NATCHEZ — The budgeting process is well on its way for the city, and City Clerk Donnie Holloway said the first leg went smoothly.

Last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Holloway and aldermen met with every department head to go through each budget, line item by line item.

“We had some real good discussions with the department heads and the board,” Holloway said.

More importantly, Holloway said it was a good learning experience for new board members Ernest “Tony” Fields, Mark Fortenbery and Dan Dillard.

“(I was) very pleased with our new members asking some questions in regards to the budget and the budgeting process,” Holloway said.

He also said it was a chance for the new board members to get acquainted with all of the department heads.

The departments that met last week were community development, fire, personnel, planning, police, municipal court, senior citizen, tourism, recreation, public works and grants.

At 3:30 on Thursday, the board and Holloway will sit down in the conference room at city hall and look over the budget together.

“We’re still crunching numbers,” Holloway said.

After they complete that task, a public hearing will be called for the approval of the budget.

Holloway said earlier, the hearing will be the second week in September.

The budget has to be approved by Sept. 15 so it can go into affect for the fiscal year which begins Oct. 1.