By John Howell Sr.

Batesville aldermen on Tuesday morning adopted a $24.6 million budget that requires no ad valorem tax increase.

The budget, which anticipates expenditures of $24.6 million against income of $20.1 million, carries forward $6.1 million projected to be available at the end of fiscal 2010 and anticipates $1.7 million in unused funds at the end of fiscal 2011 on September 30, 2011. The breakdown of the budget by funds will be published as a legal notice in the Tuesday, October 21 edition.

Adopting the budget at the September 14 meeting completed a process begun by Batesville’s mayor and aldermen in May when they met with William H. Polk and Company Certified Public Accountant Bill Crawford to amend the 2010 budget as the latter half of the fiscal year approached.

“I think the board has done an excellent job cutting expenses,” Crawford said, commending city department heads who each cut expenses by 10 percent in their departments. “Again, they held the line on taxes,” Crawford added.

During the Tuesday meeting, aldermen also gave Tallahatchie Valley Electric Power Association (TVEPA) the go-ahead for a sub-station on McMahan Drive in east Batesville. TVEPA Director of Engineering Kerry Davis told city officials that the zoning variance would allow the electric co-operative to construct a sub-station that will serve the new GE Aviation plant as well as the eastern half of Panola County, freeing up demand for electricity flowing through the Highway 35 sub-station. Davis said that the sub-station will also allow “more reliable service to the hospital” and backfeed capabilities that give TVEPA alternative routes for power during outages.

City engineer Blake Mendrop and code office administrator Pam Comer reviewed construction requirements that call for more stringent erosion and sediment control by builders.

“This is just more assertive on drainage,” Mendrop told the mayor and aldermen, “common sense things; a lot of it is being done already.”

The requirements place more responsibility on builders to assure “positive drainage all the way to the street if at all possible,” he said.

“It’s easier to construct on the front end,” Alderman Bill Dugger said, referring to building that includes provision for proper drainage. “If you don’t, it falls back on us and on the taxpayers,” he added.

Dugger questioned if Mendrop developers and builders could be required to stabilize creek and ditch banks when they build structures adjacent to them.

Mendrop said that bank stabilization requirements might conflict with federal and state regulations that govern alteration along creeks. The engineer said that a better solution might be to require a buffer zone between buildings and creeks.

“I’m satisfied if you’re telling me that we won’t have any more Acorn Lanes,” Dugger said, referring to a the subdivision between Bates Street and Sand Creek.

Property owners whose yards abut the creek are seeking the city’s help to curb erosion from fast-moving water following heavy rains.