Port St. Joe Begins Budget Review

Budget battles have begun.

The annual round of county and municipal public workshops began Monday night with the first of Port St. Joe's budget workshops.

The labor-intensive gatherings will culminate in the required public budget meetings in September where the final 2008-09 budgets will be set.

In a different tack from budgets past, Port St. Joe city administrator Charlie Weston presented to the board Monday night a number of items for their consideration, asking commissioners to review his proposals and figures on a selected portion of the city's overall budget.

The board will then address those items line by line in a future meeting.

At this first meeting Weston told the board that they would be "trying to find the dollars to support the city's capital improvement plan and wish list for the city to do.

"We need to look at how we're going to make up some of these unfunded projects," he told commissioners.

Weston broke down figures for city utilities, which, when all figures were tallied, will be about $4 million short of funding.

That includes some of the work to be completed under the city's interlocal agreement with the county, which was to bring water and/or sewer lines to Highland View, Overstreet, St. Joe Beach and WindMark Beach, and to acquire the water and sewer system in Beacon Hill, now operated by Mexico Beach.

Among those shortcomings, according to Weston, was the Highland View sewer (about $250,000 over budget), Overstreet water distribution system (about $300,000 over), WindMark Beach lift station ($575,000 unfunded); Beacon Hill acquisition ($227,000 unfunded), The Beaches sewer ($1 million unfunded).

Next for consideration was Weston's list of unfunded projects, items not in the budget, but things that department heads, city engineers and commissioners thought should be included - "where you would like to spend money on," Weston said.

That list included:

- A citywide technology upgrade, "which the city desperately needs," Weston added.

His proposal was to bring in a consultant to analyze the city's technological needs, and gave commissioners information on a technology lease agreement that would cost approximately $62,000.

- Entryway signs to the city, two on U.S. 98 and one at U.S. 98 and S.R. 71, at a projected cost of approximately $30,000.

This would work in conjunction with the $75,000 U.S. Department of Transportation grant that the city already has, which is strictly for landscaping along the entry corridors.

- A city parks master plan, which would tie the proposed city sports complex into the city's entire network of parks. This would apply"citywide vision" to the city's parks, Weston told commissioners.

- Trash bags for distribution to city residents, which would be in conjunction with the city's renewed efforts of enforcing the city trash ordinance and "trying to keep the city clean," according to Weston.

- Possible replacement of City Hall's 22-year old air handler, which Weston called "a dinosaur."

He had already had an air quality engineer test the air quality in city hall and was waiting on the test results, Weston said.

- Consideration of adding a boat ramp at Chicken House Branch, and paving the intersecting pathways in Holly Hill Cemetery.

Next up for discussion was the city's capital outlay projects, "just some things you may or may not want to support and prioritize," Weston told commissioners.

Those items included:

- Possibly replacing one city vehicle with a hybrid vehicle to see if it would be cost-effective for the city, especially for the city police department.

"At some point in time the city police will need to do something in this field, I feel," Weston said.

Currently, he told commissioners, the city had already spent $121,000 for fuel, and had budgeted $107,000 for the 2007-08 fiscal year.

- A joint public-private partnership to build and operate a skateboard park, paintball park and kayak launch-rental facility within the city, and provide at least one dog park and walking-fitness trail.

The next city budget workshop is scheduled for July 31 at 5:30 p.m. in the commission chambers. At this meeting Weston told the board that they would discuss the above proposals line by line.