When the city of Adairville had the first reading of its 2008 budget last week, the most interesting thing about the document wasn't anything that was included - it was what wasn't there.

For the first time in decades, Adairville will not be paying off any debt in the upcoming fiscal year.

The city recently paid off a pair of water and sewer bonds, making the government totally debt-free.

One of the bonds was through FHA rural development. There was only a little over $30,000 left on the bond when the city paid it off in full in February.

A second older bond was also paid off during the past fiscal year. It dated back to 1964 and it was simply paid off in time.

In addition to reading the new budget, the council also voted to go ahead with several improvements to the city.

The biggest is the addition of a new water tank.

Adairville was recently awarded $150,000 in state funds to upgrade its water tank.

“We don't know that the $150,000 is going to cover all of it,” mayor Jim Wilkerson said. “It might end up being more than that.”

The council agreed with paying any overage and decided to go ahead and begin the process for putting up the new tank. It was not decided what will be done with the old water tank.

“It's got to be done, so we might as well go ahead and do it,” council member Donna Blake said.

The city council also voted unanimously to purchase a new police car for chief Steve Hadden.

In addition to the car, the council also voted to purchase and install a new video camera, radio and radar detector in the vehicle.

“These people are putting their lives on the line to protect us,” council member Marla Sircy said. “We should do whatever we can to help them.”

Also, the council voted unanimously to go ahead and fix the basketball goals on the court at the Adairville community park.