As Iola city leaders craft the city’s 2027 budget — the plan is to have it approved at their Aug. 24 meeting — much of July included having department heads spell out their needs for the upcoming year.
The Iola City Council hosted a pair of budget workshops with the various superintendents at the Council’s two July meetings.
Discussions ran the gamut, from how soon Iola may need to find additional electric generation capabilities, to the ongoing debate on the effectiveness of mosquito spraying, and the hesitation of investing in recreational facilities in the flood-prone Riverside Park.
Among the big-ticket items the department heads discussed:
Recreation Department
Jason Bauer has been recreation superintendent for the past 12 years.
When he arrived, the city brought in about $541,000 in revenue. Twelve years later, those revenues had increased $7,000 to $548,000, despite much higher expenses for payroll and health insurance.
The rec department is subsidized by utility reserves (but no property tax funding), a fact not lost on Bauer or City Administrator Matt Rehder.
Bauer said he remained leery of increasing fees for such things playing summer baseball or softball, because hikes in those programs would almost certainly limit the number of youngsters who could play.
He was more receptive to increases in pool admission fees, which stand at $2 per day.
Councilman Doug Kerr also wondered if the city should increase rental fees for its community buildings, from $50 a day to $100, which he said “was pretty cheap.”
“I know there’s a group that wants to cut taxes, and there’s a group that wants to cut salaries,” Kerr said. ‘I’m looking for a way we could increase revenue.”
Bauer noted the city hosts a combined 11,000 events in its buildings, through rec programs, private or public events, and daily walking in the Recreation Community Building.
The Rec Department’s flat budget has led to some pretty hefty needs in the future, Bauer noted.
For example, replacing the lighting fixtures to the ball fields at Riverside Park could cost about $200,000. The Iola Municipal Pool bathhouse needs a new roof, pegged at about $50,000. Replacing the rec building’s roof would cost another $200,000.
That’s not including $200,000 for new scoreboards and fences at the ball diamonds as well.
