No parks will be closing in Chippewa Falls next year. The grass will still be mowed on city land. The city’s transit program will keep picking up senior citizens to do their daily chores.

That’s next year.

But in 2010, Ron Singel isn’t sure what’s going to happen to Chippewa Falls city services, except that some may well disappear.

The city administrator for Chippewa Falls expects coming up with a balanced city budget for 2010 will be more difficult.

“We can only look at a 2 percent (tax levy) increase when everything else is falling around our heads,” Singel said this week, referring to state caps on spending by local municipalities.

More employees are doing multiple tasks. Singel said city services will go into decline with fewer staff, and the city will have to determine which service it can continue to perform.

And Singel said the city expects state cuts in money it gives the city for revenue sharing and transit.

That’s next year. Singel said coming up with the 2009 proposed city budget was difficult on its own.

“We went into this budget with about an $885,000 gap between spending and revenues. It is one of the toughest budgets I’ve ever worked with.”

He pieced together the budget with city Finance Director Lynne Bauer, Mayor Greg Hoffman and council members.

“It’s pretty grim and it’s across the board,” Singel said of cuts that were made to the budget, which will have a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.

Under the proposed budget, spending of $11,959,007 will increase 1.53 percent from the 2008 figure of $11,778,824. But that figure is tentative and the council may well change it on Tuesday.

Singel said the 2009 budget calls for a full-time janitor’s job to be axed, along with a mechanic’s position in the street department. Singel said the city’s library has been asked to cut $73,000 from its budget, and that could be with staff or another expenditure.

The Parks and Recreation Department asked for $90,000 in capital spending and wound up with $2,000 to $3,000.

City contributions were reduced to the Main Street program, the Chippewa County Housing Authority’s Vision Program and the Chippewa Falls Senior Center.

The Chippewa County Economic Development agency wanted $20,000 of city money and wound up with $15,000 under the proposed budget.

Singel said the budget projected a 15 percent rise in the health benefits of city workers, an 8 percent increase in electricity and 10 percent hike for natural gas.

Guessing what fuel costs will be is a crap shoot, Singel said, but he’s estimating a 10-20 percent hike.

“We’re guessing it’s going back up,” he said of gas.

“The utilities are killing us and the fuel is killing us,” Singel said.

The police department wanted to get two new squad cars and will instead get one, he said.

And the city restructured some of its debt to get the budget in alignment.