The city of Fairhope is in “a really great position” according to Mayor Tim Kant, who gave his annual State of the City address Sunday afternoon at the Fairhope Civic Center.

Kant told the crowd assembled there the city had excess revenues of a little over $7 million in last year’s budget because the city government had tried to be prudent with how the funds were spent.

“Just because we budget it doesn’t mean we have to spend it,” Kant said.

Kant said when the current city council took office the interest on the city’s debt service was nearly $1.3 million per year, but with reworking of the debt and an increase in the amount being paid to bring those debts down, the city is now saving almost $2.8 million total in debt service fees.

“The goal with this council was to be debt free by 2019 and we are well on our way to making that happen,” Kant said.

Kant said there was a sizeable expenditure made to improve Fairhope’s sewage plant in the last fiscal year, but that the upgrades made will be good for 15 years and still came in well under budget.

“We were able to come in 15 percent under budget and still have a state of the art facility,” Kant said. “The goal wasn’t just to meet current environmental standards. We wanted to show everyone else across the Bay area that we can be cleaner and do better about helping to protect and preserve our area.”

Kant said another $400,000 would likely be spent to upgrade the sewer services’ collections systems and another $200,000 for monitoring devices at every lift station.

“A sewer plant is only as good as how we get it there,” Kant said.

With the city’s electric department, Kant said their five year plan for the future includes solar initiatives that both the department and citizens may be able to take advantage of.

“We want to try to make this option available for our citizens, especially since the end result is a cleaner fuel option,” Kant said. “We’ve been discussing this for several years now, and it’s time to make something happen.”

One future development Kant said continues to be on the horizon is a change to Fairhope’s City Hall, which he says the city has outgrown.

Kant said the building was having structural issues on the south end.

“This building has been here since 1960, so the structure is getting a little old,” Kant said. “We have to start looking at what we’re doing with this building.”

Kant said he would like to see the facility still be used as a potential site for a city performing arts center.

“This has been one of my main goals since becoming mayor, and I think it’s important to have venue for the performing arts here that will show how highly we value the arts here in Fairhope,” Kant said.

Kant added the city was also looking at expanding its parks’ footprints around the city, including forming a citizen advisory committee to find the best way to use some new land that had been donated to the city by the Single Tax Colony.