When the Mendenhall Mayor and Board of Aldermen met for a budget workshop on August 3, Mayor Todd Booth said, “We’re going to have a tough budget year to work on.”
Mendenhall, like many other cities around the state, has been impacted economically by the COVID-19 pandemic which has set up a challenging year in terms of next year’s budget.
During the workshop, the aldermen and mayor were in agreement on the majority of the budget items discussed. Booth said, “The city will have to cut back and be more conservative this upcoming year with the dollars we have to work with.”
The city will be dealing with a little less revenue than originally projected, thanks to the virus. However sales tax has been up lately with more people shopping locally and declining to travel to other cities. Booth explained that trend may change once the state begins to open back up.
Even with plans to be more conservative, city leadership still has goals for improvement, the biggest improvement being the water tank located on Highway 43. The goal is to get the water tank operational and install a working pump. The city recently installed a temporary pump for testing purposes, and the tank passed inspection. The city is making progress towards the overall goal of tying the tank into the current water system within three years.
Another major project being considered is making the loop around the frontage road with water lines to assist with water pressure in the northeastern part of town.
The board agreed to keep the same amount of money in paving for next year’s budget. Booth said the plan is to dedicate within the $180,000-200,000 range for asphalt and paving. He said, “We’re doing everything we can to keep putting more money into paving every year. I know we still have some bad streets in town that need to be addressed but we’re making strides with it.”
Booth said he also plans to work with MDOT and hopefully get a project moving that will make the Highway 49 and Highway 540 intersection safer. The intersection has been the site of several accidents, but that may not be able to be accomplished within next year’s budget.
Booth said, “With what we’ve had to work with and what we’ve accomplished has been mind boggling the Lord has blessed us. We’re all keeping a mindset on what we need to do to keep our city moving forward.”
The workshop was successful, but a final proposed budget was not established. The workshop was recessed until August 13.
