Jefferson Budget 'A Little Bit Behind'

Last Wednesday's Jefferson Council meeting should have seen the introduction of the 2013 budget for the township, but while the numbers have been kicked around and it's more or less finalized, it isn't completed yet.

"We're a little behind right now technically, according to the state calendar we should be introducing today," said Jefferson Township Chief Financial Officer Bill Eagen. "[We didn't want to] introduce just for the sake of the calendar, we wanted to do it right.

According to Eagen, many towns that don't follow that timeline strictly and Jefferson is close with their final numbers. "We've got the financials in now, we've gone through the capital, we've discussed certain operating items; so at this point it's just a matter of putting the final numbers together, looking at the changes and then we can give the numbers to Mr. [Municipal Orderer Charles] Ferraioili and talk about the surplus," Eagen said. "A couple of other revenues are down, some are up, so it’s just a matter of looking at the big picture."

Eagan, along with Township Administrator James Leach also provided a brief overview of some of the expenditures slotted for 2013.

$5,000 for minute-book restoration at the clerk's office.   

"This is a continuation of what we did last year, we did about 20         books lastyear and we're just going to keep continuing with books that are unreadable," said Township Clerk Lori Harvin. "The books we did last year ranged from 1979 to 1985, we put them on microfilm so we could get rid of the large format. We're doing microfilming of the old cash books and we're doing the minute books also."

$2,400 for an electric toilet at the historic society.

"We went round and round about putting water there, septic; it just can't be done, there's not enough room for a septic," Leach said. "We gave them $1,200 for an electric toilet, the actual cost is about $1,800 plus there's a little interior renovation that has to be done. I talked to them last week and [added] another $1,200, so that's $2,400."

$2,700 to replace the "inoperable, 40-year-old cabinets" that are "not safe" at the health department.

$60,000 for meter replacements, continuing the replacement program from last year.

"Last year we started the metering replacement program," Leach said. "So far if we bought 500 [water] meters and installed 475, with the $60,000 this year that'll enable us to buy another 485 meters and hopefully get them all installed this year. That'll put us up roughly to one-quarter of the meters we replaced; if we continue to do close to 500 a year [for] another year or two I think one of the meter readers will be retiring, we have two part-timers we won't have to replace. When the program is complete we won't need any meter readers."

$25,000 for the building department, earmarked to replace vehicles.

"That is to replace the several-year-old Ford Explorer with 120,000 miles, which is probably going to be sent down to junk," Leach said. "[We will replace it with] another small, four-wheel-drive vehicle."

Some of the projected projects were departures from last year's plan. Like the firearms range upgrades. 

"Last year we budgeted $35,000 for a firearms range upgrades, we also budgeted $50,000 for an addition to the Prospect Point firehouse," Leach said. "The range program just can't be done, we're not going to do it. To do it it's more like $225,000."

According to Leach, the plan is to re-appropriate $25,000 of that and put it toward the firehouse addition.

"We've got some quotes and they come in more than we thought it was going to be," Leach said. "The oversize garage doors are expensive."

The next budget meeting is scheduled for April 3 and then the budget will be introduced on April 17.