It took two meetings to get it right, but the Ironton City Council will send a levy to the county board of elections to see if it can be put on the November ballot.

On Aug. 9, council approved a resolution to put a half-mil replacement levy for the parks and recreation department on the ballot, but there were only five councilmen present so the resolution wouldn’t take effect for 30 days, which would be after the Aug. 23 deadline.

So the councilmen met in special session on Wednesday night. With all members of council in attendance, the measure passed by unamimous vote.

“I think this is very important to the youth of our city,” said Councilman Rich Blankenship. “We have a new recreation director, Brett Ratner, who has a lot of good ideas for after school activities besides the organized sports. I think this is for the betterment of our city.”

The half-mil levy was originally passed in 2003 and expires next year. City residents would continue to pay a nickel for each $100 of value on their property, meaning that a house valued at $50,000 would pay $7.66 each year.

The levy renewal is for another five years.

The council also passed two resolutions related to the sewer systems.

One resolution authorizes the mayor to send a design for fixing the city’s combined sewer systems to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and to apply for grants to fix the CSO.

In other sewer matters, the council accepted a bid to fix the sewer line that runs through 3-1/2 Alley between Frog Town and the Grandview Outlet.

CJ Hughes Co. of Huntington, W.Va., won with a bid of $309,877 to put in 8-inch sewer lines, fix the roadway and to rehab 20 manholes throughout the city.

Paul Sheets, the city engineering technician, said the high cost of the project is because the limited space in the alleyway makes the job harder.

“There’s about 16 foot of right of way in that alley and they have to get their equipment in there,” Sheets said. “There are other utilities around it they have to deal with and the cost of fuel and materials is always going up.”

City council will meet in regular session on Aug. 23.