City works to manage freefall

“The sky is falling,” may not be the best thing to hear at a city budget workshop.

Neither are the words “managing the free fall,” which is what a portion of the budget presentation was titled at Thursday’s workshop.

“The sky hasn’t fallen yet, but it’s getting pretty cloudy,” city finance director Chris Meats said.

After a reduction of between $1.3-$1.5 million in sales tax revenue, combined with the city’s $3.9 million in operational costs, and two rounds of cuts across the board, the city is still $79,000 in the hole.

“The department heads and Reed (Clevenger, city administrator) have cut a...