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Saturday
March 20, 2010 Since 1922 |
Old River-Winfree council discusses budget
By Ken Fountain
Baytown Sun Published September 12, 2006 City Council on Monday held a budget hearing and approved a second reading of the city’s 2006-07 budget, now at $160,452.
The total expenses of the budget jumped considerably from the $145,452 in the first draft when Alderman J.F. Steadham pointed out the city saw an increase of more than $500 in its electric utility bill from July to August.
City secretary Linda Murphy recalculated the electric utility budget for the year using a higher average monthly payment, raising the annual total from $13,500 to $25,000.
Steadham, noting that Reliant Energy is expected to pay $36,000 in franchise fees to the city next year, said the arrangement amounted to “just swapping money around.”
With the additional expenses added in, the city’s total budget deficit for the year (including $30,000 in the city’s bank accounts) is $20,372.
Council members had a long discussion on whether many of the streetlights in the city could be removed in order to cut back on electricity costs, which had been brought by Steadham at an earlier meeting.
Mayor Joe Landry asked Steadham to come back at a later meeting with a recommendation on how many of the street lights could be removed.
Murphy also pointed out that the first draft of the budget did not include the expected purchase of new software for city’s municipal court system. The city has been using 10-year-old software, original provided by the federal government, which no longer has any technical support available.
Murphy said bids from commercial software companies have come in with a high range of $3,000. Council added this figure to the city’s office expenses column.
In other business, Council approved a recommendation by Steadham that the city terminate its issuance of sewer permits and turn the process over to Chambers County. Steadham said the county already had to approve the permits, so eliminating it from the city would reduce the workload of the city secretary and make the process easier for contractors.
Baytown Sun Published September 12, 2006 City Council on Monday held a budget hearing and approved a second reading of the city’s 2006-07 budget, now at $160,452.
The total expenses of the budget jumped considerably from the $145,452 in the first draft when Alderman J.F. Steadham pointed out the city saw an increase of more than $500 in its electric utility bill from July to August.
City secretary Linda Murphy recalculated the electric utility budget for the year using a higher average monthly payment, raising the annual total from $13,500 to $25,000.
Steadham, noting that Reliant Energy is expected to pay $36,000 in franchise fees to the city next year, said the arrangement amounted to “just swapping money around.”
With the additional expenses added in, the city’s total budget deficit for the year (including $30,000 in the city’s bank accounts) is $20,372.
Council members had a long discussion on whether many of the streetlights in the city could be removed in order to cut back on electricity costs, which had been brought by Steadham at an earlier meeting.
Mayor Joe Landry asked Steadham to come back at a later meeting with a recommendation on how many of the street lights could be removed.
Murphy also pointed out that the first draft of the budget did not include the expected purchase of new software for city’s municipal court system. The city has been using 10-year-old software, original provided by the federal government, which no longer has any technical support available.
Murphy said bids from commercial software companies have come in with a high range of $3,000. Council added this figure to the city’s office expenses column.
In other business, Council approved a recommendation by Steadham that the city terminate its issuance of sewer permits and turn the process over to Chambers County. Steadham said the county already had to approve the permits, so eliminating it from the city would reduce the workload of the city secretary and make the process easier for contractors.