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VIDALIA, La. — The Town of Vidalia has adopted its operating budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year during a special meeting held Thursday, May 29, at Vidalia City Hall.

The budget carries no increase to property taxes as the millage rate adopted on May 13 was 3.20 mils, the same as it was the previous fiscal year.

No public comments were made regarding the budget, which passed by a vote of 4-0, with Alderman Robert Gardner absent.

As of March 31, the town had combined cash in the bank of $1.9 million, including restricted funds of $207,000 in the hydroelectric fund and $602,000 in the sales tax fund, according to town CPA Debra Moak.

Investments are at $30.8 million, including 28.2 million in the hydroelectric fund and $1.7 million in the general fund. A total of $22 million is invested in Louisiana Asset Management, earning 4.36 percent interest, and $12.7 million is invested with Delta Ban,k earning 4.35 percent interest.

The town also has $736,000 left in American Rescue Plan Act funds. Total assets stand at $71.7 million, total liabilities are at $12.9 million.

An unknown fiscal item, Craft said, is the amount of money it will take to repair a large sinkhole that has developed on Concordia Avenue at Elm Street, which is at least eight feet deep and as wide as the width of the street.

“We have no idea what it’s going to cost,” Craft said. “We’ll have someone ready to go once it gets safe enough to do the work. But with as much rain as we’ve had, the more you move mud around it’s going to make more mud. We can’t do anything until it’s solid. We’ve got to get some dry weather.”

A few town department leaders came in with last-minute budget requests after the budget had been posted for public inspection.

These include a budget request from Vidalia Fire Chief Johnny Evans to purchase a LUCAS chest compression machine for $24,684; purchase of 9 laptops with mounting brackets to go into police vehicles for $34,000; $120,000 for a backhoe for the street department and $4,500 for lighting, cameras and sound updates for the Vidalia Convention Center.

The Board of Aldermen also approved increasing the annual amount budgeted for the Summer Recreation Program at Greater Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church from $4,500 to $5,000 at the request of Rev. Raymond Riley so that the church can hire an additional high school to college-age student to work during the summer program.

The program, which has been hosted every summer for more than 30 years, starts this week and continues on through July and takes place evenings from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the church.

“I want to thank everyone involved in this process,” Mayor Buz Craft said of the budget. “Debra Moak, our CPA, does the lion’s share of the work and does an outstanding job when presenting this. … Also, I want to thank all of the employees and office workers who are managing and running the departments very efficiently and keeping their books.  All of our processes are done in a professional manner and kept orderly and timely. … The town is very blessed to have the team that we have.”