Statesboro City Council finalized some recent business Tuesday, approving a contract with Robert Cheshire in his new, permanent job as deputy city manager and setting the property tax rate for the year.

Cheshire, a city employee for 19 years and previously its chief engineer, has served as interim city manager since July 1, 2014. He remains in that role while a search for a new permanent manager, authorized by the council in July, continues.

But the council also created a new position of deputy city manager in July and voted in August to appoint Cheshire to that post, which he will keep after a new city manager is hired. Mayor Jan Moore was authorized to negotiate Cheshire’s new salary.

The contract that the council unanimously approved Tuesday makes his first-year salary as deputy manager $109,500. Cheshire’s previous salary as city engineer was roughly $104,000, and he had not received additional pay to be interim manager.

Last month the council approved renaming the city engineer’s post, which Cheshire previously held as head of the department, “director of public works and engineering.” A further change in the organizational chart was approved to rename the previous senior assistant city engineer position as simply “city engineer.”

Cheshire then promoted Jason Boyles, who as senior assistant city engineer has led the engineering department while Cheshire serves as interim city manager, to be director of public works and engineering. Brad Deal, previously assistant city engineer, was promoted to city engineer at the new level.

Millage rate unchanged

Also Tuesday, the council kept 6.358 mills as the city’s 2015 property tax rate on Cheshire’s recommendation.

After adjustments by the county tax assessors to the value of a few properties brought a slight reduction in the tax digest, the city expects about $10,000 less revenue from property tax than last year, Cheshire said. But the digest, a valuation of all taxable property, is expected to grow again when the assessors do a wider review in 2016, he added.

The city’s millage has remained unchanged for more than five years. But this year the council created a new stormwater user fee. Charged to virtually all in-town residential, commercial and nonprofit addresses on utility bills beginning last month, the fee is projected to net $900,000 in annual revenue. This will cover some previously tax-funded costs but is also intended to provide additional cash for improvements to the city’s drainage system.

Upcoming events

Besides holding an extended hearing Tuesday on the Temporary Vendors Ordinance still in the works, the council slated another work session on the perennial alcoholic beverages issue, heard about some upcoming events and approved a special park bench.

·         Council and mayor unanimously proclaimed Sept. 10, 2015, as Betty Foy Sanders Day in Statesboro. The Averitt Center for the Arts will be recognizing Sanders as its 2015 Legend in the Arts.

·         The Stateboro Fire Department will hold an open house at its remodeled and expanded Station 1 on Grady Street from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Sept.  12.

·         A council work session is slated for 4 p.m. Sept. 21 on the revised Alcoholic Beverages Ordinance, discussed on and off for more than a year.

·         The Archibald Bulloch Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution received unanimous city approval to place a bench with a plaque recognizing the DAR’s 125 anniversary in Rockwell Park, between North and South Edgewood Drives. Oct. 11 is the anniversary date, and local members hope to hold a dedication in mid-October.

Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.