Gering officials outline budget proposals for the coming year

Unlike last year, when officials did not have to consider requests for budget cuts, Pat Heath, Gering’s town manager, said he and his staff have not been able to accommodate all of the department’s requests.

“Every year we ask our department heads to share their needs and we will do our best to accommodate them,” Heath said. “Unfortunately, this year we were not able to accommodate all of their requests and we have asked our general fund staff to make some cuts.”

To balance the general fund, officials had to cut general fund requests by about $300,000, Heath said.

Heath said he and his staff tried to remain conservative.

“In making our estimates, we took into account numerous factors, including national and regional economic factors, indicators, trends in the agricultural industry, including this community,” he said.

Because of the city’s delayed review, Heath said he had little time to prepare the budget for this meeting.

“We got this up and running in five weeks,” he said. “Without everyone’s cooperation, we couldn’t have done it in such a short time. So thank you to everyone (involved).”

Gering Police Chief George Holthus was the only department head to speak, but thanked all citizens who came to the hearing.

He spoke about the importance of budget meetings and especially the retrenchment process.

“We cannot achieve everything we would like to do, but it is a reflection of our financial goals for the year,” said Holthus. “And despite the cuts, we all agree that we can still achieve a high quality of service with the cuts we have made to the police.”

The budget for fiscal year 2025 includes a payroll of $7,359,720 and compensation of $10,526,000.02, but Heath proposes creating a full-time position in the engineering/administration department for the upcoming budget.

“This position will fill a position that was eliminated in 2021. With the loss of that position, it became clear that we needed additional support staff,” Heath said.

Attempts were made to hire a part-time employee, but employees “continued to fall behind.”

Most utility costs will remain stable in fiscal year 2025, Heath said, but there will be some changes in water and sewer.

At last year’s budget meeting, Andrew Ross, formerly of the Nebraska Municipal Power Pool, said the days of low water and sewer bills are over due to regulations and upgrades as well as the age of the systems.

“The days of water bills being between $10 and $20 are over,” Ross told the council. “Today, water bills are typically $50 a month, and that includes sewer costs.”

Regarding the fees for the coming fiscal year, Heath said, “Water costs would increase by 91 cents per month with the increase we are proposing. Sewer costs would increase by $1.80 per month and wastewater costs would increase by $1.27 per month. So in total, that would be just under $4 more per month.”

Heath said the city will try to phase in the increases over several years rather than making a one-time large increase.

“We couldn’t increase the sewerage,” he said, “but when we start building the landfill, we know we have to make a bond payment, and we want to be covered by that bond payment. So either way, there will be a percentage increase.”

Heath reiterated that he believed spreading the increases over a longer period of time would place a lesser burden on Gering residents.

The most important investment project discussed was the installation of a generator in the town hall of Gering.

Councilwoman Susan Weideman asked if this was due to the recent experience at City Hall, where there was no power for about 12 hours.

“Yes, but actually it’s been going on … for the last few years, if not a little longer,” Heath said.

He said if something were to happen in the city, the building would have to be used as an emergency operations center.

“We don’t have a facility that can handle that, and we would have to house our EOC either in Scottsbluff or, if there’s space, in the county administration building,” he said. “But we’ve always tried to get a generator for that building.”

Heath said he tried to get a grant through NEMA, but nothing helped him.

As last year, the Council voted to approve all requested funding for external agencies.

There were discussions about two of the outside agencies: Riverside Discovery Center and Midwest Theater.

The Riverside Discovery Center had received funding before, but this year it asked for “a little more than double” what it received last year.

Riley Platt, member of the zoo board, gave a presentation on behalf of the Riverside Discovery Center.

“We have been in a kind of transition phase for some time and are now trying to stabilize this and hire a new managing director,” said Platt.

Platt mentioned several times the “direct connection” between the amount of money available and the quality of talent that money could attract.

“We have two finalists,” Platt added. “One was here last week visiting us from South Africa, and another is coming next week from Pennsylvania. Both are very promising candidates.”

Platt said the ultimate goal is to regain AZA accreditation and hiring a qualified executive director will hopefully help them achieve that goal.

Although the board approved the request, some, if not all, of the funds will come from the city’s LB840 budget.

For the first time, the Midwest Theater submitted an application for review, presented by Executive Director Tina Worthman.

“This is essentially affecting the operation of the theater because operating costs everywhere, insurance, utilities, etc. have increased exponentially, especially in the last year, and the entertainment industry, theaters and things like that have taken a pretty big hit post-COVID.”

Wiedeman asked whether the decline in sponsorship and participation was damaging the theater.

“I’ve been able to increase that since I’ve been there, but that’s the way it is,” Worthman said. “It’s the larger donations: We don’t have $100,000 donations a year anymore.”

Discussions included the tourism business the theater has boosted with recent renovations, participation in the Nebraska Passport, and the generally positive partnership with tourism in Nebraska.

“People may come here for a particular event or attraction,” said Karla Niedan-Streeks, Gering’s tourism director. “But the ability to have additional things to spend more time and money on certainly creates a destination that has more benefits.”

The Midwest Theater’s application was also approved and will also be endowed with 840 LB dollars.