City council discusses Memorial Auditorium, public safety budgets

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WORTHINGTON — Worthington City Council met for its second day of budget discussions Wednesday morning with representatives from the Worthington Public Safety Department and Memorial Auditorium Performing Arts Center present.

The police and fire departments will see a decrease of $48,659 for the operational cost budget in 2012. A significant factor in the reduction is the elimination of a 24th police officer position.

Another contributing factor is the cost of putting gasoline in the tanks of the police department’s vehicles.

“We’re trying to estimate, based on this year, what our fuel (cost) is going to be next year,” said Public Safety Director Mike Cumiskey. “Right now, we’re running a deficit.”

Police cars are currently running on V6 engines as opposed to V8 engines.

“Going from the Fords to the Chevys, (we) have seen a lot of cut down in gas,” Cumiskey said.

He added that the department tries various ways to save on gas expenditures.

“When we’re sending vehicles to the Cities, we try to do it smartly by having more people in the car,” he explained.

Memorial Auditorium’s projected revenue for 2012 is expected to be up by about $17,000 from last year.

The budget expenditures are projected at $121,820, which is about a $12,000 increase from last year.

“I think the first-year budget, when we have this new building, is unpredictable at this point,” said Memorial Auditorium Manager Margaret Hurlbut Vosburgh.

Vosburgh said that with the added space, there are more operational costs involved.

Since numbers for the auditorium’s budget were difficult to predict, Alderman Ron Wood requested a follow-up meeting some time next year to adjust the figures before planning the 2013 budget.

The Friends of the Auditorium group has lined up 11 revenue-generating shows for the year, compared to the six or seven shows that have been produced in previous years.

The Worthington City Council budget meetings will resume at 6:30 a.m. Friday. Council members will discuss the community-economic development and engineering budgets.

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