City cuts many programs

With the approval of the city budget, city departments are feeling the effects of budget cuts.

The approved budget is $30 million, which is close to $2 million less than last year’s budget. The fiscal year begins July 1 and ends June 30, 2017.

“Throughout the budget process with the city administrator and other department heads, we worked at looking at specific programs within each department and prioritized them based on importance and need with the department and also how that ties into the need and importance of the service to the city residents,” Police Chief Chris Steffen said.

The department’s training and travel budget was cut by 30 percent.

“Some of the issues in the police department that we encounter is that over 90 percent of our budget is personnel related, which means to lower those costs you have to eliminate staff,” Steffen said.

However, the department continues to have vacant positions due to not finding qualified people to fill them, so this lowers costs for the department and the city.

The funds for these positions are included in this year’s budget, as well as in previous budgets. However the money was not spent.

“It would be difficult to say how we plan to cut future budgets due to our budget not being independent from the rest of the city and decisions have to be made as to prioritize cuts,” Steffen said. “Public safety is a pretty high importance to the governing body so again, it would just have to be looked at and determined at the time if or how much more we would have to reduce.”

According to the Director of Parks and Recreation, Brad Raney, the main cuts his department had to make is in personnel, seasonal hires and training. In the past, the department had 28-30 seasonal employees, but that has been limited to 16 hires.

Also, a full-time vacancy in Raney’s department was not included in this year’s budget. Travel and training was reduced by 50 percent. Contract renegotiations for building maintenance have taken place to save money.

Some programs have been removed from the budget by the city council. The Middle School New Year’s Eve Party has been removed from the budget and the Middle School After School Program was eliminated as well, mainly due to low numbers.

On July 8, the department will host the Chalk It Up Sidewalk Art competition but next year the Main Street organization will look to take it over with their volunteers.

Another cut program is Movies in the Park, which will not take place this summer. Funding for the Crystal Classic festival has also been reduced and will be reorganized to create a different event altogether.

The event will no longer involve ice carving artists, as that is “extremely expensive,” Raney said.

In addition to reducing programs, water and fertilizer schedules have also been reduced and the focus of weed control is being limited to Flaming Gorge Way and Uinta Drive.

“We are asking residents to care for the right-of-way and alleyways around their properties,” Raney said.

He added that the department is instructed a certain amount for the budget and they make plans accordingly each year during the budget decision process.

“There were several other general cuts in funding to Parks and Recreation Center that do not result in the elimination of a program or service,” Raney said. “Just doing more with less.”

The Green River Fire Department had to cut some of the travel and training portion of their budget as well as their operations and maintenance budget.

“We did cut some from our travel and training, but should still be able to get our firefighters to beneficial trainings, or we may be able to bring the training to them or do the training in-house,” Interim Fire Chief Mike Liberty said.

Liberty also said the operations and maintenance cuts means the department will have to more closely watch what they spend.

“These cuts should not have any effect on delivery of services by the fire department,” he said. “We will still be there when people need us.”

The Community Development Department is a service department that does not have a lot of operational expense, according to the Director of Community Development Laura Profaizer. Because of this, some may not see their cuts as significant. There are four divisions under Community Development, which include its Building Division, the Geographic Information Systems Division, the Planning and Zoning Division and the Main Street Division. Profaizer said their biggest cut was in the Building Division. A building inspector and zoning technician position has been vacant and it was decided the position will not be filled.

“With only one inspector handling all permitting, plan reviews and inspections, citizens may have to wait longer to receive issue building permits,” Profaizer said. She said the time available for the inspector to answer the public’s general building questions may be limited.

Although the Urban Renewal Agency/Main Street Division is listed in the Community Development Department budget, the Main Street board has with its separate budget. The organization had about 30 percent reduced from its budget.

“We had to take a hard look at some of our events and other programs and prioritize those that the community counts on Main Street to provide,” URA and Main Street Administrator Jennie Melvin said. “A good majority of that reduction was absorbed through completing our M.E.E.T. in Green River Urban Renewal Plan using internal resources instead of an outside consultant.”

She said it allowed Main Street to continue providing the Farmers’ Market, Trunk or Treat and caring for the flowers on Main Street, as well as other popular events and programs.

“We are focusing our resources to expand our Farmers’ Market as well as our downtown promotions,” Melvin said.

Main Street had to reduce the number of concerts it hosted in the Clock Tower and will also not host the Santa’s Arrival event. However, they are planning to expand the Mayor’s Tree Lighting to connect the community during the holiday season.

Main Street also has the opportunity for a full-time VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) member that would help with projects including, “completing an inventory of the buildings and spaces that exist in our downtown,” Melvin said.

“Gathering that information will be time consuming and having the VISTA member complete that project will allow the Main Street program to move forward with other aspects of economic development for downtown,” she concluded.