PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend City Council approved a second round of supplemental budget appropriations with new expenditures totaling $758,851.
“We try to be relatively conservative when we’re doing our supplement,” said Jodi Adams, the city’s director of finance and technology services. “We budget for expenditure increases. We do not typically budget for revenue increases.”
Adams highlighted several line items for the council Monday night.
The first was an increase in unemployment expenses by $35,000.
“We’re self-insured, which means that we cover our own unemployment benefits with the state,” she said. “They happen to be slightly higher this year than we budgeted, so we’re increasing the unemployment fund.”
The shoreline master program received an increase of $75,500 in grant funding from the state Department of Commerce, Adams said.
“We are budgeting additional professional services to match that additional grant money,” she said.
Community Services appropriations totaled $382,000, with $82,000 going to emergency repairs.
“We are budgeting the boilers at City Hall that broke,” Adams said. “Hopefully they’re fixed before it gets too much colder.”
The appropriations also will fund painting Port Townsend Fire Bell Tower and replacing the chlorinator at Mountain View pool and some playground equipment at Chetzemoka Park.
Of the community services appropriations, $300,000 will be put into the anticipated but not yet created facilities equipment rental and revolving fund (ER&R).
“We know that there’s going to be a pretty substantial initial deposit for starting that ER&R fund,” she said. “We’re paying in every year for long-term maintenance of our facilities buildings.”
The city plans to develop a long-term maintenance plan for all of its facilities, Adams said.
A loss in Transportation Improvement Board grant dollars resulted in a $228,444 supplement to a Discovery Road project.
Also in the appropriations is a pass-through grant, listed at $75,000 from the state, to be distributed to the Port Townsend Main Street Program.
Adams noted that federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars are being adjusted within the budget to align with already approved projects.
“Those projects have already spent their money,” she said. “We just need to budget extra money to transfer them to the appropriate departments where that money was spent. We did not put that in for the 2025 budget at the correct amount.”
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@peninsuladailynews.com.
