HOLMES BEACH – The city’s proposed 2024-25 budget is over halfway to the finish line to be in place for the Oct . 1 start of the fiscal year.
Commissioners held the first of two public hearings for the proposed budget during a Sept. 11 special meeting. Commissioner Terry Schaefer said the budget that commissioners approved during that meeting was the sixth version.
Currently, the budget proposes a total of $13,916,590 in operating revenues and expenses along with $11,317,006 in total carryover and reserves, including $7,157,500 in general unassigned reserves, the money that the city holds for emergency situations. The total budget, including reserves, is $25,233,595, a difference of $111,639 over the approved 2023-24 fiscal year budget. Titsworth said that some of the reserves, particularly the stormwater reserves, are for projects planned for the current fiscal year that are carrying over to the upcoming fiscal year.
One of the items that changed between the July budget workshops and the current proposed budget was a line item of $307,000 in the public works department budget. The monies were previously set aside for the purchase of an algae harvester, along with training for employees and disposal fees. In the updated budget, Titsworth noted that the harvester would now only be purchased if it could be funded by a grant.
“It’s a placeholder,” Titsworth answered after commission candidate Carol Whitmore expressed concerns about the purchase. Whitmore said she believes the purchase is a duplication of services since Manatee County owns two similar machines that she said the city could borrow if needed.
Titsworth said she doesn’t believe that the city or its residents should have to pay for the algae harvester or for the cost to maintain and utilize it because she believes that problems in other municipalities, such as sewage dumping from the city of Bradenton and the Piney Point wastewater spill in Manatee County, are contributing to Holmes Beach’s algae problems. Therefore, she said the purchase wouldn’t be made until grant funding for the entire cost could be secured, but because the algae harvester is important to the Clean Water Ad Hoc Committee, she left the placeholder in the budget for the purchase. As to the county-owned harvesters, Titsworth told Whitmore that the county algae harvesters don’t meet the needs of the city as they are designed primarily to work in boat ramps, not in canals, which is what the city needs.
Whitmore also said the historic cottage the city is moving to Grassy Point Preserve could be considered a museum, which would be a tourist attraction, and the Manatee County Tourist Development Council might be willing to fund that nearly $100,000 expenditure.
Other items that changed include the removal of a planned new hire for the public works department, increases in insurance costs and a reduction in equipment costs in the Holmes Beach Police Department budget.
Copies of the proposed budget are available online at www.holmesbeachfl.org and in the lobby at city hall during regular business hours.
The second and final public hearing and vote on the budget is scheduled on Tuesday, Sept. 26 at 5:01 p.m. at Holmes Beach City Hall.
