BELHAVEN — The Town of Belhaven is set to pass a budget for fiscal year 2016-17 within a couple of weeks.

Town manager Woody Jarvis said when putting together the upcoming year’s budget, the main goal was to trim expenses and create a more efficient system.

The Board of Aldermen set out a few parameters for Jarvis and Finance Director Kelly Brady to follow: not to draw from general fund reserves, not to propose any tax increases and not to propose rate increases.

“We’re trying to right the ship. We’re trying to trim the sails,” Jarvis said. “Just trying to do a better job internally of managing what we do have.”

One of the biggest areas of concern is the continued collection of delinquent utility bills — a process Jarvis said is still progressing. By the beginning of the new fiscal year on July 1, the town plans to be completely back on the utility cut-off policy.

“By actually collecting the utility bills, we’ve got most of this to where it is above water. I won’t say it’s a profit center, but … they are paying their own way,” Jarvis said. “We’ve really made great strides in that direction.”

According to budget worksheets, the Town expects to see $26,283 left over in the electric fund after expenses and $6,506 left over in the sewer fund, but a loss of $1,676 in the water fund.

Jarvis said taking the numbers at face value can be misleading, however, because the Town can move money between revenue sources (i.e., water, sewer, electric, general, etc.) to cover deficits in other places, if the money is not earmarked for specific purposes.

“All of these things subsidize the bottom line,” he said. “We’ve got all these things going on at the same time.”

Another big point of contention for the town is spending on the campaign to reopen Belhaven’s hospital.

At a recent meeting, the Board of Aldermen amended the 2015-16 budget to cap hospital spending at $41,000 this fiscal year. For the 2016-17 budget, Mayor Adam O’Neal and the board requested an allotment of $15,000.

Part of the town’s almost $9,000 in “miscellaneous legal expenses” this year were also related to the hospital campaign, as well as regular town operations needing an attorney’s counsel.

Jarvis said the hospital campaign is a high priority for the Board of Aldermen, and the creation of the nonprofit Pungo Medical Center has taken over some of the cost burden associated with reopening the facility.

“They’re anticipating a reduction, but want to have something in the budget just in case,” Jarvis said of the $15,000 allotment request.

Among other items, the budget worksheets allocate funds for the Belhaven Senior Center, which is shifting to a senior club. There is no allocation for the Belhaven Community Chamber of Commerce.

At Monday night’s Board of Aldermen meeting, the public was invited to voice its opinions on budget matters, but no one came before the board to speak. Due to O’Neal’s absence from the meeting, the board elected to table a vote on the budget until the next meeting.

Jarvis said he is proud of the work being done to improve the town’s money management and expects the 2016-17 budget to be locked in soon.