Anthony Cloud

Staff Wrtier

The Middlesboro City Council held a special called meeting on Tuesday. The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss Mayor Bill Kelley’s proposed budget for the fiscal year 2012-2013. In what was a short meeting, the council seemed to like what they saw and held the first reading of the ordinance that would adopt the budget.

The budget was prepared with the mindset of continuing to provide government operations at customary levels in the areas of public safety, street maintenance, park maintenance, sanitation and waste-water treatment services, according to Kelley.

The city plans to do this by carefully managing fund balances and revenue streams from direct tax and fee collections and from other governmental sources such as Municipal Road Aid, Local Government Economic Assistance and coal severance funds.

There are also plans to use enhanced management software and professional consultation services to efficiently track income and spending, according to Kelley. The mayor stated that the city will seek grant funds and other government programs for special projects “in order to reduce the burden on local taxpayers.”

City employees will not be receiving a cost-of-living raise this year. Kelley calculated the numbers and decided that the city has not sufficiently rebounded financially to make a commitment for an appropriate pay raise.

The mayor stated that he will be computing an across the board pay raise for city employees in the next budget he submits to the council. By that time, Kelley predicts that the city will have sufficient resources to accomplish a raise and will have the ability to sustain it in future budget periods.

Some of the departments included in the budget included the administrative, police, fire and street departments. Below are the total budgets for each of those departments:

• Administrative: $781,050

• Police: $1,334,800

• Fire: $1,260, 500

• Street department general fund: $560,700.

Reach Anthony Cloud at acloud@heartlandpublications.com or by phone at 606-248-1010.