Despite having to use some of last year’s fund balance, the city of Brighton will finish the 2018-19 fiscal year well into the black.

The City Council last week approved the final budget amendment to close the books for the fiscal year which ends Sunday, June 30th. According to city Finance Director Gretchen Gomolka, it had been originally projected that the city would have to use some of its fund balance from the previous year for unbudgeted and unanticipated emergency expenses, such when a sink hole developed on Rickett Road, resulting from the collapse of a sanitary sewer line. The sink hole also resulted in damage to the road itself and traffic had to be diverted around the site for a considerable length of time until the road could be repaired.

The city budgeted $150,000 for sewer repair and repair of pavement damage to Rickett Road. However, City Manager Nate Geinzer tells WHMI that despite the sink hole and sewer collapse issue, the city’s finances for the end of the fiscal year look good. Geinzer says further that due to unexpected revenue sources and other savings, the effect of Rickett Road on the fund balance won’t be nearly as serious as feared, and the city will end the fiscal year well into the black.

It was originally projected that the city would be forced to use $346,000 of its fund balance from last year, but the figure is now down to about $157,000 — or less than half that. Final figures on the 2018-19 fund balance won’t be known until sometime in July. (TT)