The Madill City Council approved the City of Madill’s FY ’21 budget in a meeting June 9 at the Fred Stanley Center. Members present were Mayor Travis Williams, vice mayor Bobby Davis, Terry Rushing and Mary Ann Hale. Council member Shaunda Stanley was not present.
City employees assisting with the meeting were James Fullingim, city manager; Carol Minor, city clerk and Cindy Burchfield, deputy clerk.
The board approved the consent agenda and then moved onto the public hearing about the budget.
Fullingim made the budget presentation. This was a formal presentation following an initial presentation in a special meeting on May 29.
He provided an overview of changes. One change from last year’s budget was a three percent cost of living adjustment for city employees.
“Revenues were kept the same as last year for the city side and MPWA,” Fullingim said. “I think we’ll bring in more than that on sales tax, but I’d rather be conservative on that.
Fullingim said the City of Madill hasn’t made many large purchases this year but will continue to purchase new street signs.
“If you go to one cent sales [tax], you’ll notice that I kept the signs at $10,000. I’m putting more money into signs than I ever have. Want to get them all moved over to the black and gold [signs]. But I’m really proud of those.”
Fullingim told the council members that the city’s expenses for capital projects has decreased because they paid off three police cars.
The city council approved a change in the budget to allow Fullingim to have a $650 per month vehicle allowance since he has recently had to use his personal vehicle for work. The change was set to take place on July 1after the new fiscal year started. However, Fullingim requested it be started as of June 8 due to need.
“Another city vehicle was totaled in a traffic accident,” he said.
This request was approved later in the meeting after Hale made a motion, which Williams seconded. It passed 4-0.
Rushing made a motion to accept the budget with the detailed changes. The motion was seconded by Hale and passed by a vote of 4-0.
During his city manager’s report, Fullingim discussed the work being done at the softball fields on the east end of town.
“We’ve got some good news,” he said. “Our softball fields got used for the first time in a long, long time after hosting a tournament this weekend. They look better than they have in several years. Coach [Brett] Vann, the new softball coach, along with some other folks, did that. They brought 18 teams to town with 74 games played.”
Fullingim said it was good to see people come into Madill; particularly with the majority of teams being from Texas.
“I have a meeting with [Vann] later in the week,” he said. “He has a lot of ideas such as little league and adult league. We talked about expanding to Watkins Field. The city uses it via a lease from the Watkins family, but we don’t own it. We’ve already had people come forward and say they are willing to donate to and revitalize those fields. That’s something I said I would do when you hired me is revitalize those fields.”
Fullingim said the West Francis repaving project will start soon although he doesn’t have a date for it.
“We’re rebuilding it with the proper 6 inches of asphalt rather than 4 inches as on sideroads,” he said. “East Wolf is on our radar and South 2nd is on the list.”
He added the city is still in the process of rebuilding the steps of the old hotel as well as waiting for new sod in front of city hall as the landscaping is being updated there.
“We’re gonna put new lights in outside city hall,” he said. “OGE is putting up new ones today. There will be LED lights under awning of city hall.”
Then, Fullingim and city inspector David Sprouse talked about the city running the electric themselves for outdoor Christmas lights that have been discussed by the city council members. Fullingim said they are going over prices this month.
The meeting adjourned at 5:23 p.m.