The Algood City Council approved a budget amendment Tuesday to utilize a revenue surplus for the purchase of two fire engines and a residential garbage truck.
City Administrator Keith Morrison said the council decided to leverage higher-than-expected revenues from the current fiscal year to pull forward over $1 million in vehicle expenditures. Morrison said the move is designed to balance the upcoming fiscal year budget by removing those significant costs from the future books.
“That’s really a net zero change, even though fund balance is going down,” Morrison said.” Currently, we have already received the two fire engines and the garbage truck. The snowplow is paid for, and we are running about $500,000 in the red, given those additional expenses of almost a $1.2 million. So we’re actually in really good shape.”
Morrison said the residential garbage truck cost $425,000, while the two used fire engines totaled $600,000. Morrison said the city was already running ahead on revenue for the year, which allowed for the large purchases without negatively impacting the city’s overall financial health.
“It wasn’t hurting us because we were ahead on revenue this year anyway, and so it just puts a little bit over but not as bad as it could’ve been,” Morrison said. “It makes it a lot better next year, I mean, that’s a big chunk, so, it’s a pretty big change.”
Fire Chief David Judd said the two new fire engines are already up and running and making an impact, improving the city’s Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating.
“They are both now officially in service and operational, Engine 2 and Rescue 1,” Judd said, “We also received a revisit of our ISO classification. We dropped from a 6X to a 5X, so that’s an improvement there. Also, like I said, we ran about 69 calls for May. These are everything from medical calls where we have first responders who are medical personnel. We have paramedics, EMTs, wrecks where we do extrication and stabilization.”
Morrison said the city also saw a million-dollar surplus in funds during the previous year. Morrison said the city is trying to be mindful of their spending while preparing for other upcoming projects, including a leaf vacuum truck and park expansions.
“We’ve got some big things to do next year still with a leaf vac truck, some park expansion and things like that, so just trying to balance the years,” Morrison said. “Plus the previous year we’d had a million-dollar surplus in funds, so they’re just trying to balance out and keep the city moving forward on a steady schedule.”
Morrison said the city also increased its utility fund expenses to account for the Main Street waterline project. Morrison said that while the utility fund balance is decreasing by $692,000, the city is replacing that cash with a capital asset, resulting in a net zero change for the city’s value.
In other business, the council approved the first reading of an ordinance to update the Cemetery Commission, changing the designation of cemetery funds from a trust fund to a special revenue fund. Morrison said this change allows the commission more flexibility to use the fund balance for large projects, such as purchasing land or building a mausoleum, rather than being restricted to only using the interest income.
The council also voted to table the appointment of members to the Cemetery Commission and the Tennessee Central Rail Trail Authority to allow more time for citizens to volunteer for the positions. Additionally, the council ratified the Putnam County growth plan, which aligns the urban growth boundaries for all four cities and the county.