As the fiscal year came to a close at the end of June, the City of Winslow adopted its 2024 budget. The budget, carefully reviewed and approved by the City Council, outlines a series of strategic investments aimed at improving infrastructure, enhancing personnel compensation and driving economic development.
Notable among the budget’s highlights is the allocation of approximately $1.7 million for crucial capital improvement projects. These initiatives aim to address key areas of improvement within Winslow. The projects encompass a wide range of enhancements, including improving parking on First Street through the Highway User Revenue Fund (HURF) program, constructing new downtown restrooms with HURF funds, renovating the Lee Medical Building to serve as City Hall and replacing the roof of the Hubble Building.
Furthermore, the budget allows for an array of recreational improvements, such as expanding docks and adding a kayak launch at McHood Park, renovating basketball courts, upgrading the outdoor pool’s decking and replastering, enhancing landscaping at Mike’s Pike, creating a splash pad with adjusted parking on Pope Push sidewalk, renovating Little League dugouts, building a softball field announcer booth, and implementing LED lighting at Henderson Park.
Recognizing the value of a dedicated and motivated workforce, the 2024 budget allocates approximately $5.75 million for employee wages, $1.2 million dollars for retirement benefits, $910,000 for healthcare, and $642,000 for other employee benefits. This comprehensive compensation package, totaling almost $8.5 million, reflects a commitment to attract and retain skilled personnel. In response to inflationary pressures, a 5% wage increase has been implemented not only for current employees but to the pay scale in general to maintain competitiveness in recruiting new talent.
Economic development is a key focus of Winslow’s budget, showcasing the city’s dedication to fostering growth. In the previous year, the economic development fund received $283,000 dollars from the city’s general fund. However, through successful grant applications, the 2024 budget reduces the contribution from the general fund to $172,000 while securing over $1.2 million in total economic development funding. Una Wirkebau, the city’s economic director, presented an update during a recent city council meeting, highlighting the success of these grant applications over the past year. These additional resources signify a direct investment in the city’s future prosperity.
Furthermore, Winslow plans to utilize funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to construct a new library near the Chamber of Commerce on Third Street. This significant boost in funding underscores the city’s commitment to education and community services, providing an enhanced space for knowledge-sharing and community engagement.
Addressing public safety concerns, City Manager David Coolidge emphasized the importance of the fire department’s expansion. The budget reflects plans to increase staffing levels by full-time firefighters and reduce overtime expenses, ultimately enhancing emergency response capabilities.
Coolidge stated, “We feel we can provide additional service to our community and also reduce the amount of overtime while at the same time, it’s also a safety precaution because currently, we have 10 full-time employees budgeted. When a call goes out, we tend to have a very low response, which is a safety liability.” This is because the city has the firefighters doing 10-hour shifts and the firefighters that aren’t working are on call to go in and man the station if the ones working have to leave, which almost guarantees that overtime be paid.
“I am willing to bet we are one of the very few fire departments in the state that doesn’t operate on a 24-hour schedule”, said Coolidge. It also reduces response time because if there is a big call, they have to wait for people to leave their homes in order to get additional resources but switching schedules the city will reduce that burden.
Coolidge also places significant emphasis on beautifying the city as part of his vision for Winslow. To achieve this, the budget reintroduces a successful model that separates street-related tasks from roadside maintenance. By designating a dedicated streets team to handle street-specific issues like potholes and signage, while a separate roadside team focuses on weed control and property maintenance, Coolidge believes the city’s main thoroughfares will be cleaner and more appealing by going back to this model that the city previously had. These enhancements align with Winslow’s current push for economic growth and attracting new businesses. Importantly, Coolidge has ensured that the budget accommodates these improvements without having to increase the budget to the streets department.
One of the ways the city plans on saving money over the next year is by creating a burn pit at the city’s transfer station. The city has never charged residents for dumping of green waste but they were paying a company to haul and burn it out of town, which was costing the city a lot in the fees associated with that program.
The sanitation department is one of the most instable departments in terms of finances, according to Coolidge. There was $25,000 in revenues collected in 2023 in the form of vouchers for the transfer station but it cost the city a total of $400,000 to run. Which is burning through the excess funds the sanitation department has and will be almost depleted in a couple of years if the city doesn’t change something with the funding. The burn pit will alleviate some of those costs but Coolidge thinks that in the future they will most likely have to raise rates for dumping at the transfer station to make it feasible in the long-term.
Alongside these developments, the 2023-24 budget creates 12 new full-time positions across various city departments. These positions, ranging from administrative roles to engineering and maintenance, underline the city’s admittance of where their shortfalls are and crafting a budget around addressing the most important of those discrepancies while still being able to provide the services people have come to expect.
The full budget can be accessed by making a request at city hall or by email by filling out an online request form on the city’s website.
