Steamboat SpringsSteamboat Springs — Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp will hold its 95th birthday bash with the help of $10,000 from the city of Steamboat Springs. In adopting the city's 2008 budget Tuesday, the Steamboat Springs City Council voted unanimously to restore funds previously denied to the school for next year's celebration. — Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp will hold its 95th birthday bash with the help of $10,000 from the city of Steamboat Springs. In adopting the city's 2008 budget Tuesday, the Steamboat Springs City Council voted unanimously to restore funds previously denied to the school for next year's celebration.

Steamboat Springs — Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp will hold its 95th birthday bash with the help of $10,000 from the city of Steamboat Springs. In adopting the city’s 2008 budget Tuesday, the Steamboat Springs City Council voted unanimously to restore funds previously denied to the school for next year’s celebration.

The allocation was one of few points of contention in discussions about the 2008 budget, which passed with little difficulty. The approval achieved City Council’s goal of adopting a budget before the Nov. 6 election, which will bring between two and five new members to the seven-member council.

City officials have said they don’t want to saddle a new City Council with the difficult responsibility of adopting an unfamiliar budget.

There were only minor modifications made to the potentially $90 million budget during its second reading Tuesday, including the allocation to Perry-Mansfield.

“I think it’s absolutely appropriate for the community of Steamboat Springs to support that celebration,” Councilman Towny Anderson said.

In other action, City Council passed a resolution creating a community housing fund within the city’s general ledger system. Anderson said the fund will guarantee that fees collected through the city’s affordable housing ordinance will not be used for any other purpose.

Council also unanimously passed the second reading of an ordinance that will allow the city to fine people who damage underground utility facilities located in public places up to $999. The ordinance is in response to a September water line break that left much of the west side of the city without water for about 48 hours. Construction crews at the Bud Werner Memorial Library expansion site inadvertently broke the line, costing the city about $50,000.

City Manager Alan Lanning said it has not yet been determined how much of that cost the construction contractor will be asked to cover.

“That’s the cost of our involvement,” City Manager Alan Lanning said Monday, referring to the $50,000. “Whether that’s how much it will cost the city is yet to be determined. I haven’t talked to anyone recently. That will transpire pretty quickly.”

Councilmen Steve Ivancie and Loui Antonucci expressed some hesitation regarding the ordinance, but they ultimately voted in favor of it.

“I’m a little on the fence about this,” Antonucci said. “Sometimes it’s really negligence, and that should be penalized. Other times it may not be negligence.”

Lanning and City Attorney Tony Lettunich stressed that citations would not be given automatically or in situations in which reasonable care was exercised. They also said the ultimate determination of a fine would be at the discretion of a municipal court judge. Lanning said similar ordinances are common in other communities.

“I was quite surprised this was not on the books when I arrived,” he said.

Before the regular City Council meeting, council members convened as the Steamboat Springs Redevelopment Authority to discuss public infrastructure projects at the base of the Steamboat Ski Area. In their role as the Redevelopment Authority, City Council authorized paying design consultants up to $200,000 to do the design work for 2008 projects, which include construction of a roundabout at the intersection of Mount Werner Circle and AprÃs Ski Way and improvements to the intersection of AprÃs Ski Way and Village Drive.

To reach Brandon Gee, call 871-4210 or e-mail bgee@steamboatpilot.com