TORRINGTON – The Goshen County Board of Commissioners voted to amend its 2019-2020 annual operating budget on June 16 for a good reason – to add extra income.
The county voted unanimously to add $26,372 in extra income from unexpected grants and other means to the county coffers. The GCC, Treasurer, Goshen County Public Library and the Goshen County Fairgrounds all banked extra income that had to be added to the annual budget.
“It’s money in and money out,” Goshen County Clerk and budget officer Cindy Kenyon said.
“Basically, we’ve received some unexpected income, and some unexpected expenses.”
A portion of the income was due to unused vacation time by county employees, which Kenyon said departments add at the end of the year, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, few employees have taken vacations.
“Each year, how much vacation and sick accrual each employee has per department, and that amount is accounted for in the final financial statements at the end of the year,” Kenyon said. “And this year we’ve had a few people that have been approved for vacation time and not been able to use it because during COVID, there’s no place to go.”
The biggest chunk of unexpected income, $15,000, came from and went back into the Goshen County Fairgrounds. Manager Stephanie Lofink said the fairgrounds was able to host some events when COVID-19 restrictions were eased, including a large barrel race traditionally held in Colorado.
Unfortunately, all of the revenue will go back into expected repairs and maintenance.
“We have had to ask for reimbursement for those expenses through our capital account (in the past),” Lofink said. “We do not have to do that at this time because our cash flow has allowed us to absorb those expenditures.”
In Other Business
Goshen County Sheriff Kory Fleenor told the GCC that his office earned $8,830 in contract housing in the last month, which pushed his annual total to $301,293. Fleenor said he hopes the gains the GCSO has made in contract housing continue into the new budget year.
“Hopefully they do,” he said. “It’s day by day.”
Fleenor’s report was accepted unanimously.
Kenyon presented the GCC with the months bills and the warrant report, which were approved unanimously.
Goshen County Planner Gary Childs and Megan Romano, of Holland and Hart, a legal firm that specializes in the energy industry, presented the GCC with a subdivision plat for a pump station near Fort Laramie. It was approved unanimously.
