Department heads for the City of Montesano presented their respective proposed budgets to the city council on Nov. 15.

Montesano Police Chief Brett Vance, Fire Chief Corey Rux, CFO Doug Streeter and city forester Loren Hiner all presented to the council.

The Montesano Fire Department is hoping to settle a large problem in its budget. Rux said the EMS fund is subsidizing the fire fund.

“That can’t happen,” Rux said.

The department is asking the city to place two levies on upcoming ballots. One levy will request a levy for fire department operations which would cost residents 41 cents per $1,000, or $60 for the owner of a property valued at $150,000. That levy would generate about $150,000 annually. The other levy will request $1.3 million over 15 years at a cost of about 39 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, or $58.50 for the same property mentioned above.

“During 2017 our hope is to be able to, through the fire operations levy, allocate funds appropriately, so fire can be funded as it needs to be funded,” Rux said of the EMS fund subsidizing the fire fund. “It will take the burden off EMS.”

Aside from that issue, Rux described the fire department budget as “a pretty vanilla budget.”

The fire department budget also includes pay increases for staff.

Police Chief Vance said the police department budget is holding tight as it has since budget cuts last spring.

“This year’s budget is basically a continuance of the budget that we amended in April and May of this year when we had our (citywide) budget crisis,” Vance said.

Vance’s budget includes union contract raises, and $40,000 for a new police vehicle (which had been budgeted for 2016 but was removed during the spring budget cuts).

The possible hiring of a school resource officer to work with the Montesano School District is in discussion but not official, Vance noted. If the school district and city work out an agreement, the resource officer should have little to no impact on the police department’s budget because the city’s share of the cost would be taken from the three-tenths public safety tax revenue which was approved by voters during the August primary election.

Vehicle and equipment purchases also were talking points for Streeter, who also delivered the public works budget on behalf of public works director Rocky Howard who could not attend the city council meeting.

The purchase of a mini-excavator at about $40,000 would be split between the water, sewer, forest and cemetery departments. A wood chipper at about $10,000 would be shared between water, cemetery and parks. The water department will purchase a new truck for $35,000.

The administration budget overseen directly by Streeter would “remain status quo as you see it today,” he said.

For the street department, some $15,000 and $30,000 was requested for equipment to perform small hot-patch jobs.

Streeter said the city is considering adding a street fee to city bills at $2 per household. That fee would generate as much as $48,000 per year and it’s hoped the funds raised could be use for road projects.

“It clearly is not going to repair an entire road, but it allows us to buy hot patch and it allows us to buy additional crack sealing materials,” Mayor Vini Samuel explained to the council during the meeting.

In the mayor’s message attached to the proposed budget, Samuel described the upcoming year as “an exciting year filled with possibility.”

“The hard work done by our CFO, Doug Streeter, is evident on every page of this budget. I am proud of the work he and the rest of the city directors have done to craft this budget,” Samuel wrote. “It is sensible and relentlessly focused on the goals of building financial stability and protecting the strong character of Montesano.”

The city plans to adopt a 2017 budget during the Dec. 13 city council meeting.