Anna City Council drafts new budget

The Anna City Council continues to work on drafting a budget for the fiscal year which begins May 1 and runs through April 30, 2014.

The budget was on the agenda at a regular meeting of the city council which was held Tuesday evening, March 19. The meeting was at Anna City Hall.

Budget action is scheduled to continue on April 2. The council is scheduled to meet and give tentative approval to the new budget.

On April 16, a budget hearing is planned at 4:30 p.m. at city hall. The council then is scheduled to meet and give approval to the new budget.

City administrator Steve Guined said last week that current projections call for a 3 percent increase in the city's trash pickup service rate, a 4 percent increase in the cost of water and a 2 percent hike in the cost of natural gas. Sewer rates are not expected to increase.

Overall, Guined said that customers can anticipate an increase of about $1.85 to $1.86 per month for the cost of the various services. Higher costs of operation were cited for the proposed increases.

In other business at last week's meeting:

The city administrator reported that an effort to promote participation in Anna's recycling program appears to have been successful.

The amount of recycled materials increased from 3.5 tons in January to 4.5 tons in February.

After a closed session, a motion was made by council member Michael Bigler to terminate the contract of city attorney John Foley.

Bigler previously had voiced concerns about what he sees as a potential conflict of interest involving Foley and a new member of his law firm who has family connections with county government. The motion died for a lack of a second.