Eagleville councilmen approved Thursday night the 2009 fiscal year budget which is based on the current property tax rate of 87 cents per $100 of valuation.

The city is estimating the income from the property tax to remain basically the same as for 2008 at $98,000. Sales tax revenue is projected at $75,000, which is an increase of $30,000 from 2008.

The budget allows only $7,500 for police salaries and $500 for police vehicle expense, which means the city is not expecting to hire a police officer.

Mayor Nolan Barham said he has spoken to Rutherford County Sheriff Truman Jones about the possibility of establishing a substation in Eagleville.

"He liked the idea but wanted to do some checking on some issues," Barham said. "Our agreement was that after the first week in July, we will get back together."

Eagleville has been without a police department since Police Chief Everett Stone retired last May. The sheriff’s department has been providing police coverage since then.

Councilman Terry Zumbro suggested at an earlier budget workshop that the city could designate a location in town for a substation so the sheriff’s department could station a car and a person in the area.

The budget also calls for raising City Recorder Colleen Adams’ salary 25 percent from $24,000 to $30,000 per year on July 1, at which time she will have been with the city about six months.

When councilmen were in the process of hiring a new city recorder last November they discussed offering an estimated annual cost of living increase of about 3 percent in the future.

At the budget workshop, council members, except Councilmen M.A. Smitty, agreed with Barham that Adams’ starting pay was low and that her salary should be upped to $30,000.

Under a new state law, the city will have to have a state certified person to handle the city’s finances by 2013 and Adams has agreed to take the training. However, because of the availability of classes, it is expected that she will not be certified during the next budget year.

Smitty suggested going with a cost of living raise for now or an incentive raise to do the training and consider a larger increase when she is certified.

Also, Barham is proposing to put $25,000 in a new unrestricted general fund category for street maintenance in addition to the state gasoline tax money that has to go into the restricted street aid fund.

He also proposes to set aside $30,000 for the "rainy day" reserve fund, which is now at $20,000. The city does not have to use the unrestricted monies for street maintenance or for the reserve fund if money runs short during the year.

The city has budgeted $18,000 from the general fund for the park plus is expecting income from donations and fund raisers. Up to $22,500 will be available from the remainder of the park grant, which has to be matched by the city.

Earlier, city officials were uncertain about how much income to expect from the park concession stand because at last report the expenses were $1,500 more than income for the current year. Vice Mayor Ronnie Hill speculated then that some of the items may have been posted incorrectly.

Hill said Thursday night that the problem appeared to be that Adams did not know what some of the checks were for and had posted ones from the Eagleville Ball Club and the Eagleville Softball League under donations instead of to concession stand income.

The ball clubs pay the umpires by cash from the concession stand and then reimburse the concession stand by checks, Hill said.

He said that instead of the concession stand having a loss, it appears that is cleared $5075 since the first of April.

The 2009 budget for the fire department projects $30,000 in income from the county, about $35,500 in grant funds, including a $33,000 FEMA grant, and $8,000 from donations and fund raisers.

The budget figures indicate the department has paid fire fighters $10,049 for fire calls this year compared to $2,200 the year before. The budget calls for $3,000 to be paid for fire calls in fiscal year 2009.

Fuel costs for the fire department are projected at $8,000 for fiscal year 2009, compared to $6,000 in the current year. A total of $45,000 is budgeted for fire department supplies, including turn out gear, compared to $12,675 last year.

If FEMA does not award the city a grant, some of the expense for supplies is expected to be budgeted for the 2010 fiscal year, according to a budget consultant for the city.

In other business at the Thursday night meeting, councilman agreed to give former Police Chief Everett Stone his service pistol.