City budget plan embraces big projects

The Maryville City Council spent two hours Thursday morning in a nuts-and-bolts study session in preparation for likely passage of a new budget next week for the 2013 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

City Manager Greg McDanel, after only six months on the job, introduced an ambitious spending plan embracing a number of major projects — everything from additional hiking/biking trails to the start of construction late next summer on the city's new multi-million dollar wastewater treatment plant.

Other highlights include $3.2 million in capital spending for two fully reconstructed streets, South Munn and South Depot, and $160,000 for new accounting and billing software that will further automate bookkeeping procedures and make it possible for city water customers to access their accounts and pay bills online. Finance Director Denise Town said the current software is 15 years old and near the limit of its useful life.  

Some of the more ambitious initiatives, such as engineering line items for streetscape construction along Fourth Street between downtown and Northwest Missouri State University and a new fire/ police headquarters, led City Councilwoman Renee Riedel to refer to the General Fund budget as a "whoo-hoo list."

She used the phrase in asking McDanel if expenditures on high-profile projects were being made at the cost of cuts elsewhere.

McDanel responded that the budget contained no steep reductions in operations or services. He added that healthy reserves and fiscal discipline on the part of department heads mean that, in his view, the city can afford to move forward on a number of fronts.

Maryville's $2 million reserve fund does indeed provide a key slice of next year's budget pie in which estimated General Fund revenues of $5.6 million exceed a $6.1 spending blueprint by nearly $430,000.

McDanel justified the deficit by saying the city has traditionally figured revenues low and expenses high in an effort to avoid a surprise flood of red ink at the end of the year. He noted that the 2012 budget was originally balanced with $320,500 in reserve spending, but that the city expects to have improved its financial position by $100,000 when the books close Sept. 31.

"This forecasting method, coupled with responsible expenditures over the course of a year, allow the city of Maryville to end each budget season in a better budget position than expected," McDanel stated in a written budget summary.

Perhaps the two biggest surprises in the fiscal 2012 spending plan are line items for engineering in preparation for new pavement, sidewalks and lighting along West Fourth Street and construction of a new Maryville Public Safety headquarters.

A total of $73,000 has been earmarked for Fourth Street planning, and McDanel said Northwest Missouri State University has agreed to split that cost. He described the project as basically a continuation of a similar initiative completed last summer around all four sides of the square.

McDanel said securing financial support from the university increases the project's eligibility for a number of grants that could be used to finance construction, which has an estimated cost of $1.3 million.

Mayor Glenn Jonagan praised McDanel for working with the university to move the project into its initial planning phase, and described the town-and-gown partnership as possibly unique in Maryville history.

"You should certainly get a gold star on the refrigerator," the retired school superintendent said.

The council is being asked to set aside $40,000 for design and engineering of a new police/fire station that would replace the current facility on Vine Street just east of the square.

Public Safety Director Keith Wood said there have been no talks with Nodaway County officials with regard to the possibility of a combined dispatching center at the new headquarters, adding that he believes such a dialogue needs "to be part of the discussion."

Maryville police and fire personnel moved into the current station, a converted grocery store building, in the mid-1970s.