What to expect at Monday's City Commission meeting

Sault, Michigan City Commissioners will be discussing a six month review of the 2015-16 Fiscal Year budget on Monday night.  A recommendation is being made to approve the budget amendment that includes several decreases, most notably a 157 thousand dollar decrease in General Fund Revenues.  Budget revisions resulting from commission actions range from more than 51 thousand dollars from the Contingency Fund for emergency repairs to refrigeration equipment at Pullar Stadium to more than 1.3 million for the Community Development Block Grant Water Main Repair and Replacement Project. Some funding sources for the latter were posted to a prior fiscal year.  Other budget revisions resulting from commission actions include 30 thousand dollars for a Waterfront Development Study and 55 hundred dollars in additional funding for mitigation of the impact of the Emerald Ash Borer and to replace trees lost to the invasive species. According to the City Manager’s Report, most departments of the city have stayed within budget, given the tight budget that was adopted last spring.  Meantime, a full day work session to develop goals for the 2016-17 budget is scheduled for next Monday, Feburary 8th.  Identified goals from that session will be announced at the next Commission meeting on February 15th.

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City Commissioners are being asked to adopt a proposed four year Master Recreation Plan on Monday.  The plan would be in effect until 2020 — it’s being done to insure the city is eligible for future grant funding.  The proposed document has been in the works since December and has been worked on by Lake State graduate Alex Strobehn, who is also a graduate of the Public Administration Program at Northern Michigan University.  Strobehn has been working with City Administration, the Community Services Board and the Planning Commission to collect the data used to update the Master Recreation Plan.   A final draft of the proposed document was approved by the Community Services board almost two months ago, with a 30 day public comment period following that approval.

The final Master Recreation Plan be found here:  http://saultcity.com/Page/251