Lavonia Approves FY16 Budget

The City of Lavonia has a new budget for FY2016.

The Lavonia City Council passed next year’s budget after the second reading at their regular meeting last week.

In November, City Manager Gary Fesperman told the City :Council and mayor some creative thinking helped balance the budget for the next fiscal year.

“We worked diligently and we’ve done a lot of creative things with the budget taking into consideration that we’re working with a little less money in property tax revenue this year, but it worked out,” Fesperman told the Council.

Lavonia’s FY16 budget General Fund is projected to be $2.185 million with about $55-thousand dollars less than that in anticipated expenses.

Last week, the City Council approved the budget in sections after each second reading. Under Capital Projects in the General Fund, most have already been completed, but some are still waiting to be started, including a long-awaited Streetscape project.

The City had hoped to begin that work in 2016, but in October, the City learned federal grant monies needed to help pay for sidewalk improvements downtown won’t be forthcoming.

Fesperman said the City has been waiting since 2011 to receive some $200,000 in federal grant monies.

Under the Water Fund, in addition to the northern sewer trunk line project, the City plans to make some upgrades at the Water Treatment plant and to the Wastewater treatment plant.

Lavonia’s fiscal year begins with the calendar year on January 1.