TORRINGTON – The Goshen County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a balanced budget for its 2020-21 fiscal year that emphasizes public safety initiatives and includes several high-dollar road repair projects. 

The commission and Goshen County Clerk Cindy Kenyon put forth a $10,626,522 budget for the upcoming year – some $900,000 more than last year’s $9,762,370 budget. The difference, Kenyon explained, is that the county elected to tap into the reserve County Road Fund to fix problem areas on Goshen County roads. 

“The Road and Bridge Department and the sheriff’s office, with the jail, the two largest public safety items, are the largest part of the budget,” Kenyon said. “Essentially what this shows you is that the commissioners are completely dedicated to their statutory duties and public safety, with public safety coming in number one.”

The county nearly doubled its budgets for road projects. While the R&B’s operating budget is some $3,000 more than last year’s, the budget for road projects has grown from $855,000 to $1,658,500 for the upcoming fiscal year. That’s the county’s biggest budget item, dwarfing the Goshen County Detention Center budget by more than $200,000. 

The department is currently working on phase one of its Road Rehab Project, and a contract for phase two of the project was awarded to Bivens Construction of Torrington on Tuesday. 

The new budget is pretty similar to the old one, with the exception of the CRF projects, Chairman John Ellis said. That probably won’t be the case for the next budget, however, as Goshen County will need to handle the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“What’s facing us are some serious problems in the coming year,” Ellis said. “So, thank goodness we have this budget.”

Even so, the 2020-21 budget is trimmed out. Kenyon said the county’s focus is on public safety, and the county’s only big projects for the year were going to be in that realm. Cuts will be coming, Kenyon said, but the county is going to take on that challenge as it arises. 

As of now, Kenyon said, the county’s sales tax estimations are down $365,000 compared to last year, which Kenyon called “a big hit for 64% of our county revenue.

“There’s no big projects except for road projects,” Kenyon said. “We’re buckled down, and we’re ready for the next couple years if things continue. We do have some strategic planning involved that we’re going to be watching the budget every couple of months to make sure we know when to make changes, and not cut a bunch of stuff too soon.”

Part of that trimming affects the county’s employees – it has not resulted in a reduction of force. Employees received a $1 per hour raise in January, and Kenyon said there won’t be any in the upcoming fiscal year. 

“When we look at the budget this year we have to keep in mind that operations are down, tax money down, everything is down, so we’re putting a lot of cash in employee compensation,” she said.

Ellis said that while other counties around the state are struggling with the loss of mineral revenue, Goshen County didn’t have much anyway. That helped the budget stay close to the previous year’s. 

“That’s one of the benefits of being an agricultural community,” Ellis said. “Our revenue is fairly even. It has been for years and years. Hopefully, it will continue that way.”