By Marney Simon | Enterprise Staff
The village of Plainfield has started the process to get the books in order for the upcoming fiscal year.
On Oct. 22, the Committee of the Whole heard the first budget proposals for fiscal year 2020 (FY20), which begins on May 1, 2019.
The committee heard preliminary budgets for the streets department as well as the Plainfield Police Department.
The streets department proposed budget for FY20 is up slightly from the current fiscal year, with total projected costs of $3.9 million. That’s up from $3.8 million in FY19.
The FY20 budget includes $1.6 million in salaries and wages, $719,600 in benefits, and $821,000 in contractual services.
The budget also includes $20,000 for tree removal in FY20. Within the village’s forestry division, more than 500 parkway trees have already been removed, and more than 4,200 new trees have been planted.
Director of Public Works Allen Persons told the committee that in-house maintenance labor can save the village significant amounts of money each year, by allowing the village to use their own employees versus contracting jobs out.
Persons said the village’s street light replacement program has provided a cost savings for the village as well.
“We’re at approximately 35 percent of our old-style lights that have been converted to LED street lights,” Persons said. “I’m happy to report that a high quality Led streetlight today [costs the village] about $230. So, they’ve reduced in costs, that our individuals who are trained and supervised to complete this work have been able to take care of the labor in house. So, you’re not paying an outside contractor to replace street lights.”
The streets department operates within public works and is responsible for upkeep and maintenance of local streets, roads, alleys, and parking lots.
The village employs 15 people within the streets department.
Over at the Plainfield Police Department, the projected budget for FY20 looks to go up by about $500,000 versus the current year, with a projected total budget of $13.2 million. That’s an increase over the current fiscal year budget of $12.7 million.
The PPD’s FY20 budget includes $7.7 million in salaries and wages, $3.5 million in benefits, and $1.2 million in contractual services.
Broken down, the PPD looks to spend $1.6 million in administrative costs and $8.2 million in police operations including full time and part time wages, travel, training, benefits, supplies, ammunition, bicycles, K9 supplies, cell phones, maintenance, fuel, ammunition and weapons, and uniforms.
Other PPD costs include $380,784 in the police records department, $225,000 in seizures and forfeitures, and $36,000 in special activities.
The department’s community services division has a budget of $1.4 million in FY20, including $992,453 in salaries and wages, and $36,100 in supplies and commodities including fuel, uniforms, and postage.
PEMA has one of the smallest budgets within the PPD. In the current fiscal year, PEMA held no budget for salaries and wages. That will continue in FY20, with no money allocated toward salaries, and the bulk of the budget directed toward utilities, supplies, and contractual services.
PEMA’s contractual services include radio maintenance, vehicle maintenance, siren maintenance, and search and rescue.
The streets department and the police department each draw their budgets from the village’s general fund.
Village trustees will go through each department’s proposed budget over the next several months before approving the entire village budget next spring.