The city council met 6 p.m. April 3 to discuss the city’s budget and appointments to committees and utility positions.
The meeting began with a staff presentation to the council reviewing quarterly investment and financial reports regarding the final quarter of 2017. The presentation demonstrated that the city’s finances at that time were appropriate for the amount of development and weather conditions.
The council unanimously approved to take the first steps in implementing a flood warning system. The project will begin with a 60 day research phase, followed by a 90 day period to create a report and implementation plan. The system is expected to be in effect within a year.
The city council acknowledged to set a maximum budget of $47 million for municipal expenses in the coming year. The notice was not an approval of the amount, but an approval to begin determining the potential cost of the year with a cap of $47 million.
The council finally heard a presentation on impact fees, concerning water usage that sustains the cost and maintenance of the city’s water services. Most notably discussed was the change in water metering policy; since 2002, the city has used the size of water meters to determine impact fees, but advances in meter technology has made them almost twice as much as they were in the past.
The fees will now be gauged using peak water flow as a standard regardless of meter size, fortifying city policy against the increasingly efficient water meters.