Another budget meeting Monday

The Whitehall Town Council hopes to finalize their budget for the next fiscal year at a meeting next week.

The Council conducted a special meeting Monday to finalize the budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year, but they did not vote on the issue. The meeting next week is scheduled for Monday, August 22 at 6 p.m.

Town/Clerk Treasurer Summer Fellows told Council Members that with the rising cost of the town's water issues, the preliminary budget has more going out than the town expects to bring in, . According to Fellows, currently there is an expected revenue of $148,000, and the preliminary budget for the town's water is at $243,000. The town is looking at the cost for electric water meters, the lagoon and uranium issues and more, Fellows explained.

"We still don't know what the professional services will cost to hire engineers to start dealing with the uranium issue," Mayor Dale Davis said. "It will cost around $20-30,000 to get started and find grants."

Fellows said with the rising costs of water issues for the town, it is also raising cost of the budget for the Town Attorney as there is more work for the attorneys at this time, with the water lagoon, uranium in the water, and irrigation problems at the lagoon.

Another item the Town Council is looking at is SCBA's (self-contained breathing apparatus) for the Town's Fire Department. According to Assistant Fire Chief Joe Granvold, the current SCBA's are out about 15 years. There are six needed and the estimated cost for the SCBA's are $7-$8,000 for a new one. Mayor Davis suggested looking into refurbished ones, or one new one with a couple refurbished to get the department started. Jefferson Valley Rural Fire District matches 50/50 with the town's budget for the town's volunteer service.

Davis and the majority of the council members agreed that it is very important to get the SCBA's replaced for the departments safety, and they will have to look into the budget further to move money around to begin getting these replaced.

Granvold said for himself, and the majority of the department, the concern with refurbished SCBA's is safety on refurbished breathing apparatus'. He said another concern is if the refurbished apparatus is not certified you can't have them repaired. Granvold asked for the council to look into the budget further so the department can get on a rotation to get them replaced a little at a time, as there are no guarantees to receive grants for these kinds of things.

Also at the meeting; the Mill Levy was set at $125.12, which the State of Montana raises automatically every year. The resignation of Diane Parks was approved. Also approved at the meeting was the baseball tournament scheduled to take place August 27-28. The fee was set at $125 for the tournament.

(Editor's Note: More information on the town budget will be in next week's edition of the Whitehall Ledger after the budget meeting on August 22 and finalization of the 16-17 Fiscal Year budget has been approved).