In a meeting that was 6 days and then 2.5 more hours in the making, the Vandalia City Council finally held their first meeting of September on Monday night. The meeting was delayed last Tuesday because of lack of a quorum. And, then after originally being scheduled for a 5 pm meeting, the meeting had to be moved back to 7:30 pm because of confusion over the time of the meeting for the official notice.
One of the biggest items on the agenda was for the City Council to hear the yearly audit report from Timmerman and Company. Dale Timmerman presented the audit, saying to start off they give the city a clean opinion on their audit. Timmerman did highlight some different categories that suffered a loss for the past year. Overall, the general fund saw a loss of $237,000 for the past year. But, Timmerman said the main reason for that last loss was for some major equipment purchases this past year—such as $700,000 for the new fire truck. For the general fund, Timmerman pointed out revenues were up, with sales taxes—the city’s largest revenue source—being up by about $78,000 from last year and up better than $72,000 over the budgeted amount. Timmerman also pointed out that video gaming tax was up better than $60,000 from last year and up better than $50,000 over what was budgeted for the year.
Meanwhile, Timmerman made his yearly recommendation on water and sewer bills and whether there needs to be an increase to keep up with costs. For this year, Timmerman recommends water rates go up by 0.69 percent and sewer rates go up by 6.27 percent. If the City Council does not take action at their next meeting, then the rate increases will automatically go into effect on October 1st.