Chelsea Council approves FY2017 general budget

With a few days to spare, the Chelsea city council approved a general budget for the new fiscal year.

The council approved a $7.78 million general budget at a specially called meeting on Sept. 26. Mayor Earl Niven said he would leave the capital budget for fiscal year 2017, which starts Oct. 1, up to the new mayor. Niven added he would be willing to offer assistance in creating the capital budget.

The $7,784,000 in expected revenue includes $6.2 million in sales tax, $400,000 from business licenses, $75,000 from tap feeds and other areas.

“There will be other revenues that are not budgeted,” said council member David Ingram, noting that the budget does not include revenue from the new ball fields on Highway 11. Those revenues were left off of the budget because they are unknown at this time.

The budgeted expenses, also at $7,784,000, include $235,000 toward parks and recreation, $85,000 toward professional fees, $2.63 million for fire and police, nearly $1.25 million for the city’s mortgage and other expense areas.

The cost for fire and police breaks down to about $500,000 for the sheriff’s deputies who patrol Chelsea — including an additional deputy as part of the COMPACT 2020 initiative, $160,500 for an education resource officer, $1.95 million for fire and rescue and $20,000 for the Citizens on Patrol (COP) program.

“Our fire department shouldn’t have anything to complain about. You look at all that equipment they have, the new transport we just bought,” Niven said. “$2 million for a fire department for a city our size? We have looked out for our people in Chelsea.”

Also during the meeting, the council discussed and approved action in regard to the citation the city received from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

The “notice of violation” was issued to the city for $27,100. The city countered that with $14,000, and ADEM countered back with $21,000. After negotiation, ADEM and the city settled on $17,500.

“I’m very pleased and disappointed,” Niven said. “Disappointed that we got this notification, but for them to be able to come off, that tells me it wasn’t as serious as they might have indicated.”

The council approved the amount of $17,500. Council member Dale Neuendorf said he would reluctantly vote for it, but that he did not believe it was all the city’s fault that the violation occurred.

Niven said there are many ways to look at the situation, including that if the heavy rain which caused the violation never came, the fine would not have happened; he also said if the movement of dirt had been complete and the dirt was fully seeded, the violation would not have occurred.

“There was just a lot of unfortunate timing that took place,” Niven said.

By paying the fine and undertaking other steps, including removing silt from ponds in the area, Niven said he believed the issue was resolved from the city’s standpoint.

As a matter of discussion, Niven presented the council with multiple sign options for the new Chelsea Sports Complex on Highway 11. The options included a sign off of Highway 11 leading into the sports complex, one for the concession stand and one for the parking lot in the park.

The proposed sign for the front of the park includes two posts that look like baseball bats and balls representing all of the sports at the park. The sign will also include an electronic portion which could display park and game information. It would not be scrolling, but would rather flip between messages.

This electronic portion could come in multiple resolutions, with the highest resolution costing $79,000 and the next step down costing around $61,000. Niven said no decisions would be made at the meeting, and he planned to have a demo of the different resolutions presented to the council before a final decision was made.

The next city council meeting will be Oct. 11. The original date was changed in order to accommodate the mayoral runoff election, which is Oct. 4.