The Jacksonville City Council had it’s regularly scheduled meeting and workshop last night. The workshop heard an update regarding the Levitt Amp Concert Series. Jacksonville Main Street is asking the city to donate 5,000 dollars to the Series.
The City Council meeting saw the approval of an ordinance making appropriations for corporate purposes for fiscal year 2017.
Jacksonville Mayor Andy Ezard explains what the money will be used for.
“The appropriation budget is basically 10 percent over our regular budget. It covers everything that might slip through the cracks of our regular budget. If a line item goes over, then the appropriations budget grabs it. It is by ordinance. We are required, by not just Jacksonville rules but by State rules, to have two readings and that is what we did tonight.”
Also at the meeting last night the Council accepted the proposal from Central State Fireworks for the Fourth of July fireworks display. The price for the new 3 year contract did go up, but Mayor Ezard explains, the board felt the increase was reasonable.
“When you enter into new contracts, you are going to have an increase usually. We felt that $2,000 for the next 3 years, over the standard, was fine. We know they have their costs and the Council and myself feel they are very well worth that additional cost. I think they do a great job, and I know the folks in the community and the region really enjoy the show.”
Central State Fireworks did prepare a proposal that would not have increased costs, but it would cut back on the actually fireworks display. Mayor Ezard says that the show has been so well recieved, the Council didn’t want to take a step back in quality.
“We could have kept our same dollar amount but with less pyrotechnics, if we choose to. We felt that the show has been so popular over the last four years, that we wanted to keep the fireworks going as usual. The increase was determined, and we felt that was appropriate, so we moved forward.”
The Council last night also approved the advertisement of bids for 2 new squad cars for the Jacksonville Police Department and more approvals of payments for the New Water Treatment Plant.