Less than a month after hearing budget requests from Town of Highlands department heads, the board of commissioners got to work budget cuts during Thursday’s work session.
The area with the most expenditures listed for deletion from the 2021-22 budget was the public works department’s street paving section.
In public works director Lamar Nix’ original presentation he listed eight roads that needed paving at a total cost of $884,000. Town manager Josh Ward and the commissioners cut that number down to $620,000 by keeping only half of the projects on the paving schedule.
The projects approved were repaving of Spring Street and Sherwood Forest Road, as well as paving Lower Lake Road and Upper Lake Road, both of which are currently gravel roads.
“Over the past three years we have done a good job getting caught up on our paving around town because we had let it fall behind,” mayor Patrick Taylor said. “This year we wanted to focus on a few big projects that will have a big impact and potentially decrease some sedimentation issues we have been seeing.”
Along with the four road paving projects, the board did move forward with three sidewalk installation projects – new sidewalk along US 64 and at First Presbyterian Church, and replacing the tree planters at Reeve’s Ace Hardware on Main Street at a total cost of $198,000.
In the equipment section of the budget, the board moved forward with the replacement of two dump trucks in the public works department, a bucket truck in the electric department and two police cruisers for the police department.
“Chief (Andrea) Holland went and got some additional prices and we are actually going to go with the Ford Explorer hybrid SUVs,” Taylor said. “They are $5,000 more than the gas-only versions (at $37,000), but over the life of those vehicles, which are warrantied for 100,000 miles, we will recoup that in fuel savings. And personally, I feel like it’s important to be a leader in conserving energy which is why we have multiple projects with that shared goal.”
A second energy-saving project will be to replace Highlands’ streetlights with LED bulbs, which will require less electricity and last longer than traditional bulbs. Taylor noted that the amount of light produced by each bulb can also be controlled via a dimmer switch based on the time of year. The total cost of that project is $117,000.
The biggest ticket item included in the budget is the replacement of water lines along Moorewood Road. The project carries a $670,000 price tag but will benefit the town’s entire water system, according to Taylor.
“We have talked about the Moorewood Road water lines for the past few years and Lamar made it clear that we need to move forward with that project at this point,” Taylor said. “Going from a 2-inch line to a 6-inch line will increase the capacity along that section of the system, and it will also allow us to connect that line to another existing line to create a loop rather than having the Moorewood water line dead end.”
The of all the proposed capital expenditures is $3,456,000, which is up from $1,639,500 in the current fiscal year budget and on par with the 2019-20 budget, which featured $3,234,900 in capital expenditures.
“Last year, because of the onset of COVID-19, we were very conservative with our capital budget,” Ward said. “Now that we are hopefully getting towards the end of the pandemic, and we can see that our revenue numbers are strong, we can get back to making the investment in capital we need to ensure our departments have all the tools to serve our citizens.”
During tonight’s regularly scheduled April commissioners meeting the board will review additional budget items and set a public hearing regarding for the 2021-22 budget.