Warden council approves $7.1 million budget for 2023

WARDEN — So far in 2022, the city of Warden has spent around half of the $13,000 it budgeted this year for snow removal, according to City Administrator and Clerk/Treasurer Kristine Shuler. “The city had three snow removal days in January 2022, and three this month,” Shuler wrote in an email to the Columbia Basin Herald. According to the $7.1 million 2023 budget passed by the city council in late November, Warden had set aside $18,500 for snow and ice control in 2023, of which $10,000 will cover regular and overtime wages for city snow crews. In the city’s regular total budget, the council approved a general fund of $1.8 million, including $742,000 for law enforcement, as well as $2.6 million for water and sewer service citywide, and $713,000 to maintain and upgrade the city’s roads and streets. In addition, the city is receiving roughly $786,000 in American Rescue Plan Act monies as part of the federal government’s COVID-19 relief package passed by Congress in 2021.