The main issue at the city of Nicholson budget meeting Tuesday, Oct. 26, was $20,000 in the proposed 2011 budget allocated to the library for books.
A public hearing on the budget will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18, at the beginning of the monthly work session meeting. The city council will vote on the budget at the Dec. 6 council meeting.
At last week’s meeting, Mayor Ronnie Maxwell presented the proposed 2011 budget totaling $410,000 to the council last week for review. The proposed 2011 budget shows a slight increase, $5,000, over the 2010 budget of $405,000.
Maxwell advised $35,000 was taken out of the general fund in the 2010 budget and put into a Certificate of Deposit (CD).
“It appears we (the city) will come in under budget on expenses this year (2010),” Maxwell said.
Council member Chuck Wheeler said, “I am for the library, let me make that statement right off. I think $20,000 in today’s time is an exorbitant amount of money to put in there.”
Wheeler presented copies of the library budgets from Maysville and Commerce to show how much they spend on books. Maysville’s 2010 library budget includes $4,500 for books and materials and Commerce’s 2011 budget includes $6,000 for library books.
Wheeler questioned where the money will come from to make repairs to the library, such as new carpet. “What about new carpet for the library?” he asked.
Maxwell said, “If the SPLOST (special purpose local option sales tax) passes, this will be included in that.”
