The Ironton City Council room was standing room only on Thursday night with over 40 people coming out to voice their opposition to the possibilities of three firefighters being laid off.

Aaron Collins, an Ironton firefighter and president of International Association Firefighters union Local 532, addressed the council and reminded them that he had stood before the council five years ago under similar circumstances.

He said it was his understanding that the city’s general fund was between $90,000 and $100,000 in the red, and that since the fire department is the one with the biggest budget, it made them “a pretty easy target.”

He said by laying off the three men it would save around $130,000 but that they had been under their appropriated budget for the last several years.

“When does this circle stop? When do we pull ourselves back,” he asked.

Vice Mayor Craig Harvey said he could answer that.

“When we get more revenue in,” he said. “And ultimately Aaron, it’s a tax base issue.”

He added that if the citizens of Ironton don’t want to see cuts in the fire department or the health department, that it was a ballot issue to raise the income tax.

“Nobody up here wants to see anyone laid off, particularly first responders,” Harvey said, adding that at least one of the guys facing lay off was someone he recommended.

Councilman Kevin Waldo said he had done research that showed that the amount of money Ironton raised in revenue in 1968 with a half percent income tax was more than now with the city having a one percent income tax.

He said that it would be unlikely that a ballot measure to raise the income tax would pass.

There was talk of raising the municipal fee.

Councilman Bob Cleary floated the idea of raising the city’s fire fee from $4.75, which generates around $305,000. If it was raised to $6, it could generate enough to keep the firefighters.

The crowd of firefighters applauded the idea.

“I think the municipal fee is high and should stay where it’s at,” Cleary said, adding it goes into the general fund. “A fire fee goes to the fire department.”

Mayor Katrina Keith said she was “honestly flabbergasted” at what happened on Thursday night. She said she gave a budget to the council in October, and it was “tossed back” by the  council,  and she was given two weeks to come up with a different budget.

“I was told we were not going to raise rates,” she said, adding that the budget was gone through line item by line item. Then it was given to all department heads.

“The only thing we do to make this balance and have even a small carry over was to consider the fire department, to consider the health department and to re-appropriate some people’s salaries,” Keith said. “Now I hear we are going to consider raising rates. Why couldn’t we have had this discussion before?”

Harvey said he took ownership of that statement because rates are the number one complaint from people he talked to.

Keith said she doesn’t want to cut anyone because every department has a skeleton crew.

“Do I want layoffs? You better believe I don’t want the layoffs,” she said. “But if we don’t have the revenue coming in and only 30 percent of us work, because if you are retired, you don’t pay taxes. If you are on government assistance, you don’t pay taxes. And that money is not coming in.”

She apologized to the crowd saying she had been the budget together with the information she had on hand.

“That’s why we are where we are,” Keith said.

On the agenda, the council did not have a reading of adopting the city’s operating budget for 2017 because of an unfavorable recommendation from the council’s finance committee. There will be a budget meeting next week to discuss it.

They also had a second reading on an ordinance to increase wastewater usage from $5 per 1,000 gallons to $8.25 per 1,000 gallons. The increased rate is to cover the cost of an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency mandate to decrease acceptable levels of mercury from the current level of 53 nanograms per liter to 12 nanograms per liter when water is released from the city wastewater plant. It would also help cover the costs of upcoming EPA mandate on phosphorus removal from wastewater, increased cost for sludge removal, redundancies not being fulfilled at the plant, and a shortage in the wastewater fund.

In other items on the agenda, the council passed an ordinance to submit an application for a grant to help with phase one of the remodeling of the Brumberg building.

The application is going for a “pockets of opportunity” Community Development Block Grant and a second grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission. The grant is specifically geared towards the re-development of downtown areas.

The mayor would submit the application and the Ironton-Lawrence County Community Action Organization would administer the grant.

The CAO was invited earlier this year to apply for the grant. If they receive the grant, it would go towards The money would go towards a new roof and putting in new replacement windows that meet historic preservation requirements as part of the process of turning the five-story building on the corner of South 3rd and Vernon streets into commercial office space and lofts.

Ralph Kline, assistant executive director of the Ironton-Lawrence County Community Action Organization, told the council the grants were “pretty much assured” and if they did get it would take about six months for the grants to come down.