By Janet Pelletier / Staff

On the latter end of this boom and bust economic cycle, Roswell is looking to balance its annual budget, and it’s likely to come at the cost of losing 10 city positions and raising recreational fees for adults.

Mayor Jere Wood presented his plan at a work session following the City Council meeting Monday night that would trim the fat to get Roswell to balance out at $55.9 million for fiscal year 2011. The city, like most across the country, is short on revenues to cover expenses.  By comparison, 2008 revenues were $62 million.

The work session was the first look at the budget. A series of public meetings will be held this month and next, leading up to its approval in late June.

Though revenue is $6.2 million smaller than in 2008 -- a decline of 10.3 percent -- the new budget won’t raise taxes or cut services. Revenues come from three main sources: property taxes ($19.6 million), sales tax ($18.2 million) and franchise, alcohol and business/insurance taxes ($11.5 million).

Wood said he’s proposing the elimination of 10 city jobs and the addition of three fire battalion commander positions to address public safety needs.  Those changes would bring the city’s total number of employees to 611. Comparably, the city had 624 workers in fiscal year 2009 and 618 in FY 2010.

The 10 proposed job cuts are victims of the downturn in construction, which has cut the workload of the community development department.

Between 2006 and this year, building inspections are down 46 percent and new construction permits down 77 percent.

“We’ve seen a substantial decline and we don’t expect it to return for some time,” Wood said.

Also on the chopping block arel city subsidies for recreation activities such as sports and art classes.  Seniors and children escape the axe, but not the folks in between.  Right now, nearly $1 million in activity costs are city-paid, with $139,000 of that spent on adult activities. Wood said in light of these dire economic times, taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for adults like himself to play touch football.

“I think the residents of Roswell can afford to pay their own way,” he said.

But despite the sour state of the budget, Wood said “we hope we’re bottoming out” in the economy and evidence does suggest that the decline is flatlining.

COUNCIL NARROWLY APPROVES AUTO DEALERSHIP

In other council news, Wood cast the deciding vote to allow a conditional use permit for a used auto dealership on a 1-acre property along Holcomb Bridge Road just east of GA-400.

North Fulton Land Acquisitions, LLC made the request, which will include only pre-owned luxury vehicles. As part of the approval, the applicant will re-landscape the vacant property as well as make improvements to the sidewalks.