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CHESTER -- Mayor Ed Wedgewood shared a little good news during Monday afternoon's regular council meeting.
The city recently received a $3 million grant for paving from the State of West Virginia. However, the city will have to underwrite the cost of engineering as part of the condition for accepting the moneys, which will be administered by the West Virginia Water Authority.
Council members voted to draft a Request for Proposal (RFP), which will request bids from qualifying companies, and hopefully pass it during their next meeting, which will be held Monday, Oct. 2, and then published in local papers and on their Facebook page.
The engineering is the necessary first step in accepting the grant moneys, so city officials can determine exact tonnage of roads, for example.
Also in conjunction with this million dollar paving project, council established a committee to oversee the grant application scoring and it will consist of Wedgewood and councilmembers Jason Thorn and Nathan Wright.
It was decided Steve Shuman, who is also street superintendent, will not serve on the council committee so he can act in his capacity as head of streets.
After ultimately the contracts are all awarded, the city will forward all bills for the actual work to the state capital for payment by the Water Authority.
"We need to start the project by December 2024," Wedgewood explained, "and have it completed by December 2025."
The other big topic on the agenda was a proposal to increase part-time patrolman wages to encourage them to work more hours.
After a 15-minute executive session for personnel, council offered an incentive program in which part-time officers would earn $250 for working an extra 60 hours beyond their normal hours during three-month period. Originally the proposal called for the $250 bonuses at 120 and 180 hours instead of 60 and 120 hours.
Police Chief Chuck Stanley and Assistant Police Chief Ethan Skolrud had relayed their plight of finding enough officers to cover all the shift with only three full-timers currently employed. This leaves the full-timers either covering the shifts themselves, meaning overtime and more cost to the city, or being reliant on the part-timers to fill in the gaps.
Skolrud believes a hike in the wage for part-time patrolman would be a better solution to the incentive program, which they agreed to try.
Speaking of full-time police officer openings, Chief Stanley told council that they had two interested parties the last time they solicited applications. One is a certified police officer in Ohio and has the potential to take the West Virginia refresher course as he has training hours if he passes muster with state officials at the end of the month. The second candidate is not certified and would have to do the entire police course if he is ultimately is hired as well.
Wedgewood and city clerk Tara Ayers explained that the incentive program is to be a temporary solution to get the city through a crisis time, while they wait for the other two full-time applicants to get integrated into the force and trained accordingly.
During his building report, councilman Mike Dotson told his colleagues that they need to replace the stove in the kitchen of the community room and replace a number of light bulbs throughout the building.
In other action, council agreed to:
-- Deposit $121,273.86 worth of receipts and pay $91,927.07 worth of bills from general and building funds.
-- Place a lien on the property at 352 Louisiana Ave. for $426.70 worth of unpaid municipal fees and penalties over the past three years. An East Liverpool woman appears as owner on the deed; however, she disputes that ownership and no longer claims the mail notices, according to Ayers.
-- Award assistant clerk Ashton McKendrick her two weeks worth of vacation time.
-- Send staff members to Wheeling Thursday, Oct. 26, to attend a day-long free state training on cybersecurity, audit preparation, use of a purchasing card and dilapidated structures.
The next council meeting will be held at 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 2, in city council chambers.