, Residents of Stonebriar subdivision who want to build backyard fences for privacy and safety will take their case to City Hall one more time tomorrow night.

City codes define the homes' backyards as front yards because they front directly on Lester Road and Old Norton Road, though their driveways enter from the subdivision street Verdon Hill.

The Fayetteville Planning Commission turned down Larry McMichael's and Teri Galloway's requests for variances to allow fences. Newton Galloway, presenting the request on behalf of his former wife, Teri, told council members during a work session Monday that a fence is necessary because his son plays in the yard. “It's literally two bounces of a basketball” from the road, he said.

, A proposed $6.9 million general fund budget for the city of Fayetteville carries with it a recommended tax cut of five hundredths of a mill for fiscal year 2000.

City Council will conduct first reading of the budget tomorrow during a called business meeting, with plans to act on the document at its regular meeting July 19 at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

The tax cut could grow larger if the city's tax digest, a list of all taxable property, turns out bigger than the city's finance staff estimated. The final tax digest won't be known until late this calendar year.

Finance director Lynn Raven said she has estimated that the digest has grown 7 percent, to $348.5 million.