Ironton's stormwater utility fee will stay the same for now, despite the urging of two city councilmen to lower it to $4.

The ordinance, first proposed two weeks ago, would have lowered the $14.55 stormwater fee until a plan for implementation could be agreed upon. It was voted down 5-2 at Thursday's meeting of the Ironton City Council.

In the new plan, each plot of land would have been assessed a $4 fee, irrelevant of the size of the land, a factor that may have been part of the ordinances undoing.

Councilman Bob Isaac, sitting in the chairman's seat for an absent Jim Tordiff, reiterated his fear that the fee would be a death knell for the city, and that he believed other avenues should be pursued.

Isaac said he also believed that keeping the fee at its current level would seriously hurt the chances of the three other city issues on the ballot (the schools levy, the floodwall levy, and the municipal fee).

&#8221I don't think there's a chance for any of them,“ Isaac said. &#8221I don't think any of them will pass if we keep this fee. It's going to cost this city dearly. I think there has to be some sort of an appeal for a city in our condition.“

Councilman Bill Nenni said that he believed that charging large land owners and home owners the same fee had already been declared illegal.

&#8221This has already been thrown out, the way I understand it,“ Nenni said. &#8221This has already been ruled against in the courts.“

Although Richard Price agreed with the sentiments expressed, Price said he saw no way to avoid assessing the $14.55 per 3,000 feet of impermeable land.

&#8221I've never been one who would like to pass this fee onto the residents of Ironton,“ Price said. &#8221But this isn't about what we would like to do, but what we are mandated to do.“

City engineer Phil Biggs emphasized that even if the $4 fee would pay to create a combined sewer overflow plan, it wouldn't allow the city to meet the nine minimum control standards, a crucial step in the city's dealings with the EPA.

In the end, the ordinance failed with only its sponsors, Isaac and Councilman Chuck O'Leary, supporting it.

Despite the gloom and doom of the CSO talks, some lighter information was supplied by some of supporters of the city.

Bill Dickens, chairman of the Ironton Port Authority, was on hand to update the council on the economic development efforts of his group.

Perhaps most notable was Dickens announcement that Aluminastics, a research and development company leasing the Honeywell building on South Third Street, had received some venture capital and hoped to start operations in early 2006.

Friends of Ironton co-founder Rick McKnight announced his group's plans to add a third annual event to its schedule. Joining the Gus Macker Basketball Tournament and Rally on the River will be an Octoberfest celebration to be held Sept. 30, 2006, on Bobby Bare Boulevard.

McKnight, no longer speaking for the Friends of Ironton, also expressed his fears of a rumored switch of Ironton to a volunteer fire department should the $10 municipal fee on next month's ballot fail to pass, a plan that the council assured had not been discussed, though it was not an impossibility considering the $500,000 shortfall that the city would have to make up should the fee fail.

Councilman Chuck O'Leary echoed some of McKnight's concerns, specifically that there would be a large increase in homeowners' insurance should the change occur.

O'Leary said there would be more concrete answers about &#8221Plan B“ following a special meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday will be in council chambers.