Bristol Virginia city councilmen-elect James Heaney and Guy Odum will take office in July with a clear mandate from the voters to restrain spending and reduce the city’s debt.

They are well suited for the task.

Heaney and Odum campaigned on such a platform. Their promises to restore fiscal discipline resonated with voters who have soured on the city’s borrow-and-spend mentality.

Runner-up Bill Hartley, who finished just 74 votes behind Heaney, expressed concern about the city’s finances, but he didn’t pound the drum for reform as loudly as the winners. Instead, he focused on attracting industry and business to the city – a common campaign theme that might have proven successful in rosier financial times.

The lone incumbent on the ballot, Vice Mayor Harold Leonard, might have torpedoed his own campaign when he asserted that the city wasn’t in difficult financial straights. No one, other than Leonard, believes the city’s finances are just fine.

Bristol Virginia carries a staggering debt of $109.7 million. That’s about $6,300 for every man, woman and child in the city.

City leaders began to deal with this enormous debt last year on the advice of outside financial consultants, who painted a rather grim picture of city finances. If the city continues to follow the consultants’ plan, the financial outlook will be brighter by 2010, but much debt will remain.

Heaney, in particular, wants to determine whether the city can reduce its debt at a quicker clip. That’s an option worth pursuing.

Meanwhile, it is the present City Council, which doesn’t include Heaney or Odum, that must wrestle with the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The $50.7 million spending plan includes a $300,000 drop in state funding, although that figure isn’t yet final.

City leaders deserve credit for managing to balance the budget and fund the essentials without a tax increase given the state shortfall and the sluggish economy. It can’t have been easy. Decisions made years ago have left the city with little cushion to survive hard times or to invest in new projects.

The city has started down the path to better financial health. It must keep walking.