Russell City Council Hears Budget Requests from Outside Agencies

The Russell City Council met Tuesday and heard budget requests from outside agencies.

Six outside agencies requested $53,000 in funding from the City mill levy for the 2023 budget, an increase of $23,500 from 2022.

This did not include Russell Recreation and the Russell Public Library who presented their requests on June 7.

Russell County Economic Development and CVB was budgeted $12,500 in 2022 and requested $25,000 for 2023. Western Kansas Child Advocacy Center was budgeted $1,000 in 2022 and requested $2,000 for 2023. Russell Main Street, Inc. was budgeted $12,000 in 2022 and requested $18,000 for 2023. The Russell Area Chamber of Commerce was budgeted $3,000 in 2022 and requested $3,000 for 2023. Options Domestic and Sexual Violence Services was budgeted $1,000 in 2022 and requested $3,000 for 2023. And Ad Astra Music Festival was budgeted $0 in 2022 and requested $2,000 for 2023.

City staff has been working on crafting a 2023 operating budget based on rising inflation exacerbated by supply chain issues, rising fuel and natural gas cost, and poor economic outlook for the next 24 months.

City Manager Jon Quinday asked the Council what level of funding to provide each of the outside entities in 2023.

Consensus of the Council was to fully fund all the entities except the Chamber for $2,000.

Quinday and City staff will now plug those figures into the budget and see how they can make it work.

Also Tuesday, the Council approved moving forward with Evergy for solar energy project development and approved applying for affordable housing redevelopment funding.