Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011
Village employees may see pay raises
By Betty Lawrence
NEW BREMEN - Village council members Tuesday heard first reading of the 2012 wage ordinance, which gives an hourly pay raise of 70 cents to all village employees.
Village administrator Wayne York, per the agreement penned when he was hired, will receive an additional $1 for a total increase of $1.70
"Mr. York was behind on the pay scale," mayor Jeff Pape said this morning. "This last piece caught him up."
Village employee Linda Fortkamp will get an additional 50 cents per hour for her mayor's court duties.
"Village employees got a very minimal pay raise last year and none the year before," Pape said.
Visitor Mike Shelby, of Shelby Inc., St. Marys, made a second appearance before council to talk about his 311 presentation.
"311 is an e-mail and texting system that gives us the ability to communicate better with our residents," Pape said. "He gave us the figures on how much the system would cost, and now, it's up to council to decide whether on not to go forward on this."
The start-up figure for the system is $11,000; the monthly fee is $358.
"The neat feature about this is it keeps track of residents' requests and concerns. I love that part of it," Pape added.
In other action, council members:
• Approved the annual income tax collection contract with the city of St. Marys.
• Approved the two-year contract of village solicitor Stephen Smith and the one-year contract of Robert Kehoe, mayor's court magistrate.
• Approved a change order for the Bear Street reconstruction project due to more work than what was contracted. The additional bill of $10,450.62 brought the project cost up to $506,165.
"Our base was not strong enough, and they had to put a geogrid down, raising the cost," Pape said.
