The Cullman City Council approved a budget of more than $102 million Monday night, including 4 percent employee pay raises and coverage of increases in health insurance and retirement contributions.

The city’s general fund, included in the overall budget, was just over $40 million, which marked a 12.5 percent increase. The overall budget was about 9 percent over the previous year.

City Clerk Wes Moore said a lot of the expenses included in the budget is continuing repairs from the March hailstorm.

City Council President Jenny Folsom noted several highlights in the budget, including improvements planned for Art Park, Nesmith Park and Eastside Park. The city will also fund a new sanitation facility on Convent Road.

“We’ve also included reconstruction and paving on West Main Avenue, which has been an area of concern for some time,” Folsom said. “I would like to thank all of the department heads for their work in making this budget possible. I think it’s a good budget.”

The budget also projects $7.280 million for the property and sales tax fund; $7.922 million for the sewer fund; $18.480 million for the water fund; and $12.439 million for the Utilities Board Water Division.

The City Council also added an engineer’s position for the new year. Council member Garlan Gudger said Crystal Lucas was hired to fill the new position.

“The city is continuing to grow and we’re seeing more needs arise, such as in our building department,” Gudger said. “We’ve been considering this for a while, and we needed to move forward with it.”

Council members also appointed a new city prosecutor, Matthew Carter.

Board appointments approved included:

• Steve Murphy, re-appointed to the Utilities Board.
• Jeff Hill, Mark Bussman and Shawn Crider re-appointed to the Industrial Development Board.
• Tommy Waldrop re-appointed to the Downtown Redevelopment Board.

Prior to the business portion of the meeting, two people appeared to speak about a proposal to add the use of e-cigarettes to the city’s Clean Air ordinance.

Lee Black, owner of Vapors Vape in Cullman, asked the council to exclude vape stores from any changes in the ordinance. He said many customers rely on testing products and equipment at the stores.

Joshua Register, representing Breathe Easier Alliance of Alabama, an organization representing vape stores, also asked the council to exclude the stores. He said research into the effects of vaping is incomplete.

Council members did not have the issue on the agenda and said it may be discussed at a later date.

In other business, the council:

• approved a request from Sarah Walker of the American Heart Association for a special event permit to a hold a 5k run and fun run starting at 8 a.m. in Depot Park on Nov. 17.
• approved a resolution in support of October as Dyslexia Awareness Month.
• approved a resolution to renew the contract with Air Evac for employee family coverage.