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Williamsport City Council approved transfer ordinances on first reading to move money over from reallocated surplus to pay for Brandon Park bandshell design, East Fourth Street-Basin Street to Penn Street resurfacing and Lose Park project improvements.
Scott Livermore, city director of public works, said these are for revisions to the Act 13 budget or natural gas impact fees.
Initially, the projects were $337,067 to be revised to $353,735 for a change of $20,668.
The total amount is $20,668 from natural gas impact fees to pay the remaining balance, Livermore said.
These are not close-out costs for the projects, city officials were told.
Another transfer ordinance was approved for revisions to the 2023 budget, moving money from engineering contracted services to engineering support equipment. The initial budget of $7,900 was revised to $4,500 for a change of $2,600 to support purchasing a computer for the engineering department now that the city has a full-time engineer.
A transfer ordinance presented by Mayor Derek Slaughter was approved to reallocate some of the City Hall operating funds to cover the salary of Tracey Rash, the contracted manager of Government Finance Solutions, Harrisburg. This will cover her salary or time at work until about Dec. 15, Slaughter said.
This reallocation was asked for by Council President Adam Yoder so the administration could make a recommendation to the full body of council for Rash to be working in the city additional days in order for her to get the 2020 through 2022 audits caught up.
Yoder asked for the administration not to use legislative contingency for this purpose and it was Rash's recommendation to use the extra money to cover that expense and this was reviewed in the finance committee, Slaughter said.
Councilman Randy Allison said that the city did not have a lot of options and this seemed to be a good compromise to come up with the extra money without having to take a big chunk out of somewhere that we didn't have available.
Rash discussed with Yoder that this work would require 100 hours between now and Dec. 15, Slaughter said to a question from Councilwoman Bonnie Katz. That will require Rash to work at least two to three days a week.