By KRISTIN TENNEY
Springville’s Mayor Hal Wing said the city’s $650,000 deficit of last year is now a $3 million surplus.
Wing said he was aware the city had financial problems before he was elected last year, but he had not realized how serious the problems were until he took office.
Wing said the city had been using restricted money for day-to-day expenses. He said city officials had spent $2.8 million that should have been kept in trust accounts.
“It blows me away that state auditors didn’t catch the problems,” said Wing, who found that some city bills hadn’t been paid for over six months.
When Wing took office he promised to examine the city’s financial situation and figure out what was wrong. He launched an independent audit of Springville’s books last year which revealed the city was $645,055 in the red.
He said it took some program cutting and relentless tracking of all the city’s expenditures to get the problem under control.
Wing appointed Cameron Gunter as the administrative service director to balance the books. Gunter ordered a moratorium on spending on things not absolutely essential for the operation of the city.
Greg Ogden, Springville’s city auditor, said the City Council stopped some of the projects that were planned last year to free up the money to use elsewhere.
“It made it so they had to stop running forward as fast as they could and figure out what was really important for Springville,” Ogden said. “Services have actually improved. The council has to be given credit for it and Cameron Gunter made a huge difference.”
The city is now paying bills on time.
“We’re fortunate we got it turned around and it’s a heck of a turnaround in a year,” Wing said. “It’s made the first 12 months of terror worth it.”
Because of the financial improvements, the city now has enough money to pay for street improvements, sewer system repairs, sprinkling systems for the golf course and new emergency vehicles.
