Roanoke Rapids employees will get a $250 Christmas bonus but Mayor Emery Doughtie, who called for the motion tonight, is also asking council members to consider slashing their salaries by 50 percent.

The city has practiced giving this bonus for the last seven years, a memo contained in the council agenda packet notes. They are given to full time and permanent part time employees and to qualify the employee must have been hired on or before June 30 of this year.

The memo notes the finance department has prepared a budget transfer of $38,754 for the bonuses.

“Employees are being asked to do more with less,” Doughtie told council at its meeting. “Those dollars could make a difference in the type of Christmas they would have.”

Greg Lawson made the motion to approve the bonuses and Ernest Bobbitt cast the second.

Before the vote was cast, Doughtie told council, “We all know we're in a difficult situation to be spending $38,000.”

Doughtie said the city is closely monitoring its financial situation but would like council to look at its own salaries, reducing them by at least 50 percent.

In another matter tonight council honored firefighters Al Cooke and Donnie Gums and street department Crew Leader John Motley with certificates. The employees continued their city work during Hurricane Irene while sustaining damage to their own property in the storm.

Council was also told by Public Works Director Larry Chalker that the state Department of Transportation has offered the city funding up to $50,000 to replace damaged curbs and gutters on Roanoke Avenue.

The city will do the work and send invoices to the state. The work will replace the most deteriorated curbs and gutters along the 200 and 1000 blocks.