Washington’s City Council will spend several hours Saturday at a retreat designed to help the city prepare for its upcoming budget sessions and determine the city’s direction in the near future.

The retreat begins at 8:30 a.m. in the conference room at the Washington-Warren Airport terminal. The tentative agenda for the retreat has it ending about 3 p.m., but it could end sooner or later, depending on how the sessions progress. City Manager Bobby Roberson is scheduled to give a state of the city address at the beginning of the retreat. It will be followed by a question-and-answer session involving Roberson, the mayor and council members, according to the agenda.

The focus question of the brainstorming session, according to the agenda, is: what are the most important issues, needs and opportunities facing the city during the next three to five years? That session will be followed by a session to discuss the brainstorming results and identification of high-priority strategic directions. The agenda lists budget preparation (not appropriating money from the city’s fund balance) as a discussion item.

Council member Doug Mercer is a proponent of developing a budget that does not require taking money from the city’s fund balance (in the general fund) to balance the city’s budget.

Later, the council and mayor, with input from other city officials, will work to develop a draft strategic plan and do some action planning for extremely high priority strategies, according to the agenda.

Most, if not all, of the city’s department heads are expected to attend the retreat, which allows them to hear the mayor and council members discuss issues, strategies and projects they consider important. The department heads are able to provide input on what it would cost to accomplish the council’s strategies, how long it would take to accomplish those goals and how those strategies could best be carried out.

David Long, a planning consultant based in Greensboro, returns to Washington to facilitate the retreat, which he did last year. Long has facilitated similar retreats for Pittsboro, Greenville, Apex and other cities, towns and counties. A professional planner since 1974, Long spent 30 years with the North Carolina Department of Commerce.