The Winslow City Council met in a special strategic planning session Monday. The daylong session involved department heads and other city staff members speaking of their departments’ tasks, goals and needs for the future.
Mayor Robin Boyd summed up the meeting afterward as being helpful for future planning, which the city staff and council will be doing in the near future. He said that there is information that will be needed before some decisions can be made. The council and staff will be working to develop the budget for the next fiscal year very soon, though, and is waiting for the state to say what shared revenues are likely to be.
Finance Director Regina Reffner said that a shortfall of $500,000 would not be surprising, as Winslow has not grown as much as some cities and the trend has been to cut shared revenues. Those figures are not available yet, but more cutting of the city budget is expected to be necessary.
Mayor Boyd said that he expects capital projects to mostly be directed at maintaining the facilities the city already has. He said that it would likely take some funds to fix and maintain the swimming pools. He noted that very soon the staff and council would need to prioritize what to repair and renovate first.
There are a couple of projects for which Winslow is competing and hopeful of obtaining that could be awarded in the near future which could have a positive effect upon the budget. The United States Forest Service is expected to make a decision regarding two industries that could come to Winslow, one being the OSB or oriented strand board plant. The decision on a private state prison is slated to be made by July 1 and Winslow officials remain hopeful of that being located here.
Boyd said that most of the one percent sales tax funds will be used to fix existing facilities like the swimming pools, and to purchase needed fire and police equipment. One thing that will be on hold for a while is the proposed new library. He said that some funds would be used to improve the old library as long as it is in use. The library is a valuable and popular city facility and service.
Northland Pioneer College President Dr. Jeanne Swarthout spoke at the meeting on partnering with the city to accomplish various mutual goals.
Boyd said that this idea was useful, and could help both the city and the college.
The meeting was seen as a necessary and valuable first step toward planning for the budget and setting goals for the coming year.
