SPANISH FORT, Ala. — Revisions to the city’s proposed operations budget for fiscal year 2011 could allow for additional funds to be directed toward court salaries and athletic construction at Spanish Fort High School.

Mayor Joe Bonner told members of the City Council during an informal work session Wednesday night that improved sales-tax collections for July coupled with the shuffling of previously budgeted items would make the allocations possible.

Bonner announced during the ensuing regular meeting that copies of the proposed budget are available at City Hall for resident review, and the council set a Sept. 20 public hearing on the matter.

The first draft of the proposed budget projected expenditures of about $6 million, but revised calculations since July collection figures became available have boosted that figure to nearly $6.2 million.

Most notably, Bonner said the proposed budget—which remains a work in progress until voted on by the council—includes substantial salary increases for both the city’s judge and prosecutor, who currently receive the lowest compensation of any counterparts countywide.

Using the city of Robertsdale, the “closest comparison,” Bonner said he is recommending the judge’s salary be increased from $5,200 to $18,000 annually and the prosecutor’s annual wages be increased from $2,800 to $16,200.

“These are hefty, hefty, hefty increases,” Bonner said, “but I can tell you that the prosecutor and judge have made their sacrifices in years past. I feel like this is very manageable.”

The most substantial increase discussed involves funds directed toward construction of a field house and weight room on the Spanish Fort High School campus, part of a larger cooperative comprehensive plan for the school’s athletic development between the city and Baldwin County.

Bonner said by shifting funds from proposed drainage projects at Spirit Park and capitalizing on a larger-than-expected carryover from the fiscal 2010 year, the city should be able to increase its immediate contribution to the project by about $150,000.

The proposed budget has also been revised to reflect an additional $5,000 toward website redesign costs and the $49,000 Spanish Fort must pay the city of Daphne to cover two months of dispatchers’ salaries remaining on the contract between the two municipalities before Spanish Fort assumes its own on-site dispatch services in the coming year.