Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

City's animal control ordinance changed; council approves budget for coming year

Prescott's City Council amended the city's animal control agreement with Nashville at its regular monthly meeting Monday, Dec. 16.

Earlier this year the council entered into an agreement with Nashville's animal control department for it to pick up dogs in Prescott. However, around the same time, Nashville also entered into a similar agreement with the city of Washington to provide animal control there as well.

Nashville learned it didn't have the space or capability to handle the number of dots its animal control officers would be picking up and had to expand its facilities.

The original agreement between Prescott and Nashville was also for six months.

Under the new agreement, Nashville will provide animal control for Prescott for 12 months and should start sometime after the first of the year.

This, according to Prescott Mayor Howard Taylor, was done under an interlocal governmental agreement between the two towns, with the costs built into Prescott's budget.

Speaking of budgets, the council amended the 2002 budget to make sure the city ended the year balanced.

This, according to Carl Dalrymple, the city's accountant, is always done in December to make sure all departments balance out.

Overall, the city had $335,761.97 left over after expenses.

This, Dalrymple said, was after removing $80,000 for the purchase of an used oil spreader, with this money put in the fund for a new fire station/park office on the east side of town.

There were two expenditures from the sales tax budget totaling $60,000 during the year, he said, and if this money isn't replaced, it won't be available in the sale tax fund again.

The council voted to transfer this amount from the operating fund to the sales tax fund.

From there the council approved a budget for 2003. The anticipated revenue for each department is as follows:

Electric  $6, 171,225

Water  518, 000

Sewer  648,000

General/Administrative  117,000

Fire  19, 164

Police  92,587

Cemetery  1,500

Garbage Collection  245,000

General/Administrative  1,335,600

Street  216,000

Parks  80,092

This budget will be amended two or three times over the course of the year, Dalrymple said, which is normal.

Taylor said some purchases need to be made from the city's depreciation fund. These monies can only be used for the utility departments.

He said a 1984 Kubota tractor needs to be replaced, while two radios need to be bought to keep employees in radio contact, along with a backup being made available. A 35 horsepower tractor at the sewer plant needs to be replaced, as does the 1977 Ford mower being used at the water plant. This mower, he said is too small.

In addition, a three quarter ton truck needs to be bought for the water department, which currently has a 1988 Ford. Five fire hydrants, at a cost of $10,000, need to be bought, along with making about 100 feet of repair in the sewer line from Olive Street toward Wolves Drive In.

Taylor said the city is putting $15,000 a year back to cover the expense of repainting the water tower, which will be mandated in the near future.

Dalrymple said the budget has a cushion of $283,531 built in for emergencies.

Jon Chadwell, executive director of the Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Office, talked about the sales tax and EDO budgets.

He said the EDO budget was cut by $70,000 to help cover the cost of a grant to redo the city's sidewalks.

Money has also been set aside to retrofit the Red River Knitting and Funshine Furniture buildings, with $20,000 built in for prospect incentives.

The sales tax budget includes funds to pave the parking lot at the Depot Museum, with the city needing to address the problem of keeping big trucks off it.

Money was also placed in the Parks budget to build a pavilion at McRae Park.

"We use grants to maximize our money," Chadwell said. "Otherwise we couldn't get much done."

Chadwell said the county projects the millage for the library to bring in $21,000, but didn't set aside any other money for the library budget as the Nevada County Quorum Court wanted to see what the city was putting into the fund.

Chadwell also presented cost estimates for the combination fire station/parks department building.

A 7,000 square foot facility would run $107,000; with a 4,400 square foot building costing $73,300. One 3,600 square feet would run $65,700, while a 2,200 square foot building would cost $43,150.

These figures, he said, don't include plumbing or electrical work. They are just to get the building put up.

Most of the work can be done by city employees, he said, with the city acting as its own contractor. This will save money.

He asked the council to cut a check for the $110,000 budgeted in 2002 for the building so it would be available as needed, and the council wouldn't have to flip-flop funds from one year to another. It did.

The building committee will meet again to decide which plan to go with, then go back before the council with its decision.