City trims its options with police station

By a 3-1 vote, the New Prague City Council decided at its May 6 meeting to take the next step with the city’s police station. Voting in favor were councilors Maggie Bass, Bruce Wolf and Rik Seiler with Councilor Shawn Ryan casting the single no vote. Mayor Duane Jirik was absent from the meeting.

City staff and Wold Architects and Engineers also came up with four scenarios concerning the police station and equipment for the fire and police departments. Tetzlaff noted as they move through the budgeting process the financial numbers will change. The four scenarios were:
Look at levying for all equipment, each year as it’s needed and does not include a police station.
Levies for equipment, but adds the police station.
Bond for all the equipment and does not have the police station.
Bonds for all equipment, plus adds the police station.

City Administrator Josh Tetzlaff presented the proposal. He and Finance Director Robin Pikal worked on a document for future budget forecasting with the building, including taking the city levy, debt and Capital Improvement Plan into account.

Ryan stated he was not confident about moving on with the process. He raised concerns about the profile for the project.

(For the complete story, see the May 16, 2024 print edition of The New Prague Times.)