RESURFACING PROJECTS Transfer paves way for fix-ups

Several improvement projects are scheduled to wrap up this year.
By SEAN BARRON
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
STRUTHERS -- City council approved a resolution Wednesday to transfer money from a loan fund and use it to resurface several city streets.
The council voted to designate $140,000 from a revolving loan fund to be part of a total of about $240,000 that will be available for bids on 14 resurfacing projects set for 2006.
No date was announced to advertise for the bids.
Other funding sources for the capital improvements are the general fund and a Community Development Block Grant, said Second Ward Councilman Bert Cene.
About $39,000 will be taken from the grant, $940 will come from a capital improvement fund and about $60,000 will be from a permissive auto tax fund. Money for that fund is generated largely from gasoline tax receipts, Cene said.
Seven city projects have been finished or are scheduled to be completed this year. They include resurfacing Marion Street, making various improvements to downtown sidewalks and applying crack sealant where needed. Two others are the Beechwood Storm Water and Midlothian Piping projects.
Also
In other business, council announced that a state auditor could come as soon as next week to review some discrepancies in pay that city employees received last year.
Because 2004 was a leap year, employees received 27 instead of the normal 26 paychecks for a year, city Auditor Tina Morrell said. The carry-over caused some confusion and was reflected on their W-2 tax forms, she said.
Cene explained that one of council's duties as a legislative body is to set salary ordinances, and that they did not change during 2004. City employees' W-2s were higher than the legislated amounts. The state auditor will decide what adjustments need to be made, he said.