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Hayden OKs 1st budget reading

Second reading scheduled for Dec. 10 Town Council meeting

Jack Weinstein

— With little discussion and few changes, the Hayden Town Council approved the first reading of the 2010 budget Thursday night.

The council approved the first reading of the $2.3 million budget, 6-0. Council member Jim Haskins didn’t attend the meeting. Approval of the first reading sets up the second reading of the budget for the Dec. 10 Town Council meeting.

Hayden must adopt the budget before Dec. 15, the state deadline for certifying the town mill levy.



During staff reports before approval of the first reading, Police Chief Ray Birch reiterated his desire for additional funding for the department’s budget. He said losing the department’s fifth officer last year left gaps in Hayden’s police coverage.

Birch said his officers were wary about taking their scheduled time off each week or getting away for vacations for fear that no one would be available to work.



Council member Chuck Grobe said that shouldn’t be the case.

“If someone calls in sick and we don’t have a police officer that night, it doesn’t bother me,” he said.

Birch said after 31 years as a police officer, he knows the concern among those in his profession is not being there when people need them.

“Is that the reality?” Birch asked. “Is that what the people of the town want?”

Grobe cited the tight 2010 budget as the reason for not being able to provide as much additional funding for the Hayden Police Department as Birch would like.

“I know you want to be out there 24/7, but the reality is we can’t do it,” he said.

Each member of the Town Council said they would support the Police Department if for some reason an officer weren’t on duty, but an officer were available on call if something happened.

“I think the whole board, speaking for them out of turn, feel that way,” Mayor Lorraine Johnson said.

After the first reading was approved, the council again discussed the police budget. Birch asked council members for direction about how best to spend $8,000 that was added to the department’s budget since the proposed budget was discussed last month.

Council member Tom Rogalski said he would support Birch’s decisions about how to use the additional funding.

Also at Thursday night’s meeting, the council voted, 6-0, to approve the first reading of the 2009 property tax levy ordinance. Setting the property tax for 2009 will allow Hayden to collect those taxes in 2010.

The town is scheduled to certify the mill levy at the Dec. 10 meeting. It can’t do so before receiving Hayden’s property valuation from Routt County, which it expects before Dec. 10, Town Manager Russ Martin said.

The town’s 2008 valuation is more than $30.1 million, making the mill levy 25.067 mills. That would generate more than $494,000 in revenue for the town’s general fund. But Martin said that could change by Dec. 10, depending on the final 2008 valuation Hayden receives from the county.

The 2009 tax rate, which determines what property tax is collected in 2010, is based on the town’s valuation in 2008. Valuation lags a year, Martin said.

Martin said next year a temporary credit of 8.667 mills will be issued to Hayden taxpayers, about a third of the mill levy, making the mill levy 16.4 mills.

He said the town’s valuation from 2007 to 2008 increased more than the 5.5 percent plus growth and inflation allowed by state law. To get back to only a 5.5 percent increase, it would credit a portion of the mill levy to Hayden taxpayers, Martin said.

In other action:

■ Council members voted 6-0 to extend the existing franchise agreement with Bresnan Communications, the town’s TV and Internet provider, to Feb. 5, at which time Hayden is scheduled to renew the agreement.

■ Council members began a discussion of revising code enforcement ordinances. Martin said that discussion would likely continue after the first of the year.

The Dec. 10 meeting is the only scheduled Town Council meeting next month.


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