The Fulton City Council approved several expenses Tuesday night, including continued sponsorship of fireworks at the Fulton Street Fair and a traffic study for the traffic lights at the intersections of Market and Fifth, and Market and Fourth streets.
Mayor LeRoy Benton said much of the discussion throughout the meeting concerned "trying to be as frugal as possible and being good stewards of the city's money."
One of the first pieces of business was the Fulton Street Fair Committee's request for a $900 sponsorship for the fireworks display.
According to Benton, the council spent some time talking about how much support the city has provided for the street fair over the years.
"It seems like it just continues to get bigger, and the city funds are shrinking, and at some point the city is going to have to start evaluating that," Benton said.
Director of Administration Bill Johnson said the $900 requested this year is approximately half of what the city has paid in the past - the street fair is paying the other half - adding that the street fair committee plans to pay for the display itself next year.
Next up was a request from the Brick District Committee that the city place the projects for the north and south entrances to the district on the city's bid and build schedule. The request was not immediately approved.
"The cost estimates were considerably higher than anyone imagined," Johnson explained. "The city is investigating less-costly alternatives to those improvements."
"We're kind of looking at the drawing board again, and we'll be coming back to them with an alternative plan," Benton agreed.
The council did grant approval for the traffic study - which is intended to determine whether the traffic light at Market and Fourth is necessary. Johnson said the controller for the two lights in question has a habit of periodically doing short cycles where it switches the light after only a few cars have gone through.