By Susan de Castro McCann

Redstone Review Editor

LYONS – The town board approved a $5.1 million budget on December 14 for 2010. The budget must be turned over to the Boulder County Commissioners by December 15 to set the mill levy for property taxes.

The budget is smaller this year than last year’s budget by almost $1 million. Last year at this time the town board approved a budget for $5.9 million for 2009, which had to be trimmed. That budget was an increase of 3.8 percent over the 2008 budget.

The budget has been shrinking due to a steady weakening in sales tax revenues which are down over 20 percent year to date. These figures might be worse when the sales tax is tallied after the construction on Main Street began.

Mike Clark, owner of South Creek Ltd. said, “My sales are down by 80 percent from the walk-in business that I get at this time of the year.” Clark makes bamboo fly rods and sells reels, flies, books and other fly fishing items.

The board cut several things out of the budget to pare down spending. The town staff members will each take six mandatory unpaid furlough days in 2010; the transfer of funds from the general fund to the library fund was reduced from $125,000 to $105,000; hours of operation at the Visitor’s Center will be reduced; donations were cut back including the community barbeque, Easter egg hunt, senior prom, Golden Gang and others; staff health care benefits were reduced so that the staff members now pay more; and the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department, which operates in Lyons, reduced its own budget by 5 percent.

These cuts won’t solve all the town’s problems and the town will still need to use some of the surplus built up in the general fund from building permits fees generated over a year ago. It is hoped that this will be a one-year event and that sales tax revenues will increase as the economy continues to improve next year.

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