With sales tax down in a debilitated national economy,Brookhaven officials are being urged to keep spending to a sensibleminimum.

Mayor Bob Massengill told the board of aldermen at their meetingTuesday night that tax numbers for January were down $42,000 fromwhat was budgeted, as well as $14,000 from last year.

Brookhaven is obviously not the only city hit by the currentnational economic problems. Massengill said of 22 cities around thesame size as Brookhaven, 13 had shown a decrease in sales taxincome.

“Nine have shown an increase, and of those, two or three havejust annexed large areas,” the mayor said.

In spite of the drop, Massengill said Brookhaven is still in thetop five of those 22 cities, having brought in around $383,000 forJanuary.

But the problem still remains, he said, that since the city’sfiscal year began in October, sales tax has averaged around$415,000, which is about $10,000 lower than the $425,000 projectedfor each month when the budget was made. At that time, city leadersconsidered that figure conservative.

“We need to continue controlling costs and look for ways to savemoney,” Massengill said.

In other business, Mike Corkern from Airport Development Groupspoke to the board about what one company saw as a problem with thebidding process for the fuel farm the Brookhaven Municipal Airporthas been working on.

Corkern was accompanied to the meeting by representatives ofIndustrial Environment Management LLC, who had the second-lowestbid at Friday’s bid closing.

The bids were opened and read aloud at 4 p.m. However, the lowbid, from Cobb Engineering, was in an envelope on City Clerk MikeJinks’ desk due to an oversight.

The representatives from Industrial asked the city to throw outthe low bid since it was not read aloud, and they had left thereading thinking they had won the bid.

Massengill and Jinks assured the men that the package the bidcame in had been tracked and it was in on time, it was just humanoversight that had caused it not to be included in the group to beread Friday afternoon.

City Attorney Joe Fernald said the reading is simply a formalityand holds no legal weight over which company gets the bid.

“I was notified of the discrepancy and the board can accept orreject any bid they want,” Fernald said. “This should notdisqualify (Cobb Engineering), because the bid was delivered beforethe required time. It is through no fault of the bidder that thereading was not done properly.”

The board voted to accept Cobb’s low bid of $268,231, sayingthey were the lowest bidder on the project the last time it was bidout and all bids were rejected. The engineer’s estimated cost onthe fuel farm project is $292,050, and all the bids on the previousbidding were over budget.

Corkern also told the board that the hangar project is about towrap up and undergo final inspection. In an ensuing executivesession called for contract negotiation and possible litigation,the board approved a lease and rate schedule for hangar rent.

In other business, Brookhaven Fire Department Capt. Eric Smithappeared before the board to discuss comments made at the March 3board meeting when board members were discussing a routinepermission form used to gain permission for the State Fire Marshalto investigate a fire scene. In the same meeting, they had tabled adebate as to whether to pay $232 for room and board to send Smithto an elite national arson investigator class he had been invitedto attend by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA pays therest of the expenses on the invitation-only class.

Aldermen at the last board meeting had a discussion questioningSmith’s integrity based on his authority to present to a homeownera permission form allowing a fire marshal onto a person’s propertyas part of an investigation.

The form is a generic permission form used frequently by thefire department. In the incident in question, Smith had writtenDeputy Fire Marshal Scott Barnes’ name on the form, saying that hewould be the one who would come to the scene to investigate.

Smith was not present two weeks ago during the open sessiondiscussion.

Last night, Smith told the board he didn’t appreciate theimplication that he had done anything but his routine duty underthe circumstances, and that he’d had no chance to defendhimself.

Ward Four Alderwoman Shirley Estes told Smith she felt the boardshould have had the presence of mind to realize the matter was apersonnel issue and take it into executive session. She made amotion that Smith be sent to the invitational school.

The motion passed four to one, with Ward Three Alderwoman MaryWilson voting against it. Ward One Alderman Dorsey Cameron and WardTwo Alderman Terry Bates, both of whom had been outspoken in thedebate two weeks ago, were absent from last night’s meeting.