The Atlantic City Council will hold a public hearing during their meeting this evening at the Senior Center, with regard to the proposed Fiscal Year 2015 City Budget. City Administrator Doug Harris says the proposed budget, which represents the 16 operating funds of the City, is down 4.3-percent from the current fiscal year. That’s slightly less than the 4.9-percent reduction shown in the original proposed budget. Even though the overall budget is down 4.3-percent, the underlying operating budget for next year will be up 1.6-percent, or about $100,000. The proposed budget will require a tax increase of 1.8-percent in the City portion of the tax levy, or a seven-tenths (0.7)-percent increase in the total property tax levy, which means a 32-cent increase per $1,000 of taxable valuation.

Harris says the reason the overall budget is down 4.3-percent, is due to a reduction in the amount to be spent out of the Local Option Sales Tax Recreation Improvement Reserve to cover the cost of overruns on the new Park Maintenance Building. The reduction was possible because the City is able to use some of the contingency bond funds to cover part of the expense.

Harris said the City’s Operating Budget was adjusted upward following the completion of work on the new Wastewater Treatment Plant, and was necessary due to accounting changes in the Debt Service Fund, as well as a communications grant that was hosted by the Atlantic Fire Department. In a related note, the Council will act on setting April 2^nd as the date for a Public Hearing on proposed amendments to the FY 2014 (current year) Budget, the “Lion’s share” of which, according to Harris, is due to the “Multi-year nature of the numerous bond funded capital improvement projects” the City has undertaken in the past few years.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council will act on approving a change order in its contract with Hawkins Construction, for improvements to the new treatment plant. The change order represents a $32,322 decrease in the original contract price to compensate the City for engineering fees related to the repair of defective work on the plant’s blower building. The meeting starts at 5:30-p.m. in the Atlantic Senior Center.

Authorities in Montgomery County report a Missouri man was arrested early this (Wednesday) morning in Stanton, on drug charges. 24-year old Kiley Brian Caron, of St. Joseph, MO., was pulled over for a traffic violation at around 4:20-a.m. at James Street and Broad Avenue, in Stanton. He was subsequently charged with Possession of Methamphetamine and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Caron was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $1,000 bond.

MIDDLEBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) – Authorities say a man from Massachusetts and a woman from Iowa have died in a car crash in southeastern Massachusetts.    Police say their vehicles struck head-on on Route 44 in Middleborough at about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.  The drivers were identified as 64-year-old Dennis Canning of Middleborough and 30-year-old Kimberly Bebare of Ames, Iowa. Both died on impact.

Neither vehicle had any passengers, but a dog in Bebare’s car survived and is in the care of the town’s animal control officer.  Police say the cause remains under investigation.