As cleanup efforts from the July 29 storm continued in Callaway last week, the Callaway Village Board remains focused on the tasks at hand and keeping the Village moving forward in a positive direction. The board has taken action to approve the revival of the community’s go-kart track and site the primary reason as the safety of young drivers in the village.

“We were running into a situation where we had several young kids under the age of 16 riding go-karts and mini-bikes around town. You can do that at age 12 and over with an adult, but you have to be over 16 to do it by yourself,” explained Village Board member Ken Pitkin. “We had people share their concerns that these kids were not looking at intersections and darting out from between cars, and we sympathize with the kids in town but our concern is their safety.”

At their Aug. 8 meeting, the Village Board discussed the policies and procedures related to the go-kart track which will be formally adopted at the September board meeting. We will have a complete story on the plans for the track in the Aug. 24 issue of the Courier.

It’s also budget time of the year, and the board committees have been busy planning and preparing for that. At last Tuesday’s meeting that information was shared by the committee with the entire board for discussion.

“The Village is in very good shape financially,” said Pitkin. “We’ve had two studies done this year, one by MEAN - our power pool, who did a study on the financial viability of the Village, and they confirmed that we are in good shape.”

Pitkin explained that the Board started a sinking fund six or seven years ago and has contributed money to that every year, knowing that things will wear out and eventually need to be replaced. That’s what those funds are for.

“It does look like we are going to have to do about a 5 percent increase in our fuel cost because fuel has gone up. Right now we have no rate increase plan for electrical, sewer, or water. We will need to budget a $1 increase per month for every trash customer,” said Pitkin. “This includes everyone living within the city limits, and for those outside of the city we do allow them the right to bring their trash into our dumpsters at the landfill. Right now that is the only increase we see.”

Health insurance for village employees is going up 10 percent this year, and because of the weather factors of the last two summers, the Village liability insurance is going up 22 percent.

“We have not budgeted wages yet. A couple of years ago we gave our employees the option of a smaller raise with full insurance, or a bigger raise with co-pay insurance. They chose full insurance and a smaller raise,” Pitkin shared. “We have a great crew, and we really appreciate them. There probably will need to be some wage adjustment.”

The good news is the Village continues to grow. That means more power usage, which equates to more revenue for the community. “Our utilities are very reasonable,” Pitkin added.

The budget is due to the state by Sept. 30. The board will hold a special meeting on the budget prior to that, and Pitkin said they are hoping to have the budget in place by the next regular board meeting on Sept. 12. If they are not ready yet by then a special board meeting will be called prior to the Sept. 30 deadline.

Of course, the tax asking is a part of the budget request and Pitkin said at this point the board does not anticipate any change in that for next year.

Finally, the board had a discussion on the use of LB840 funds, and Pitkin said a budget for those funds will be created. They are exploring the idea of using some of those funds to acquire substandard properties in the Village that contractors can either renovate or replace. This would fall under workforce housing, and would not only benefit the community aesthetically but would also add more reveune to the tax roll.

There will be more to come on that discussion.