DeKalb Times

City of Sandwich Budget Committee met Feb. 18.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

Meeting called to order by Alderman Kreinbrink at 4:30 PM

Roll Call: Alderwoman Johnson, Alderwoman Erickson, Alderman Kreinbrink, City Administrator Geoff Penman, Angie Seville & Wes Levy

2025/2026 Budget Planning

1. Discuss preliminary budget as presented by City staff

New Business: General Capitol & Capitol Funds Carry over from 2024

Alderman Kreinbrink: Looking at projections at increases and decreases - What projects do we have that didn't get accomplished from last year?

Mr. Penman: looking at priorities,

Roof and tuck pointing at streets department-not finished $300,000.

5-yard dump truck hasn't come in-one still on order $185,000

PD-two new squads ordered.1 pending $48,000

Capitol improvements at city hall $200,000

HVAC $375,000

Build out at city hall $60,000

Alderman Kreinbrink requested architect on retainer to do a sketch and preliminary drawing. Lathem street - funds coming in from all over

Alderman Kreinbrink: how much out of the general funds are we looking at being earmarked for that project?

General fund - earmark $300,000 for Latham final payments to finish out project

Main street project

700 and 900 hundred thousand is what we're going to need to earmark

Will need to borrow 750 thousand or so from another department.

Downtown street lighting project - didn't get grant. Lights don't work and we need to replace them in phases. $250,000 was budgeted – and $25,000 for engineering.

Fred: Still have engineering available for this – would like to inquire about the start of project. Add another $250,000 to make it work. - consider rolling funds over and figure out plan B. Alderwoman Johnson would like to re-visit chosen light poles for cost savings.

Police - Sally Port somewhere in the area of $500,000 – Generator somewhere in the area of 100,000.

Pratt Road Bridge - engineer in place $10,000 in land acquisition

80% federal bridge fund 2026 looking at needing somewhere near $300,000.

Mr. Levy: Looking at the big picture:

Focus on where the "cash on hand" is allocated

We will have about 4 million at the beginning of the year -Capitol fund is just shy of 2 million to start the year.

Not balanced yet for end of year close out due to personnel. No excess dollars if we're targeting 50% coverage/overage

Mr. Levy gave presentation on draft budget as a whole - please see proposed budget.

Alderman Kreinbrink: would like to see a five-year plan. Also, would like to put a multiplier for forecasting.

Mr. Levy directed us to workbooks that Ms. Seville helped put together-which has a projections area- looking at actual capitol needs for the future

Budget book narratives have been moved out of word and into excel - so updates naturally flow through. Also built in functionality for numbers to update within the system when line items are added.

Alderman Kreinbrink would like percentage of change shown in individual sections. - to see where we have rises and falls. Looking at food and beverage tax going away this year- losing $17,000-we need to account for that.

-Mr. Levy had this available and assured it would be part of the budget book.

Dual entry will be needed to keep numbers up to date- and in the future will be working to auto populate numbers entered into system.

10-year history of treasurers reports and the monthly workbook

Mr. Levy was using conservative estimates when projecting.

Police pension is at desired contribution. This year's contribution being $955,000 so we are on track.

Grants are planned for 2026.

Interest income can be transferred over into Capital so that we can use it where needed

- The total revenue projection is down by 200 thousand. There is a slight decrease in total revenue.

Committee spent time going through line items of proposed budget * highlighted comments and notes:

-Admin: Monies were saved due to staff not being 100% what was expected.

-Engineering: head count and benefits need to match for a projected full-time position. Looking at possible hybrid position for tech support - sharing support with Plano possibly- not leaving AID at this point - but unable to support a full-time position. -Streets Department: Big jump in funds from $370,000 to projected $417,000

Plan to hire mowers for Latham - additional part time help for maintenance of weeds - the monies allocated seems high and unnecessary * would like streets to utilize our applicator licenses and treat areas more often instead of maintaining weeds by mowing and whipping. Streets vehicles need repair and line item has gone up from 40 to 50 thousand. Would like to keep it lower if possible.

Possible reduction in Field Equipment. Went from 8 to 16 thousand. Streets had 3.7% increase overall.

2. Establish meeting dates for Budget Committee moving forward

Next meetings will be February 24th 4:30 PM & March 4th 4:30 PM

3. Old Business:

EEI - we may want to look at previous rate study. Must also look at staff and Brian Voekel retiring from Water. Looking at hiring a new superintendent.

Audience Comments: Linda Yender: commented - "isn't there any way we could ask the hospital to help with replacement of Main from Pleasant to Knights road"

Adjournment: Motion made by Alderwoman Erickson seconded by Alderwoman Johnson Adjourned at 6:38 PM by voice vote

https://www.sandwich.il.us/media/3126