Park Board committee works on 2018-19 budget

Hill County Park Board’s Finance and Planning Committee met Thursday evening to discuss and vote on the 2018-19 proposed budget.

Hill County Clerk and Recorder Susan Armstrong attended the meeting to provide the numbers from the 2016-17 and 2017-18 fiscal years including the budgeted cash reserve, cash available, total revenue, total resources and estimated ending cash balance. The fiscal year goes July 1-March 31.

From studying the finances from the previous two years and talking with Armstrong, Beaver Creek Park Superintendent Chad Edgar wrote a proposed budget for the next fiscal year, which he presented to the committee to vote on.

Edgar said that though he believes revenue is going to be down because of the fire and drought, he can see revenue coming this summer, especially with lodge rental.

“June is the biggest month,” he said.

Edgar presented the Trust Fund money which includes donations, memorials that are completed with money left over and memorials that have not been completed yet. The total for the Trust Fund is $8,507.03, and he said that he would like to use about $5,500 of it including the East Fork Fire Foundation Grant, which provides $2,398.18 to go toward East Fork Fire repairs.

Edgar said that the park staff would like to use this money to go toward repairs for the south side fences that were damaged in the fire.

The Capital Improvement Budget was also presented, which shows funds that will be available for 2018-2019. These funds included money that is set aside for equipment needs, rotary gravel and auctioned equipment that included some unused equipment that was sold two years ago.

The committee discussed with Armstrong possibly changing this budget to a contingency fund where extra revenue can be placed.

“We need a place to put retained earnings,” Edgar said.

Edgar presented the estimated expenses for land management fee/fund that will be set up next fiscal year. He added that if the committee agrees on this fund, these expenses, which include operating supplies, weed supplies, trapping and cattle on park ads, miscellaneous development and fence maintenance, will be covered by the land management of $3 per assets under management.

The last part of the budget discussed was the estimated revenue and the proposed budget requests.

Budget Requests

• Snowplow mounted on 2011 F250. $9,000

• Remaining  six cabins’ siding $30,000

• Cabin windows on three cabins. $2,000

• Superintendent house windows supplies (labor by Edgar) $2,000

• Outhouse supplies (labor donated) $3,000

Unbudgeted requests

• Cabin interiors for four cabins $1,700 each

The budget lists payment for this through donations, sponsors, memorials or from the trust fund.

Along with the 2018-2019 budget requests the usual yearly expenses, which include some expenses such as wages, utilities, Hingham park, and Hi-Line parks will come to about $250,900.

The estimated revenue, based on current fees which will be voted on at a future park board meeting, include the revenues from cattle, cabin leases, park permits, reserve sites, haying and the lodge. The total is estimated to be about $225,298.

Edgar acknowledged that the estimated revenue is less than the proposed budget but only about 75 percent to 80 percent of the budget is usually used. He said it may be slightly higher this year because of the total fire damage costs, which are currently unknown, but if the budget is more than the revenue it can be covered by the available park cash.

The committee ended the meeting by unanimously approving all aspects of the proposed budgets.

The budgets will be presented to the Hill County Park Board at their May 7 meeting.

The next finance committee meeting will be held in August.