SPANISH FORT, Ala. — Following months of speculation, city officials have confirmed Spanish Fort is in the hunt for a Publix Super Market, and an undeveloped site at the Eastern Shore Centre is being considered.

District 2 Councilman Mike McMillan said developers have asked the city to “put together a financing package” that would address infrastructure issues “associated with a retail development of this size.”

Neighboring Daphne officials have been debating for months the possible construction of a 45,600-square-foot Publix near TimberCreek, and McMillan said a six- to seven-acre site just north of Belk at the Eastern Shore Centre is now on the table if the financing package can be approved.

Both McMillan and Mayor Joe Bonner declined to provide a dollar figure associated with the project until “we’ve had more time to discuss the matter,” Bonner said.

Calls to officials with both Publix and the Eastern Shore Centre were not immediately returned.

Founded in 1930 in Winter Haven, Fla., by the late George W. Jenkins, Publix Super Markets Inc. is the largest employee-owned and one of the 10 largest volume supermarket chains in the United States. The publicly-traded company based in Lakeland, Fla., reported total retail sales of $23.9 billion in 2008, and employs more than 140,000. To date, 38 of the chain’s 1,005 locations are in Alabama.

Meanwhile, council members will gather at a 7:30 a.m. work session Monday to discuss the city’s proposed $5.5 million operating budget for 2009-10. The city’s fiscal year begins officially on Oct. 1, but state law does not require an operating budget be in place by a specific deadline. Bonner has set a public hearing for the council’s Oct. 19 meeting to discuss the budget, and council members have pledged to work diligently in the coming weeks to reach figures with which everyone feels comfortable.

Bonner has already proposed a few changes to the original draft introduced two weeks ago. His alterations involve shifting the majority of an anticipated surplus — totaling more than $90,000 — to help ease the financial crunch in the city’s four schools.

He is proposing shifting $10,000 to each school as a one-time supplement for needed school supplies to be administered through the principals’ offices. He also favors providing an additional $20,000 to Spanish Fort High School for “bricks and mortar” improvements and the purchase of band equipment.

The remaining $30,000, Bonner said, could be redirected to Elementary Park for parking, bleachers, fencing and other improvements.

District 1 Councilman Dennis Dismuke said although he applauds the mayor’s commitment to the schools, he questions the accuracy of the budget’s first draft and would feel more comfortable if the figures were re-calculated using projected run rates. Dismuke, in turn, ran his own re-calculations and provided copies to each council member and Bonner for their review.

“Based on run rates, it looks like we’ll be spending $350,000 (more) than last year,…and I would rather see us come in at about $500,000 less than we spent last year,” Dismuke said.

Dismuke said his concern is based on the formula used for awarding bond ratings that places a high value on how well a city is able to forecast expenditures.

District 4 Councilman Tom Sawyer said he is quite comfortable with the city’s budgeting approach to date because “historically, we have tended to trend under our anticipation in a fiscally conservative manner.”

He also said Dismuke’s re-calculations should be more sensitive to run-rate flunctuations between fixed and variable expenses because they can skew a budget in the opposite direction.

Dismuke then argued that having an almost $1 million surplus at the close of 2009 does not illustrate accurate forecasting. He also asked if it would not be better to use some of the more than $900,000 carryover to pay down debt.

Bonner has already said he would like to see a significant portion of the balance toward a downpayment on construction of a city complex should such plans be approved in the coming months.

“All I know is we’ve probably got another bad (economic) year ahead of us, and I’d like to get as tight a budget as we can,” Dismuke said.

In other business the council:

The next regular meeting of the council will begin with a 5 p.m. work session in the conference room at City Hall on Oct. 5, followed immediately by the regular meeting at 6 p.m. at the Gathering Place in the Prodisee Center.