The Town of Golden is getting a bit of budget relief for 2015, after a one-year funding agreement was reached to use $275,000 of Economic Opportunities Fund money to assist in the operations of the Golden Municipal Swimming Pool.
At the Standing Finance Committee Meeting last week, members of council had some preliminary discussions on what to do with those funds that were normally earmarked for the pool, but are now freed up for the 2015 budget.
“I’d like to see the majority of that money going into a reserve, with some of it going to offset some of our new recreational costs,” said Mayor Christina Benty. The Town of Golden has recently taken over operation of the Mount 7 Rec Plex.
Coun. Keith Hern agreed that he would like the money put into some reserve, but wouldn’t like it to be committed to any one department.
“I think we need to keep the recreation budget separate, because that is going to be the subject for further negotiation,” he said. “I don’t want to pin it to any particular reserve.”
More detailed discussions regarding where exactly that money will go will take place during budget deliberations. In the meantime, Manager of Finance Lisa Vass will leave it in the budget as a surplus to be allocated later.
Manager of Recreation Services Jordan Petrovics also indicated that he would be able to propose a few small (less than $10,000) capital expenditures such as new equipment for the swimming pool to keep some of the surplus funds in the facility.
