Conrad council hears 2019 budget requests

Representatives from the Beaman-Conrad Emergency Response Team (BCERTs), the Conrad Fire Department, the Heritage Hall Museum and the park board presented their annual budget requests to the city council during last Thursday night’s regular meeting.
           
Perhaps most notably, Krista Grant, on behalf of the BCERTs, requested a total of $16,282 in city funding for fiscal year 2020, a 52.25 percent increase from FY2019. She attributed the change to several factors, including the news that the Unitypoint hospital in Marshalltown will no longer cover disposable supplies for the ambulance after providing them for nearly 30 years.
           
Grant estimated that the department currently takes between 140 and 160 calls a year, and there are 10 volunteer members. Attracting new responders, she added, can be difficult because of the volunteer status of the BCERTs.
           
Fire Chief Grant Benson’s proposed budget would increase overall expenditures in his department by just $214 to $31,373 for FY2020. He told the council that the biggest jump would be in wages, and the firefighters will pay for their own meals at That Place on the night they elect officers, a change from previous years. 
 
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