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KIRKSVILLE, MO. -- On Monday night, the Kirksville City Council unanimously approved the city budget for fiscal year 2013, which begins January 1.

The council also gave the go-ahead for HDR Engineering out of Lee's Summit, Missouri to proceed with design plans for major improvements and expansion of Kirksville's waste water treatment plant.

The design fee is not to exceed $1.284 million.

Work on the $18 million project, which is made necessary by stricter state and federal standards, is not expected to get underway before 2014.

“We're basically doing our agreements with them (HDR Engineering) in phases,” said John Buckwalter, Kirksville Public Works director. “The first contract with them covered engineering work through development of the facility plan. That has been completed. We have applied for a construction permit for review by the department of natural resources. The next step is to actually design major improvements at the wastewater treatment plant."

Also at Monday night's meeting, the council approved a plan to accept monthly installments for water and sewer bills known as "catch-up" bills due to four or more estimated meter readings by city staffers.

Members also gave their ok for the Downtown Strategic Plan developed as part of the state's D.R.E.A.M. Initiative.