The City of Fishers is in the early planning stages of the city budget for 2021. With state funding unknown, but rumors of cuts in the air, it’s hard to know what the city will be able to do in the coming year. With that said, their are a number of capital budget items on the currently proposed plan.
With growth continuing at a fast clip on the East side, it is no surprise that the city is looking to design and acquire land in 2021 for another forestation. Fire Station 97 will likely be located somewhere around Southeastern and Cyntheanne.
Other capital projects for parks and facilities include a lift station upgrade at Cumberland Park, replacing the lights at Cyntheanne Park in the parking lot, exterior repairs to Holland Park, interior upgrades at Saxony Hall, and a new furnace for Ambassador House. There are also plans to update a few doors at the police department (roll up doors) and to replace the fire suppression system at Fire Station 94.
There are also a number of utility improvements currently in the budget for 2021. These are less exciting than the parks and facilities items. They include ditch improvements along Hoosier Road South of the S-Curve, storm water improvements on 121st Street between Crossroad Lane and Blue Springs, a pond outlet modification at Strongbow Gate, improvements to the Dewatering facility, and some loan repayments.
And of course, in the area of capital projects there is the State Road 37 project, but also plans for the Geist Green-way, concrete road repairs, and various overlay project.
The city is also planning to do a replacement of a number of vehicles within the city, spending about $2.7 million. This will include 14 patrol cars, 2 medic trucks, a detective and K-9 car, a standard pumper for the fire station, a backhoe, a skid steer, a tandem dump truck, several flatbeds, and a variety of other cars. For permits and inspections, they are looking to get 2 Explorers and an Equinox.
Health Department
Of course, the area that most people are interested in seeing the numbers is the infamous Fishers Health Department. The city took over the services of the Hamilton County Health Department for the City of Fishers this year. When they did so, it was indicated that the $500,000 that was being spent for the county to provide the services would be kept locally and would cover the costs.
In looking at the 2021 budget, it appears the proposed cost for the Fishers Health Department (FHD) is going to be around $898,120, which is quite a bit over the $500,000 that had been reportedly paid to the county. This cost reflects a staffing of 5 full time positions.
It was also indicated in a financial committee meeting that some of the costs associated with the FHD would be located in other areas. For example, some of the staffing for inspections would fall under the Permits & Inspections group (which has a proposed budget increase of $216,670). As such, the $898,120 planned budget might be indicating a lower number than the actual cost.
For 2021, it appears that the overall budget (excluding capital) increased by $504,578; however, if if the health department were excluded from this number, the budget would have decreased by over $393,000.
The City did indicate that there could be grants to offset the costs of running the health department, but there were no indications of the amounts or details on these.
The numbers and information in this post are based on information available on September 10th. The City of Fishers will be presenting the budget with a public hearing on September 21st at City Hall. Adoption is expected on October 19th at the City Council meeting.
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