County Preps for Budget Crunch

It’s been a tough year for the County budget. Skyrocketing costs for fuel and road building materials pinched the pursestrings this year, and it’s going to get even worse next year.

“We’re doing OK, but I’m asking all departments to tighten and do not spend any more than necessary, because we are getting close to the end of the year,” County Auditor Cindy Havelka said at the Commissioners Court meeting last Thursday, Nov. 10.

“We need to ‘Tighten Up’ like Archie Bell and the Drells,” said County Judge Joe Weber, referencing the 1968 hit song.

It takes a lot of limestone to build and maintain the hundreds of miles of county roads in Fayette County. Commissioners accepted and awarded bids for limestone, cover rock and other gravel materials at the meeting Thursday. The cost of those products went up substantially. Commercial base limestone picked up at the plant will increase in cost by about 20 percent next year, from an average of $4.85 per ton this year to $5.83 per ton in 2023.

“I’m surprised they didn’t go up more,” said Pct. 3 Commissioner Harvey Berckenhoff. “All of their equipment – their crushers and rollers and everything – runs off fuel.”

The County uses products such as hot mix and cold mix asphalt to pave and maintain paved roads. The price for hot mix asphalt jumped from an average of $56.75 per ton in 2022 to $77 a ton in 2023 – a 35.7 percent increase. The cost to have it delivered went from an average of $70 a ton in 2022 to $97.60 a ton in 2023 – a roughly 40 percent increase. Road oil also jumped in price, although not as much as anticipated. Products that cost $2 a gallon this year will go up by about 70 cents next year.

“We expected them to go up a little more than what they did,” Havelka said. “Some of it was not as high as we expected.”

“It’s high enough,” said Pct. 4 Commissioner Drew Brossmann.