By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News

As the fiscal year comes to a close on June 30, cities scramble to finalize revisions to their current budget and approve a new budget to keep the city funded into the following year. Helper City Mayor Lenise Peterman joined the KOAL newsroom to explain what happens behind the scenes of the budget process, as well as to discuss some grants coming to the city. 

Opening our discussion, Mayor Peterman shared news of a new planning grant awarded to the city to aid in the creation of an ‘all-wheels’ park. “This is a planning grant. So there’s no deliverable other than a plan which will give us a location with community input, a design and then potential funding resources to bring the park to a reality,” explained the Mayor.” This idea was brought to me by local area citizens who felt they needed a safe place to recreate on their longboards, scooters and other equipment, and thought this was an opportunity. Fortunately, I was able to find a grant that covered the planning aspect. So you know, you have to have the plan before you can build it.”

Diving further into grants, Peterman discussed the process of finding grants that fit the city’s projects. “The grants are configured by program and it’s matching the program to the project you have in hand. And sometimes there’s good fits, and sometimes there aren’t.” Peterman continued with an example,” I’ll pick on the electrical grid. I’ve written several grants over the last several years trying to address the electrical grid, of which they have not been awarded. Currently, I have two outstanding for the grid that I am crossing my fingers because that’s been tough to identify who would fund the type of work we need to address the electrical grid because that’s just really been a struggle to find over the several years I’ve been looking.”

She added,” Clearly, infrastructure is a big concern. We were fortunate to receive well over $3 million for water infrastructure because we secured a program that addressed that specific need or niche project. We’re looking to do that in support of the grid, as well as additional fire equipment and all of those things. It’s really about finding the right program or funding source that supports that project.

Moving from grants to budget, the Mayor discussed what it looks like behind the scenes to prepare the city’s finances. “We go through and continually prepare for our end-of-year audit. Essentially, what we want to do is have a balanced budget by the end of the year. One of the ways we fund the city is through utilities. At the beginning of the budget year, we will allocate a specific amount to transfer from our utility fund to our general operating fund. Those funds go everywhere throughout the city. They’re not designated for any particular department or thing.” 

“It’s more like the museum operates actually in the red. It loses approximately $60,000 a year,” explained Peterman. “So what we want to do is bolster that. We utilize those funds to pay the people working at the museum, as well as for insurance, utilities, and all other necessary expenses. So it’s really a case of balancing that budget, supporting those things such as the museum, and the police force and our administrative staff to ensure we can continue to operate as a municipality.”

Since taking over as Mayor in 2018, Peterman has seen the budget raise from just $1 million to almost $2 million. “And that’s been through sales tax revenue,” said Peterman, “We’re moving in the right direction. I feel like we’ve built the foundation, and now we just need to stand up the walls and put the roof on.”

In our penultimate topic of discussion, Peterman encouraged the public to get out and get involved with the city. “We’re not a for-profit business, right? We’re looking to provide services to our constituents. And in doing so, fundamentally, we want to break even. We don’t want to lose money because that’s not a good thing. We want our people to be compensated fairly because they do a job on behalf of the citizens. So it’s not like we can decide to raise a tax or raise something without all sorts of public input and guidance, which a for-profit business can say, ‘You know what? That widget, instead of being $350, I’m going to make it $475.’ They can do that. The government cannot.”

Closing our conversation, Peterman stated,” I’ve been honored to serve and hope to serve again. I wish everyone the best, truly.”