Departments offer budget recommendations to the city council

    The Washington City Council held its first work session to study the 2010-2011 city budget Wednesday night in the former library building. The marathon session, which lasted approximately four hours, included presentations from nine city department heads. The council members said they would like to have another work session in two weeks. 

Parks

    Parks Supervisor Tim Widmer spoke about the state of disrepair the tennis courts are in at Redlinger Field, southeast of Case Field. He said the courts are in ?real poor shape,? and that he has consulted with a surfacing firm about replacing the current blacktop courts with concrete courts. Widmer said the project would cost $60,000 and the city would pick up half the tab since the school owns the other half.

    ?We would have to tear out the blacktop and put new gravel underneath it,? said Widmer. ?The court was built right in its day; it?s just that they used blacktop, which moves more than concrete. ?

    Councilman Fred Stark said that it is nice to see plans to update the tennis court.

    ?Even for economic development, you want to be able to show people you have at least one good tennis court,? said Stark.

    The municipal swimming pool was another topic Widmer touched on. He said that the pool had a large electric bill last year because it was a cooler summer than usual, which meant they had to use more power to heat the water. Widmer said that they plan to replace a retaining wall inside the pool, which will require a new foundation.

    ?In hot summers, we have higher labor costs because more staff is needed, but we also don?t have to spend as much money heating the pool,? said Widmer.

    Widmer told the council that the pool lost $13,000 last year because it was such a cold summer. He said it was the third year in a row the pool has lost money.

    City Administrator Dave Plyman said that even when municipal pools report that they have made money, they don?t count the initial capital expenditures.

    ?Pools always lose money,? said Plyman. ?There are very few things government does that make money.?

Police

    Police Chief Greg Goodman said the police department would like to add an 11th officer. He said that there is currently one vacancy on the police force, and that there is an applicant who is going through testing on Saturday to fill that vacancy.

    Shepherd said that he supports hiring an 11th officer and remarked that the council approved hiring an 11th officer. Councilman Merle Hagie also said it was ?time to bring a new person on board.?

    Plyman said there is an issue with police officers working overtime. He said that an 11th officer may alleviate the problem but not cause it to go away. He said the officers working overtime are the ones investigating murders and drug offenses, which is not something a first-year officer would do. 

Goodman also talked about an unexpected expense resulting from the installation of computer equipment in their patrol cars. In September, the police department began subscribing to a service that allowed them to get information about a car from its license plate. He said that the state of Iowa charges for third party use of the service, which means that the police will have to pay an extra $20,000 from what they anticipated.

    ?The state came up with this charge quickly and without any warning,? noted Goodman. ?We were not aware of the charge when we installed the equipment. We plan to talk to the state government about this along with some other cities that can?t afford it.?

Library

    Library Director Patrick Finney spoke about a few changes the library may consider in the coming months and years. Mayor Sandra Johnson asked Finney if the library would charge for the use of its meeting rooms. Finney said that they would not charge non-profit organizations who use the rooms, but that they are considering charging if the room is used for private functions.

    Johnson also asked Finney if the library board had discussed opening the library for a few hours on Sunday. Finney said he was aware that libraries in neighboring towns such as Fairfield are open on Sunday, but that it was not a popular idea amongst his staff. He added that if the library were to add Sunday hours, it would reduce its Saturday hours, which are currently 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

    Finney said that he has not increased his full-time staff in the last year. However, he has increased the number of part-time high school students employed at the library. He said that the library no longer has a janitor on staff and that it now contracts out for that work.

For the full article, see our Jan. 28 print edition.