Members of the Denton City Council questioned the city staff about capital improvement expenditures, including a new water tower before adopting a $462 million budget for 2008-09 during their regular meeting Tuesday night.

The mayor and council were concerned that money being set aside for the water tower would commit the city to building it on a controversial site in the Roselawn area.

City engineer Frank Payne and Assistant City Manager Howard Martin told the council that the money being allocated didn’t oblige the city to the site if another, viable option became available.

But Payne was skeptical, given that the tower’s location had been on the city’s comprehensive plan for almost 20 years and the city was in talks with the property owner.

“This is the site preferred by the property owner,” Payne said.

About a half-dozen residents from the Denia neighborhood came to Tuesday night’s meeting. Alice Gore addressed the council on behalf of the group, telling them that they said no to the tower 20 years ago when the master plan was presented. They thought that was the end of it, but were surprised to learn the tower’s location had stayed on the drawing board.

“We let our guard down,” Gore said.

The residents came to defend the 400-plus trees along the ridge, which Gore characterized as pristine and untouched.

“This is one of the few remaining virgin areas in the city of Denton,” Gore said. “It is the home of deer and bobcats.”

She suggested that the city use its tree funds to purchase the land to protect the trees.

Once the council was satisfied that the allocation for the tower didn’t necessarily commit to the site, they adopted and ratified the budget as well as the 66.652 cents per $100 valuation tax rate to support it.

Later in the meeting, Mayor Mark Burroughs asked the city staff to reinvigorate the citizen advisory committee that was to identify stands of trees worth buying and protecting with conservation easements. He said more than $250,000 was sitting in a tree mitigation fund and nothing had been done with the money.

“There it rots,” Burroughs said.

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com .