Owen City Council Approves 2017 Budget
Thursday, December 1st, 2016 -- 11:21 AM
-The Owen City Council approved the 2017 budget at their meeting last week.They held the public hearing for the budget first. The Finance Committee has gone through each City Departmental Budget. The City has more employees with families enrolled in the group health insurance. The health insurance cap has not been changed since 2011. Finance approved an increase to that benefit and next year the committee will work on health insurance for 2018 earlier and prior to the budget process. The O-W-C Fire District Assessment went up approx. $8,000 as they are now using the equalized value method to determine each assessment. Recycling costs have increased as customers are not recycling as much as they should. The City may do an assessment in the summer to evaluate who is and is not recycling. One council member requested at the next meeting the Council discuss procedures about when the City Attorney is contacted. The final budget for the City General is $1,155,368. Clerk Ernst reported the Water Utility has no significant changes and that budget totals $505,300. The Sewer Commission approved the Sewer Utility budget on at $1,155,368 which includes the project for Lift Station #1. After the hearing was closed the budget was then approved.
The council also approved the DRC to take over responsibility of the old depot building they approved the plat presented for purchase identifying the area and the owner of the property to purchase and will provide adequate area to construct the lift station. Finally, during a closed session, they approved the Sales Study by MSA Professional Services and for MSA to make a nominal offer to the Friends of the Old School.
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