Milton City Council unanimously approves 2013 budget.

by Carolyn Aspenson; The Milton Herald

September 25, 2012

MILTON, Ga. — The Milton City Council voted unanimously to accept a $20.5 million budget for fiscal year 2013 in their Sept. 17 meeting.

City Manager Chris Lagerbloom presented the final changes at the meeting, stating one key change to the final budget was adding the position of an economic development coordinator.

The council was aware of this change from previous meetings.

"This budget wasn't a surprise to the council," Lagerbloom said. "They had all been intimately involved for the previous 75 days."

The budget is consistent with past budgets, with monies being allocated conservatively to necessary projects and future expenses.

"The budget is relatively flat," Lagerbloom said. "You have to understand the nuisance of what happened two years ago with the Fulton County Tax Digest to see that one year it looked as though our revenues were short and one year long. "We received a late digest that year, and we have to average those two years because so many properties were in appeal due to the downturn in the economy," he said.

The fiscal year 2013 budget includes:

• More than $500,000 in new sidewalks to connect schools, businesses and residences in the Cogburn/Hopewell/Webb roads corridor;

• $1.4 million in park and trail development funds;

• $2.29 million (plus $4.9 million in state and federal grant funding) for planning and execution of new road and bridge construction projects, including work on the intersections of Hopewell, Francis and Cogburn roads; Birmingham and Hopewell roads; Ga. 140 and New Providence Road; Ga. 372 and Providence and New Providence roads; Bethany Bend, Hopewell and Bethany roads; Mayfield Road and Ga. 372 and Deerfield Parkway and Morris Road;

• More than $2 million for paving and road improvement at locations across the city as prescribed by the Pavement Management Plan;

• $35,000 for a newly created economic development coordinator position;

• $132,500 for tornado sirens;

• $12,000 for a hazardous waste collection day so residents can dispose of paints and other liquids barred from existing bulky trash collection events;

"The budget is kind of spot on now for us to keep doing what we need to be doing," Lagerbloom said.

"We've found the healthy balance," he said. "We know what we have to do and we're continuing to move in the right direction."

The approved fiscal year 2013 budget is available online at www.cityofmiltonga.us.