DAPHNE, Ala.—Mayor Fred Small at a city council work session Thursday announced that he balanced the new budget to include a $21,000 surplus but that more deliberation is necessary.

Small had proposed a nearly $782,000 cut from the ’09 fiscal budget, which would decrease funding for ’08 budget items such as administrative training, city maintenance and equipment purchases, according to city finance director Kim Briley.

“We’ll still provide the same level of services,” she said.

The council agreed that before the ’09 budget can be added to the agenda and approved, the council must continue discussion on pressing items.

The biggest obstacle is determining how to make the city’s curbside trash and recycling pickup service more cost-efficient, according to Small, who suggested the council review the service. The city, he said, has lost $20,000 on recycling efforts.

“I think we could save money by just going to one day a week pickup,” Councilman John Lake said, referring to the city’s current, twice-weekly pickup.

To Small’s suggestion of increasing the pickup cost—which is currently $13.90 a month, according to the city’s Public Works department—by $1, Councilman August Palumbo noted that nearly 500 residents who are currently not paying for the service but are still using it.

“A lot of people are riding the backs of the ones who are paying,” Palumbo said. “I am against raising costs until these other people pay for their services.”

The notion of discontinuing recycling as a means to save money was debated.

“I don’t think anyone wants to give up the recycling program,” Small said.

However, Small stipulated that the recycling service must make money in order to get new equipment, and that it “should be run more like a business.”

The council also discussed an increase in city employee health-care costs. Daphne’s carrier is Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Many options were presented to the council as to how to divvy up responsibility of covering cost increases. The most favorable among council members was a 75-25 split, where the city picks up 75 percent of the increase and the individual or family covers the remaining 25 percent.

The plan’s average cost is about $148 per month for family medical benefits and $20 for dental; the individual plan currently costs $18. The 75-25 split, if adopted, would translate into a $17 increase in premium costs for the city employees’ family plan and a $5 increase for dental; the individual plan would increase to $20.

The council expressed how favorable the health plan is, compared to private industry standard benefits packages. The average health plan costs around $180 per family per month and makes the $148 plan currently being  offered to city employees seem very beneficial, Councilwoman Cathy Barnette said.

“This is a very liberal benefit plan for the employees,” Palumbo said. “(The increase) costs about 75 cents a day.”

Lake pointed out that a large portion of people covered under the plan are not taking full advantage of it, and that making them cover even some of the premium increase would be unfair.

“Fifty-five percent of the employees didn’t make any claims against the insurance,” Lake said. “It was only a couple of catastrophic incidents that caused our rates to increase.”

Councilwoman Cathy Barnette originally stated she would support a 50-50 split but then later supported the more popular 75-25 scenario.

“I don’t think we can afford, unfortunately, to absorb the entire cost,” Barnette said. “This package is still a tremendous bargain.”

After stating that many people will keep their city jobs because of the alluring health benefits, Lake suggested that the city investigate other insurance carriers and compare rates. “We might find some less expensive policy,” he said.

In other business, the council mulled conducting a private traffic engineering study of the heavily congested intersection at U.S. Highways 64 and 98.

It was brought to council’s attention that, during the last calendar year, there were 13 fender-benders—with no injuries—at the intersection.

A recommendation was made to create a right-turn lane on the Target and Staples side of Highway 64 at the traffic light. The cost of adding the lane is about $96,000 but the road block is figuring out what cables lie underground and how the city can get around them when constructing the new lane.

Lake argued that Highway 98 is a state road and Highway 64 is a county road so both the state of Alabama and the Baldwin County Commission could be tapped for help in funding the project.

“The county gets revenue from businesses located on these streets,” Lake said. “We might be able to get the state to participate in this. Sometimes, they can work a lot cheaper than us.”

Barnette said the traffic study should also include analyzing the current configuration of access points and relaying options for improving the design to alleviate concerns of drivers having to maneuver across Highway 64.

“It’s more than just the backup issue,” she said.