The town of Ashville has had its share of ups and downs over the past year. As the recession continues to linger and the ban on bingo remains fresh in St. Clair County residents’ minds, Mayor Robert McKay said Ashville is working on survival.

Mayor McKay said revenues for the town are low and that members of the council are already looking at ways to reverse the trend.

“We may have to look into a nine-cent sales tax,” McKay said on Monday adding that the mayor pro tem and other members of the council have already had a sit-down to talk about the issues. McKay said they hate to have to talk about an increase especially at this time. However, he said, the city has to operate. It is an issue that could possibly be brought up at the next council meeting. 

McKay added that they are also looking into going up on Ashville’s base water rate. “The bottom line is we don’t want to do it,” he said. “We just recently went from an ISO rating of eight to a four on our fire rating. We do a good thing and then have to go up on our taxes or rates. It is not something we want to do, but we have to do something.”

Layoffs are also in the talks. “No one ever wants to about layoffs,” McKay said.  “However, we do want the public to know what we are facing a deficient.”

Ashville has seen a number of improvements over the past several months. The town received a grant for a sewer improvement project that is halfway near completion. St. Clair County officials are also finishing the Ashville Courthouse renovation, which included a number of updates that helped beautify the town.

McKay said he is proud of the town’s improvements. “I just don’t want to shock residents with increases.  The general public deserves to know what is going on.”

Ashville officials feel that at some point gaming is coming to Alabama. “We just don’t want to be singled out,” McKay said. “We hope something works out for the benefit of Ashville.” 

McKay added that when bingo was legal in Ashville, 75 people in the area were put to work for 10 days.  “We could put a lot of people to work right now if we had that option,” he said. “We work on a $2.2 million budget. If gaming were legal we would see an increase at $50,000 a month and $600,000 a year with the possibility of building ballparks, paving roads and creating jobs. Instead we continue to wait for rulings.”