Brandon council OKs $14.7M budget for 2018

The city of Brandon will operate on a $14.7 million budget in 2018, which was approved at the Sept. 18 council meeting. 

The 2018 budget is $5.7 million steeper than the current year’s budget. According to Bryan Read, city administrator, sewer, water and sales tax revenue will balance out that difference. 

The major expenses for Brandon in 2018 will be $8.8 million for construction of two water towers, a $5.5 million sanitary sewer project and $1 million to double the size of the city’s water treatment plants. 

Public safety spending in 2018 is up nearly $100,000 over 2017 due to traffic engineering. That money will go toward new traffic lights at Holly Blvd. and Heritage Pl. and traffic loops, which run underground where stoplights are located to regulate traffic more effectively. 

Public works is seeing a $152,498 spike due to new spray patch equipment to repair potholes, a dump truck and storm sewer improvements along Redwood Blvd.

Two-hundred thousand dollars of the 2017 budget designated for city parks and recreation will be directed to completion of the concession and restroom building at First National Bank Field of Dreams @ Aspen Park, which is expected to be ready in the spring. The city has pushed off building a shelter at Stoneridge Park until 2018, and part of the $150,000 designated for parks in 2018 will go toward that shelter.

Community promotion increases $33,849 in 2018 to cover Christmas decorations, which will be strung on light poles along Splitrock Blvd. 

The city’s $5.5 million sanitary sewer project for 2018 involves reconstructing sewer, storm sewer and water lines, as well as curb and gutter along Holly Boulevard, Dogwood and Main avenues, ending at the lift station at Aspen Park. 

The city of Brandon has also reserved $20,000 of its 2018 budget for the installation of a new railroad crossing directly west of the Holly and Sioux boulevard intersection. The South Dakota Department of Transportation is picking up 80 percent of the $200,000 tab.