Fenton budget to include $300k for community center
FENTON – The board of aldermen here will accept its 2018-2019 budget during a meeting held Friday afternoon; the budget will go into effect July 1.
The budget will remain largely the same year-to-year with very few changes, said Mayor Eddie Alfred Jr. Alfred said unlike other cities and towns the village holds its budget meetings close to the time they are set to take effect so that they can ensure that debts do not get passed from one year’s budget to the next.
“We waited until June 29 so that we can ammend the old budget,” Alfred said. “That way if we have some outstanding debts we can try to make sure they’re paid off and won’t be carried into the new year.”
Projected revenues for the village are expected to stay around the the $806,330 in revenues it took in the previous year, Alfred said.
The town’s only large expense for the year will be $300,000 expected to be used to construct a community center. The same amount was budgeted for the previous financial year, but Alfred said this year will see the money spent on the facility.
“I’m holding blueprints in my hands right now, we’ve got the slab poured and hopefully this year is the year we’ll start building the community center,” he said.
Once complete the community center building is expected to be 5,000 square feet and be able to accommodate nearly 300 people and offer spaces for village residents to have parties and meetings. The facility will feature seating and kitchen space and equipment. The slab for the building has already been poured as part of the construction of the parking lot for the village’s pavillion built last year.
The only other expense the town will have outside of its normal operating expenses will be $8,000 budgeted for a trailer that can be used to move the village’s escavator to project-sites. Currently the escavator’s tires are built in such a way that they tear up the road they travel on, Alfred said. With a trailer the villge can move the escavator without causing any road damage.