Eatonville council approves 2021 budget

In short order at its Nov. 23 meeting, the Eatonville Town Council passed three budget-related ordinances.

Ordinance 2020-3 authorizes an increase of $6,819.32 in the property tax levy amount from the previous year, a percentage increase of .97 percent. Ordinance 2020-4 authorizes an increase of $865.92 in the emergency services levy from the previous year, a percentage increase of nearly 2.99 percent. Ordinance 2020-5, the town budget for calendar year 2021, indicates total fund revenues for next year are estimated to be approximately $14.3 million, with approximately $9.9 million in appropriations and expenditures, for an estimated ending total fund balance of $4.4 million.

In other news:

Kirk Heinz, owner of the local Kirk’s Pharmacy, gave a presentation on COVID-19 testing, explaining he is working with the Health Commons Project, an organization that helps communities set up, scale and sustain health care.

“We are working on a pharmacy-based community COVID testing program,” he said.

Plans call for outside, curb-side appointments where people pull up in their vehicles to get one of the various COVID-19 tests, depending upon which one is right for them based on circumstances. Heinz indicated the pharmacy would also likely be involved in the eventual dispersal of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Marketing and education tools would also be part of the program, Heinz said, noting he will keep the mayor updated on the situation.

The council provided recommendations and guidelines on how the Eatonville Planning Commission is to perform its assigned tasks following a discussion. Recommendations involved meetings, reporting to the town council and resources/reimbursements.

“What this does is provide the Planning Commission an opportunity to have very clear direction from the council,” Councilmember Bill Dunn said about the guidelines.

He called the guidelines “a living document” that can be changed as necessary.

Councilmember Robert Thomas expressed some concern about the guidelines.

“I think we have obfuscated and confused the primary tasking to the Planning Commission,” he said. “So, I’m not real happy about that.”

After further discussion, the councilmembers unanimously passed the guidelines as presented.

In a related matter, the council passed proposed agenda items for the Planning Commission meeting on Jan. 4, 2021, including discussion of operations, the 2020-21 Strategic Plan/Project Plan, assignment updates and a design standard review update.