JOHNSTON – In a sign that the financially hard-hit town of Johnston is beginning to recover from the downtrodden economy of recent memory, council members were treated on Monday to good fiscal news in a clean audit report.

In addition to the finding, Toni McKinley of the firm of McKinley & Cooper, Inc, told Council that net revenues or “profit” (to refer to a business term) amounted to $76,798 for the fiscal year, a good number.

“It’s a good, positive increase to the bottom line for the year,” she said.

The town has also maintained an ongoing general fund balance of $440,909 – or just about six months of reserve funding – another positive number that has increased from audit reports over the past couple of years.

“That’s enough funds to carry over for almost half of the year,” McKinley added. “That number (of 46-percent) is a good number. Johnston has historically been higher, but the last few years have been rough and this year it’s a good balance. As always, I recommend that you grow it to be able to tide you over for cash flow purposes.”

Having heard all the pertinent information, Council approved the FY2009-10 budget unanimously.

In other town business:

- Council held first reading for Ordinance No. 2010-02, an ordinance updating town business licenses. The ordinance, which has not been updated since 1995 according to mayor Andy Livingston, mirrors a similar ordinance used by the Town of Edgefield and follows municipal association recommendations. The ordinance moves the due date for business license fees from may 31st to March 31st and moves the late penalty fee to 5-percent. Business license rates will not change.

- Council approved an annual request for the use of the municipal parking lot for the town’s Christmas lighting ceremony, scheduled this year for Monday, November 29th.

- In the Mayor’s Report, Mayor Livingston stated that some necessary plumbing work was being taken care of to alleviate clogging sewage lines. He said the lines have been stopped up and the building has experience instances of flooding on two separate occasions within the last month. Mayor Livingston said the lines should have been altered when the building was initially renovated. The mayor thanked the Johnston Police Department for their efforts to insure a safe and happy Trick-or-Treat night in the town and brought up an issue with road annexation that he had been following with Police chief Chris Aston in which there are several roads surrounding town properties which are not “in the town” and therefore could produce legal issues in the future. Mayor Livingston said the roads would be identified and –presented to the state highway department for future inclusion in the town limits. C hief Aston placed the number of roads of concern at around three or four.