LAGUNA NIGUEL : Council Will Hold Budget Workshop

The City Council will hold a workshop Saturday to consider a proposed budget for the next fiscal year.

As outlined, the budget calls for no increases in city fees or property taxes and would provide $5.3 million for capital-improvement projects, including a 5,000-square-foot senior citizens center.

“By and large, it’s a budget that’s balanced,” City Manager Tim Casey said. “It provides for moderate personnel and service expansion.”

The $18.8-million budget calls for the hiring of a dozen new city employees, including three planners, a deputy city clerk and a community liaison officer. It also allows for the improvement of existing parks and streets and the design of three new neighborhood parks.

But the major project of the 1991-92 fiscal-year budget would be the construction of what Casey said is a much-needed center for seniors.

“Our poor (senior) citizens are meeting about three hours a day, three days a week in a small room behind a savings and loan building,” he said.

The proposed site for the new $1.6-million center is 3 1/2 acres owned by the city at the southwest corner of Moulton Parkway and Aliso Creek Road. If approved, the center could be open by late next year, Casey said.