WATERTOWN — The City Council should be finished with budget deliberations today for the proposed $44,198,031 spending plan that carries a 1.66 percent tax rate increase.
“We really want to wrap up the budget,” City Manager Rick Finn told council members following a two-hour budget session.
They discussed the police, IT, human resources, code enforcement and planning department budgets on Tuesday night.
They will discuss the fire department budget at 6 p.m. today.
So far, council members haven’t made any amendments to the proposed budget, but City Comptroller James E. Mills told them that they’ll have to do some housekeeping items before adopting the budget next Wednesday.
The city didn’t get a $100,000 state grant to deal with zombie properties, so council members will have to find $20,000 to pay the partial salary for a building inspector in the codes enforcement office.
During an earlier budget session, they have discussed possibly adding a summer playground site at a cost of $5,000.
Last week, Parks Superintendent Erin E. Gardner told council members she planned to open a new summer playground at Thompson Park, saying that it would complement the city’s new splash pad at the park.
Playgrounds also would be located at the Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds and North Elementary School, which had about 100 children use them each week last summer.
She plans to eliminate playgrounds at Portage and Academy streets because of a lack of attendance.
But Councilman Cody J. Horbacz lobbied putting a playground on Academy Street back into the summer program.
Council members also might consider cutting $5,000 for a dog park study.