Meeting Provides Starting Point For St. Mary Aldermen In Getting Arms Around Budget

The St. Mary Board of Aldermen last Thursday reviewed some numbers related to the budgets of the water and sewer department in a meeting that served as the starting point for the board to get some ideas how to balance the city’s budget.

The board will continue the discussion with a work session following its next regular meeting, which will be moved from the second Thursday — which is Valentine’s Day in February — to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, February 13.

Board president Brian Helms wanted to set a goal for the board to have its arms around the budget by the end of the March.

The city’s fiscal year begins on October 1.

Helms said the aldermen “weren’t really involved in the budget process” for the current fiscal year, and they wanted to familiarize themselves with the budget.

The budget was approved in August of 2018 by the current board, two of whom had been elected in April.

Helms said city clerk David Woods and Mayor Gloria Bader had a larger role in the current budget.

“This meeting is not really about making any changes in the budget,” Helms said. “It’s not about questioning anybody’s cost or anything like that. The whole idea is to assess our situation.”

He said the meeting would be a starting point for gathering information to make changes going forward.

See complete story in the January 30 edition of the Herald.