Valmeyer Treasurer Larry Andres presented trustees with a tentative budget for the current fiscal year during last Tuesday’s village board meeting.

While the Valmeyer’s fiscal year runs May 1 through April 30, Valmeyer Village Administrator Dennis Knobloch explained state statute allows municipal budgets to be passed within the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

He added Andres is very “thorough” in preparing budget documents.

Overall, Andres anticipates a surplus of $143,200 in Valmeyer’s general fund at the end of Fiscal Year 2024.

Expenditures this year include $50,000 for storm sewer repairs, $50,000 for ongoing street repairs and $50,000 to clear a lot along Moredock Lake.

The village is also planning to spend $70,000 for a mini-excavator and trailer to be used for village maintenance projects, $50,500 for a police vehicle and $11,000 for portable police radios.

Valmeyer Police Chief Marty Seitz noted during the meeting his annual budget is larger than usual, but the new radios are needed.

In the budget proposal, Andres said “most other items are being held at the actual amount expended in the prior fiscal year, with a slight increase.” 

One of those increases includes a previously reported increase in water and sewer rates for village customers. 

The water rate change, which became effective March 7, was approved  to keep up with increases from Fountain Water District, Valmeyer’s water provider.

Andres said it is hard to estimate a precise impact to village water receipts without having significant data from the recent price changes.

Trustees will have a committee meeting this week to finalize other budget details before it is scheduled for approval during the June 20 board meeting. 

In other village news, Knobloch said engineers will be inspecting sanitary sewer lift stations this summer.

“They’re working down the list now of doing the same thing to the lift stations that we did to the main one last year when that had to be repaired,” he said.

Knobloch told the Republic-Times there was a “major problem” last year at the main lift station near the intersection of South Meyer Avenue and Route 156 due to residents using toilets to dispose of used COVID-19 test swabs.

Six total lift stations channel sewage from residences and businesses on top of the bluff to a treatment facility in Old Valmeyer.

Knobloch said the inspections are to ensure there are “no lingering problems” with the other lift stations, adding the process should ensure they are “good for the next 20 years.”

Work is also continuing on an Ameren electricity substation near the base of Rock City.

The project was announced in April 2022 as a way to provide power to rural customers in the Columbia Bottoms and from Valmeyer to Waterloo in addition to Rock City.

In order to complete the project, the village board recently approved an expanded easement for Ameren in the area.

Ameren will pay Valmeyer an additional $19,500 for the new easement as well as use of a “lay-down lot” on which the company will store construction materials while completing the project. 

It was also reported during the meeting that the most recent round of street repairs in the village is complete.