One month before the Haymarket Town Council is set to vote on a budget for the 2012 fiscal year, the town is already making one big purchase that involves several smaller items.

The town filed for what is known as a "certificate of take" with the Prince William clerk of the circuit court for 10 parcels of land along Washington Street worth $87,500.

That is part of an eminent domain agreement between the town's government and property owners where the town purchases their land for various sums of money, depending on the assessments of what is being acquired.

Town officials are buying the land as right-of-way for Street Scape enhancements, which is designed to make Haymarket more pedestrian-friendly.

Six other properties are also part of the eminent domain changes. Two are already owned by the town, one is owned by the local BB&T bank and three are under negotiation.

Those that opted for the town's initial offer, which amounted to roughly an extra 20 percent of the property's appraised value, had to agree by April 15.

Funding for the $87,500 is coming out of general operating funds and meals tax revenue, according to town budget records dated April 26. Exact details about funding for the property acquisitions should likely be known by June, when the current fiscal year ends.

Town staffers explained Monday night that one of the reasons why $87,500 for property acquisitions seems small is because the size of the land needed for the Street Scape in each parcels generally isn't that much.

For instance, town planner Marchant Schneider held out his arms and said some of the grabs are only about 4-feet wide.

Details and dimensions of the acquisitions are available on the court documents.

Also on Monday, the town council agreed to shift numbers around for the police department's budget in the final quarter of FY 2011.

The end result does not mean that the department is gaining or losing money; rather, line items are being adjusted to fill needs in some areas while not spending money in areas Police Chief Jim Roop says is unnecessary.

Roop's advertising budget is being reduced from $1,000 to $500 and the money allocated for office supplies is dropping from $4,000 to $3,500.

Conversely, the equipment rental budget is going up from $2,000 to $2,500 and money for uniform accessories is also receiving a $500 spike to $2,000.

Roop was not at the town council meeting Monday but council member Jay Tobias said the chief had made the requests based in part because the department did not need a large advertising budget but did need more equipment.

There are two more meetings scheduled this month for the town council.

One is a public hearing and work session on May 12. That is designed for members of the public to comment about the FY 2012 budget.

The other is a planned continuation meeting set for May 16.