by John Dowd
At the September 26 meeting, the Stevensville Town Council discussed several topics related to their budget for the next fiscal year.
The first big item on the agenda was a presentation by a representative from Denning, Downey and Associates, an accounting firm out of Kalispell. The company did the most recent financial audit for the Town, looking into fiscal year 2022-2023. The company noted several things not up to code. They also stated that the Town is still not taking in enough revenue to support the water and sewer bonds.
This failure to meet bond requirements was the reason the Town claimed they raised water rates, even though the vote to raise the rates skirted the public’s “right to know.” Later in the meeting, Mayor Bob Michalson stated that, now that the new preliminary budget for fiscal year 2024-2025 has been completed, community members may not want the vote on water rate increases to come back before the council, because it would take into consideration the new figures, and the cost would likely go up even further. The problem is, the rates may eventually need to come up anyway to meet compliance requirements.
The last thing the auditors mentioned was that they have seen an improvement in the town from last year’s audit, and the town seems to be making efforts to correct problems, as there are now fewer violations.
The next budget related item included the public hearing for the preliminary Town budget for the fiscal year 2024-2025. Nancy Lowell, a former council member and former town clerk, stood to comment. She mentioned that the budget did not balance out. Robert Underwood, part time finance officer for the Town, explained that they are within the legally required percentage when looking at the accuracy of their figures. He said there is a lot subject to change within the allotted year, which is why there is a safety margin. He also stated that is why they overestimated so much, and created the safety margin. Another of Lowell’s concerns was with the cannabis fund estimate, which the Town receives from the county. Lowell thought the estimate seemed low. Underwood stated they estimated it low because if they spend the money and don’t receive as much as they thought, they would be out that money. It is after all, he stated, just an estimate. To him, this again fell into creating safety margins.
When looking over the budget, Underwood stated that town employees will be getting a 2% raise across the board for almost all employees. However, council members elected to decrease their pay to help with the budget. According to council member Stacie Barker, “By decreasing our council pay, which isn’t very much, we hope to help out in other areas in the budget.”
The budget also moved the ambulance fund under the fire department fund, and it was renamed “emergency medical services.” This was done, according to Underwood, to prevent the Town from having to move the money there. “Now we don’t have to play that game of moving money,” said Underwood.
After Underwood went over some of the budget changes, Michalson spoke. “We went through it line by line,” said the mayor, describing how this was the deepest dive into a budget he has been a part of in Stevensville. “I think that’s the way we should do it every year,” he said.
In other business, the Town will be doing some collection of organic yard material for their fall clean-up. According to Michalson, the town will be going around collecting materials, which may include bagged leaves and bundled branches, but no rocks, dirt or trash. The Town plans to be slightly more lenient this year, due to the extreme storms seen late in the summer. Pick-ups will take place throughout next week. The Zone 1 pick-up will be at Creekside and Twin Creeks on Monday, October 7. Zone 2 will be from Central Avenue to Main Street, north, on October 8. Zone 3 will be from 5th Street to Main Street, to Park Avenue, north, on October 9. Zone 4 will be from 5th Street to Main Street, to Middle Burnt Fork Road, south, on October 11. There will be no drop off at Lewis and Clark Park this year. For more information on the fall clean-up, interested parties can call (406) 777-5271, ext. 104.
The town also appointed a new Airport Manager. Brian Germane was appointed by the mayor and the town council voted to accept the appointment. Germane stood to speak, saying that he would like to keep the momentum going that was started by his predecessor, Will Rowe, as well as to improve relations. “We’ve got such a great group of people involved here,” said Germane, mentioning the airport board and the town, the airport users and the town council. He is optimistic about the future. Craig Thomas, the Stevensville airport board chair, spoke on behalf of Germane’s appointment, saying “he is dedicated and he is very much involved. I will give him my full support.”