Ronan council eliminates parks maintenance worker position
Megan Strickland
Marlene Melton, Ellen Kaphammer, Cal Hardy, Robert McCrea, and Kim Aipperspach look over budget documents at a Sept. 30 meeting.
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
RONAN — Ronan city council voted to eliminate the job of parks maintenance worker Jennifer Rolfsness at its Sept. 30 meeting as part of cost-saving measures to help balance the city’s budget.
In a split 4-2 vote, the council adopted a solution laid out in a packet of options prepared by public works director Dan Miller. Explanations of exactly how much each of those options would save were unclear, because the packet was distributed to only council members. The day after the meeting city clerk Kaylene Melton said she was unsure if she was allowed to provide that information to the public.
“Option two is changing a full-time to part time,” Miller said of the options. “Options three, four and five are either going to contract help or (option) five, for one year only would be to just eliminate the position ... four and a half public works people would cover it for a year. I’ve talked with them and they’d be willing to do it, but it’s a one year deal.”
Carlene Bockman, the park’s namesake, asked the council to consider Rolfsness’s experience in their decision.
“I understand your dilemma, believe me,” Bockman said. “I understand your argument about the seasonal end of this employee. My feeling is that I know that Jenn is a very valuable employee. She has many years of experience here and I think she’s done a great job.”
The council voted to eliminate Rolfsness’s position. Whether or not the position will have to be filled again in a year is unclear, according to Aipperspach.
“We’re going to try it for a year,” Aipperspach said after the meeting. “It will be a learning experience.”
Aipperspach said the city gave Rolfsness official notice of her termination on Friday afternoon.
Rolfsness said she was not allowed to retrieve photos from her work computer before it was taken away from her.
“I wanted to get 700 pictures I had on there of everything I’ve done in the park in the past 15 years,” Rolfsness said.
Miller requested approximately $15,000 in funding to repair the park’s well house, restrooms, bridge rails, softball field, and splash pad.
“In the long term we need to put some money into the park,” Miller said.
The council put $2,375 for the well house roof into the budget.
The entire budgeting process, which tasked council members to cut approximately $33,000 requested by department heads, included extensive back and forth discussion about how much the Ronan Library and police department would receive.
Council decided at its previous meeting to budget $9,100 for the library, approximately half of what was budgeted for a whole fiscal year in the city’s last budget. Voters approved a taxing district for the library this summer. The library will begin receiving revenue from that district in December. The city has paid the library more than $20,000 since July — almost double what the city’s budget plans for. The library board asked the city for a loan, but the city’s auditor was a wary of that, according to Melton. It was suggested that the library seek a loan from the Montana Board of Investments. Council member Ellen Kaphammer said the city and library were able to meet and find an amount the library thinks it will need to continue operating. In addition to the $9,100 budgeted, the library estimates it will need $35,000 in loan money, to possibly be paid back to the city over a five-year time frame.
Having a definite number was helpful to the budgeting process, but many questions about exactly how the loan process would work remained unanswered.
“If they don’t pay, what happens?” councilman Cal Hardy asked.
The council also weighed the value of different items in the budget of the police department.
“I don’t want to cut anything from the police budget,” councilman Roger Romero said.
Questions about how much funding needed to be set aside for training were difficult to answer because the council has not said exactly what training the council wants officers to have.
“Do we need to get them DUI certified, radar certified, all of that right away?” asked officer Pat Noble.
The amount needed to fund the department’s fleet was also questioned.
“We have six running cars,” Aipperspach said.
Noble said many of the cars need maintenance and repair.
Purchasing a used vehicle from state surplus, Montana Highway Patrol, or the county was discussed, but no course of action was made.
The council decided to reduce the amount to pay the county for emergency communication services by $5,000. Some council members said paying $25,000 seems like a lot because officers have been put in a position where their radios do not work.
“If I’m screaming for help it does no good,” Noble said.
In the end, the mayor said training costs trumped the department’s needs for vehicles.
“I know you don’t want to cut anything from the police department, but I think you can get a good used police car for less than 10 (thousand),” Aipperspach said. “ ... I’d rather leave the money in training.”
The city had until Oct. 6 to get the budget turned into the state under new rules, Melton said.
In other business:
• Dan Miller updated the council on a water improvement project.
• Melton said communications with city auditor Jennifer Coty determined that money levied for the Fire Relief Association should be directed through city. The association asked the council this summer if the money could be channeled directly from the county to the association, because the city’s payments were delayed and did not match the amount the county said the association should have gotten. Melton attributed the small discrepancies in payments to a rounding error with her computer software. She can now fix the problem manually and said the city will be making monthly payments to the association.
• Plans were made to begin interviewing candidates for police chief, which occurred Sunday. Aipperspach said no final decision was made in the matter.
