EUTAW-The Eutaw City Council took a close look at their current spending on grant money applications, gasoline and overtime at their Tuesday meeting.

The council has been in the process of putting together applications for several grants lately, including work for the airport. Councilmember Lewis Bostick said the council should look closely at limiting some of the spending they have on applications and apply the money to other projects.

“I would like to make a recommendation,” Bostick said. “I was told and have been told we should not pay anything from the city according to cost until they have secured the grant. That way their money would be taken from the grant and not from the city.”

Bostick said he was alarmed at the amount of money the city had spent on applications alone and wished to see this money put directly toward projects.

“I notice we have spent $4,443 already for applying for grants,” Bostick said. “I know some of that will be coming back from the grant, but I hate to see us spend money on something we may not get back.”

Bostick said he would also like to see the $4,000 plus go directly to work on the airport in similar situations.

Eutaw Mayor Raymond Steele said the $4,000 was already on its way back to the city.

“This was a grant for the layout plan and that grant was approved,” Steele said. “The layout plan was a 50-50 match and the state gave us that money. We have already received that from the state.”

Bostick asked the mayor to consider a new direction when applying for future grants.

“The people I have met with and talked to in regards to this type thing are not willing to charge us to prepare grants or plans unless we get paid,” Bostick said. “I just hate to see us go in with what little money we’ve got. I encourage you on the next one to negotiate with engineering firms to take their part of it out as soon as they get the grant and acquire it for us.”

Other financial concerns included $6,000 in gas expenses. Overtime charges also raised a few flags. Bostick said he hoped to see the gasoline numbers and hours reduced.

“I know we had a little extra work and time, but I think this is something we need to cut down on,” Bostick said. “I know we had to work some overtime with the cleanup, but this is something we should keep an eye on.”

Steele said the overtime was due to hurricane cleanups.

“We did quite a bit of overtime,” Steele said. “We had the hours set at 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. then the days got short so we started working from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. WE also worked half days on Saturdays.”

Steele said the cleanup effort had reached its end point and the hours should be returning to normal.