City’s new budget: 1% pay raises, a plan to pave roads

By Bobby Bryant, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net

Darlington City Council last week gave final approval to a $6.8 million budget for next fiscal year that promises 1 percent pay raises for city employees and smoother roads for city drivers.

The budget, which got a routine final OK from council in a brief special session last Thursday evening, will raise $57,000 for paving city-owned roads by slightly raising property taxes. The budget raises the city’s tax millage rate by 3.2 mills, meaning the owner of a $100,000 home will pay an extra $13 per year in property taxes.

City manager Howard Garland has provided council with a suggested priority list of streets that need resurfacing. Streets at the top of that list include:
Bowen Street
Country Club Road
Darlington Street between Dargan and Grove streets
Evans Street
Fountain Street
Haynesworth Alley
Hewitt Street
Jeffery Street
Kentucky Drive
Lochend Drive
Medford Drive at Gann Drive
North Ervin Street
Russell Street from Siskron to railroad tracks
Stone Road
Terrell Street
West Broad Street (Washington to Tallulah)
Ward Street
Winston Street

City Councilman Bryant Gardner, who was among the council members discussing the need for road work during the city’s budget work sessions, says council hopes to be able to deal with two or three streets a year using the funds coming from the tax increase.

Gardner said he couldn’t talk about definite priorities yet, but he cited Limit Street and Country Club Road as badly needing work. “Go drive down Country Club Road,” he said. “You literally have to go left and right to go around the potholes.”

The paving work around town “is just something we’ve been putting on the back burner for years,” Gardner said. “We need to slowly start knocking a couple out per year.”

The city’s budget for next fiscal year also raises the garbage-pickup fee by $1 a month; it goes from $21.50 a month to $22.50.

The budget continues a plan that the city passed last year, raising water and sewer rates by 3 percent for customers inside the city and by 5 percent for those outside the city through 2022.

City Council held routine public hearings last Thursday evening before taking a final vote on the budget plan, but no one spoke at the hearings. The entire council meeting lasted less than 10 minutes.

Author: Stephan Drew

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