Council roundup

I heard Phil Rodenberg say at the end of last night’s council meeting that because of recent water leakage in City Hall, the microphones that pipe council members’ voices into your homes are on their last legs. Let me get this straight. Act of God silences council microphones? Somebody trying to send a message here?

Anyway, here are a few things that happened last night that didn’t make the paper:

- The council appointed Dana Herlong and Chris Hornung to the EDA. Herlong, a local architect, is a reappointment, and Hornung, a vice president with the Silver Cos., is a new member.

- The council took the second of two votes required to approve its budget and a 3-cent real estate tax increase for the fiscal year that starts July 1. Rodenberg noted that this budget draws on $4 million from the city’s reserves to stay balanced, even with a tax increase. You can’t spend reserves year after year to balance your budget, because it’s not recurring cash. So if things don’t get "dramatically" better in 2010, the city plans to make up the difference by cutting even deeper into the money it gives to outside nonprofit agencies. The council has already heard a lot from these agencies about cuts that were made in the coming year’s budget. Last night, Rodenberg said he plans to send a letter to nonprofits to warn them of the potential cut in 2010. He said the cuts could be as deep as 13 percent to make up for what the city spent from its savings account in 2009.

- Fredericksburg is developing some new signs to put out at Old Mill Park during July 4 weekend, to try to communicate how dangerous the Rappahannock River can be in light of the two recent drownings. Here’s a PDF of one of the images they’re thinking about using. Thoughts?

Permalink: http://news.fredericksburg.com/citybeat/2008/06/25/council-roundup/