Murfreesboro Mayor Tommy Bragg spoke to the Murfreesboro Rotary Club at noon on Tuesday. He had answers to the proposed bridge over Broad Street, along with a surprising statistic . . .

That's over 60,000 twelve-ounce glasses of beer sold daily in this city.The mayor noted that the beer tax was Murfreesboro's fourth largest source of revenue along with property taxes, sales taxes and other fees.

So how could you make-up this lost revenue without increasing taxes?

One Rotary member asked about having a special census and proving the population had grown. As you know, the larger the population, the greater the amount of shared revenue Murfreesboro receives from the state.

Mayor Bragg noted that between each ten-year federal census--only three special census studies are allowed. "We want to be certain the count is made when we know the results would be beneficial."

Bridge Over Troubled Broad

It appears that the bridge over Broad that will connect the Old Fort Parkway to Memorial is definitely in the works. The mayor commented . . .

Mayor's Prayer Breakfast

Mayor Bragg also announced that the Annual Mayor's Prayer Breakfast will be at 7:00 o'clock Thursday morning, May 2nd. It will be in the ballroom at the Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center. Earlier this month, the Rotary club agreed to again help underwrite the occasion. The food line opens at 6:40AM and the program is at 7:00AM.

Throughout the breakfast, individuals did prayers for local government, military, the media, business, health, education, churches, family and community leaders.

The annual event is sponsored by Greenhouse Ministries and the Rotary Clubs of Murfreesboro along with a considerable amount of coordinating by Murfreesboro Mayor Tommy Bragg and Greenhouse Ministries. As in the past, this year's event coincides with the 62nd Annual National Day of Prayer.

Would Combining Municipal and County Elections Save Tax Dollars?

At the end of the meeting, Rotary members came-up to ask Mayor Bragg about specific issues. One dealt with combining the city and county elections to save tax dollars. The Rotarian said that at some precincts only a few voters show-up and yet there is the expense of a full-staff of poll workers.

The resident reasoned that by combining municipal and county elections, you basically eleminate the expense of one election.

You could tell that tensions were mounting when the constituent said, "This is something the city council has always had the ability to initiate."

It's not known whether or not anything will come of that suggestion, but council members will take questions from WGNS' listeners from 8:10 to 9:00 o'clock Wednesday morning April 10th on the Action Line radio broadcast.