by Winston Chua

SAN GABRIEL - San Gabriel?Mayor David Gutierrez said that his city is strapped for cash these economic days, but it is also working hard to promote economic development as best as it can.

For the 2011-2012 fiscal year, the mayor said there will likely be no increases in salary or benefit enhancements for city employees, but that everyone will keep their current jobs and furloughs will be avoidable. Positions left through retirement or otherwise vacated will likely not be filled at this time.

Through effective cost-cutting measures by various department heads, San Gabriel will not be losing emergency services or browning out fire stations, actions that Montebello and the city of Los Angeles have been unable to avoid.

Gutierrez said that he expects a full-service, nationally-recognized supermarket to take the place that has been vacated by Albertsons on the 900 block of East Las Tunas by July, if not before. Negotiations are underway between the landlord and the city to renovate the shopping plaza with new facades, trees and benches.

The bowling alley on San Gabriel Boulevard south of Las Tunas has been sold and will be the site of a new, mixed-use project.

Few details about ongoing projects can be shared at this time, but the mayor did say that the city council is working hard to reach out to potential developers, “shaking the bushes and trees and looking into the toolbox to see what we can do to attract developers in these economic times to enhance our tax base.”

The mayor added that a new hotel may be coming to the east side of Del Mar Avenue as well, and said he is excited about the business opportunities that are coming the city’s way.

San Gabriel operated on a general budget of about $25.5 million for 2010-11 and an overall budget of about $42 million.