New Palestine Town Marshal Bob Ehle says he’d like to hire another experienced officer in 2025, increasing his budget. He says the move is needed due to growth.
NEW PALESTINE — The cost of living has increased everywhere, so it’s no surprise that New Palestine officials say their preliminary budget figures for 2025 have increased by nearly $300,000 from 2024 operation numbers.
During a workshop hearing on the proposed 2025 budget last week, officials discussed every line item on the 2025 budget from employee raises to things like purchasing paper.
Jarrod Hall, a partner at O.W. Krohn and Associates, discussed the numbers with the town council during the budget workshop following an earlier session by the town’s budget committee.
“When we go through the numbers tonight, I don’t expect them to be final,” Hall said. “But, we are usually pretty close, so we still have time to make changes before the budget is adopted in October.”
The preliminary operating figure for 2025 is estimated at $2.439 million — an increase of $280.401 from the 2024 operating adopted budget of $2.158 million. However, officials noted that these were the numbers discussed at the budget meeting and the figures could change by the time the budget is official.
Hall had already met with town’s clerk treasurer, Yvonne Jonas, and the town’s department heads and did what Hall called a “first pass” on the projected figure changes on things like health insurance increases and budget line items they knew were going to increase. In early August, the finance committee, composed of many department heads and council officials, met to go over figures.
“Hopefully, we’ve made some progress,” Hall said.
One of the biggest increases in the preliminary budget comes in the police department where officials have approved the hiring of another deputy marshal, one with a higher-than-normal starting salary. That will give the town an opportunity to make a lateral hire from another department to add an officer with more experience. Budget figures show the deputy salary and wage budget is set to increase by $89,620 from the adopted budget of $455,000 in 2024. The figure is set at $544,620 for 2025.
Since officers had a solid bump in pay in 2024, they are expected to only get a cost of living increase of 3% in 2025, officials said, while some other town employees will get a 5% increase in pay unless another figure has been indicated.
“Growth out here has been exploding,” New Palestine Town Marshal Bob Ehle said of the need to hire another officer.
The proposed budget for 2025 also shows the street commissioner’s pay rate increasing from $63,609 per year to $69,800. Town officials also have plans to hire a general laborer and pay the position $28 per hour for a projected $52,000 per year.
Officials also decided to increase the pay of council members from $7,000 per year to $8,500 per year, citing the many town and county meetings council members attend as well as hours spent outside of official meetings doing town work.
The pay increase comes at the suggestion of town manager Jim Robinson, who noted this town council is highly engaged in town activity, and town officials would like even more of that.
“We’re going into a $20-million-plus waste water plant project the next couple of years, so you will have to be engaged with that,” Robinson said. “The Town Center project is coming up and so there’s going to be a lot of engagement there.”
Since the meeting, the council has since suggested they don’t want to consider a raise as was proposed.
While the preliminary budget numbers were discussed at length, nothing will become official until state officials approve the budget and the council then adopts the figures later this year.
Any further items with cost questions, Hall noted, can be addressed at the council’s next meeting, slated for 7 p.m. Aug. 21. An official public hearing on the budget is then slated for Sept. 18.
“We can change the budget up to the adoption,” Hall said.
The budget hearing is scheduled for Sept. 1, and the budget adoption is scheduled for Oct. 2.
