Council approves $7 mil

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
The Newcastle City Council has approved a $7,372,252 fiscal year 2022 budget, similar to the budgets passed in previous years, according to City Clerk-Treasurer Greg James. The budget was passed in June.
“There were no huge changes to the budget for the new fiscal year. All accounts ended in the black, some by not much, but better than we hoped and expected,” James said. “This year’s budget remains steady with last year’s, no major adjustments.” 
He noted that the council always tries to budget conservatively so that the city is not caught with any unanticipated shortfalls. Last year’s appropriations totaled $7,116,191. 
Reductions were seen in both the general fund and sewer budgets from fiscal 2021, while the water and garbage funds will have increased appropriations. 
A total of $3,674,302 was budgeted for general funds, with the largest line items being for the Newcastle Police Department at $1,191,200 and streets and alleys at $823,750. 
The city water fund has a total of $2,621,500 in appropriations, while the sewer fund has $350,800 in appropriations budgeted and garbage has a budget of $725,650. These accounts, according to James, are enterprise accounts and are self-sufficient, receiving no assistance from the general funds for the city’s operations. 
Luckily, the city did not experience any drastic reductions in revenue from effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
“The state’s cuts (so far) have had a minimal effect on the city, not as deep as anticipated. We’ll just have to see how this year treats us,” he said. 
According to James, major projects in the city’s budget for fiscal 2022, which began July 1, include continued work on the Boyd Avenue water line replacement project, the tie-in of the new Well No. 5, continued engineering studies on the remediation project for Newcastle Landfill No. 1 and continued work to clean out the city’s sewer lagoons.