Winchester boosts funding for meal delivery program

June 05, 2012|By Katie Perkowski | The Winchester Sun

Rachel Parsons/rparsons@winchestersun.com

The Winchester Board of Commissioners Monday approved a draft budget for fiscal year 2012-13, which projects a general fund cash balance of about $1.6 million at the end of the fiscal year and total revenues of about $15.1 million.

Commissioners cut some funding to outside agencies, but increased funding to others.

Most notably, they voted unanimously to increase funding to Clark County Aging Services from $32,600 to $40,900 to provide the home meal delivery program to half of those currently on a waiting list.

Commissioner Shannon Cox made the motion for the funding increase, and Commissioner Rick Beach seconded.

Last week during the first of the two day-long budget work sessions, Julie Woosley, director of senior programs, told commissioners about the waiting list while she was making her regular budget request.
The $32,000 Woosley requested was the same as last year.

“I was bothered when Julie said there were 14 folks on the list over at the Generations Center that they could not provide meals for, and this is going to sound strange coming from me, but I would like to increase from the $32,600 that the city manager recommended and fund half of what they would need to feed those folks,” Cox said.

Winchester Mayor Ed Burtner said he talked to Judge-Executive Henry Branham, and the Clark County Fiscal Court will vote on whether to fund the other half of people currently on a waiting list.

The draft budget also included the proposed across-the-board pay raises of 3 percent for city employees.

“I think the city manager’s staff has done a good job with trying to preserve and demonstrate the ability to budget to withstand that,” Burtner said of the raises.

Cuts to general fund spending include reduced funding of the Clark County GIS Consortium from the requested amount of $90,000 to about $70,000, eliminating a sign inventory project; reduced funding of professional fees within the engineering department from the requested amount of $50,000 to $25,000; and cutting $5,000 from an employee wellness program that less than 10 employees were participating in.

A funding request from the Winchester-Clark County Literacy Council for $1,800 was eliminated too, because Executive Director Faye Wiseman said the organization did not receive the literacy grant to continue.

Funding increases include a $10,000 increase to the Bluegrass Heritage Museum for building maintenance, bringing the total to $58,000; a $16,000 increase to the Winchester-Clark County Industrial Authority, which is the first funding increase in 14 years, bringing the total to $110,500; and $11,500 to create a community website through the company CivicPlus.

In the capital equipment fund, commissioners and Burtner voted to defer funding on several items. A $40,000 backup generator for City Hall for use during power outages was deferred to gather more information, and a $21,000 fireground simulator package was deferred so cost sharing with other cities can be studied.

At the first budget work session, City Manager Ken Kerns said budget conditions have improved some from last year, and the increase in payroll tax has helped. He also said the addition of new jobs helped.
The budget draft projects the addition of about 200 jobs from Amazon during the 2013 fiscal year to keep numbers conservative. Amazon will add a total of 550 full-time jobs and 600 seasonal jobs by 2017.

A first reading of the budget is scheduled for June 19, and a second reading is scheduled for June 29. The full budget is available to the public at City Hall.

Contact Katie Perkowski at kperkowski@winchestersun.com or follow her on Twitter, @TheSunKatie.

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