Corey’s Comments from City Hall

 

It seems like the first month of 2025 has just flown by and we are already into February. I first want to thank all the city crews for their dedication and hard work during the winter storm. We had crews out for 36 hours straight working on power lines in the winter conditions. We also had crews putting in long hours making sure our streets were safe to drive. I appreciate all our lineman, maintenance workers, police, fire and emergency management during this time. I know things did not go perfectly, but everyone pulled together to make sure we got back up and running quickly as possible. 

It is budget time for the city as we prepare for our 2025-2026 fiscal year starting April 1. We have a proposed budget of $16,302,000.00 for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. Currently City Council is meeting with departments to go over requests for the upcoming year. We are also looking at possible street projects, water/sewer line projects and upgrades at our Wastewater Treatment, Water, and Light Plant facilities. 

The city did receive a grant from the Financial Rural Community and Agricultural Foundation. This grant was for playground equipment at the Kenton and Friends Playground for $5,000.00. We are looking to replace an old metal slide that was at the playground with these funds. We continue to try and make improvements to our park and recreation system. 

The new Casey’s General Store has broken ground out by Max Motors and Interstate 49. The hope is that this project will be done sometime later this spring or early summer. That is all the details we have on the project currently. 

City Council is also currently going through the codification process of our ordinances. This is an effort to update ordinances that are out of date or do not reflect the correct processes of the city. Here is a time if you think a code should be changed to reach out to your council member about it. 

I am pleased to announce that by the end of February we should have a new customer utility portal for citizens. You will be able to go online and see your current usage, look at days when your usage could be high or low. This will be a benefit when it comes to your bill and not be taken off guard for a high usage month. We will update everyone once the portal is ready to be launched and how to access it.   

We are also getting close to that time of year where we ask for new members for the boards and commissions that city has. If serving on a board or commission is something you like to do please go out to our website and look at the different opportunities we have. We are always looking for people to serve our community in any capacity.  www.cityofbutlermo.com/1152/Boards-and-Commissions

                                    -Butler City Administrator, Corey Snead