Raising the millage rate seemed to be the consensus among the Mt. Airy City Council at their Aug. 26 work session as the city’s enterprise funds dipped $20,000 between 2019 and 2020. However, in a near-overnight turn of events, City Manager Tim Jarrell tells Now Habersham this is no longer the case.

“We feel like we can continue to give the services needed to our citizens to ensure that they receive [them] as needed and requested without interference,” Jarrell says. “The budget will be lean, of course, but we feel like we can do it without a millage rate increase.”

Less than 24 hours before, Jarrell told the Mt. Airy City Council he wasn’t confident the city could financially recover from a major water leak under their “shoestring budget.” According to Jarrell, a millage increase would be essential to meet budget without depending on enterprise funds, which he says aren’t currently dependable.

But now, Jarrell says that Mt. Airy will be able to make ends meet by tightening their budget.

“We don’t have a lot of fluff,” he says. “But we will be able to ensure that we are good stewards of the citizen’s money and do what’s appropriate it. We can ensure that they will receive the services that they need and expect, and to be able to do that, we’re planning on just tightening our budget.”