FDL County Budget Introduced

Fond du Lac County Executive Al Buechel introduced the
County Board to the proposed 2016 County Budget Tuesday night. The address to
County supervisors took a little over 25 minutes, but Buechel says there’s a lot
in the budget and he wanted to call attention to some of the requests that are
being made. 
The remodeling of the second floor at Harbor Haven Health
and Rehabilitation will continue with another $1.5 million included in next
year’s budget. Buechel says when the project is complete in 2017 there will be
fewer beds, but more private rooms which is what people are asking for. He says
they will decrease the number of beds from 117 to 85, but will be able to
provide 33 private rooms compared to 13 right now. 
He’s also including $15,000 in the budget for a part-time
position to coordinate water quality improvement efforts on Lake Winnebago.
Calumet and Winnebago Counties will be chipping in similar amounts for the
position. 
The proposed tax levy is $42.2 million or about $869,000
more than this year, but Buechel says the tax rate will remain the same at $6.11
per thousand dollars of value on a property. The County Board will hold a public
hearing on the budget at their November 3rd meeting.