The City Council unanimously approved the appropriation of just over $1.3 million in free cash into a variety of city projects and programs at Monday night’s meeting.
In addition, the council also approved the transfer of a $2.9 million surplus from the Clark Avenue Middle School project into the school department’s capital stabilization fund.
Earlier this year, the state certified over $17 million in free cash at the end of Fiscal Year 2022, as well as about $6 million free cash in the city’s water and sewer enterprise funds.
“For the most part, we are taking money from free cash and we are cleaning up something where there may have been an overage or something may have come up over the year for adjustments,” said Councilor-at-Large Brian Hatleberg. “I wanted to take a moment to point out that we have surplus funding in the Clark Avenue Middle School, it is really a wonderful thing to see. It is greatly to the credit of the project administration.”
Hatleberg said that money can be used for future needed school capital improvement projects. While people tend to think of the schools as fairly new, Hatleberg said there are some capital needs that will be coming up in the near future.
The free cash transfers that were approved by the council included Some of the requests included $176,000 for the Bunker Hill Scholarship Program for Chelsea High School students, $100,000 for seed funds for the Chelsea 400th celebration in 2024, $11,000 for city audit services, and $50,000 for the Mill Creek Riverwalk project.
Other transfers included $200,000 for additional costs for the Powderhorn Hill staircase refurbishment, $215,000 for DPW buildings and grounds projects, $10,000 for DPW buildings and grounds overtime, $60,000 for street and sidewalk overtime, $50,000 for sewer enterprise infrastructure, and $61,000 for IT department projects.
Additional money was approved to pay expected deficits in outside legal services, unemployment costs, redistricting expenses in the City Clerk’s office, and solid waste disposal.