Covington leaders anticipated that their water and sewerage budget for the year would increase from $2 million to $2.5 million in revenue, but after installing new water meters and new collection and bookkeeping systems, the City Council discovered the increase will not happen.

The announcement of an impending budget shortfall of about $420,000 came at the end of the meeting in Councilman Lee Alexius’ administration liaison committee comments.

City Administrator Beverly Gariepy said, “I am confident about consumption figures.” Consumption in the city is the about the same as last year.

Alexius said the shortfall is not the result of collections, but a problem with the budget. He said in order to compensate for the budget, items will need to be cut and the general fund will need to be reviewed to make up for the budget error.

Alexius added that revenues are lower then anticipated when the budget process began last year for water and sewerage. Collections are actually higher, although the city is aggressively pursuing about $100,000 in delinquent fees.

The optimistic Alexius said, “Hopefully this won’t be too bad. We had a negative CPI this year. For next year, we just don’t know.”

In an unrelated matter, the council had earlier passed an ordinance that will raise the deposit required for city water and/or sewer. The deposit for residential users will be $75 for the basic 3/4-inch line. For larger water lines, deposits will increase accordingly up to $250.

Commercial users connected only to sewer lines will pay a deposit of $250 per meter. All residents must pay the basic $75 amount whether connected to city water or not.

The deposit may be used by the city to satisfy any unpaid water, sewer, trash or garbage charge. If the deposit is used, the user will have to repay the deposit. Other provisions were made in the ordinance for final bills and refunding of deposits. The ordinance was approved unanimously 5-0 with Councilman Matt Faust not voting as acting mayor and Trey Blackall absent.

A growing concern over garbage on vacant lots was addressed by Edia Eason. She appeared before the council to complain about the problem of trash and garbage collecting in ditches and along streets, mainly in front of vacant lots.

City Attorney Deborah Foshee said that the best action citizens can take is to call city hall or if they see who is dumping debris, call the police and they will get a ticket. “Citizens are our eyes and ears,” she said.

But Eason was not satisfied with the answer.

“Why should citizens have to be the ones to report it? Why can’t the city simply patrol the streets?” Eason asked. She added that unless the city was in contention for the Clean City contest, the city doesn’t seem to care.

Foshee answered that the city just doesn’t have the manpower to patrol the streets for garbage and litter.

In other business, the council unanimously approved an ordinance authorizing the mayor to execute a contract with Eighteen18, LLC.

The development will have six months to annex into the city or it will be cut off from city water and sewerage.

A previously tabled ordinance to annex 3.6 acres bordering Louisiana Highway 25 into the city was approved unanimously. The annexation had been tabled pending correction of the legal description of the property.

The property is currently vacant with no registered voters and will be used for commercial purposes. Fire District 12 filed a protest with the city last month for not having a municipal agreement with the city and the protest was again read into the record.

A comprehensive planning and zoning joint public workshop will be held Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the City Council Chambers. The public is invited to review the maps and make any comments.