The City of Bainbridge began preparing to hold its general municipal election this week by holding candidate qualifying and entering into an agreement with local elections officials to conduct the election.

At its Tuesday evening meeting, the Bainbridge City Council entered into an intergovernmental agreement with the Decatur County Board of Elections and Voter Registration to conduct the election, which will be held along with those of other cities around the state on Nov. 3. Elections officials have given the city a cost estimate of $20,000 to hold the election, according to Lisa Taylor, the city’s director of general administration.

The estimate includes all the costs involved with the election, including hiring of pollworkers, opening of poll places, testing and maintainence of the electronic voting machines which will be used to cast ballots and tabulation of the ballots. The elections board contracts with the voting machines’ manufacturer, Diebold, for the services of a consultant who will test the machines’ accuracy and be available to help with troubleshooting.

In other business handled by the City Council on Tuesday night, an application from Mathurbai Patel, doing business as the Zip Trip convenience store located at 1006 E. River Road, for sales of beer and wine for off-premises consumption was unanimously approved. There was no citizen comment during a public hearing on the City of Bainbridge’s 2009-10 fiscal year budget. The council will hold another hearing before considering adoption of the budget at its meeting on Sept. 15 at 6:30 p.m.