It was a good news-bad news kind of report as County Treasurer Stephen Burcham offered a snapshot look at the county’s current financial situation.

The county will receive approximately $13,000 in interest from purchasing $1.5 million in bonds from the city of Ironton issued for its sewer project.

“I thought it was a good investment at 2 percent interest and it was a local entity and was trying to keep as much as possible local,” Burcham told the commissioners at their Thursday meeting.

Currently most of the certificates of deposits that the county has bear interest rates ranging from 5 to 5.5 percent and were purchased a few years ago when interest rates were higher. However, recently one CD came due and the best interest rate Burcham could find was only 9/10 percent for nine months from City National.

“Hopefully we will have a little better interest at the time (the others come due for reinvestment),” he said.

The county expects to earn $348,000 in interest from its investments for the remainder of the year. However increasing bank fees and the end of interest for overnight accounts had Burcham asking the commissioners for $18,000 to cover those costs.

The highest months at the treasurer’s office for bank fees are February, March and April and charges this year were $5,100 for February and March combined and $3,500 for April.

The treasurer also reported that first half tax collections brought in more than $15.5 million.

“The largest collection ever in the county,” Burcham said.

Although property evaluations went up 9 percent, there was only an approximately 8.5 percent increase in tax collections.

“I think it is a reflection of the difficulty taxpayers face in the economy” he said. “It continues to be difficult for a person to find a job.”

Burcham also requested $15,000 to cover the printing of the second half tax bills and supplies. Neither request was voted on by the commissioners at their meeting.