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City commissioners differ on $11,000 transfer
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By CHUCK CLEMENT, Staff Reporter
| 02/02/2010 |
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The Madison City Commissioners offered different opinions on Monday on how to handle one transfer of unspent money into the 2010 municipal budget. Heath VonEye, municipal public works director, requested that his department transfer $11,000 in unspent 2009 funding to purchase snow-handling equipment to the snowblower reserve fund. The snowblower reserve fund operates as one of the accounts that the city uses to accumulate money over several years to buy additional equipment or vehicles.
During the discussion about the transfer, Commissioner Karen Lembcke proposed that city officials instead move the money into Madison's general fund. Lembcke explained that current economic conditions made it difficult for officials to predict how much sales tax revenue the city would receive in 2010.
Madison experienced a 7.8 percent decrease in sales tax revenue during 2009, as compared to 2008, which amounted to about $207,000.
Commissioners Nick Abraham and Scott Delzer disagreed with Lembcke's proposal, saying the appropriated money should stay within the same department and remain available for buying equipment. Delzer said it was inappropriate to move the money away from public works and then have the department return to the commissioners in the future asking for additional funds. According to Delzer, the public works officials have shown good stewardship of taxpayer dollars.
The money was transferred to the snowblower reserve fund after a 4-1 vote. Commissioners Abraham, Delzer and Dick Ericsson and Mayor Gene Hexom voted yes and Lembcke voted no.
City Engineer Chad Comes requested another funding transfer of $32,500 in unspent recreational trail funds from 2009 to the recreational trail reserve fund.
Comes said the money was the city's matching funds for the use of a federal earmark of $320,000 to build recreational trails for Madison's use. He added that the lag time between receiving the federal funding and actually spending it and city funds made it necessary to transfer the dollars into a reserve fund.
The commissioners unanimously approved the transfer.
LIQUOR LICENSE
They also approved the transfer of an alcohol license to the new owner of Rumors Lounge in Madison.
Thanh Van Lo of Eagan, Minn., filed the application that transferred the on-sale liquor license for 200 S. Egan Ave. in Madison from Jankman LLC to Van Lo's ownership. Previously, the liquor license applied to both Rumor's Lounge and the Cocktail Grill, which is located at 202 S. Egan Ave.
With the new ownership of Rumor's Lounge, the Cocktail Grill ownership will no longer have a license to sell alcohol on its premises.
Van Lo met with the commissioners during the hearing for the license transfer, accompanied by his brother-in-law, Paul Disse of Lake Preston. Disse's wife and Van Lo's sister, Son Disse of Lake Preston, will manage Rumors Lounge under the new ownership.
The commissioners also approved the specifications for a sanitary sewer rehabilitation project that involves the insertion of about 7,000 feet of cured-in-place pipe lining in 8-, 10-, 12- and 15-inch sewer mains and completing some related work. City officials will open the bids at 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 23.
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©Madison Daily Leader 2010
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