ROANOKE RAPIDS — Council fine-tuned an already tight budget yesterday, doing away with a street repair deal with the Roanoke Rapids Sanitary District which cost the city money and increasing rental fees at Kirkwood Adams to bring in an extra $5,700 a year.

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Council also agreed to spend $6,800 for a mitigation plan to bring the city into Federal Emergency Management Administration compliance with yard waste debris sites and to fund $700 to the police department to make way for a supervisor for its interstate enforcement team.

These actions came during a budget work session where department heads went over their financial plans for the upcoming fiscal year, a fiscal which promises to be a lean one.

Public Works Director Richard Parnell said all the department’s part-time employees are gone due to budget cuts and there will be no street sweeping or mosquito spraying.

Parnell explained to council for the past 20 years the city received between $8,000 to $11,000 for mosquito spraying. It got a $1,300 grant for this year, which he said won’t even buy a barrel of mosquito spray for a program usually beginning in the spring and lasting through September.

Parnell also suggested doing away with an agreement where Public Works made street repairs for utility cuts done by the Sanitary District in exchange for water for the street sweeper.

Last year the city made 89 repairs at a cost of $31,000. The Sanitary District, Parnell said, has staff to do to this and he recommended doing away with it, which council later approved.

Parnell also told council landfill tipping fees were increasing and said four sites must be certified by FEMA for yard waste disposal.

Council balked at acting on a request allowing the city to sell headstones for fear it would undercut funeral homes.

Parks and Recreation Director Chris Wicker explained how budget cuts were affecting his department, where the FLIP Camp, a staple of the department for some 30 years, would not be held this year and a library youth services position would not be filled.

Self-supporting programs will still be held at T.J. Davis as will open play but Wicker said position cuts will affect the quality of maintenance with only four people working at the center.

Athletic fields will not receive the same care they have in the past when there were four people plus contractors to cut them and other facilities. They now have two people for that. “We’re going to get it done. We’re going to do the best job we can,” Wicker said.

While Wicker said it wasn’t necessary to increase out of town fees for the rec centers, pool, Aquatic Center and library, he did suggest fee increases for Kirkwood, which would bring in an extra $5,700 a year. Although fees there have increased 25 percent over the last year, Wicker said, Kirkwood is still less than The Centre at Halifax Community College and other places.

While council approved the request, Councilman Ernest Bobbitt said this was something council should have seen two weeks ago. “I have no problem with it,” he said. “It should have been brought to our attention before today.”

Meanwhile, Planning and Development Director George W. Gurley Jr. said he was pleased his department was getting $45,000 for dilapidated house demolitions.

Budget cuts, however, especially with the loss of a planner and a part-time person, are going to slow the workflow of the office, he said.

Police Chief Jeff Hinton said he anticipated no changes in the department’s fee schedules.

He said, however, the success of the interstate enforcement program created the need for a supervisor for that division and recommended reclassifying a detective position to narcotics sergeant, which council approved.

The fire department had no changes but was able to hire its 31st firefighter, Chief Gary Corbet said.