RICHMOND — City Manager Jimmy Howard reported a pleasant surprise to the Richmond City Commission on Tuesday. The city has about $200,000 more in state street aid than he reported two weeks earlier.

The previous report was based on a $401,000 check the city recently received from the state's Municipal Aid Program and did not include funds already in hand, Howard said Wednesday.

At the Aug. 14 commission meeting, Howard said only about $450,000 would be available to repave city streets this fall. To put a new surface on all the streets that need repaving would require almost $700,000, the city manager said. Now almost all can be repaved.

On Tuesday, the commission awarded a contract to The Allen Company for the repaving project. It includes about $39,000 for repaving the City Hall parking lot, but the state street aid may not be used for that purpose, Howard said.

The repaving could begin as early as next week, he said.

The commission heard first reading of the latest in multiple revisions to proposed changes in the city's occupational license fee ordinance. The revision is intended to cast a wider, more effective net that prevents businesses from evading the city's 2-percent net profits tax and employees' taxes while not overburdening charitable fundraising programs.

Vendors participating in fundraising projects for charitable, civic, educational, or city organizations will not be required to purchase a special itinerant-business license. However, the sponsoring organization will be required to purchase a $100 license for each fundraising event, the ordinance states.

The most recent revision was made to satisfy the concerns of non-profit groups, including the city’s tourism commission. Requiring for-profit vendors at fundraising events, including the city’s Great American Festival, to purchase a $250 itinerant-business license good for only three days would cripple such events.

Other itinerant businesses, however, will still be required to purchase licenses, which can be extended for up to five days at $50 a day.

Businesses that already have a permanent license will not have to purchase a new one, but new business licenses will cost $50. Previously the cost was $25. There will be no renewal fee, however.

The license and net-profit-tax requirement will apply to vendors at local farmer's markets just as it would to any other for-profit business, Mayor Jim Barnes said in response to a question during a work session prior to the regular meeting.

“If you're in the city trying to make a dollar then you should have to buy a license and pay taxes like everybody else,” the mayor said.

Several farmers who regularly participate in the Madison County Farmers Market attended the regular meeting, but none of them spoke.

Howard reported that the city's codes department had issued 58 warnings or citations for violations of the city's nuisance ordinance from July 30 through Aug. 24. Officials also issued 15 notices giving property owners 45 days to repair substandard properties, and conducted 12 cleanups for which property owners will be charged. Liens will be filed against those who do not pay. And, three abandoned properties had been registered, beginning the process by which the city can demolish structures on them.

Technical difficulties recently have diminished the quality of live coverage of city commission meetings on Time Warner Cable, but the city is working to correct them, Howard said.

However, recordings of city commission meetings may be viewed on the city's website  — www.richmond.ky.us — beginning about five days after a meeting.

(More from the Aug. 28 city commission meeting in Friday's Richmond Register.)

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 624-6690.