Street repair is a major expenditure in the 2014 Tontitown budget.
The City Council approved the budget Tuesday, which forecasts $1.30 million in revenue and $2.29 million in expenses of The dift erence — $977,357 — will be made up from general fund reserve, said Mayor Jack Beckford.
The budget includes transferring $1 million to the street fund, creating the shortfall, Beckford said.
The city is to spend $1.64 million for street repair in 2014, according to the budget. The 2013 budget included $885,104 in street projects with no transfer from the city’s general fund.
Beckford said the repairs are overdue.
“In the past, the city has been building a reserve,” Beckford said. “We’re going to fix some streets.”
The biggest project will be repair to Morsani Avenue, projected to cost $745,800. The project will include rebuilding the west end of the road and extending it east to Pozza Lane. Morsani is an east-west street, one block south of Henri De Tonti Boulevard.
“That’s one of our oldest streets,” Beckford said. “It’s one of the first ones that was paved.”
The budget also included a 3 percent raise for employees, said Clint Penzo, alderman. The raise will cover an increase in the cost of living, he said.
The city has a good team of employees, Beckford said.
“You have to pay them as well as the next guy,” Beckford said, “or they will be working for the next guy.”’
The raises, covering all employees, was opposed by Sunny Hinshaw, council member.
The raises included employees that have worked for the city less than a year, she said.
“I am opposed to giving raises to employees that haven’t worked for the city that long,” Hinshaw said.
A position in the city Water and Sewer Department was eliminated from the budget, Penzo said. The action gives the city more flexibility, he said.
The position, fi eld operations manager, was once held by Tim Hawkins, who left to work for Springdale Water Utilities. A new city organizational chart approved in October reorganized several departments under a public works director.
Joe Edgmon, a former mayor, opposed the change in the chart and eliminating the position.
“We should have an engineer in one position or the other,” Edgmon said. “The city could save on all of the money it is spending on professional fees.”
The city shouldn’t go into reserve as much as it does in this budget, Edgmon said.
The city has $1.4 million in checking accounts and certif icates of deposit connected to the general fund, and another $1 . 2 million in similar accounts with the street fund, as of Oct. 31.
Beckford, reached at work Wednesday, said he didn’t have the projected reserve balance for the end of the 2014 budget with him, but the amount is about five months of operating money.