(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson county board of supervisors Tuesday put the finishing touches on the county’s proposed budget for the 2005-’06 fiscal year.
The General Fund has a total overall levy of $4.43 per thousand dollars of valuation…up 22 cents per thousand from the current fiscal year. The Rural Services portion of the budget has an overall levy of $6.92 per thousand dollars of valuation…up nine cents per thousand dollars valuation.
Supervisors site numerous factors in the increased levies…including salaries and additional staff; the purchase of new voting equipment to meet a federal mandate; required updates to computer software; approximately 160-thousand dollars in payments billed to the county for Spirit Lake’s Drainage District 22 project; increases in fuel and utility costs; increased premiums for tort liability and workman’s comp insurance; and a 240 percent increase in juvenile detention costs over the past year.
The supervisors have scheduled a public hearing on the proposed budget for 9:30 a.m. March 15th.
In other business Tuesday, supervisors again discussed whether to lease the former Shaw Paint and Glass building on a temporary basis to store items in preparation of moving into the new courthouse. Under the proposal, the county would lease the 8,400 square foot building at two-dollars a square foot a month for one year beginning this coming April 1st. After the year was up the county would have the option to continue renting it for the same amount on a month-by-month basis. After considerable discussion, supervisor Wayne Northey made a motion to accept the proposal. The motion died for lack of a second.
Bob Schlager, the county’s owner-representative on the courthouse project, suggested the supervisors find out exactly how much storage space will be needed. He says there may be enough room in the basement of the former Baptist Church, which the county now owns.
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