Council

dips into

reserves

for parks,

library

Cuts reduced from nearly $1M

to $500,000

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Park and Rec and Public Library employees can breathe a little easier after the City Council decided Tuesday night to dip into reserves and general fund cash balances to trim 2003 "worse-case scenario" budget cuts in half.

That means the $995,435 in cuts proposed throughout city government for this year will be reduced to less than $500,000.

For the library, the proposed 19-percent reduction will be reduced to 9.5 percent. That translates to a $60,403 cut from a budget totaling $635,615. The Park and Rec's $2,103,504 budget would be trimmed by $260,677.

At an informational meeting earlier prior to its regular meeting, the council reviewed the latest scenario that called for reductions in the 2003 budget of $497,718. On the cash/fund balance side, $175,000 would be taken from sinking funds over a two-year period. PERA and fund balances would provide $100,000 each, and the general fund cash balance would be reduced by $350,000, dropping the city's unrestricted fund balance to 30 percent of the 2003 $12,675,175 budget.

While Councilor Clark Tuttle wanted to wait until the council knew more about what the Legislature would do, Park and Rec Director Dave Bechtold urged the council to make its decision "now instead of later."

Councilor Ruth Ann Webster and Council President Dan Beranek joined with Bechtold in urging the council to make its decision now.

After cautioning the council that "we don't have to decide on 2004 just yet," Tuttle offered the motion for using $362,000 from the city's reserves and $497,718 in cuts to offset the loss of about $600,000 in Local Government Aid this year.

That's based on Gov. Pawlenty's budget cutting proposal which would result in a loss of $1.7 million in LGA over the two-year period.

During the informational meeting, about a half dozen women, mothers of small children, voiced their concerns about proposed cuts in the Park and Rec budget.

Most were concerned about the possible closing of wading pools at Washington and Lincoln.

"We moved here recently, and we were thrilled to find a house near Washington and the wading pool," said Jill Berdan, 909 N. Washington. "I would donate a couple hundred bucks to keep the pools open or pay a family fee. I know three moms who would volunteer to paint them."

"As a mother of small children, I don't want to see all the cuts fall on the little kids," Jen Grosaland of rural New Ulm added.

All of them offered to act as volunteers to assist lifeguards and do other tasks.

Bechtold told the group that his staff would determine what would be cut "within days" after the council made its decision.

In other action, the council gave its blessing to the 2004/2005 Highway 14 Minnesota Department of Transportation reconstruction project after a public hearing. Highway 14 will be reconstructed from 7th North to beyond Airport Road.

MnDOT's District 7 traffic engineer and project manager, Marcus Flygare, told the council MnDOT would not budge on not having a left-turn median cut at the intersection of 19th North Street and Highway 14.

"We're not receptive to opening the median at 19th North," Flygare said. "To have cross traffic in the middle of the curve isn't acceptable."

Flygare also told the council that MnDOT isn't planning to install any additional traffic signals on that segment, and "there's no advantage to putting in the wiring for future signals."

The council set a public hearing date of Tuesday, June 3, at 7 p.m. on a request by William H. Koeckeritz of Sunset Properties to have 14 acres between North Highland Avenue and Garden Street, north of Highway 14, annexed into the city.

Two representatives of Welcome to our Home, LLC, Buffalo Lake, presented an overview of the catered living community the firm planned to develop for Orchard Hill if the property is annexed into the city.