Our Town

“Kernersville’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2017-18”
Early summer is the season of weddings, graduations, and, for local governments, adopting the town budget for the upcoming fiscal year. While the aspirations for the community are reflected in the budget, it is also a practical roadmap of the town’s operations and the services that will be available to citizens.
The draft budget for July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018 is available for citizen review on the Town of Kernersville website, www.toknc.com, at the Paddison Memorial Library and at town hall in the town clerk’s office. The budget of the Town of Kernersville is a balanced budget, and as required by state law, is adopted by June 30th of each year.
The Board of Aldermen will have a public hearing on the budget on Tuesday, June 6th at 7 p.m. at Kernersville’s Municipal Building, 134 East Mountain Street. The meeting will include a presentation on the budget, and an opportunity for citizen comments.
In Kernersville, the Board of Aldermen sets policy, and the town manager oversees the day-to-day operations of the town and the implementation of that policy. The budget document under consideration is one of the important ways of implementing policy. As an example of policy, consider our town’s public safety goals. In Kernersville, we want police officers or firefighters to be on the scene, on average, within 4 minutes of the time that the 911 call is received. To accomplish this goal, the department must have enough staff and vehicles, and the proper equipment to quickly respond to the emergency. So to implement this policy, there must be funds budgeted for the personnel and equipment to achieve this important goal.
To advance our public safety goals, the town manager’s recommended budget includes funding to improve reliability of equipment. In the police department, the budget calls for replacing eight police vehicles, used by patrol officers and detectives. The average age of these vehicles between 8 and 9 years old, the average mileage is 110,000, and reliability and future repair costs are a concern. In the fire department, the budget calls for a replacement vehicle for a battalion chief, who serves as the director of operations at the scene of an active fire, as well as replacements for the AED units that are carried on fire engines for medical response. In addition, two thermal imaging cameras, which allow firefighters to detect the presence of fire between walls and in attics, are included in the proposed budget.
To help with winter weather response, the public services department uses a salt brine solution. The proposed budget includes a new salt brine mixer. The current mixer is more than ten years old and has become inefficient, taking 24 hours to mix the brine needed for Kernersville streets. The new mixer will prepare the same amount of brine in 8 hours. Also included in the proposed budget are three new salt brine spray systems. This new equipment should allow for Kernersville’s streets to be treated more quickly with brine in advance of winter weather.
A top priority of our town is to continue to maintain a strong financial reputation. The recommendations in the proposed budget further the goal of a strong financial foundation for Kernersville, maintaining a healthy fund balance, continuing our town’s ability to meet long-term obligations, and maintaining a low debt service ratio.
By staying involved and being informed, you can make your voice heard as to the priorities of our town. As always, the Kernersville Board of Aldermen welcomes citizen involvement towards the goal of keeping Kernersville a great place to live and work.
Dawn Morgan is the Mayor of Kernersville, and writes a weekly column for the News.