County expects to balance $40k budget deficit

Home City News County expects to balance $40k budget deficit

Nine departments have already put Hillsdale County almost $40,000 over budget, but this overspending will be offset later in the year by other departments spending under budget, finance manager Derek Ringman said at the Hillsdale County Commissioners’ meeting Tuesday.

According to Ringman, the county has spent only 14 percent of its annual budget so far; it is only a few departments that have overspent their target budgets at this point in the year.

“I’m comfortable that we’ll at least meet our expenditure expectations this year as a county as a whole,” he said.

He said some deficits, such as that in the Information Technology Department, exist because of large service payments that are only paid once a year.

He and the commissioners agreed, however, that Ringman will sit down with department heads to determine where they can make changes. Several commissioners expressed concerns that the IT department frequently overspends its budget.

“In the areas we’re having problems, we need to address those areas as soon as possible,” Commissioner Bruce Caswell said.

In other business, Commissioner Ruth Brown shared developments in the city of Hillsdale.

“As far as the city is concerned, in summer 2016 the State Street Reconstruction Project is going to finish State Street,” Brown said.

This means the street will be under construction from Wolcott Street to the city’s east limits.

She also said the city will soon select a new city manager to replace acting City Manager Doug Terry, and Hillsdale Township will host a meeting on April 1 at 7 p.m. at the Hillsdale City Hall. Stanley Clingerman, engineer manager of the Hillsdale County Road Commission, will give a presentation on the May ballot proposal to raise funding for road improvements.

“Stan will be talking more about how that is going to affect Hillsdale County and our roads,” Brown said.

The township is also in the final stages of merging the rural fire department to the City of Hillsdale Fire Department.

At the meeting, the commissioners received LifeWays CEO Maribeth Leonard’s quarterly report on the health of the mental health facility.

“We’re working on a capital improvement project,” Leonard said. “We’re looking at a bond that would enable us to do repairs for the building.”

The two LifeWays facilities in Jackson and Hillsdale are working together on a bond that would help them make repairs without having to obtain local dollars, which has been a challenge for LifeWays in the past.

Resolutions approved at the meeting included an updated inclement weather policy that better notifies employees of county office and building closures. According to Board of Commissioners chairman Mark Wiley, there has been need for an updated policy, as 30 percent of people did not receive proper notifications the last time there was a closure in the county due to inclement weather.