The $2.159 million budget has $570,000 in its general fund and $1.65 million represented by the utility department. The change council focused on? — The ramping up of its police force.
“With this budget we do have the funding available to provide 24/7 police coverage to the town,” commented Councilman Chad Hawkins. Town leaders hope to create that coverage with less of a strain on its three officers and two chiefs by garnering a federal grant to fund another patrol officer in the coming year.
Police Chief Phil Reta said his department also has three other big federal grants “on the burners” that could represent a total gain to the police force of $500,000 if all are granted.
“Those would definitely catapult us into a whole new expectation of service for the town,” Reta said.
Another area that is also set to be catapulted into a whole new era of service for Prosperity is the sewage situation in the Forest Hills section of town.
A 100 percent forgiveness loan for most of the cost of eliminating the 1950s era sewage lagoon that serves that subdivision has been approved from the Department of Health and Environmental Control. The loan, which comes from the State Revolving Fund, is provided through leftover federal stimulus funds. Conditions of using the roughly $900,000 require the town to front the money for repairs, and then making a monthly “draw” from the revolving fund to reimburse expenditures. Town Administrator Karen Livingston recommended a line item be set in the town’s budget for the coming year to shuffle money from the town’s savings to fund work, then back in as the monthly draws are made.
Livingston also recommended she initiate a “noncompetitive procurement determination” to hire Dennis Corporation as consulting engineers on the project. This method allows the town to retain the engineers that did free work to supply estimates to DHEC to gain funding for the project, and to start immediately on preparing bid requirements for contractors.
Prosperity is also in line to gain Capital Sales Tax Project money for the project if the county penny sales tax referendum passes in November. Town officials say this would cover any remaining costs not covered by the DHEC loan of bringing the households of Forest Hills onto a modern sewage system.
In other business Tuesday night, council:
• Discussed the status of making Eureka Street to a state that is acceptable for its adoption into the county road system. Easements and property lines associated with the street will be examined in the next month, as well as the possibility of laying asphalt over a previously applied subasphalt layer.
• Heard that it is a strong possibility that a Department of Transportation grant will be approved this week that allows sidewalks to be built in many areas of town. The town secured County Transportation Commission funding of $128,000 to supply the matching money in the last month, if this $400,000 grant should be awarded to the town. The money would fund curbs and sidewalks from Brown Street to Williams Woods, on Main Street from Dominick to Mill Street Apartments and along School Drive from the stop sign to Brown Street.
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