The Herculaneum Board of Aldermen recently approved its 2025-2026 fiscal year budget, which projects a small surplus.
According to the budget, which started July 1 and runs through June 30, 2026, the city is projected to spend $9,329,700 and bring in $9,402,800, a surplus of $73,100.
Herculaneum City Administrator Logan Jaskiewicz, who was hired in April, said the city’s goal is to make much needed improvements and updates where possible while staying in the black.
“Our biggest goal is to become more efficient and get caught up. The city has gotten caught in a lot of old ways and a lot of old processes, and it’s led to some inefficiency. We want to get some software up to date and also bring our facilities up to par with our neighbors in the surrounding area,” he said.
Jaskiewicz said aging city facilities, such as the building shared by City Hall and the Police Department, are in great need of renovation, and maybe one day replacement.
He said altogether the city has budgeted about $1,728100 on capital improvements this year.
“We want to try to renovate the Police Department downstairs and bring them up to date and make it so that officers want to come,” he said. “When you’re trying to be competitive and bring in officers, the first thing they see when they walk in is where they’re going to be working every day.”
Part of this year’s renovations will include remodeling bathrooms, offices and the break area in the Police Department and repaving the crumbling parking lot.
“We’re going to add countertops and a sink, because they don’t even have that down there,” Jaskiewicz said.
He said the city has other capital improvements planned, such as putting a new roof on the Sewer Department building; replacing concrete on Westchester Drive; purchasing a new effluent flow meter for the Sewer Department; putting in manhole lining at the Prairies subdivision; getting a backup pump at the Stonewater lift station; adding a fence to enclose the playground, splashpad and pavilion at the park; and purchasing an auto-chlorinator and new UV filter for the splash pad.
In addition to the infrastructure improvements, the city will purchase new equipment, including two new patrol vehicles to replace aging police vehicles; a skid steer, salt truck, salt spreader and asphalt roller for the Public Works Department; new computers for the Police and Fire department; and more personal protection gear for the fire department.
He said the city started this fiscal year with $7,782,719 cash on hand in all funds, or reserves, and the new budget projects the city ending with $7,855,819 in reserves, or $73,100 more.
Jaskiewicz said the city tries to maintain about 25-50 percent of its general fund expenses in reserves. This year’s projected general fund expenses, including employee pay and other day-to-day operating costs, will amount to about $4,230,500, putting the reserve funds at about 53.9 percent of general fund expenses.
He said the city anticipates revenue increasing slightly this year, by about $45,000, based on the average growth of its retail sales, adding that he hopes to see that number increase more in the next budget year once the construction on I-55 is complete.
“I think after next year when we get the highway done, it’ll go up a little bit more once we get three lanes and we’ll have a little bit more traffic through the corridor,” he said.
Jaskiewicz said the city has worked on improving its staffing as well by promoting its park supervisor from part-time to full-time; creating the position of street supervisor; adding a part-time employee to code enforcement; and adding a full-time firefighter.
He said the city has 35 full-time employees and six part-time employees and altogether spends about $3,418,600 on employee pay.
Jaskiewicz said he wants to use this year to start planning for the city’s future.
“I want to get a five-year plan together so that we have an outlook of the direction we want to go and what exactly we need in the next five years.”