Stark County Road Department ends year with $650,000 balance

While many western North Dakota communities are scrambling to keep funds to keep roads in good shape because of an oil boom, Stark County is $650,000 ahead.

The Stark County Commission amended several budgets during a meeting Thursday at the Courthouse before closing up business for the year, including the road department's budget.

County Auditor Kay Haag said even though the budgets have ending balances, they still needed to be amended because it helps the accountant at the end of the year.

The road and bridge fund, which had an ending balance of $652,031 went over budget by nearly $8.5 million and had to be amended.

"When we bid the (Highway 10) project in February, the budget was done, so those are the funds we received from Department of Transportation for the Highway 10 project," County Road Superintendent Al Heiser said. "We received like $7.5 million from the DOT for the Highway 10 project.

"Even though we were over budget, we still ended up with a $650,000 balance, plus we also have received from the state another $330,000 coming off the Highway 10 project that the state has not paid us yet," he said.

The commissioners also approved the transfer of $1,514 into the county roads and bridge fund.

"Belfield didn't take all of their infrastructure funds and $1,513.85 was left over," Haag said. "By law, if they didn't request it by the end of December, that money has to be transferred into the county roads fund."

Haag told commissioners there has been no activity in the shooting range fund since 2003, and still the fund has a balance of $4,138.

Commissioner Duane Wolf said he thought transferring the money to the general fund was the best idea, and all five commissioners voted unanimously to transfer the funds.

"If we need the money for the shooting range, we've added money to it and taken it out of the general fund before," he said. "I would say we discontinue that line item and transfer the money."

The Southwest Multi-County Correction Center went over budget by $220,357, which Haag said she knew was going to go over budget.

The commissioners agreed to transfer money from the general fund into the jail fund.

Wolf said all six counties that use the jail contribute to the budget, but this was Stark County's portion of funding for the jail.