By David Fenker
david@nmpaper.com
NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. – In a brief meeting Wednesday, Oct. 4, the North Manchester Town Council approved its 2018 budget ordinance and one related resolution.
The council previously approved a $4,300,205 budget proposal on first reading at its Sept. 6 meeting after a public hearing. Wednesday’s meeting saw the second and third readings – and approvals – of the proposed budget ordinance, General Ordinance No. 7, 2017, with a total of $3,726,857 after reductions and additional appropriations.
The council also approved Resolution No. 4, 2017, which modified the budget with additional appropriations and budget reductions, after a public hearing on the resolution which no members of the public attended.
“A lot of these are home-ruled funds, what we consider cash funds. You can’t spend the cash two years in a row, so that money is appropriated in one year; if it doesn’t get used, it is appropriated in another year… so, these reductions are just saying we’re not going to use this cash in this year,” Clerk-Treasurer Carrie Mugford said before the hearing.
Major additional appropriations included $45,000 to Fire Fighting Equipment and $35,000 to Cumulative Fire and Building, which Mugford said the town had been saving for North Manchester Fire Department’s new pumper truck, delivered in mid-September.
Major budget reductions included a $124,000 decrease in LOIT – Special Distribution funds.
“That $124,000 we had thought we might use for Community Crossing isn’t going to get used until next year, so we’re saving that cash until next year,” Mugford said, referring to an Indiana Department of Transportation matching grant that the town has previously received and used to repave several streets.
All budget information and documents are available at Town Hall, located at the intersection of Main and Market, or online via Indiana’s Gateway website.
For more on the council’s meeting, see the Oct. 11 issue of the News-Journal.