Perry to increase funding share for 21st Century Partnership

The members of the Perry City Council plan to give the 21st

Century Partnership more funding in the fiscal year 2014 budget.

At Monday’s work session, the council concurred that it

would vote on Tuesday to approve additional funding for the partnership for

this fiscal year as well.

City Manager Lee Gilmour told the council that $4,911 is

available to fund the partnership for this fiscal year, which ends in June. He

also said that the next fiscal year’s budget would have the added funds in it

for the partnership, which is asking for $10,647.32.

The Council gave $5,400 to the partnership for its fiscal

years 2012 and 2013.

The fund adjustment discussion came after retired Maj. Gen.

Bob McMahon gave a presentation to council members about the current happenings

within the partnership.

He explained that the 21st Century Partnership will be

funding studies, 15 in total, that will depict “how well we are doing compared

to our competition.” He stated that he was hesitant to use the word

“competition,” but said that this refers to the other military instillations

that compare to Robins Air Force Base.

These studies were commissioned in order to prepare for the

next round of base realignment and closure (BRAC), which he said could happen

in 2015 or 2017. The BRAC commission has not officially been authorized.

Because it was a work session, the council could not

formally vote to approve the additional funding that would bring the total

funding of the partnership to just over $10,000 for fiscal year 2013. They

planned to vote at Tuesday’s regular session.

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