Warden budget includes money for fourth police officer, sewer improvements

WARDEN — Working on its sewer system, adding a fourth police officer and a new walking path from Sandy Way to East First Street are among the projects detailed in Warden’s $6,333,471 budget next year.

The water/sewer budget was $2.89 million. That included the completion of one sewer lift station and construction of a second one, said City Clerk-Treasurer Kris Shuler.

City officials also plan 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 funding for a fourth officer for the Warden Police Department. That will allow the department to expand the hours officers are on patrol in the city.

“We’re hoping to get 24-hour coverage,” or very close to it, Massa said.

Shuler said the city received a grant from the regional Transportation Improvement Board for planning and construction of improvements to North County Road (Road U Southeast), from West First Street to the city limits.

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

It’s used by local commercial traffic, as well as general traffic, coming to and from Warden. There’s also a lot of pedestrian traffic along that road, Massa said, and it’s a popular route to Interstate 90.

The $652,000 grant will pay for construction planning, with construction scheduled for 2021. The project will be a complete rebuild of that section, Shuler said.

The budget also includes money to build the pathway from the residential neighborhood on Sandy Way to East First Street, an area of high pedestrian traffic but inadequate pedestrian routes.

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 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 $210,00. 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 are making a deposit for water-sewer services.