By next Tuesday the aldermen in the city of Lake Ozark hope to know more about the 2010 budget.

    At the special board meeting held on Wednesday several aldermen expressed concerns about the amount of money the city will have to spend.  Dave Van Dee, city administrator, says in spite of poor projections from the previous City Administrator Charles Clark, the city should have everything under control.  

    "They've actually done a fairly good job of staying within their overall budget parameters with a lot of unanticipated expenditures," Van Dee said, "the lawsuits, things like that, and the building."

    The budget committee was set to review the numbers yesterday. Van Dee will then take the feedback and bring a complete draft to Tuesday's meeting. 

    He says the city is taking the right steps. 

    "You can always make improvements and that was one of the things that I mentioned at previous meetings."

    "You get into institutional habits with purchasing and especially when you are in different facilities, that now that we're combined we can break some of those habits. We can actually start controlling our costs and reducing our costs." 

    In order to maintain reserves, Van Dee has already set up some parameters for next year.

    "What we will do with next year's budget, and I think I have already said this publicly, we will probably defer any major acquisitions that we are not mission critical, such as police cars and some of our public works vehicles, until we are farther in the year. And if our revenues are ahead of my conservative projection, I will be the happiest person in the world."

    And a quick reminder, the city will hold an open house at their new city hall and police department today from noon until 4 o'clock.