Long County will continue to operate past the end the month under a continuing budget resolution passed by the commissioners in a split vote Tuesday.

The county’s fiscal year ends June 30 but a new annual budget will not be completed by that time.

Commission Chairman Mike Riddle, Commissioner Clifton DeLoach and Commissioner Willie Frank Thompson voted in favor of the continuing resolution; Commissioners Bobbie Walker and David Richardson voted no.

Long County’s new finance chief, Bernice Johnson, explained that a reserve adequate to fund county operations for about three months is in hand. The county will continue to receive revenue while operating under the continuing resolution.

Johnson said she was checking previous budgets line by line and making corrections.

Riddle said the county was dealing with the results of years of mismanagement, correcting errors that went back three or four years. Walker, a former commission chairman, said, “It’s a nightmare,” adding that Johnson was doing a good job, “We’re getting it straight, but we’re in a hole.”

Such resolutions are not uncommon for governments where fiscal years run from July 1 to June 30.

In other business, four commissioners voted to retroactively approve the emergency purchase of a $29,700 truck for the road crew.

When it appeared that the commissioners were going to deny final plat approval for Phase 4 of Bill Nutting’s Murrays Crossing subdivision Walker moved that the matter be tabled. The commissioners hear at almost every meeting from residents who complain about streets, drainage and related problems in the county’s subdivisions.

The county now requires developers to submit a letter of credit for one year of upkeep and to do maintenance for 12 more months. “That’s an issue; there’s no doubt about it,” Nutting said.

DeLoach said the county should accept maintenance on no new subdivision roads until the last house in the subdivision is built.

The commissioners rescheduled their regular July meeting to July 11. The original date conflicted with the Independence Day holiday.

Ray Howard was reappointed to a seat on the council of the Coastal Regional Commission.