Locust Grove’s budget for 2021 was given final approval by the City Council at its December 7 regular meeting.
The general fund budget was set at $9,187,190 for the new year, a 9.5 percent increase over 2020. Public safety accounts for 37 percent of expenditures, followed by public works at 30 percent.
Economic development, capital funds, enterprise and other designated funds total $9,328,770. Those include revenue from hotel-motel tax, SPLOST, development impact fees, utilities, sanitation, stormwater and other sources. That brings the total city budget to $18,515,960.In other business, the council tabled an update to the city’s alcohol ordinance regarding home delivery of packaged alcoholic beverages. It is expected to be heard again in February. This action was motivated by recent actions of the Georgia General Assembly that permit home delivery by package stores with distilled spirit license unless prohibited by local ordinance.
According to a city staff report, these updates to the law were likely brought about by the COVID-19 shutdown which forced restaurants and other retailers to make drastic service changes such as the addition of curbside and delivery services. The amendment also allows restaurants to apply for a specific license to sell wine and malt beverages by the package.
The council approved a new fee schedule that includes increases in fees for some development services. According to a staff report, the recent increase in building activity in the city has made it apparent that some items in the old fee schedule did not fully cover the costs of the services provided, and some increases in the fee schedule were proposed to correct that while also adjusting for inflation. Recommendations were based on the amount of staff time spent in the field, conducting plan reviews, and in the office processing requests.
The 2021 meeting schedule for the council will follow the same pattern as in the past. The new calendar will continue to include regular business meetings the first Monday of each month and workshop meetings the third Monday. Three meetings in January, July and September were moved to Tuesday because of Monday holidays. One meeting in February was moved to the fourth Monday because of winter break for the local school district. The first April meeting, which will take place during spring break, was not changed.
