ROCK SPRINGS — As the City of Rock Springs prepares its budget for Fiscal Year 2024, the Rock Springs City Council asked local groups and organizations to provide them with their budget requests at a special meeting Wednesday evening.

The requests for Fiscal Year 2024 are a little more than $2.1 million, which is around $274,000 over the combined requests for Fiscal Year 2023. While a few of the organizations requested the same amount as last year, a couple of groups including the Boys and Girls Club, STAR Transit Authority and the Community Fine Arts Center requested a little less. However, the majority of requests were more than last year. Most of the representatives explained that due to inflation and other increasing costs, their prices have increased and that’s why their requests have increased.

A couple of agencies made requests for the first time, including St. Christopher’s Highway and Sweetwater County Board of Health. St. Christopher’s Highway representative Joyce Corcoran explained that they will not be receiving as big of a grant as they have in the past and is asking the city for $10,000 to make up the difference.

According to Public Health Director Kim Lionberger the board of health’s budget was cut 20 percent, or $135,000, and she’s requesting funding for the board of health. To make up the difference, she’s requesting money from both the City of Rock Springs and City of Green River. The request is being split so the City of Rock Springs will pay 65 percent and the City of Green River will cover 35 percent based on population. The amount being requested from the City of Rock Springs is 5 percent of public health’s total budget, she explained.

The city will take all of the requests into consideration when preparing its FY 2024 budget, however Rock Springs Councilor Rob Zotti made it clear that the city has also been postponing projects and equipment replacements due to budget constraints and those must also be looked at.

See the table below for all of the agencies requests.