Othello budget solid, city waiving chamber event fees

OTHELLO — Monday’s Othello City Council meeting featured a presentation from the city’s Finance Officer Spencer Williams on the city’s projected 2024 revenue sources. The council also unanimously voted to waive all the city event fees for the Chamber of Commerce’s upcoming Family Fall Festival.

The estimated revenues for the city for 2024 as of Monday totaled about $23.7 million. Williams emphasized that this estimate is not a perfect prediction of the revenue.

Williams said that the city is in a good financial position going into budgeting season and then into a new year.

“We have the ability to meet all the operational needs, and all those kinds of things in the city,” Williams said. “Right now, in the budget, we're just in the process of saying, ‘Okay, so all the operations are taken care of, now, what are the priorities for these other either capital purchases or larger one-time purchases?’ So things are good. I don't have any specific concerns.”

The operating portion of the budget is pretty much the same year to year, Williams said.

“The part that has big fluctuations are the projects, so like water projects, and park projects, and street projects, and those are things that depend on when we get the grants and when we're working through those projects, those can fluctuate all over the board,” Williams said.

The city’s recent focus has been on improvements to the city’s parks, particularly Lions Park, including a new basketball court and playground.

“The big focuses of the general fund are law enforcement, so all the public safety stuff, and then parks and rec. That's been a huge focus of (the) council,’ Williams said.

During Monday’s meeting, the council also heard a presentation from the Greater Othello Chamber of Commerce, represented by Chamber Manager Jackie Wilhelm, who requested to form a partnership with the city for the chamber’s upcoming Family Fall Festival on Oct. 21 outside City Hall. The chamber previously partnered with the city to put on a movie night in August.

“I was hoping that we could partner again with this event and hopefully have some of our fees waived or reduced, just because that $2,000 bill is a little steep for us,” Wilhelm said. “It's our first fall festival, this year, and we're just trying to bring more community events to keep people here in Othello.”

Wilhelm said if the event grows in the future the chamber can pay the full set of fees.

Council members debated how much to reduce the fees before deciding to partner with the chamber and waive all of the fees except the damage deposit, which the chamber will get back after the event. The council then unanimously approved the facility use agreement.

Council member Denae Valdez complimented Wilhelm and the chamber.

“I think what you're doing is super awesome, trying to bring the community together, bring families out,” she said. “It seems like you guys have had a lot of energy this year in trying to bring it all back to life, so I appreciate it and think it's super neat.”

Also at the meeting, council members approved a change order to the Lions Park basketball court project after the sod installation estimate failed to cover what was actually needed. The change order allows the city to contract with Dug Excavation to complete the additional sod installation at a discounted rate, for a total of $44,850.

City Engineer Shawn O’Brien said the additional costs are covered by American Rescue Plan Act funds.

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android.

Estimated Othello 2024 Revenue:

General Fund: $7.8 million

Public Safety: $590,000

Street Fund: $2.3 million

Water Fund: $6.3 million

Sewer Fund: $3.4 million

Solid Waste: $2.4 million

Tourism Fund: $120,000

Real Estate Excise Tax: $180,000

TBD: $620,000