At the recent Whitewater common council meeting, they decided to change to a biennial budget from now on. This city hopes that will cut down on some of the time that is allotted for a budget, and there will be a four percent increase this year from last year’s budget.
“It is not as much of an increase as it actually seems because they had a feeling last year that things would increase in cost due to COVID,” Mickelson said of the increase. “We were very conservative with planning our 2021 budget, and because of that we were able to cut back on some things that typically we wouldn’t be able to.”
The Common Council also approved an ordinance that will prohibit the feeding of wild animals in the City of Whitewater. The ordinance will prohibit anyone from feeding wildlife such as deer, foxes, rodents, groundhogs, opossums, raccoons, skunks and eventually squirrels. The current penalty will be $10, but that could potentially increase.
Another ordinance that was approved at the meeting was an ATV/UTV ordinance that will allow vehicles to cross safely from certain spots from homes to spots on the road to get to the highway. There will be signage put up as well as the prohibition of use between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. and it also will require the valid licensing of vehicles.