The Brundidge City Council approved the city’s redistricting plan based on the 2010 United States Census at its Tuesday meeting.

The city has held three public hearings regarding the redistricting plan and presented two maps for the residents’ consideration.

Mayor Jimmy Ramage said Brundidge City Council 2012 Plan 2 was chosen because the population distribution was closer in the city’s five districts than in the other plan. The map will be sent to the Justice Department for pre-clearance.

City Manager Britt Thomas presented the city’s official financial audit for the year ending Sept. 30, 2011. The audit was done by Carr, Riggs & Ingram, L.L.C.

According to the audit, the City of Brundidge is an $18.3 million municipal corporation.

The audit did state that the size of the city’s accounting and administrative staff precludes certain internal controls that would be preferred if the office staff were large enough to provide optimum segregation of duties.

According to the audit, the city lacks sufficient personnel to appropriately separate all accounting functions.

Thomas told the council that $975,000 in anticipated ARRA Green Project Reserve funding that would have financed improvements in the city’s water distribution system was not forthcoming.

“The median income for the city was above ‘green’ funding,” Thomas said. “If approved the city would have contributed $101,000 to the project, which would provided funds for improvements including automated meter reading.”

Thomas said he had suggested to the council that, if the funds were made available, that it would be a good decision for the council to provide additional funds for an automated electrical system as well.

Thomas said he was very disappointed that the city would not get the “green” money and would like to continue to pursuer avenues for funding. The council gave him the go ahead.

The council conducted a public hearing regarding the rezoning of property located at 524 Henderson Street.

The planning commission’s recommendation was to grant the request to rezone the property from R2 to MHR in order to allow a mobile home to remain on the lot. The mobile home was originally granted hardship status but that had run out nearly 30 years ago.

The council voted to accept the planning commission’s recommendation and approved the request.

The mayor appointed all members of the city council and the city manager to the Brundidge Solid Waste Authority. The terms of the appointment are to be staggered.

Chuck Caraway, Brundidge Business Association president, addressed the council regarding the combined efforts of several groups to become actively involved in the efforts to bring businesses to Brundidge.

Caraway asked for the city’s support and involvement.

Ramage pledged the council’s support and said that a member of the council will attend the meetings once they are underway.

Caraway said a committee is being formed and that the meetings will be open to all those who are interested in the betterment of Brundidge and who are willing to invest time and energy to the efforts.