Whittier : $30.9-Million Budget OKd

The City Council has approved a $30.9-million spending plan for fiscal 1986-87. The new budget is 7.3% bigger than last year, when the city operated on $28.8 million.

The sales and users’ utility taxes are the city’s biggest sources of revenue, generating about $7 million or 22.7% of the new budget. Public safety, including police and fire protection, remains the largest expenditure, slightly more than $8 million or 26% of the new budget.

The largest capital improvement project in fiscal 1986-87 will be the $200,000 reconstruction of Penn Street from Painter Avenue to the landfill in the Puente Hills. Because Penn is heavily traveled by trucks going to and from the county dump, the two-lane road will be rebuilt and resurfaced.

Two other areas of note in the new budget involve Whittier’s centennial celebration next year and liability insurance. In the new budget, the council agreed to make $125,000 in loans and contributions to the centennial committee that is planning the city’s 100th birthday party for May 1987. Some of the money will go to commission a statue or landmark to commemorate the event.