Commission approves Fairview 2019-2020 budget

The City of Fairview Board of Commissioners approved the city’s approximately $7.4 million budget for the 2019-2020 fiscal year at this month’s commission meeting.

City Manager Scott Collins said the Fairview budget is sound and set up so the city “can do the things we need to do,”

Collins said he believed there are “some challenges we need to address” in the coming months.

It’s been known that the city made a slight reduction in staff. The budget includes a decrease of two full-time staff members and about $150,000 in salaries. The total amount planned for salaries is $3.9 million.

The amount city officials anticipate for revenues next fiscal year is $8.74 million.

Other Fairview 2019-2020 Budget items of note:

-$1.8 million in property tax revenue projected

-Nearly $2 million in sales tax revenue projected

-$1.6 million Police Department operating budget

-$1.27 million Fire Department operating budget

Collins said city road projects and implementing elements of the Fairview Forward 2040 comprehensive plan are capital projects that will happen in coming months.

“If we are short-sighted today, we are going to be short-funded tomorrow,” Collins said. “The purpose of all our work is to avoid that.”

Website

Also at the June 6 Fairview Board of Commissioners meeting, Collins said he anticipated construction will start on the city’s new website the second week in July.

“We anticipate it will take about 90 days,” he said.

Collins said he would like participation from citizens as well as the various Fairview elected officials.

“We hope to have the new website up and running in October. We expect it to be a vast improvement over where we are today,” Collins said.