Belhaven residents can expect their taxes and rates for utility services to remain flat in the coming year, according to Belhaven Town Manager Lynn Davis.

The Belhaven Board of Aldermen will hold a public hearing on the town’s 2019-20 budget during its regular meeting Monday, and Davis said the town is working toward improving services without putting any additional burden on town residents. All told, the initial recommended budget weighed in at $4.9 million for the coming fiscal year.

“Our priority for this year is trying to establish a new normal,” Davis said. “This last year was anything but normal with new staff coming in, a new finance director and a new town manager coming in, trying to understand the town operations from a budget standpoint and trying to establish what is normal and what is not.”

For the new staff at the town hall, this marks the first budget process they have been through in Belhaven. Davis says transparency is among the top goals for both elected and paid town officials.

“We’re trying to be very transparent in all of our activities — our rate structures, our fees, everything — that is very important to us during this budget period,” Davis said.

From a budget standpoint, Davis says the town is not looking at any new capital projects in the coming year, but will be seeking grant funding to help address Belhaven’s drainage issues. In general, she says the town is working to maintain a consistent level of services and improve on those services through investing in equipment and technology, as well as policies that might help the town recoup some of its expenses.

“Something that we have coming up that will impact our budget is that we are in the process of purchasing a piece of waterfront property here in town to allow more public access to the water,” Davis said.

Davis said that project, in tandem with a joint project underway with Beaufort County, will help the town foster public access to Pantego Creek and surrounding waterways.

The Belhaven Board of Aldermen will hold a public hearing on the proposed 2019-20 budget during its regular meeting on Monday. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the Belhaven Civic Center at 275 W. Pungo St.