Prattville Digging Out Of Debt
[gtxvideo vid=”csEX7IYG” playlist=”” pid=”XiOflQdH” thumb=”http://player.gtxcel.com/thumbs/csEX7IYG.jpg” vtitle=”Prattville Owing Money”]
Just a few years ago, Prattville was looking at a mountain of debt.
But the city announced today that taken a huge chunk out of that debt by more than 35 percent.
When Bill Gillespie accepted the position of mayor in 2011, the city was looking at 65 million dollars in debt.
Now, that number has shrunk to about 40 million.
“At one point in time we were trying to get it down below the 60 million dollar mark, then down below the 50 million dollar mark, so we’re just trying to keep it moving,” said Mayor Gillespie.
He credits a lot of things with helping that number go down. That includes more and more businesses opening up in the preferred community.
“I think it’s a combination of things. The economy is picking up. We did have to implement a one penny sales tax to help cover this debt but then also the third factor of all this is that we’ve been able to cut our costs,” said Gillespie.
And that’s kept more people shopping and bringing money into the town. Ralph Stokes lives in Deatsville, but he says he comes to Prattville all the time.
“It’s not very far away, no it’s not. Maybe five miles from here. It’s pretty good. We love it because we can do just about all of our shopping in Prattville,” said Stokes.
With things looking up, is it easier to run the city?
“It was actually a little bit easier then than it was now because our financial footprint is better, most certainly better. When I first came in it was automatically no we can’t do this, can’t do that. Now we’re having to look over because we’re still not where we need to be financially, but we’re close,” said Gillespie.
