Royal charts FY25 budget

The Royal City Council on Tuesday crunched numbers to sketch out the town's budget for the coming fiscal year.

Once the tally was totaled, FY25's budget was estimated at $449,200. That was $59,000 less than the current year, which is $508,200.

Most of the savings stem from water utility expenses. Since the city relinquished its water utility to Iowa Lakes Regional Water last year, it seemingly won't need too much money – if any – from that account.

The council budgeted $90,000 for the water utility in FY24. Next year, it plans to budget $5,000.

"I think we need to run a calendar year [with $5,000] and see what surprises come up," said Council Member Sara Ricke.

A vast majority of line item budget totals were kept the same as FY24 with the exception of minor increases for garbage, City Hall, and property and liability insurance. The sewer utility expense budget was upped from $33,000 to $53,000.

The total budgeted will be around $10,000 less than expenditures. City Clerk Barb Fletcher is in the process of finalizing revenue projections, which she has tabbed at around $459,000 for FY25.

• City clerk position

The council held brief discussion about the city clerk position, which will come open this year due to Fletcher's impending retirement.

According to discussion, two people have expressed interest in applying for the job. Since the city no longer needs to handle billing for the water utility and other related expenses, the council is unsure how many hours the new clerk will need to serve at City Hall each week.

"The goal is for it to be much less, but we don't exactly know right now," said Mayor Josh Toft.

The position will be advertised briefly later this year. When sketching out next year's budget, the council kept expenses for FICA, IPERS and group health insurance the same as FY24 since the city is unsure how the city clerk role might change when Fletcher retires.

"Then it gives us all the options in the world for Barb's replacement," Toft said.