(PHOTO BY JESSE DAVIS / THE VILLAGE REPORTER)
COUNTING THE COST … Delta staff and elected officials gather to discuss the village’s final budget for 2025 during a meeting of the village council’s finance committee on Wednesday.
By: Jesse Davis
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
jesse@thevillagereporter.com
Five out of the six members of the Delta Village Council went over the proposed final 2025 budget with a fine-toothed comb during a two-and-a-half hour meeting of its finance committee Wednesday evening.
Council and committee members Lynn Frank, Rachel Adams, and Anthony Dawson were in attendance along with Village Administrator Chris Frazer, Assistant Finance Director Marlena Allwood, as well as council members Chad Johnson and Robert Shirer.
During the meeting, Frazer went fund by fund through the entire budget, outlining the changes that turned the $7.43 million temporary budget initially passed by the council in December 2024 into a $7.29 million final budget.
The $141,338 in cuts between the two versions of the budget still leave it in a deficit but cut that deficit in more than half from the temporary version as revenues are estimated to now be only $115,339.02 short.
One of the biggest changes did not affect the total size of the budget, but its structure, with $587,602 in expenses moved out of the general fund to be instead taken from different funds.
The shifts do not affect the intended use for the money. Two of the biggest shifts moved the police chief’s wages and benefits – a total of $128,894 – to the levy-funded police fund, and $199,000 of the $200,000 for streets, sidewalks, and curbs to the capital fund.
Discussion on the latter change turned the conversation toward former Village Administrator Andy Glenn, whom Johnson claimed was the reason for a lack of recent sidewalk and street repairs, saying “our administrator didn’t see it as valuable, worth their time.”
During the discussion, Frazer commented on the termination of the assistant street superintendent, whom he pointed out “was one of Andy’s hires.”
“We felt there was no need for an assistant street superintendent when the street superintendent could still just do the job,” Frazer said.
Part of the shifting of expenses in the budget included setting the payment of 10 percent of certain administrative staff wages out of the village’s park fund, which did not seem to sit well with Johnson, who sits on the park board.
“You’re taking 10 percent of administrative wages from a fund that is funded through a levy [intended] to operate the park, in which – in my argument – maybe 1 percent of your time is spent operating the park,” Johnson said.
He later added “I’ve always had a hard time understanding why those funds are pulled from the park when the park is in disrepair. Those funds are needed to run the park, not to pay for employees to work in this building.”
“No offense to you that work here, you deserve your paycheck, but the village deserves its parks.”
Another topic which drew a long discussion was the inclusion of an expense for the purchase of a new $18,000 mower.
Frank reported the village already owned seven mowers with a total value of $154,802, and several council members questioned the necessity of the expense.
A major concern of Frazer’s was reducing the sewer fund. Last year the council had to transfer $300,000 from the general fund into the sewer fund in order to pay bills in excess of the fund’s balance at that time.
In total, Frazer was able to reduce expenditures by $262,519, including taking advantage of using existing water department employees to handle work at the wastewater department.
A meeting of the Village Services Committee to discuss permanent restructuring of personnel related to the budget is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Monday, March 24, 2025, at 401 Main Street in Delta, to be followed immediately by a special council meeting at 5:30 p.m. for the purpose of passing the final budget on an emergency basis.