Lavonia City Council to Hear First Reading of FY16 Budget Tonight

Members of the Lavonia City Council will hear the first reading of their proposed 2016 fiscal budget at their regular meeting this evening.

Lavonia’s fiscal year begins January 1.

At their October meeting, the council got a first glimpse of the new budget from City Manager Gary Fesperman.

According to the City Manager, 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.

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

Additionally, Fesperman went over some of the capital projects in the current General Fund.
Most he said, have been completed.

However, one project that will not get off the ground next year as expected is the long-awaited Streetscape project.

Last week, the City heard from the Georgia Dept of Transportation that indicated there is a delay in funding from the federal government for a number of Statewide improvement projects, including Lavonia’s downtown sidewalk project.

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

“Since that time, the City has expended in excess of $50,000 in engineering and consulting fees, which is our match for the total cost of the  project, and we still haven’t been able to get this project off the ground,” City Manager Gary Fesperman said. “It’s been one delay after another and now we find out yet one more time we have another delay from the federal government. Yes, it is frustrating. We would have loved to have had this project buttoned up several years ago.”

The Council is also expected to hear the first read tonight on the other general fund capital projects and on the Water Fund projects.

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

Tonight’s meeting takes place at 5:30p at Lavonia City Hall.i