CHESAPEAKE — Chesapeake Village employees will get a 50 cent an hour raise, effective with next week’s pay period.

“For one thing minimum wage went up and we tried to match minimum wage,” Mayor Dick Gilpin said. “But we went up more than that. Whenever minimum age goes up, even though we are above minimum wage, we try to match (the rate).”

The raise, which was voted on during Monday’s council meeting, will affect nine employees including police, street and city hall workers.

The council also completed the final paperwork for the $400,000 road repair work for North Huntington Heights. Excessive rainfalls had caused numerous slides on the road that leads to the residential area in the village.

A year ago March the village council awarded the contract to BBR Drilling Co. after it submitted the lowest bid at $296,350. Most of the $400,000 cost came from a grant from the Ohio Public Works Commission. To get state funding, the village had to come up with 10 percent of the project costs in matching funds. The Lawrence County Commissioners agreed to borrow $40,000 from US Bank for 10 years at an interest rate of 4.79 percent. Half of that is to be paid back to the county by Chesapeake.

Council also authorized Ohio American Water Co. to work on a project to replace water lines on Riverside Drive.

“It is upgrading their water service,” Gilpin said.

The village is still looking for a buyer for the 2006 Dodge Charger it retired from its police fleet.

“It has too much horsepower,” Gilpin said. “They are made to run out in the road with high speed. We run around town doing 20 to 30 miles an hour.”

The village wants $8,000 for the vehicle.