Holton commission hears budget requests for FY 2025

The heads of Holton’s city infrastructure departments presented their fiscal year 2025 budget requests to the Holton City Commission on Monday, most noting that their requests weren’t too different from what they sought for this year while some added that “big-ticket items” may be on their want lists for the future.

Holton City Manager Teresa Riley reminded commissioners that the department heads’ 2025 budget requests were preliminary numbers that will later be given to auditor Mike Peroo, who will craft a full budget for the city and present it to the commission in July.

According to documents shared by Riley, requests for the proposed 2025 budget totaled $14,051,226, up $578,060 from the 2024 budget of $13,473,166 and up more than $2 million from the actual 2023 budget of $12,047,415, the 2024 and 2025 totals representing budget authority and not amounts that the departments necessarily spend.

Holton Water and Sewer Superintendent Dennis Ashcraft opened the presentations with the proposed 2025 budget for the water department, totaling $1,553,368, up from the 2024 budget of $1,424,600 and the 2023 actual expenditures of $1,534,661.92.

Ashcraft said that on the water production side, much of the increase involves “the cost of buying chemicals and the cost of buying parts” for equipment at the city’s water treatment plant, which he said was “pretty solid and in good shape” due to previous maintenance projects funded by the city’s half-cent sales tax for infrastructure improvements.

“A lot of these projects wouldn’t happen without those sales tax dollars,” he said.

On the distribution side, supply chain issues are spurring the water department to keep “more parts and pieces on hand” for equipment, which means that while the department is seeing “some small increases… we’re trying to hold the line and be as conservative as we can,” Ashcraft said.

One upcoming project for the water department involves extending an eight-inch water main that runs along Banner Road under U.S. Highway 75, an extension that would require a 300-foot bore under the highway. Once completed, Ashcraft said that would give the water department “four major arteries under the highway,” which will provide better water flow and fire protection on the south side of the city.

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