The Mapleton City Council approved a tentative 2022-2023 fiscal year budget during last week’s council meeting. The total budget is approximately $27 million split among the general, capital projects and enterprise funds.

Finance Director Bryce Oyler presented the tentative budget to the council members.

The council budgeted $8.6 million for the general fund. That amount includes the cost of hiring a full-time police officer and four full-time parks and recreation employees.

The council also approved transferring a $780,000 surplus to the capital projects fund. A large portion of that surplus was from American Recovery Plan Act funds the city received from the federal government.

“The true surplus is closer to $140,000 because the ARPA money is a one-time fund,” Oyler said. “We have a strong surplus this year that would be transferred to the capital projects fund but a large portion of it is from federal awards.”

The city is projected to earn approximately $2.3 million in property tax revenue and $1.8 million in sales tax revenue during the 2023 fiscal year. Oyler said the city uses past budget information and annual earnings to estimate how much may be earned during the upcoming year.

The council additionally allotted $3.1 million to the capital projects fund. Of that, approximately $1.9 million was budgeted for new vehicle purchases throughout the year.

The parks and recreations department was approved to purchase two mowers, a pickup truck, a bucket truck and a service truck. The public safety department is set to purchase one new vehicle. Oyler said it hasn’t determined what kind of vehicle yet, but it will be based on what the community needs most. Public works was budgeted to purchase four new dump trucks, three pickup trucks and a vacuum truck.

Another $726,000 was reserved for future vehicle purchases.

“Our vehicle replacement plan was created to target most needed vehicles for replacement based on miles, age and department need,” Oyler said. “The second part of the plan requires setting aside funds for future years. This is also not taking into account revenue from selling our surplus vehicles.”

Oyler also mentioned a $316,000 project to make some road expansions and add streetlights throughout the city.

A facility master plan will cost the city $65,000. This study will determine the city’s scope of need for future buildings, parks and facilities.

The $10.6 million Enterprise funds consists of the city’s culinary water, sewer, pressurized irrigation and storm water budgets.

Sewer is the only utility to have a rate increase for the new year, according to Oyler.

“The rate will increase $7 in conjunction with state guidelines that sewer systems must comply with the need to update facilities” he said. “Mapleton is kind of unique. We share our facility with Spanish Fork, and our potion of the increase was done through a note to Spanish Fork. Our rate increase is going (toward) paying back that note.”

Mapleton’s network fund was budgeted $4.5 million. It consists of $724,000 in operating expenses, $3.5 million for construction/capital projects and $250,000 in debt service.

The Mapleton Police Department budgeted $115,000 to replace all body cameras for its officers and purchase storage for the body camera data. Oyler said the cameras are expected to last about five years.

A public hearing to address any questions or concerns about the tentative budget, and a separate meeting to approve the budget, was set for June 1.

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