WEST ALEXANDRIA — The Village of West Alexandria will be voting on a 6-mill police levy on the first available ballot.

Council member Jerry Carter made a motion for the new levy during a council meeting on Monday, Nov. 19.

“I’m going to make a motion that we start the process to put a police levy of six mills on the May ballot,” he said. “The reason that we looked at that is, there were several increases in the budget from the previous year and we’re looking at going from two years ago from a budget of $254,000 upwards to $300,000. That is a huge chunk of our general fund. Anything we can do to still keep the same amount of services and keep money in our general fund is a good thing. We have other projects down the way that could use our general fund money.”

Mayor Carol Lunsford asked his reasoning for proposing a 6-mill levy.

“The three mill we know, from our other levy, brings in about $52,000 and six mill would bring about $100,000 — that would be a third of the proposed 2019 police budget. That is a lot to ask, but we have to put that up to the voters to decide,” Carter said.

The motion passed unanimously.

Later in the meeting, Carter made a motion to amend his original motion.

“I would like to amend my original motion, however we have to word it to say ‘first available ballot’, instead of the stated May ballot,” he said.

This motion passed five to one, with council member Ray Waldeck voting no.