SPANISH FORT, Ala.—Ashley Roper is definitely in the market for a laptop for her soon-to-be college freshman daughter. And let’s not forget the supplies for dorm life and clothes for the colder climate the University of Virginia is going to demand.

But there are also clothes, school supplies and the plethora of back-to-school fees for her son just entering high school and her youngest entering the sixth grade.

Guess the family sedan—that still smelled new when the baby was in diapers—will have to last another year while Roper prioritizes and stretches the budget just a little further every month.

“I don’t think I’m any different than any of my neighbors. Everybody’s feeling a pinch, and you just have to be creative,” Roper said, cramming her recent bargain-hunting bounty into the trunk of her trusty Honda Accord while her children argued over which restaurant would provide them lunch.

“We’re going home for frozen pizza,” Roper said, cutting them all short. “Did you not just hear me say we’re being creative?”

It’s a scene all too familiar across the country as the recession continues its stranglehold on working families, businesses and municipalities alike.

Spanish Fort Mayor Joe Bonner knows the score, but he’s also cautiously optimistic the city can step back and take advantage of a few market forces favoring conservative spending and diligent saving, two components that have been a mainstay in the municipality’s daily operations since incorporation 16 years ago.

“In the climate of the financial situation you hear about on TV and read about in newspapers, we’re no different than any other household or any other business making sure the revenues and expenses match up,” Bonner said.

Of course, most everyday households don’t manage a nearly $5 million annual budget, so Bonner concedes the comparison might seem an oversimplification, but he insists the parallels are real and measurable.

Considering the overall financial climate of a country in the depths of recession, Bonner said Spanish Fort is “extremely healthy” financially, and he credits past mayors Ray Carter and Greg Kuhlmann as well as the Spanish Fort City Council for tending to the city’s financial health since day one.

“I can’t take credit for what we’ve got today. It’s the product of a consistent, financially conservative approach, and it’s worked well for this city,” Bonner said, adding, “We had some major projects that ended up this year that weren’t caught in the downturn because they were already financed and well into construction before things took a turn.”

At the same time, he said, completing three substantial apartment communities in the same year means bidding farewell to that daily work force spending its off-the-clock dollars in Spanish Fort establishments.

But financial conservatism seems to be working for the municipality.

Indeed, Spanish Fort’s Standard & Poor general obligation debt rating was upgraded three months ago from an A- to an A+. The informal letter announcing the upgrade stated the majority of cities nationwide are being downgraded because of negative growth trends and substantial decreases  in sales and ad valorem taxes, making Spanish Fort’s position an “almost unheard of accomplishment in this economy.”

Bonner attributed the bond rating increase to the maintenance of a substantial financial reserve fund, a conservative financial track record and a sound short-term investment strategy. The city, he said, has operated on a “pay-as-you-go” formula for some time but in one case did borrow $4 million in a short-term, four-year recreation loan for the construction of Spirit Park and a partnership to complete the Spanish Fort High School complex. Now that the city is more than two years into the four-year payment plan, Bonner likened it to everyday families who finance a new car and boost their personal credit scores by paying on time.

“We have built a track record of taking care of short-term obligations, and that has helped us—and will continue to help us, we hope—as we look toward longer-term investments,” he said.

It was the city’s ability to maintain a financial reserve of almost $4 million—or the $330,000 per month it takes to operate the city for a full year—that Bonner feels made the most impact on the bond rating upgrade.

He  is quick to note, however, that the $4 million cash reserve is entirely separate from the $1.5 million the city has scrimped, saved and put aside for a down payment on future city complex. On the contrary, the financial reserve, he said, is set aside for—“knock on wood”—a catastrophic event of Hurricane Katrina proportions.

And with the new fiscal year slated to begin Oct. 1, Bonner said time has never been such a critical component of the budgeting process as it is during a weakened national economy. The city, he explained, anticipates a revenue shortfall for 2009 of somewhere between $400,000 and $700,000, and because no one is certain when a recovery might begin he wants to collect absolutely every piece of data available before launching the annual budget process.

“Normally, we’d get the ball rolling in late July or August, but we’re experiencing a downturn like everybody else, and I want to have as many (reportable) figures in front of me as possible before we start going line by line through a budget,” Bonner said.

But Bonner doesn’t blame sluggish retail sales alone for the shortfall. In the case of the Spanish Fort Town Center, it’s an issue of projected tenants that never came to fruition. So it’s not fair to say sales were slow in spaces where the businesses—such as Circuit City—never even opened their doors.

“But it doesn’t all fall on retail. Restaurants are affected and the automotive industry has definitely been affected,” Bonner said, noting some retail outlets, such as Bass Pro Shops, Kohl’s and J.C. Penney are performing quite competitively.

He acknowledges that commercial and residential construction have both slowed—fueled primarily by the tightness of the overall lending markets—but noted everything becomes a trade-off in a penny-conscious economy. While some sectors of the local economy are strained, others are benefiting from the tightened belts. Where restaurant sales might slip, he said, grocery sales increase.

“Right now I just think we need to be cautious. We were in the fast lane for a long time, and now I think we need to let the dust settle. We need to be prudent and patient in our financial decisions and plan for our future,” Bonner said.

It then becomes a question, he said, of do we need it now, or can it wait, and that’s precisely the questions being asked regarding a proposed city complex.

“My thought is to create the master plan for that piece of property; focus on what we need the most; and then make a financial decision on whether to go ahead and move forward. But if we feel—as a business—that we haven’t seen a favorable turn in the economy, we can very easily place it on the shelf and pull it off when we feel the time is right,” Bonner said.

The long-discussed city complex would be constructed on 18 acres purchased by the city five years ago at the intersection of highways 72 and 31. To date, preliminary discussions espouse a collective desire for a community center and library as well as meeting space large enough to house both city council and planning commission business as well as municipal court.

Bonner said he realizes asking for a capital outlay for a multi-purpose building during a recession might seem odd, but it might also be an instance of cautious opportunism.

Builders, he said, are open to negotiations in a tight economy and building supplies are at record lows. Not to mention, the city has set aside $1.5 million in seed money should the project be given a green light.

“We might be facing an unprecedented opportunity to save money on a project of this size because of the timing and the economy, but we aren’t certain at this point, and we’re certainly nowhere near making a decision. What we want is to position the city to be able to make an informed decision,” Bonner said.

In fact, the aforementioned advisory board—representing each of the city’s five council districts, the planning commission, the senior citizen community and library—will hold its first meeting on Aug. 6.

“At this moment in time, our percentages are not as high on the downturn as the rest of the country. But that’s what worries me. I feel like—eventually—it will get to us, and I worry about that, but if things don’t get any worse—and this is the bottom—I feel like Spanish Fort is healthy,” he said.