Budget delayed

Final approval of the 2016-17 Fiscal Year Budget was delayed by the Whitehall Town Council Monday to allow more time to look over the Whitehall Ambulance Enterprise fund.

“I don’t know how we can establish what the ambulance will bring in under the current circumstances,” Alderman Mac Smith said. “You can’t spend what you don’t have,” Smith said.

Town Attorney Matthew Haus told the Council at the regular monthly meeting Monday he plans to contact the MMIA (Montana Municipal Inter-local Authority) and see if they have had examples from a similar department with comparable issues. Ambulance Director Tyler Steinbach reported on average the service is getting about one call a day, some being non-transport.

Council members worked along side with Town Clerk Treasurer Summer Fellows and Mayor Dale Davis to get the rest of the budget items balanced. In the General Fund, a percentage will be taken across the board that will be less than two percent left to balance.

With a few cuts, and the roll over from last year, the town council was able to budget the Solid Waste fund. The approved sanitation rate increase from last year will also be helping to balance the budget. The two pecrent increase it set to take place in January. Public Works Director Kory Klapan said he has been able to find a repair shop to get the truck fixed on the weekends, at a reasonable rate, and this will not have to disrupt the pick up days and allow the truck to get all the repairs it needs at this time.

Fellows stated; if anything else needs fixed with the garbage truck during the fiscal year, the budget will have to be revisited at that time. Klapan was approved at the meeting to be hired as the Public Works Director.

The Sugar Beet Row’s proposal to pre-pay Jefferson County for Sewer Services and distribution of those funds to the Town of Whitehall was unanimously approved.

The council also approved the easement from the town to Jefferson County for the Sewer Main to the houses on Sugar Beet Row. County Commissioner Leonard Wortman said Jefferson County has a fund set up for the monies collected, and the houses are expected to be hooked up sometime in the spring.

Lee Good spoke about the progress of turning Whitehall into a Gigabit-Community at the meeting. Good expects to have the majority of First Street “ready for the future” in operation by the end of this year.