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The Bainbridge City Council met for a specially called meeting last Tuesday afternoon. The main topic of the meeting was a public hearing for the fiscal year 2025 operating budget. Interim city manager Roy Oliver delivered the presentation to the council. The budget, he stated, does not include any new positions or cost-of-living increases for employees, nor does it add any money to the city’s reserves.

Oliver went on to describe the current community economic conditions that contributed to the budget, including the impending arrival/opening of businesses like Publix, Rural King, and the Element Hotel. Oliver also stated that the county unemployment rate was higher this year than the year before, up to 4.2%, over June 2023’s 3.9%, as well as the state of Georgia’s 4%. The daytime population of the city is currently estimated to be 16,993, a 12% increase over the 2023 estimate of 15,039.

The proposed budget has been increased by $512,117, a “one-time jump due to the Publix and Element Hotel development projects totaling $42m”.

Oliver also presented a chart showing the city’s revenue. “As in years past, the city’s largest single source of revenue continues to be the local option sales tax,” he explained.

The presentation also showed the city’s total major funds, which totaled to roughly $32.5 million. When discussing the water and sewer fund, Oliver stated there has been a proposed rate increase of roughly 4%, “which is mandated by the bond requirement to keep pace with inflation.

“This will result in a 14-cent increase in water, per 1,000 gallons used, 19 cents per 1,000 gallons used on sewer,” he explained. “The water base rate will increase 62 cents per month, and the sewer base rate will increase by 65 cents per month.”

Next, the solid waste fund was discussed. Oliver stated that the fund currently has 9,480 active accounts, with 3,418 being non-incorporated residential and commercial solid waste customers. “We have included a proposed increase of 4% for inside the city limits on residential and commercial customers to keep pace with inflation,” he said. “This is gonna take the city residential rate from $31.46 per month to $32.72 per month,” Oliver continued. For those living outside the city limits, there will be a 10% increase, both for residential and commercial customers. Oliver stated this was to keep up with inflation, as well as increases in the lease payments on the city’s trucks, dump fee increases, and fuel costs for the county pick-up routes.

For the natural gas fund, the city expects the prices to be steady, with prices having remianed historically low. The city has put forward an increase of the gas base charge from $10 to $12.

Moving on, the city telecommunications fund was brought up next, with this upcoming year being the first full year of Fiber to the Home operations. The city projects there will be 2,362 customers connected by the end of the fiscal year.

Next on the budget was the current T-SPLOST work, with $910,386.81 worth of street paving, and $248,598.36 of sidewalk construction, for a total of $1,158,985.17. The proposed T-SPLOST budget for the upcoming year is $1,331,592.02. The T-SPLOST funded paving projects amount to 9.5 miles of paving. Oliver also mentioned the Local Maintenance Improvement Grant (LMIG), which would pave 2.5 miles. Combined with T-SPLOST, that will have the city’s street department paving approximately 12 miles of streets in the upcoming budget year.

After this Oliver concluded the presentation, and the council voted to close the public hearing. After a few questions were answered, the meeting was adjourned.