FORKS — The city of Forks passed a “bare bones” 2009 budget this week that includes a hiring freeze in the Police Department that will leave at least three positions vacant, Mayor Nedra Reed said.
The $5.694 million budget, which the City Council passed unanimously on Monday, includes no layoffs nor hiring freezes in any other departments.
It will be monitored monthly.
“Usually, we monitor the budget on a quarterly basis, but we’ll monitor it monthly, as well as including the freeze in the Forks Police Department,” Reed said.
“This year, we did have to dip into the reserves a little bit, and we are starting out the year with the economic picture not being real favorable.
“I think that, with frugal management and oversight, we will make it through the year well, though.”
The budget is balanced, with projected revenues and expenses being equal for the year, she said.
Two projects
Two major projects that had been approved previously still will move forward, Reed said.
The completion of a fire-damaged building at the Quillayute Airport and repaving of Bogachiel Way are both to be funded in 2009.
The paving project will be about $1.5 million, said Dan Leinan, city treasurer, while the airport building will cost the city about $450,000.
“We wanted to move on with these projects because we want to keep the city reasonably running,” Reed said.
In order to deal with the slowing economy and rising costs, Reed said that the police department will run with three vacancies.
There are currently four vacancies at the Police Department, she said, with three officers who have moved on and one officer — Erik Hansen — who was deployed to Iraq.
She hopes to fill one of the vacancies, while leaving the position open for the officer who is expected to be serving in the military for 18 months.
“We will run with critical minimums,” Reed said.
“In a better economic time we would be able to offer someone a temporary assignment to cover for the 18 months that our officer will be serving his country,” Reed said.
“But we will try and get by without filling those.
Chief on patrol
“We will do the best that we can, with both the chief and the deputy chief pulling patrol shifts when they don’t have administrative duties,” Reed said.
“We are committed to doing the best we can at maintaining the safety of our community. Just like everything else in Forks, everyone is pitching in to help.”
The Police Department makes up about 80 percent to 90 percent of the budget, Reed said.
“That is the largest part of what we spend, as with most other cities,” she said.
“We won’t have any layoffs, though. We will also be able to maintain our staff in all other areas.”
Reed said unexpected legal costs affected the city’s reserve fund.
The city hired attorneys when three fired Police Department employees argued that they had been unlawfully terminated.
Between $70,000 and $85,000 of reserves were used, Leinan said.
“We don’t know for sure how much reserves we will have to use, because we haven’t gotten all of the final tax receipts for the year,” he said.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
