city news
City Begins Budget Process
On March 19, 2013 Vernonia
City Administrator Bill Haack kicked
off the City budget process when he
presented the City Budget Message
and the 2013-14 Budget to the Budget
Committee.
According to Haack’s Budget
Message the City of Vernonia’s total
budget is $7,722,696; this compares to
last year’s adopted budget of $4,393,939;
an increase year to year of $3,328,757
or 76%. The increase is directly related
to capital improvement projects planned
this coming year. The City is forecasting
expending at least $3,000,000 on planned
wastewater facility improvements –
approximately 50 percent of the total
project costs.
Haack noted that in the past
year the community has seen a new
school open and a former school campus
transition to become a new park; seen
flood damaged buildings elevated and
razed and plans for a new social services
complex emerge. The City has also seen
plans become clear for the wastewater
facility upgrade.
Haack explained that the budget
used the goals of department heads, city
committees and City Council as a basis
for its design.
This years budget requires no
utility rate increase to achieve balance.
General Fund and Enterprise Funds
revenue growth continues to lag due to
the slow economic recovery, depressed
property assessments and a decision
at this time to not raise utility rates.
However, City Council will review
professional assessments of both the
water and sewer utility rate and may
direct staff to modify rates in the future.
The City Council has directed
staff to complete an update of the Master
Capital Plan and Master Park Plan.
These will be used by City Council and
the Budget Committee in years to come
to establish a more formal approach to
Capital Improvement Plan investments.
ORS 294.525 authorizes the
establishment of reserve funds and the
City budget may make annual transfers
to reserves. Three of the four reserve
accounts are new in this budget cycle.
The fourth will be eliminated as funds
previously tracked in this fund were
Saturday, March 23rd & 30th
march21
2013
dispersed to the three new reserve funds
in order to comply with local budget
law. The general fund account will be
a sinking fund for assets owned by the
city. The parks reserve fund will be
the same for park assets, and the water
reserve fund will serve upgrades to
distribution and production components
of the waterworks.
The Budget Committee is
made up of volunteers and current
City Council; during this process all
committee members are seen as equal.
A Chair and Vice-Chair are elected
to maintain procedure, quorum and
etiquette.
Current members of the Budget
Committee are: Brett Costley, George
Guyett, George Tice, Sally Harrison,
Susan Wagner, Josette Mitchell, Randy
Parrow, Kim Tierney, Donna Webb, and
Bruce McNair.
The next Budget Committee
meeting will be Tuesday, April 2 at 6:00
PM at the VCLC, 939 Bridge Street.
The public is welcome to attend. Public
comments will be taken at the beginning
and end of each fund discussion.
Additional
meetings
are
scheduled as needed for April 9, 16 and
30; May 7, 14, and 21; and June 4, and
11.
You may obtain a copy of the
proposed budget (limited number of
copies) by contacting Finance Officer
Angie Handegard at (503) 429-5291.
The budget will be posted on the City of
Vernonia website. http://www.vernonia-
or.gov/government/budget.asp.
Loggerbots
Take 3 rd Place
3
Publisher and Managing Editor
Scott Laird
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scott@vernoniasvoice.com
Contributors
Chip Bubl
Dr. Ken Cox
Tobie Finzel
Bill Haack
Dennis Nelson
Jack Phillips
Wolfgang Rotbart
Sonia Spackman
Melissa Zavales
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DeAnna Pearl
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continued from front page
Members of the Loggerbots
2013 team were: Garrett Mullikin,
Andrew Chaney, Jacob Eyrrick, An-
drew Jennings, Conner Larke, Ben-
jamin Skanes, Sarah Wagner, Megan
Ely, Heather Patton, Bradley Ely, Jef-
frey Goodman, Tim Jennings, Nicholas
Rainbolt, Quentin Skanes, Bailey Wil-
liams, Kaitlyn Eyrrick.
Communty mentors this season
were: Chris Dass, Jack Finzel, Jay An-
derson, Mitch Seibert, Michael Justice,
Brandon Krause, Daniel Millikin, Jim
buxton, Jeff Ely and Susie Crawford-
Rainbolt.
FIRST Robotics is an organized
international program that encourages
youth to compete using knowledge
Sunday, March 24th & 31st
based in science, technology, engineer-
ing and mathematics. FIRST stands for
For Inspiration and Recognition of Sci-
ence and Technology. FIRST Robotic
Programs are available for students in
grades K through 12.
Each year in January school
teams from around the Northwest re-
gion are given a basic starter kit and a
series of tasks that will be worth points
in the competition. The team must de-
sign a robot that can successfully com-
plete tasks of their choosing in order to
score points.
This year competing teams had
to design a robot that would shoot a
frisbee through targets as well as climb
a metal pyramid.
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