News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Van Buren County approved its finalized budget for the 2022-2023 fiscal year Tuesday night.
County Mayor Greg Wilson said the budget features several capital projects and purchases funded by American Rescue Plan money, including a new ambulance for $260,000.
“There’s the landfill, construction on getting it fixed,” Wilson said. “It’s a monitored project for 30 years. We had a leak in it so TDEC said, ‘Hey you got to fix this,’ So we put about $80,000 into that.”
Wilson said other projects include continuing with more mitigation efforts and HVAC installations in county buildings.
Wilson said one of the biggest things the county took into consideration were the effects of gas prices and inflation. He said at the time of budgeting, diesel prices were up to $5.50 a gallon, which affected Sheriff’s vehicles, trash trucks, and county ambulances.
This budget was Wilson’s last as County Mayor, and he said he feels good about the position he’s leaving the county in.
“Let me give you an idea, when I came into office in September of 2014,” Wilson said. “In the general fund, it had $191,000 in it. We’re leaving it with a little over $1.6 million, so that says volumes.”
