Interim city manager warns Radford faces multi‑year budget gap; council readies options

Interim City Manager Craig Meadows told Radford City Council on Monday that the city has run an ongoing structural imbalance in its annual budgets and faces a multi‑year challenge to restore reserves and balance operations.

Meadows said the imbalance “has been concerning to the elected officials and also to the citizenry for at least the last 5 years,” and that the shortfalls aggregate to about $4,000,000 per year during recent budget cycles. He told the council that the city relied on American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds and two years of revenue anticipation notes (RANs) of $4,000,000 each to maintain positive cash flow.

The warning capped a data‑forward presentation that walked the council through audited revenue and expense figures and flagged stress in both the general fund and the city’s enterprise funds. Meadows said total governmental revenues in fiscal 2024 were about $33,500,000 while total governmental expenses were about $40,400,000, producing a $6.9 million operating shortfall before transfers. A transfer from the electric fund of $4,000,000 reduced but did not eliminate the gap; Meadows said the net decrease in financial position…