ST. GEORGE — The Santa Clara City Council last week passed a new budget that has a deficit of $682,979 but increases the Santa Clara-Ivins Fire Department’s budget – something urged by the partnering, neighboring city of Ivins.
The fire department also will secure additional funding courtesy of a grant from Washington County, city officials said. The county came under fire during the June 2 Ivins City Council meeting by both Ivins and Santa Clara city officials for tasking the department with covering fire service from outside the two cities’ limits along Old Dixie Highway 91 to the Arizona border.
Passed in a unanimous 4-0 vote with member Denny Drake absent during the council’s June 8 meeting, the council made final approval of its 2022-23 fiscal-year budge, which has $8,302,786 in revenues and $8,985,765 in expenses. Included is a 197% increase in funding for the fire department, which serves both Santa Clara and Ivins but mainly has budgetary and staffing oversight from Santa Clara.
The budget, which can be seen at this link on pages 80-93 passed with no residents asking to comment during a public hearing. While there was little discussion among the council at the June 8 meeting, the vote capped off months of discussions in council work meetings.
“I don’t want anyone thinking we just breezed through this; we’ve worked months on this budget,” council member Ben Shakespeare said. “It’s a big budget and it looks good.”
The budget includes funding for at least three additional full-time emergency medical services workers for the fire department. Santa Clara Financial Director Debbie Bannon told the council that Washington County is also providing a $330,000 grant to the department.
The amount of additional funding matches what the fire department’s chief, Andrew Parker, has said would be necessary to add enough crew to provide the Ivins Center Street Fire Station with enough personnel to provide a full EMS and limited fire response. That station has been unmanned since late last year after the department shifted most operations to the station on Rachel Drive in Santa Clara.
Along with the fire department, the budget also has substantial increases for the city’s Parks and Recreation department (102% increase in funding) and for the annual Swiss Days event (70% increase).
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