Shelbyville city spending may be deferred

Spending for Shelbyville totaling some $375,000 could be deferred in an effort to save money, the city council was told Thursday night.

However, city manager Ed Craig said the city "is on budget" and that while deficits are budgeted into the numbers, Shelbyville has never really had one.

Providing council members with charts and figures, Craig explained that while the city's debt has gone down since 1999, Shelbyville's fund balance has gone up since that time.

Long term debt in 1999 was at $4,578,153 while that figure was at $1,591,740 this year. While the budgeted deficit for this fiscal year was estimated to be at $565,822, the actual figure is at $25,542. In 2007, the budget deficit was estimated to be $176,096, but there was a surplus of $502,334.

Craig said that assuming that the 2010 budget will have the same revenue and expenses, the elimination of the debt on the Shelbyville Recreation Center, which is due that year, would only bring the budget back in line, but would not restore any shortfall in 2009.

Concerns facing the council are the current economic downturn and the costs of demolition on East Depot Street. Craig suggested that the city manage the general fund expenditures to reduce the shortfall, use other fund reserves to make up the shortfall and manage reserve expenditures to protect cash.

Deferring hiring new personnel and delaying capital expenditures was the idea that Craig presented. Positions such as an assistant aquatics director and two vacant street positions with public works would result in a savings of $46,000.

Closing the Recreation Center one hour early and reducing pool hours on Saturday would save $7,600, while deferring stormwater and curbing projects, as well as delaying the demolition of dilapidated structures, would save $129,500.

Putting off paving the parking lot at City Hall would save $10,400, and dropping capital expenditures for Shelbyville Municipal Airport would put back $472,285 into the budget.

A new building for animal control may be deferred for $67,773 and public works could delay buying a replacement truck and building a sign shop, saving $43,000. Putting off replacing a ball field fence would save $5,700.

However, Craig said that there were several positions that must be filled, such as hours for part-time lifeguards, moving two part-time maintenance men to full-time, a new sanitation worker and a vacant position at the police department.

Money for Purdy Court and Phase V of the Greenway should also be kept, Craig said, as well as funding for two new patrol cars and a mower and a skid loader and trailer for the public works department.

Also required would be $43,000 for the repair of the roof at the old Harris Middle School gym and light poles and lighting for the Babe Ruth fields. Recreation officials said Thursday that the current poles are unsafe and the only choice is to either replace them, or eliminate night games, which represent 80 percent of the play on the fields.

Craig also pointed out that as of the first quarter of the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, the city was ahead of budget by $89,298, with a cash balance of $3,489,643. Local sales tax through November was up 2.54 percent over last year. The budget had projected a 1.68 percent increase in this revenue.

Councilman Randy Vernon said that the sour economy was actually helping the local tax base since more people are now staying home instead of traveling to Tullahoma or Murfreesboro to eat out or shop.