The city of Dunkirk’s deficit has gone down a bit, but still tops $2 million. It also faces a more than $100,000 payment to clear up a police department overtime issue.

Fiscal Affairs Officer Ellen Luczkowiak said at a Common Council Finance Committee meeting Monday the city was $2.4 million in the red. That’s half a million bucks less than the $2.9 million deficit she reported during a November meeting of the committee.

However, the lesser deficit is still hardly a rosy number — grim silence drenched the City Hall meeting room after Luczkowiak reported the latest figure.

Then she offered more bad news: “We’re going to have a pretty hefty bill coming up we’re going to have to pay out, based on our agreement with the Department of Labor.”

Luczkowiak wasn’t sure of the exact payment but said it was somewhere between $100,000 and $150,000. The payment is due within 90 days.

The payout stems from the state’s discovery that the police department was improperly keeping overtime records, city officials said.

“They came in unannounced about a month ago,” Luzckowiak said of the state labor investigators. “We’ve been working back and forth to make sure we don’t get fined.”

She said all city departments got checked for the same overtime billing issue, and the police department was the only one with the problem.

The biggest issue in the city ledgers “is still overtime,” Luczkowiak said, noting extra work caused by recent heavy snowfall was “massive.”

Councilperson Nancy Nichols responded, “What can you do, though? You’ve got to keep the streets clean.”

The city has received the sales tax revenue which Luczkowiak reported it was awaiting in November. It’s still waiting on a sizable infusion of state aid, reportedly due Dec. 16 and now estimated at $1.4 million.