From staff reports

Following budget hearings and months of number crunching, both the City of Louisville and Winston County have arrived at their respective budgets for the upcoming fiscal year.

In a recessed meeting Aug. 24, the Louisville Board of Aldermen went over some of the final budget cuts on the city's proposed budget. The approval comes after several cuts to the budget and the board's requests that department heads pare down funding requests to only what is necessary for the operation of their departments.

The budget shows the city operating with budgeted expenditures of $521,650 for general government; $951,830 for the police department; $476,600 for the fire department; $45,550 for protective inspection; $1,054,420 for public works; $193,435 for recreation; $82,705 for the Winston County Library and $158,380 for miscellaneous expenditures, for a total of $3,484,270 in expenses for the general government. The budget also provides for $348,080 in E-911 expenses; $94,900 in cemetery expenditures; $391,500 for solid waste and $406,000 for landfill expenditures.

The 2004-2005 budget does away with animal control expenditures, saving the city an estimated $70,000, and made cuts in the budget for almost every city department.

The City of Louisville will hold a tax hearing Sept. 7 at 6 p.m. concerning the 1 mill increase on local taxes before final approval of the budget.

County budget approved

The Winston County Board of Supervisors approved the county budget Monday, following a public hearing giving citizens the opportunity to voice concerns about or opposition the budget's approval.

The budget shows the county operating with a total budget of $18,254,166.

The board of supervisors also approved Circuit Court Judge Joey Loper's appointment of two part-time district attorneys to fill the position opened when District Attorney Mark Majors was activated and deployed with the Mississippi National Guard.

In addition, new board President Tom Blalock expressed his desire to speak with board attorney Stanley Hathorn regarding the county attorney's duties.