Officials focus on future needs in run-up to 2015 budget
By Dave Fidlin
Whitewater officials last week kicked off the second half of the year with an eye toward 2015.
In the months ahead, discussion of next year’s municipal budget will pick up in earnest as a number of issues – including capital improvement projects, staffing and city services – enter the equation.
While the Common Council met July 1 – a standard practice as it always meets the first Tuesday of each month – the structure of the meeting deviated and focused on planning for the city’s future.
Nearly two-dozen city officials, including members of the council and staff, attended the retreat-style workshop meeting that was led by Rick Bayer, loss control manager at Cities and Villages Mutual Insurance Company.
As a facilitator of the three-hour discussion, Bayer led the council on an in-depth exploratory process that involved setting goals and priorities for 2015 and beyond.
Through a series of different exercises, including writing down individual goals on sheets of paper, participants whittled down the list of high priority items. About 90 issues or concerns were tabulated when the discussion kicked off, and the list was narrowed to six overarching goals when the discussion wrapped.
The six themes explored revolve around aging infrastructure, enhancing single-family housing, the city’s human resources functions, parking issues, attracting families to the city and lake water quality.
In an 18-page memo to the council, City Manager Cameron Clapper outlined some of the specifics within the six categories, as well as other areas of concern throughout the community. The memo was used as a guiding document during last week’s discussion.
Clapper reviewed some of the city’s existing short-term priorities, including housing, infrastructure and services, business development, budget priorities and relations with the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. The July 1 meeting was an opportunity to check in on each of those items.
From city staff’s perspective, Clapper also outlined some of the issues he and the council will consider in the months ahead as steps are taken toward creating a 2015 budget document that will be adopted in November.
At least two facilities – the fire station and Irvin L. Young Memorial Library – are in need of replacement and expansion, respectively, and planning for both expenses remains on the city’s radar.
The city had borrowed $1.2 million in 2012 to fund a new fire station. Those funds, however, were eventually funneled toward the Downtown Eastgate construction project.
“No date has been set for this project,” Clapper said of the fire station. “The final cost is expected to exceed the original $1.2 million estimate, but no final estimate is available.”
Concurrent with planning for the city’s 2015 budget is a longer-range view of capital improvement plans for the next five years. Clapper said he recently incorporated the library into the CIP document.
The cost of making the necessary additions to the building is about $6 million, though it might go higher once a hired architect completes detailed drawings.
“Space in the current building is woefully inadequate to meet the demand for material storage and community space,” Clapper said.
During the July 1 meeting, officials did vote on one matter. Council members approved a request by the city’s streets department to purchase a lawn mower for $44,438.
