Shelbyville's city council will get its first look at the 2008-09 budget this week, according to city manager Ed Craig.

A budget meeting has been tentatively scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday in the courtroom of the city police station.

Craig and city treasurer Gary Cantrell will take a final look at the first draft of the budget before passing it along to the city council, Craig stated.

Also in the near future, council members will be looking at implementing ideas gleaned from last weekend's round of strategic planning sessions held at Henry Horton State Park.

A vision statement for Shelbyville was drawn up as well as six goals. Craig did not have the wording yet; it is to be drawn up by Don Darden of the University of Tennessee's Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS).

In general, the vision statement relates "to the type of community we want Shelbyville to be," Craig stated.

As for the goals, Craig said some of them were "recognizing we're a rural community, but a growing community. The biggest focus is creating opportunities for jobs, making the city as attractive as we can make it ... and supporting a good educational program."

The council will look at the wording of the statement and goals, come to a consensus and approve the wording, then Craig and the city department "will come up with some action steps to meet those goals," Craig said.