Turnage Theater in line to receive some funding from city

With a series of nonbinding straw votes Monday evening, Washington’s City Council made some significant changes to the proposed city budget for fiscal year 2011-2012.

No modifications to the proposed budget are final until the council adopts a budget resolution, which is expected to occur later this month.

The council tentatively approved providing $22,000 to the Turnage Theaters Foundation by way of a direct allocation. That amount combined with an $8,000 return of property taxes means the city is providing $30,000 in support to the foundation in the next fiscal year.

For several years, the city has “forgiven” the foundation’s annual property taxes. That agreement continues for several more years.

In addition to “forgiving” the foundation’s property taxes, the end of this fiscal year (June 30) ends a five-year agreement in which the city appropriated $100,000 a year to the foundation.

The $30,000 the city proposes to give the foundation would be accompanied by this message: the store’s closing. That means no more city money to come in subsequent fiscal years.

Also, the council tentatively decided to eliminate its $30 per person fee imposed on each participant in youth sports leagues that use city-owned sports facilities. Council members William Pitt, Ed Moultrie and Bobby Roberson voted for the measure, with council members Doug Mercer and Gil Davis voting against it. The move would cost the city about $40,000 in revenue.

As he did at a previous council meeting, Davis opposed eliminating the fee, saying he doesn’t believe waiving the fee will result in significantly more children participating in organized sports, but doing so would result in the city’s sports facilities deteriorating from decreased maintenance.

Mercer, who continued his usual search for money that he contends can be trimmed from the proposed budget, did suggest adding money to the budget to speed up the installation of utility meters that are read electronically instead of manually. Mercer said speeding up that process would benefit the city.

Instead of installing a couple hundred of AMR meters every year over a multi-year period, the city should install them as fast as possible, Mercer said.

“It’s time for us to bite the bullet. Go ahead and buy enough AMR meters. Get the darn things in, and get rid of a meter reader,” Mercer said. “It will save us money in the long haul.”

The council OK’d adding $115,000 to the $85,000 already allocated for buying the AMR meters.

The council also review several suggested options that would have increased six contingency funds by the following amounts:

• General fund, from $25,540 to $112,946.
• Electric fund, from no amount to $27,940.
• Water fund, from $17,530 to $19,009.
• Sewer fund, from $24,051 to $35,543.
• Stormwater fund, from $2,006 to $2,072.
• Solid-waste fund, from $36,327 to $36,820.

Interim City Manager Pete Connet’s proposed overall budget had a total of $105,454 contingency allocations for those six funds combined. The document reviewed by the council increased that amount to $234,330.

After its review, the council rejected some of the suggestions, reducing the $234,330 to $101,000.

The council resumes its budget deliberations during its regularly scheduled meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday.