Nearly 50 Roanoke employees have informed city officials they plan to take advantage of an incentive by retiring before Dec. 1.

With the city facing an $8.4 million budget shortfall, 239 employees eligible for retirement --about 14 percent of the city work force -- were offered incentives to name a retirement date between July 1 and Dec. 1. Many of those employees were already eligible for retirement but had chosen to continue working.

Monday was the deadline for the offer, and 46 employees took it.

That's right at the target number administrators planned for when the offer was made, said Keli Greer, the city's director of human resources.

A considerable number of public safety employees were eligible for the offer, but of the employees who accepted it, nine were in Fire/EMS, one is a civilian employee in the police department and three are in the sheriff's office. The majority of the 46 are in various other city departments.

Greer said the idea behind the program was to reduce the need for layoffs.

"It would be terrible if we were looking to eliminate a position and then your co-worker was going to retire anyway," Greer said.

Employees who opted into the plan had the choice of two lump-sum payments: Either a cash payment of $200 per year of employment, with a cap of $6,000, or a cash payment equal to the cost of one year of health insurance.