Mayor, aldermen to work on new budget on Monday

The Philadelphia Mayor and Board of Aldermen will begin working on the Fiscal Year 2021-2022 budget with the board’s first budget meeting at 5 p.m. Monday, Aug. 16.

“We will start working on the budget then,” Mayor James A. Young said. “Usually, it takes two or three sessions before we tie it down.”

In other matters, aldermen voted to:

• Approve the agenda, the minutes from the previous meeting and the claims docket;

• Accept the resignations of Nathan Easterwood, Chance Smart and Marco Patrick from the Fire Department. Aldermen voted to hire Justin Weems as a probationary firefighter;

• Approve a travel request for Fire Chief Pierce Clark, Jeff Franks, Myron Williams, Steven Copeland, Raymond Farlow, Adam Osborne and Rickie Creekmore to travel to Pelham, Ala., for dive training on Aug. 8;

• Approve several motions dealing with the St. Francis Bridge replacement project. They approved a change order with Crowder Engineering and a payment of $16,407 to Joe McGee Construction out of the DFA fund. They paid Central Electric $19,153 and Philadelphia Utilities $22,954 for moving their power lines during the project. Finally, aldermen accepted the final inspection of the bridge;

• Approve two road bores by C Sspire; and,

• Approve for Alford, Thomas and Thomas PLLC, to do warranty on the asphalt at the airport.