County engineer details tentative budget to supervisors

New equipment, maintenance and other operations made up the FY 2020 budget that Henry County Engineer Jake Hotchkiss presented to the Henry County Board of Supervisors Thursday morning.

In looking at the revenues and expenses for the coming year, Hotchkiss said the department would start with about $300,000 less than last year. He said the main reason for this is the projected amount of carry-over money from the FY 2019 budget. The budget for the coming fiscal year, beginning July 1, is $6.3 million. Hotchkiss said many of the expenses he was presenting mirrored the FY 2019 budget. As with most years, the largest expense will be for roads with $2 million set aside for roadways

'That includes about $300,000 for rock crushing that we will be doing next summer,” Hotchkiss said.

The budget also showed $600,000 has been budgeted for new equipment. During the year, the department will purchase a new motor grader, tandem axle truck, semi tractor, and pickup.

Local construction has a budget of $850,000. Hotchkiss said much of this work will be done next summer.

Hotchkiss commented that right now people are focused on the amount budgeted for snow and ice removal. The amount makes up about 3 percent of the budget with $216,000 budgeted for the coming year. The bridge and culvert maintenance fund is projected to have $165,000.

Equipment operations will have $983,500 in the budget. This fund includes all the fuel the department uses as well as several outside services.

Hotchkiss explained the engineering department's largest source of income is the road use tax, which he projects will bring in about $3.1 million. Property taxes are slated to bring in about $1.4 million. The designated construction fund will bring in about $1.1 million. Total income is estimated to be about $6.3 million, down from $6.6 million in FY 2019.