By Martin Couch
Members of the Bryant City Council voted not to increase the city millage and to instead find ways to “cut back” to maintain the city’s budget at the monthly Budget and Finance meeting at City Hall on Wednesday night.
The estimated general fund for the city stands at $713,000 with the current 1.9 mils, which averages out to $38 per household for personal property taxes, and the current real-estate tax of 1.9 percent will also remain the same. These decisions by the City Council members came after some concerns were addressed regarding how to increase the funds for maintenance issues.[more]
The Council voted to recommend leaving the millage at 1.9 percent, which will undergo an official vote at the July 8 City Council meeting. All of the aldermen present at the meeting spoke against raising the millage that would have also raised the tax base for Bryant residents that already is at 9 percent.
In addition, the board voted to recommend a reallocation of funds from the street bonds to overlay and street maintenance projects. In a request by Street Department director Richard Penn to reallocate $216,698.24 to the overlay and maintenance projects was approved and will go towards improvements on phase three of the city’s overlay project that includes work on Laura Drive, Boswell Road, Sanders Lane and Wilkerson Road.
A major maintenance project on Dogwood Drive has also begun to repair broken sections of the overlays and a request for an additional $25,000 was asked for to make improvements on the South Walnut ditches between Second and Fourth streets.
All of these requests were recommended to the City Council meeting for official approval.
