Watershed approves budget, levy

Staff

Published Friday, September 12, 2008

The Shell Rock River Watershed District Board of Managers Tuesday morning unanimously approved the district’s 2009 administrative budget, 2009 sales tax budget and 2009 administrative levy.

“Basically we’re following the same budget,” said watershed district Administrator Brett Behnke.

The administrative levy was set at $250,000, the maximum the watershed district can levy.

The sales tax budget was set at $2.874 million, and the administrative budget was set at $442,493.

The levy did not increase at all from last year, Behnke said, and the budget is higher only because there are projects still in the works from previous years or projects not anticipated to see completion until 2009.

There will not be an increase in taxes, according to Behnke.

The budget doesn’t have a lot of changes or big ticket items, he said.

One thing the Shell Rock River Watershed District is looking forward to in 2009 is moving forward with bottom contouring and probing of local lakes, which will lead to dredging. However, dredging projects have not yet started but are still in planning stages. The budget preliminarily set $255,000 aside for dredging.

The largest budgeted section is the city storm water management project — including engineering, studies, infrastructure and projects — for $1.15 million. More than $710,000 was set aside for the Albert Lea Lake dam replacement, among other budgeted projects.

“The good news is that we’re not increasing taxes, we’re sticking to our word,” Behnke said.

In other business, the watershed district board:

Will hold a dredging project tour Thursday at noon. Interested people can contact the watershed district at 377-5785 to see if space is still available. The tour bus will depart from the Freeborn County Government Center.

Approved the Aug. 5 regular meeting minutes and workshop minutes.

Approved the August 2008 treasurer’s report and nonproperty tax report, both subject to audit.

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