City to have regular meetings with EPA

At Thursday’s Ironton City Council meeting, they passed ordinances for a temporary budget and a contract with the Ironton Police Department.

Before the meeting, IPD Detective Joe Ross, who is also the president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 75, spoke to the council members.

He pointed out that when he was hired in 1996, there were 20 police officers, four dispatchers and a clerk.

“And in the approximate 21 years I have worked in the police department, we have lost nine people,” he said. “And I think, with the police department we have, we do a fine job.”

He said the opioid district and the deaths from that has added an additional load to the their job.

He said he knew that the council was voting on the contract and asked them to pass it.

He added that during the contract negotiations in 2014, the police agreed to raise the percentage of the insurance they paid up two and a half percent to seven and half percent. In 2015, they agreed to raise it up to 10 percent.

“We were under the assumption that all the unions would get raised to that 10 percent because of the financial crisis the city was in,” Ross said. “That never happened. AFSCME is still paying five percent, the fire department is still paying five percent and the non-union is paying 7 and a half percent.”

He said that if the measure didn’t pass on Thursday, the union would have to ask for an extension.

That did not happen. The council heard first and second reading and the contract with the police department passed 6-0.

Ironton Mayor Katrina Keith began her comments to council by congratulating those who won on Tuesday’s election including Vice Mayor Craig Harvey, council members Beth Rist and Bob Cleary, and the newly elected Nate Kline.

“I want to commend anyone who even put their name on the ballot,” she said. “It is tough, but you care enough about this city to sit up here and serve the city.”

She also thanked voters for passing the city’s recreation levy.

“We put a lot of work into that and it was tough with four levies on the ballot,” she said. “But it speak volumes that our people came out and voted for that. So we want to be very diligent in how we handle that money and to provide recreation services to our people.”

Keith said that on Nov. 15 the water department would now accept payments by credit card by using Invoice Cloud.

“That means the residents will be able to pay their water bill via our website, their cell phone and via a credit card,” she said. “So we are stepping into the 21st century. We are excited about that. Sometimes people can’t get here before 4:30 p.m. to pay their water bill.”

She said that she had spoken with the federal EPA, the Ohio EPA, the Department of Justice and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and in short, they will not get rid of the consent decree that orders the separation of sewer and wastewater lines in the city.

“They won’t change it but they will talk to us about modifications,” Keith said, adding they will talk over the phone every other Thursday until the matter is resolved.

She added that any modifications are dependent on dealing with issues of catch basins and with decayed lines at the trailer park.

The council also passed an ordinance to amend the operating budget passed, 6-0 and the temporary budget passed, 6-0.