Roanoke City council approves budget changes, removes Roanoke Community Garden Association

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ROANOKE (WSLS 10) - Roanoke City council approved final changes to its nearly $281 million dollar budget. The 2016-17 fiscal year plan includes more funding for education and has a focus on quality of life.

On Monday, city leaders voted on final changes to the next fiscal year budget. Officials said the plan is "balanced" and includes some changes to help increase revenues. For instance, the city plans to alter rental fees to make it easier for sports teams to use athletic fields for tournaments. Currently, the rental rate is $125 dollars per field, per day. Under the 2016-17 budget, the fees will switch to $50 per field, per day plus $10 per team. Local leaders hope the change makes Roanoke City athletic facilities more competitive with Salem, Roanoke County and surrounding areas.

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City leaders said boosting revenues provides more funding to schools. Schools continue to be the number one funding priority. The Roanoke City School system is projected to receive close to $2.6 million more than the current fiscal year.

"Hopefully they will continue to use the money as they have been in a very wise way to improve accreditation of the schools and continue to improve on the great strides they made on graduation rates," said David Trinkle, Vice-Mayor Roanoke City.

The budget will not include funding for the Roanoke Community Garden Association (RCGA). Last week, the council voted 5-2 to defund the RCGA instead they'll shift the $10,000 to LEAP. The move occurred after the public hearing on the budget in April which raised some concerns. Trinkle called it an unfortunate last minute decision to remove the organization from the budget.

"The rational in my mind is that we can't keep funding start-ups forever,"said Trinkle. "At some point they have to be self-sustainable to a degree."

City leaders requested that the city manager examine other funding options for the RCGA. They plan to revisit the issue on May 16th. The budget goes into effect on July 1.