By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
On June 26, Price City passed its budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. This passage came after months of deliberation to overcome a $900,000 shortfall in the tentative budget for the year. Price City Mayor Mike Kourianos joined the KOAL newsroom to discuss the process of balancing the budget and preparing it for approval by the state deadline.
“The bottom line is that these shortfalls were something that we weren’t planning for,” explained the Mayor. “In our capital improvement plan, things that we’re going to do this year, things we’re going to do next year. We have five years out, 10 years out. These are things that, you know, are the need to replace or fix, you know. And that’s where sometimes you have to bring them forward faster than what you projected. And with that being said, those are the things that impact the budget.”
He continued,” We’re a corporation where we have employees with benefits, and we have to take care of the people that are taking care of our community? And those are the things that the council and the mayor are looking at and talking to our staff, talking to the employees, because I’ll tell you what, it’s tough for our employees. They’re the face of Price City. And they go out there with a smiling face and make it happen and take care of things. So with that being said, we’re seeing the rising cost of living last year, but also our electrical cost, our infrastructure cost, and our water. You know, those different things. Those were the things we had to tell the citizens,’ Look, we’re working on this. We’re not putting our heads in the sand. We have to fix this, and it’s going to cost some money.’ And that’s where those shortfalls come, because. Those are hard decisions.”
Speaking on infrastructure costs, Kourianos used the example of the Desert Wave Pool, which recently has undergone renovations that he thinks will provide significant upside in the long run. “The school district has helped us. You know, that was something that we saw that was a need, not a want. Because if we didn’t have that, you know, our kids and I’ve heard it, there’s nothing for our kids to do.”
He added,” Well, you take that out of the equation. Now we really don’t have anything to do. I think that’s a major thing, but I feel pretty good about what we’ve done. We’ve worked on the indoor pool, and that took some time to make it right. Now we’ve fixed the wave pool. Now we’ve worked on all the piping. And also, we have two brand-new boilers in there that hopefully will cut down on the cost. And, you know, this is public knowledge. The cost to run that facility is $600,000 a year. It jumped from four to six. These new boilers, we’re hoping will lower the cost … And that’s where the community helped us with the ZAP Tax. You know, they believed in that because they want the sound pools. They want nice parks for their kids to play in. Those are things that we’re always looking at. We’re listening to our community, too.”
The city faced other challenges throughout the budget process, including rising costs of insurance, which jumped 13.2%. “That’s the one thing that everybody in Price City received that little yellow card of that electrical transfer. You know, I applaud the citizens because the electrical costs went up. The transmission costs went up to get that electricity so substantially, you know, and we’re sensitive to those businesses. We’re sensitive to our residents on fixed incomes, you know, raising water, raising electricity. We’re taking money away from our citizens. And, you know, I hope they understand. If they don’t, I’d be more than happy to explain why we had to do what we did.”
Meetings fill the week before the passage of the budget. Mayor Kourianos provided an insider’s look into what this final stretch of the budget process is like: “From my perspective, it wasn’t easy and it was tough because there are things that community members want. But there’s also the need to get equipment to make sure our employees can do their job effectively and safely.”
As the new fiscal year is underway, Kourianos previewed a pair of projects he sees providing the most benefit to the city,” One of the two projects that are under my watch right now is the transmission water line. It is a huge commitment of mine to make sure we can get that done in a timely manner. You know, 75% of the water that Price City uses is coming from that transmission line, 25% from the plant. That’s only when people are watering their lawns and gardens and different things like that. And we’re watering our parks and the ball fields and everything. So the usage goes up, and we have to pull water from the river to make up that water.”
He continued,” The other part, and it’s interesting as I talk to people, is this reservoir project for Carbon County. Price City is the sponsor, but that is huge for Carbon County, for recreational purposes, for sustaining agricultural purposes, and maybe also the industrial side of it. And I look to our neighbors in Emery County, you know, doing things right. They have the water. They have the infrastructure. And this project for Price City is the same thing … We’re out in front of trying to get this reservoir taken care of so we can get a shovel ready. So when the money is there, we can go right to the NRCS and say, ‘this project’s ready, shovel ready, we’re ready to go.’ And that’s our objective. And I think all the irrigation companies, they’re on board.”
Closing our conversation, Mayor Kourianos stated,” The main thing is if you have questions, feel free to ask, ask me, ask a council member. I think the thing is, we’re making Price City stronger.”