Elon’s board of aldermen has placed items deferred during last year’s budgeting process back into its budget after the town brought in $724,000 in unplanned revenue.
The budget amendment approved Tuesday night distributed funds to six of the town’s departments for capital purchases. Those items had been removed as the coronavirus pandemic began to unfold last spring, prompting several governing bodies to whittle their budgets down in anticipation of dramatically lower sales tax revenue. In the case of Elon and other Alamance County municipalities, however, sales tax revenue has actually risen from the year before.
The items placed back into this year’s budget, for a total of $264,555 of the $724,000, are as follows:
· For the public works department, $80,000 to cover the purchase of a pickup truck, mower, and Gator
· For the police department, $6,060 for police car repairs and $15,000 for cameras
· For the downtown department, $12,000 for a speaker system and new laptop
· For the fire department, $25,000 for 10 radios and $52,000 for the remainder of concrete repairs at Station 8
· For the recreation and parks department, $1,995 for insurance money received for a backboard replacement at Lawrence Slade Park and $12,500 to fix drainage issues on walking trails at Beth Schmidt Park
· For the administration department, $60,000 to purchase a permanent generator for town hall, which also houses the police department
The board voted unanimously to return the items to this year’s budget when it convened Tuesday night.
See earlier stories (from March 4, 2021 edition) on other aspects of Elon budget:
Department heads have lots of needs – more personnel, now and in the future: https://alamancenews.com/elon-dept-heads-request-3-new-staff-members-during-annual-retreat-looking-for-even-more-in-years-ahead/
Town manager wants board to consider raising property tax rate: https://alamancenews.com/elon-board-asked-again-to-consider-raising-towns-property-tax-rate/
