Ironton City Council will debate whether or not to buy a new fire truck and new police cruisers Tuesday.

Both vehicle requests will be getting third readings at Thursday’s city council meeting and the ordinances have a section declaring the measure an emergency so they would take effect immediately if adopted.

Without the emergency clause, the city would have to wait 30 days for the ordinances to take effect.

The fire truck would be paid for from existing funds generated by the fire fee passed several years ago while police cars would come out of the general fund.

Getting a second reading will be a supplemental agreement with E.L. Robinson Engineering Company of Ironton to prepare a Combined Sewer Overflow plan, which is mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Doug Cade, of E.L. Robinson Engineering Company, said the supplemental agreement is for the company to create and electronic map of the 53 miles of stormwater lines under Ironton.

The city has six points where if there is enough rain, the sewer discharges into the Ohio River. The EPA wants the number of times that happens to less than six times per year.

E.L. Robinson Engineering Company is doing flow monitoring to determine what the trigger point for the overflow of those sites and sampling to see how much overflow goes into the river.

“When we negotiate our contract with the city, they stated they could do certain things,” Cade said. “One of the things was the things was they were going to provide us with an electronic version of the map of the sewer system.”

After a year and half, the city still wasn’t able to provide one and told E.L. Robinson Engineering Company to go ahead and do it.

“So the supplemental is for the additional work they asked us to do,” Cade said. “Quite frankly, they didn’t have the personnel to do the work.”

The CSO plan has been batted around since the council passed it in May 2005. Originally, the stormwater fee would have added $14.55 per month for residents and $14.55 per 3,000 square feet for businesses.

Later, a new city council revised the fee to $4 per one thousand gallons of water used.

The fee is to maintain and improve the city’s stormwater system.

On Aug. 31, there will be a citizen’s advisory committee meeting where the public can give input on the CSO project.

Also on the agenda is the first reading of an ordinance to establish a four-way stop at the intersection of South Ninth and Pleasant streets, communication regarding the transfer of stock of the Fuzzy Duck and a request by Mayor John Elam to re-appoint Mike Corn and Paul Glanville, both of Ironton, to the Zoning Appeals Board. If re-appointed, their terms would expire in August 2010.

The meeting will be at 6 p.m. on the second floor of the city building.

What do you think of the city’s plans for new police and fire vehicles?

4Let us know by writing a letter to the editor at: P.O. Box 647, Ironton OH 45638 or letters@irontontribune.com