By Andy Dahn
BLOOMINGTON – The City of Bloomington will transfer $3.5 million of reserve funds into its operating fund, as approved by the city council Monday night.
Bloomington will add nearly $500,000 to the city’s golf fund, as well as the U.S. Cellular Coliseum fund, a move that upset several council members. Alderman Kevin Lower said the city’s funding priorities are in the wrong place.
“We’ve got a huge amount of capital improvements and repairs that we need to make,” Lower said. “We need to prioritize and we need to start to address those. Public entertainment comes way down on the list.”
Lower said changing the city’s funding priorities is necessary, though it may not be pretty.
“We’re not going to be cutting in the police force first,” said Lower. “We’re not going to be cutting fire first. That’s not the thing to do. We need to be looking at these non-essential items such as the Coliseum, the BCPA, the zoo expansion, and many other ideas that are floated and paid for throughout the year.”
Something Lower would like to see wait is a salary increase for City Manager David Hales, which was approved by the council Monday night. The 2.5 percent increase boosts Hales annual salary to just over $181,000.
The city also renewed a recycling agreement with Midwest Fiber, agreeing to a new three-year “shared risk, shared benefit” contract.
Andy Dahn can be reached at andy.dahn@cumulus.com.
