The Tyrone Town Council passed a record $5.7 million budget Thursday night, but once again, Mayor Sheryl Lee had to break the tie and help end a contentious debate.

The evening started off when Councilman Grace Caldwell suggested the Town Council vote on the operating budget and the sewer budget with separate votes.

“They’re two different entities,” she said.

Councilman Mike Smola disagreed and said if Caldwell’s standards applied, the town should also vote separately on the capital budget.

The biggest concern for Caldwell was the outlay for the town had increased from $216,400 to $398,900 because Fairburn has not signed a pending contract with Tyrone over new sewer rates. On Monday, Town Manager Barry Amos sent the council a new budget that reflected the current contract with Fairburn.

Councilman Gloria Furr agreed with Caldwell that the issues be voted on separately.

“I’m trying to look out for the citizens of this town,’ she said.

Caldwell’s motion to vote on the issues separately failed, and a new motion was offered to pass the budget as one document.

“Id like to vote for the maintenance budget, but vote against the sewer budget. There’s just too many questions,” Caldwell said.

When informed she could not split her vote, Caldwell, along with Furr, voted against the budget. Councilmen Smola and Paul Letourneau supported it, so it was left to the mayor to break the tie.

“I’m going to vote for it, because I think these questions could have been answered later in the week,’ Mayor Lee said.

The Town Council did vote unanimously to establish a policy that would spell out how someone would apply for any excess capacity the system could have after the various projects in the works have hooked up to the system.

“We just have no plan in place, and people are already coming before us and asking for it,” said Caldwell.

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