Ephrata passes $40.6M city budget

EPHRATA — The Ephrata City Council passed the city’s budget during its Dec. 6 meeting. The budget includes a 3% cost of living increase for city staff and increases in insurance expenditures, while city revenues have also increased in some areas.

“We had a decrease in our capital projects, increases in personnel costs and we’re still planning on doing Nat Washington Way,” City Clerk Leslie Trachsler said. “That was also included in the 2023 budget, so it’s still going to be carried over and that is funded through a grant from the (Transportation Improvement Board).” 

Nat Washington Way will be resurfaced using a Washington Transportation Improvement Board grant with a 10% city match of $60,000 for the project. Further street improvements will come to connector streets between Basin Street and West C Street, she said. That will involve pulverizing and repaving those roads.

City Administrator Ray Towry said the roadwork will be designed and constructed to ensure the roadways and associated sidewalks are usable and Americans with Disabilities Act compliant. 

Expenditures for 2024 include multimedia upgrades to the council chambers at city hall, a new fire command rig expected to use about $64,000 in American Rescue Plan Act — also known as ARPA — funds. The environmental systems at City Hall and the Ephrata Recreation Center will get upgrades and new tables and chairs will be purchased for the ERC. City pool maintenance will also be taken care of and some park improvements are planned, according to Trachsler. Park improvements will include new restrooms at Lions Park.

According to the budget document, a bit more than $1.6 million is set aside for operation and maintenance of city parks, while about $103,000 is budgeted for the city’s convention center.

Trachsler said a new shop will be created for the city’s new sewer vac truck, which Ephrata employees say will allow faster and more convenient repairs when sewer system maintenance is required. On the wastewater and water side, the budget will also allow for the completion of engineering and design for wastewater treatment plant improvements as well as starting construction once those items are ready to go. It also includes engineering and design for a new water tower, as well as the construction start of that project. The depth of the city’s fourth and fifth wells will be increased and the purchase of a transfer pump will come out of the 2024 budget. Sanitation, water-sewer and water-sewer construction together come out to a budgeted amount of $27.9 million combined.

City staff also expect to replace two police cars, a water service truck, an ATV and will re-roof the city’s shop. The shop roofing repair will be funded by pulling monies from various other city funds, Trachsler said.

While the expenditures for these projects and purchases will be high, the city will see reduced expenditures in other areas due to the sewer vac truck purchase and a fire vehicle purchase — both expensive vehicles — coming out of the 2023 budget, she said. 

R. Hans “Rob” Miller may be reached at editor@columbiabasinherald.com.

    Ephrata City Clerk Leslie Trachsler