PEMBERVILLE — During their next to last meeting of the year, members of Pemberville council gave a third reading to an ordinance that finalized several temporary appropriations for current village expenses.
Council members then voted 5-0 to pass the ordinance, with member Susan Rahe absent.
“These (temporary appropriations) will probably get us through the first few months of the (new) year,” noted Mayor Carol Bailey.
Most of the temporary appropriations are less than $10,000, but one line item, for expenses for the police department, totaled $242,000. Approximately $175,000 of that total amount is for wages and benefits for personnel, and the remaining $67,000 is for contractual services and supplies.
Another major appropriation is for nearly $717,000 for the field operations account.
Other major temporary appropriations in the ordinance include:
• A transfer out of $415,000 from the village’s income tax fund
• $373,000 for the permanent improvement fund
• A transfer out of $106,400 from the Other Financial Services Fund
• $153,000 for the Debt Services Fund.
A first reading was also given to an ordinance for an intrafund transfer for the electric utilities fund.
It was announced during the meeting that work on the force main water project on East Front Street will continue until the end of the month, then will be suspended until spring of next year.
“The trenches will be filled in and will then be covered with a ‘cold patch’ so we can re-open the street for the winter,” Bailey said. “This way there will be no loose stone for the snowplows to deal with.”
Bailey informed council members there were no major issues arising from the village’s total loss of electricity on Dec. 6.
“Things went pretty smoothly, and the power was out from about 8:15 to 11:20 (a.m.),” she said.
The planned approximate four-hour outage was necessary to make preparations for the upgrades to one of the village’s two power substations, scheduled to occur in the spring. Village officials wanted to do the power outage project before even colder weather sets in.
The village’s Christmas in the Village event went well this year, Bailey pointed out.
“It went off without a hitch,” the mayor said.
A Battle of the Badges Toy Drive was very successful, Bailey said of the project that allowed the village to join forces with the villages of Luckey and Bradner. The toys were given to the Wood County Job and Family Services to be distributed to children in the county this holiday season.
“Our police department’s trailer was filled up with toys,” Bailey said.
The village’s Tree Committee has finished its work for the year after planting some 29 trees, it was noted during the meeting.
The next Pemberville Village Council meeting is slated for 7 p.m. Tuesday, at which two issues are expected to be addressed. One of those issues is the installation of a time clock for village hourly employees, and the other is rates of pay for various employees.
