Preliminary county budget meetings begin

Mineral County Commissioners held preliminary budget hearings on July 13 as a first step for this upcoming fiscal year. Department heads from all of the offices, including maintenance, justice court, planning and health, the library, sheriff’s office and dispatch, and clerk and recorder scheduled time to meet and discuss their needs for this upcoming year with commissioners and financial officer Jessica Connelly.

“These meetings are a wish list from the departments and then we will see what the overall budget looks like,” said commissioner chairman Roman Zylawy.

State taxable values are released in early August and the commissioners will look over the budget again on Aug. 17 and then adopt a final budget on Aug. 24. Overall, the budget is expected to be similar to lasts year’s numbers where non-tax and property tax revenues totaled $2,580,207.

“These numbers are just a portion of the overall budget,” said Connolly. “There’s a lot more that goes into creating the budget and it can get complicated.”

During the meetings, the Mineral County Library Director Guna Chaberek asked for raises for her employees, “who are underpaid and some haven’t had a raise in over five years,” she said.

Her department also needs new computers for both staffers and those used by the public. Many are more than 10 years old and simply no longer work. Several members from Friends of the Library attended the meeting to show their support.

Longtime member Leslie Heppe said the library is often used as a community center. “We work hard to fund activities because we feel libraries are a big part of the community and we are the place where people go,” she said.

People new to the community often visit the library to find out more about the area. They also offer book clubs and children activities, and there is a knitting club that meets there, as well as family services. The general public also uses the computers.

“The library is much more than just books,” Chaberek said.

During final stages of the budgeting process, documentation will include requests from the various departments, an analysis of property taxes, other revenues, total personnel, operations, and capital requests.