Part time animal control, walking path part of 2021 Warden budget

WARDEN — Work on Warden’s sewer system, a new walking path from Sandy Way to East First Street and a fourth police officer are among the projects in the city’s 2021 budget.

Warden City Council members approved the $6,333,471 budget at the Nov. 24 meeting.

The water-sewer fund was given $2.89 million. That includes the completion of one sewer lift station and constructing a second one, said city clerk-treasurer Kris Shuler.

City officials also plan to work on an east-west water main, she said. The water-sewer fund includes $466,000 to pay back bonds issued for the city’s wastewater treatment facility.

Warden Mayor Tony Massa said the budget includes money for a fourth officer for the Warden Police Department. That will allow the department to expand the hours that WPD officers are on patrol in the city. Eventually “we’re hoping to get 24-hour coverage,” or very close to it, Massa said.

Shuler said the city received a $652,000 grant this year from the state Transportation Improvement Board for planning and construction of improvements to North County Road (Road U S.E.), from West First Street to the city limits. The city will pay 10% of the grant.

“It’s a really busy road,” Massa said.

It’s used by local commercial traffic -- and just general traffic -- coming to and from Warden. There’s also a lot of pedestrian traffic, Massa said, and it’s a popular route to I-90.

The planning in 2021 will take $85,000 of the grant, with the construction scheduled for 2022 and taking the remainder of the grant. The project will be a complete rebuild of that section, Shuler said.

The municipal budget also includes money to build an asphalt pathway from the residential neighborhood on Sandy Way to East First Street. The project had been scheduled for 2020, Shuler said, but required the Grant County PUD to move some electrical poles. The COVID-19 outbreak meant the PUD wasn’t doing much of that work in 2020, Shuler said, so the project was pushed back to 2021.

The portion of the project along East First Street will be a sidewalk, she said. Massa said one of the long term goals of city officials is to improve routes for pedestrians all around town.

The 2021 current expense fund will be $1.57 million. The water-sewer fund is $2.89 million, and the street fund is budgeted at $787,295. The public safety fund is budgeted at $210,000. The sanitation fund was budgeted at $548,400, and the cemetery fund at $101,813.

The equipment fund is budgeted at $101,600, and the capital improvement fund was budgeted at $102,000. The consumer deposit fund was budgeted at $3,000. The consumer deposit fund is the city’s designation for people who live in a rental and make a deposit for water-sewer services.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].