Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Jan. 2, 2024 – The 2025 operating budget for the City of Jonesboro will go before the full City Council for consideration after it passed the Finance and Administration Council Committee on Tuesday.
The total proposed budget is around $84 million. Of the $84 million proposed, $70.1 million is set aside for operation and maintenance expenses.
Notable changes to the budget include a three percent increase in city employee salaries. In addition, the budget allocates for the Parks and Recreation Department and Jonesboro Economical Transit System (JETS) to hire new employees and the Jonesboro E-911 to employ four new dispatchers, among others.
The budget set aside $4 million for infrastructure improvements, including $700,000 for implementing the Master Parks Plan. It also set aside $19.2 million for capital improvements and $4 million for the depreciation fund. Money from this fund is used to replace vehicles for agencies like the Jonesboro Police Department, Fire Department and Sanitation Department.
“We must also consider that 2025 includes its share of unknowns,” Mayor Harold Copenhaver said in a statement in the budget plan. “Perhaps the most immediate, and unknown, is the final financial impact of the old Citizens Bank property resolution. As such, many requests and desired projects have been tabled for re-assessment after the first quarter of 2025.”
Before the committee met to approve the budget, it called a special working session on Monday, Dec. 30 to discuss the plan and hear from various department heads regarding the appropriations. No motions or votes were cast in this meeting.
In the Parks and Recreation Department, the budget allocated for the hiring of two new assistant directors, as well as additional personnel and four park rangers. One assistant director will focus on grounds operation and maintenance, while the other will focus on community programming and activities.
“We deal with a lot of different items and so trying to bring in two professionals that really have higher levels of skill in those two different areas, as opposed to having one person who has maybe a moderate amount of skill level in both areas, will make our Parks Department that much better,” said Parks and Recreation Department Director Danny Kapales.
The department will also budget for the hiring of a community center manager. This person would be responsible for managing and scheduling activities and events held in Parks Department community centers. Kapales said this person would ensure that community centers and parks staff are being used in the most efficient manner.
In addition, the budget allocates for the hiring of four new dispatch officers for the Jonesboro E-911 Center. The center’s director, Ronnie Sturch, said it received around 66,000 calls in 2023, with that number increasing to just under 71,000 in 2024.
He added that in 2023, the center had almost 12,000 “abandoned 911 calls.” An abandoned 911 call is a call that is not answered. However, Sturch said that number includes pocket dials, or calls that hang up before a dispatcher can answer the phone. He also added that the center does return these calls.
“I don’t want you to feel like I’m up here just asking for more people just to have more staff,” Sturch said. “We cannot continue to operate this 911 center [with the current number of people]. They are stressed to the max.”
The center is currently staffed with two supervisors and 20 dispatchers.
The budget also allocates for seven new JETS employees. That includes hiring three CDL-certified drivers for the trolleys and two non-CDL drivers for the paratransit system. In addition, it includes another mechanic for the fleet and a route coordinator. The route coordinator would be responsible for overseeing the JETS routes and running JETS dispatch.
The budget still needs to be approved by the full City Council before it can be implemented. The next City Council meeting is Jan. 7 at 5:30 p.m. in the Municipal Center, located at 300 S. Church St. It will also be livestreamed on the City of Jonesboro’s Facebook page.