SPANISH FORT, Alabama - The Spanish Fort City Council is seeking public comment on its proposed $6.1 million fiscal year 2012 budget. Mayor Joe Bonner said last week that the major changes in the budget reflected a reallocation of funds from recreation expenses. The city has been paying $90,000 per month for the facilities at Spirit Park, and once those payments expire at the end of the year, more than $1 million will be freed up to spend elsewhere, Bonner said.

That money will target projects like the proposed Spanish Fort Community Center and street repaving, among other things. Spanish Fort uses a 7-year-old engineering report to decide which streets are in the greatest need of repaving. $540,000 in next year’s budget will repave roads in Blakeley Forest, Spanish Main, the Causeway and elsewhere.

The community center has been allocated $35,000 per month in the new budget. Bonner said the city has also set aside a $2.5 million down payment on the building, which is expected to cost upwards of $6 million.

There is also a $35,000 allocation for an anticipated annexation referendum to bring in various properties on the perimeter of the city, a $195,000 allocation for legal services, and $10,000 for a new website. Police department and public works budgets, which tend to rise and fall from year to year, have been trimmed by $374,185 and $50,200, respectively.

“A budget is nothing more than a plan, and we try as a Council over the course of a year to see what direction the city needs to go in,” Bonner said. “We live within our means, and our goal remains to position Spanish Fort for the future.”

Copies of the proposed budget are available at City Hall and public comment will be accepted during the next City Council meeting, Oct. 3 at 6 p.m. at the Gathering Place.