News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Algood has approved its 2021-2022, with an emphasis on parks and recreation development.
City Administrator Keith Morrison said roughly $4.37 million will be spent with an expected revenue of $3.3 million. Morrison said this is not the type of budget he likes for the city but was necessary to get phase one of the new park off the ground.
“There’s no guarantee we’re going to spend that money, that’s a worst case scenario,” Morrison said. “But to get that park off the ground we really had to take that step and put some capital money into it. So I think we’ll be able to pull some of that back. We may not get all of it but we’ll be conservative and try to get as much back as we can.”
$675,000 has been put towards phase one of Algood’s new 21-acre park.
Morrison said the plan is to accept the recommended Certified Tax Rate when it is received in July. Morrison said capital improvements for water and sewer were a priority with $745,000 allocated for a handful of projects.
“Our Main Street waterline and Old Walton sewer project,” Morrison said. “Brotherton Mountain pump station upgrade, as well as Spring Creek Road upgrade for water to those residents that we agreed to some months back as a co-project with the county.”
Morrison said that extra money was put towards expanding the city’s employee base, garbage trucks, police vehicles and a new fire engine. Morrison said the general fund balance is in good health, sitting at $5.1 million.
However, he said there were changes made between first and second readings of the budget.
“We made some reductions, we had some entrance signs on there for $50,000 that we pulled out,” Morrison said. “We cut back on some police equipment, some fire equipment and we shaved a few lines down. We put a little money in there to finish off the farmer’s market just in case we weren’t done, so we went ahead and cut that out. There was just some little things in there that we cut back, that we thought we could hold off on and try to focus on this park.”
Morrison said that with the commitment to get the ball rolling on the new park, he wants to have playground equipment, a walking track, bathroom facility and parking completed at the park. He said that with the amount of funding put towards the park he wants to show residents that project is moving after acquiring the land three years ago.
