City budget amended by nearly $1.6 million

The Decorah City Council has unanimously approved an increase of $1,591,868 in spending on so-called "program areas"--costs that had not been budgeted by the City Council, but will not result in higher property taxes.

City Clerk Wanda Hemesath mentioned a list of spending items that had not been expected, like $11,000 for uniform costs for an extra police officer and money for boiler repairs.  Some costs--like $140,000 extra that will be spent on airport projects--were listed in 2014-2015's budget, but didn't get spent until 2015-2016.

$60,000 in payments towards a new slide at the Decorah Pool and $54,000 in payments on a new street sweeper are expenses that have been discussed for awhile, but came in the 2015-2016 fiscal year.  Finally, repairs to the Metronet system will be offset somewhat by payments from the other five organizations that are served by Metronet.

However, the total adjustments added up to nearly $1.6 million in spending, which will be offset by $1.1 million in new revenues.  That means the city will take $497,644 out of its reserves to pay for the extra expenses.