At Thursday’s Ironton City Council meeting, it was about water lines, highway advertising signs and a meeting with the EPA.

Mayor Katrina Keith began her comments by commending the Ironton Police Department and the Ironton Fire Department for their assistance with last week’s manhunt of Arron Lawson, who has been charged with 13 counts related to the death of four people in Decatur Township.

“They did a remarkable job,” she said, to the applause of the 50 or so people gathered in Council chambers. “They just fell right into place and I wanted to thank them.”

She said a meeting with the EPA, which was to take place on Oct. 11, has been postponed to Oct. 24 and she invited council members to attend the phone conference. Several council members were interested in attending that Vice Mayor Craig Harvey called it as a special meeting for the council. The meeting with be with the Ohio EPA, U.S. EPA and possibly, the Ohio Attorney General, and things like mercury levels and certain aspects of the mandated sewer separation will be discussed.

On agenda items, an ordinance passed to hire an independent engineering firm to evaluate and determine the cause of flooding of homes on North Second Street. The houses have had issues with basements flooding since 2014 after a wall was built as part of an EPA-mandated separation of the sewer and wastewater lines.

Council had passed it in a previous meeting, but had to have a new ordinance drawn up because it requires four ‘yes’ votes and the previous one had only a 3-2 vote. It passed on Thursday, with a 5-2 vote, after a second and third reading.

If the EPA allows the taking down of a wall put up on the north end of town and it solves the basement flooding issue, the city will not have to hire an engineer to find a solution. But the ordinance allows the city to if the wall removal doesn’t help or the city isn’t allowed to take it down.

An ordinance was passed to raise the city’s standard height for advertising signs along the highway. Currently, Ironton Revised Code puts the maximum limit at 20 feet for a freestanding structure 35 feet above the highway level so that it was more visible to passing vehicles.

The issue is that the previous code does not consider the highway visibility for businesses along U.S. 52 and the city was getting complaints from those businesses.

Council, the mayor and finance director John Elam went into executive session to discuss contract issues and possible litigation. No action was taken on those matters yet.

Ironton City Council will meet Thursday at 6 p.m. in regular session.