said the park owns a rather expensive camera that rotates throughout the park. Councilor Merle Hagie said the cost of cameras has dropped significantly in recent years.

For the full story, see the Feb. 1 edition of The Washington Evening Journal