Humble City Council members approved a $1.7 million budget amendment during the Feb. 22 meeting to approve funding for election equipment and to purchase a piece of property for a new city vehicle maintenance facility.

What you need to know

A total of $1.7 million in budget amendments for the city was approved to help pay for certain improvements and city building developments.

The two biggest items in the budget amendment, according to City Manager Jason Stuebe, were a re-budgeted $320,000 for a new fence around Hirsch Park and $1 million to purchase a property on Wilson Road, which will house a new vehicle maintenance facility for the city.

Additional budget amendment expenditures include:

• $85,000 for contracted IT services for the Humble Police Department
• $40,000 for election equipment
• $23,112 for employee iPhone service and replacements
• $7,000 for the annual Music On Main festival security coverage

What else?

The additional $40,000 for election equipment is part of the contract between the city and Harris County for election services, which was an additional expense on top of purchasing election equipment for the city.

However, the new election equipment will allow the city to hold elections in-house as opposed to contracting with Harris County for equipment and other services. Stuebe said this will reduce the overall cost of elections for the city to around $40,000 per election.

“In March, we're going to be running our own election, which requires us to purchase our own election equipment and then also hire our own election judges, clerks, etc.,” Stuebe said. “The good news is going forward ... we will be able to run our own elections.”