Supervisors Pass Budget Amendment, Read Letter Concerning Budget Cut for DMC Conservation
By Beacon Staff
The Des Moines County Board of Supervisors passed a $3.083 million budget amendment for fiscal year 2022 Tuesday morning (April 26) that allocates an additional $64,000 to Des Moines County Conservation.
The biggest chunk of the money – $2.6 million – went to the secondary road department, mostly to cover projects that have crossed over into the 2022 fiscal year.
Conservation Board Sends Letter About Budget Cut
Des Monies County Conservation board members Jim Garnjobst, Bob Hansen, Julie Solinski, Matthew Haas and Cathy Ziglar signed a letter addressed to the board of supervisors that outlines the difficulties the department would be facing with a nearly 16 percent budget cut for fiscal year 2023.
Supervisor Jim Cary said the letter arrived earlier in the month, and he read it aloud at Tuesday’s meeting before the board approved the budget amendment. The conservation department asked for around $60,000 in the letter. The $64,000 approved with the amendment was for this this year’s budget, ending June 30, and not for the fiscal 2023 budget.
“We are sending this letter to document the anticipated operational issues created by the board of supervisors’ decision to dramatically reduce the Des Moines County Conservation’s budget for the fiscal year 2022 and 2023,” the letter reads.
The letter included an explanation of how the budget cut would impact the department, and that explanation was also posted in the conservation department’s Spring newsletter.
“Compared to the current year, we will be getting about $112,000 less from the tax base next year, a cut from $712,388 to a flat $600,000. That’s just shy of 16 percent less than the amount we’re currently operating on,” the letter reads.
According to the newsletter, Des Moines County Conservation manages 19 parks, nearly 2,000 acres, over 100 campsites and over 20 miles of trails. The department employs eight full time park and conservation professionals, two permanent part time employees, and usually four summer interns every year. The department also brings contracted work teams to complete various park projects throughout the county.
Annual park visitation numbers are well into six digits, according to the newsletter.