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Budget Ready for Action

The Town Commission has agreed to a budget for 2008-2009 in workshop sessions, and is now poised to make it official. For that to happen, there will have to be two readings of the ordinance that adopts the budget, each preceded by a public hearing. The first of these will take place at a special meeting of the commission at 7 p.m. Thursday, August 28, in Town Hall. The final public hearing and reading will be held at the commission’s regular meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, September 11. Copies of the proposed budget are available for public review at Town Hall.

In their deliberations, commission members agreed unanimously to keep the millage rate for the town at 0.7511, the lowest rate in the county for any municipality with full time employees. The rollback rate that is allowed by law would have raised the rate slightly, but the commission opted to stick with the lower number to reinforce taxpayer breaks enacted by the legislature and voted in by the public in Amendment 1.

General fund revenues will drop to a projected $715, 372 in the new budget year, almost $12,000 under the current year. Expenditures are proposed at $842,614, an increase of around $78,000 over this year’s projection. The commission will tap reserves, if needed, to make up the difference. The town generally spends less than its budgeted amount. The commission did restore $8,000 for July 4 fireworks, but this will require cooperation from neighboring communities.

The commission also agreed on a new five-year Capital Improvements Plan covering parks, streets, sewers and other town facilities. Big item in the plan is the beautification of Gulf Boulevard which is slated to begin in 2010, and could extend through the remainder of the plan period. Projects in the coming year will total more than $82,000. This plan will be enacted as an amendment to the town’s comprehensive plan later in the year.

Beach Concessions Renewed

The Town Commission approved renewal of beach concession licenses with two long term providers of beachfront leisure and recreational facilities.

The providers are Beach Services West and Wind Surfin International.

Deputies Introduced

While the town contracts for police services from the Pinellas County sheriff, the department prides itself on efforts to make the officers part of the community. Toward that end, the deputies who are regularly assigned to patrol the community were present at the last commission meeting to be introduced by their supervisors.

Lt. Brian Gavin is the administrative officer in charge of the detail and made the introductions, along with brief personal histories of the officers. There are two sergeants in charge of daily operations; Sgt. Joe Garrett for the evening shifts and Sgt. Charles Street for days.

On patrol are Kevin McSweeney Jr. on days, Mike Godin in the evening and Hank Whitesell on the midnight shift. They can be seen while on patrol and will always stop to answer questions or otherwise help residents. To call for assistance, the sheriff’s number is 582-6200.