A little over a year ago, Hopkinsville City Council adopted a budget for 2018-19 that predicted the city would use $1.4 million in reserve funds to balance spending.
But two factors helped eliminate the need to dip so deeply into savings, and the city ended the fiscal year with a deficit of just $170,000, Chief Financial Officer Robert Martin told the council at their Tuesday meeting.
“I think that is excellent news for us,” Martin said in his year-end report.
One factor was a sharp, unexpected increase in payroll tax revenue in June, the last month of the fiscal year.
“Hopefully employment has picked up. We won’t know about July for a while,” he said after the meeting.
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Another factor that improved the city’s budget was huge savings in payroll for the police and fire departments. Both departments are having trouble finding candidates for open position.
The police department had $236,071 in unspent payroll. The fire department had $289,455.
While the savings are good for the city’s budget, unspent payroll points to a drain on police and fire personnel that could hurt the departments, Martin noted. Employees in those departments are working longer hours to fill gaps.
Prior to the council meeting, an overflow crowd packed the council chambers to recognize retiring Fire Chief Freddie Montgomery. He will be the new fire chief in Clarksville, Tennessee.
In other business at Tuesday’s meeting:
The council voted unanimously on final reading of an ordinance closing a stretch of Kentucky Avenue between Seventh Seventh and West Second streets. Second Baptist Church owns the property on both sides of the street. The church is planning a major capital improvement project.
A 14-acre parcel on Foston Chapel Road was rezoned from R-3 (one- and two-family residential) to B-2 (general business). The ordinance passed unanimously on final reading.
The council voted unanimously on first reading to close a 16-foot alley extending 120 feet from the northern rear property line of 616 North Drive to the southern rear property line of 614 North Drive,
Police Chief Clayton Sumner presented two new city officers, Dendreck Holmes and Josh Stallons, for swearing in.
The city recognized several groups that participated in the Trash for Cash program in May and June. They are All Nations House of Prayer choir, Crofton Baptist Church, UHA track and field team, ANHOP men and women, Hopkinsville Middle School football team, Buffalo LEO Club and Christian County Drug Court. Combined they covered 54 miles and collected 259 bags of trash weighing 7,700 pounds. They received a combined $3,975 in rewards for helping clean up the city.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
