NORWICH – The City of Norwich Public Safety, Public Works, and Finance and Personnel Committees, met at a special meeting Tuesday night to hear 2018 budget presentations from the different department heads of the city.
Department heads from Department of Public Works, Youth Bureau, Emergency Management Office, Code Enforcement, Human Resources, and Finance Department presented budgets at the special meeting, with the Police Department and Fire Department's presentations waived until an additional meeting on Wednesday, November 2.
DPW
DPW Superintendent Carl Ivarson presented a tentative budget to the committees similar to the department's 2017 budget. Alderman Ward 1 asked why the waste water line was increasing four percent.
Ivarson said, "To cover expenses, you've got two big expenses down there: one is phosphate, one is nitrogen. It takes a lot of chemicals. You also have a personnel increase."
Alderman Ward 4 Walter Schermerhorn noted that the department's utility costs are down.
Youth Bureau
Youth Bureau Director Robert Mason presented the bureau's budget, attributing the budget's increase to minimum wage increase and added hours to the recreation coordinator.
Mason said there's $20,525 in total revenue expected, which is 23 percent of the budget coming back to the city, not including the grants Mason writes, this year totalling over $6,700.
Caldwell asked Mason who he gets the grants from, to which he replied the R.C. Smith Foundation, among others.
Caldwell commended Mason on the bureau's participation of youth in the community.
EMO
The City's Emergency Management Officer Director A. Wesley Jones offered a similar budget to this year's, with a plan to purchase a dual-band radio and its battery over the next two years.
Jones said the radio is more than the office's annual equipment budget, but would do everything the EMO manages in the city with one radio.
Jones also noted that the EMO's computer server is from 2006 and is on its last leg, but the county will be picking up the expenses and taking care of it.
