The Austin Fire Department is getting a little help to fix its fire station.

The Austin City Council will schedule $200,000 in Fire PERA funding in next year’s budget to help repair deteriorating walls at the city fire station.

“Our building is deteriorating on the exterior, and we’ve got a lot of water infiltration on the inside, so we need to fix that before we end up in bigger trouble,” Fire Chief Jim McCoy said.

The funding will be taken out of fire Public Employee Retirement Association funds set aside specifically for capital projects, which means it won’t affect the city’s 2015 tax levy.

According to McCoy, several walls inside the fire station are already showing damage from leaking water. The fire station, located on First Street Northeast, was built in the early 1980s.

McCoy said the fire department will likely start the project’s bidding process early next year.

Budget almost set

The council will likely approve a 4.98 percent city tax levy increase at its Sept. 15 meeting. The city looks to increase Austin’s budget by $205,000 to add 1.5 full-time jobs, keep up with funding requirements and honor service requests. City officials will add a full-time librarian and move a part-time building inspector position up to full-time.

The city of Austin has cut staff from about 180 positions in the 1980s to about 139 positions this year, about two positions annually over the past 25 or so years. Yet recent retirements and other vacancies have forced city staff to look at Austin’s operations.

Librarian Gayle Heimer recently announced her retirement, which goes into effect in April 2015. Austin Public Library Executive Director Ann Hokanson told the council in June that she would have to hire two full-time librarians to replace Heimer, who did multiple jobs for the library.

Other changes to next year’s budget include $1,000 more for the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, a lobbying group that represents outstate cities at the Capitol. The city expects to pay $52,000 next year to the coalition.

The city has also approved an increase in funding for the Welcome Center of Austin to keep up with the Welcome Center’s increasing services. Council members approved $7,500 in funding at their work session Tuesday, up from the $5,000 the city usually contributes to the Welcome Center. In previous years, the Welcome Center received $10,000 and Executive Director Jake Vela sought the same amount for 2015.

It’s too early to say how much a 5 percent increase would affect residents as the county’s tax rate for 2015 won’t be released until later this fall. In the past, the city has made up about 36 percent of a property owner’s overall taxes.

In addition, there are several factors which could offset part of the tax levy increase.

Austin expects to get about $80,000 in increased Local Government Aid next year, according to state estimates. In addition, the city usually gets 2 to 3 percent more in taxes every year from new property owners.

Department updates station equipment

The Austin Fire Department isn’t using PERA money just for building repairs.

Austin firefighters received a new air compressor this summer to fill their self-contained breathing apparatus tanks.

Fire Chief Jim McCoy said the department’s old compressor broke earlier this year and was too old for the manufacturer to fix without substantial cost. Fire officials bought the new compressor for $35,000.

The compressor purifies pathogens and other harmful elements in the air to fill air tanks for firefighters to breathe from in emergency situations.