Slight tax rate decrease seen as Charles City Council reviews fiscal year 2025/26 budget

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Council looked over the last portion of the new fiscal year budget during a workshop session on Wednesday, Feb. 19.

This year’s tax rate will see a slight drop this year, going down a little more than a penny from $15.96 per $1,000 in taxable valuation to $15.95.

Though the levy is falling slightly, the amount collected will increase by about 2.1% as total valuations increase. The city will be bringing in $4,385.240 in revenue from taxable valuation.

Looking over the general fund budget, one of the bigger expenses this year is $400,000 for fire truck repair and equipment, along with potentially roof repair for the Fire Department. Two of the city’s fire engines are in need of work, the cost of which will determine how much is left over for other equipment and repairs.

“That’s still kind of a question,” said City Administrator Steve Diers. “We’re not sure what some of these repairs are going to be.”

Another item of discussion was the city’s funding of the Main Street Façade/Culture and Entertainment grant program.

The budget marks $180,000 over three years for these programs, however the council has been considering creating a new grant program similar to the Façade grant that could be available to non-Main Street businesses.

The details about the criteria of such grants, who would approve applications and how much would be offered still need to be worked out, but the council generally agreed that it would be a worthy endeavor for the city to support and encourage businesses across Charles City to maintain and improve their buildings with projects like ADA compliance and roof repair.

“I’d really like to see us maintain as much as we can,” said council member Keith Starr.

Exactly how funds for the fledgling grant program will be allocated needs to be determined. It may be a split between general funds and TIF revenue.

Preceding the workshop, the council also held a regular meeting, where Deb Holzer presented the council with a petition asking for a fair tax and utility policy.

In regular business, the council approved the conversion of the city’s financial software, gWorks.

“They are currently going to phase out the server-based program,” said Diers. “They are encouraging customers to move to the cloud based system.”

Offering an incentive to convert to the cloud based system, gWorks is waving the on-boarding fee and locking the city’s subscription rate for two years.

Discussion of converting to the cloud-based system had raised questions about the city’s cyber security coverage at a previous meeting. Having since reached out to the city’s insurance agent, it was reported that the city has $1 million of coverage. The council discussed increasing the city’s coverage to $2 million and will address that at a future meeting.

In housing developments, the council set a public hearing date for the city’s purchase agreement with Kading Properties for its potential new housing development. The city is working with Kading on what may eventually be a series of duplexes and similar houses on the north side of the newly extended 13th Street.

The project will depend on several factors, including the awarding of a Workforce Housing Tax Credit, but a purchase agreement will allow Kading to begin performing its due diligence.

“This is kind of a first step,” said Diers.

It was also noted that a delegation of city officials and representatives from Charles City Area Development Corporation had recently visited a Kading development in Knoxville to see in person the kind of housing that would be built.

“It’s always nice to see first hand what’s real compared to a drawing on a paper,” said council member DeLaine Freeseman. “I was quite impressed.”

Meanwhile, regarding the other side of 13th Street, the council approved a resolution to create a minor plat of lots and set a public hearing for vacating an unused utility easement crossing the property for the Commonwealth apartment building that is also in the works.

Finally, the council approved a $45,600 contract to have the city’s well No. 7 brushed, shocked and disinfected to clear out a bacterial growth that has been eating the chlorine in the water since last year so the well can be put back into use.