City Council meets for 1st time in 2016

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

There were some new faces — and some familiar ones in new places — when Van Wert City Council met for the first time this year on Monday evening.

New Mayor Jerry Mazur sat in his new seat for the first time, new Council President Pete Weir presided over his first meeting, and new Councilmen At-Large Warren Straley and Fred Fisher, and Third Ward Councilman Ken Markward began their first two-year terms.

Mazur made his first report to City Council as mayor, noting that he has been getting to know city employees and department heads since the first of the year and has worked with Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming to learn how the city operates.

He also announced his appointment of Nicholas Rammel as an at-large member of the Zoning Appeals Board, which was approved by Council later in the meeting, and provided an update to Council on his efforts to combine the city and county economic development entities.

Fleming met with the Streets and Alleys Committee prior to the regular board meeting to talk about Phase 3 of the South Washington Street reconstruction project. The project, which will run from Ervin to Fox roads, will cost approximately $1.9 million, approximately $300,000 less than the engineering estimate of $2.2 million, Fleming said.

City Council adopted its first legislation of the year, including an ordinance allowing Fleming to seek bids for the work, and one authorizing the city to sell unneeded and outdated equipment online.

The safety-service director also noted that the city would save approximately $25,000 over the next three years through a new contract for electricity that reduces the city’s rate from .0558 cent per kilowatt hour to 0.483 per kwh.

City Auditor Martha Balyeat talked about the city’s finances, noting that revenue estimates for the coming year are about what they were in 2015.

“Long story short: revenues are now actually not much different than the year before,” Balyeat said, while noting, though, that city income tax revenues from W-2 wage earners is up, which indicates more people are working, or existing workers are making more money — either of which is a good indicator for the local economy.

“That’s always a plus,” the auditor said of the higher W-2 tax revenues.