Ironton City Council will have a new council member this weekend.

Friday, June 23, 2000

Ironton City Council will have a new council member this weekend.

At their regular meeting Thursday, council members voted to recess to an executive session to discuss personnel issues, including the appointment of a new council member to replace Joe Black, who resigned earlier this month.

Because council members Hugh Scott and Bob Vaughn were unable to attend the meeting, council members decided to wait until a special meeting Saturday to determine who would fill the seat.

"It was our intent this evening to come to a decision on the replacement for Joe Black, but we don’t feel it would be appropriate with two members being absent," Council Chairman Jim Tordiff said. "I would now like to give those members an opportunity to be a part of the decision-making process."

The meeting will start at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at the Ironton City Center.

"I would also like to note that there will more than likely be an executive session during the meeting on Saturday for the purpose of discussing personnel issues," Tordiff said. "There will probably be an announcement of new personnel following the meeting."

Council plans to announce a replacement for Black regardless of the number of members present on Saturday, several council members said.

"By the charter, if we don’t do it by June 30 that opportunity is taken away from us," Tordiff said. "Time is running out and if we don’t make a decision, the mayor then reserves the right to make the appointment."

In other business, council members questioned city engineer Joe McCallister on progress on the new Ironton fire station. Members also asked about the possibility of using steel beams in place of wooden beams to reduce costs and bring the project within budget.

"We have the revised architectural plans back," McCallister said. "We even have the state building permit. We could look into using pre-fabricated steel beams to bring it within budget, but it will add to architectural costs."

Cindy Anderson, city finance director, said the loss of Intermet-Ironton Ironton earlier this year has hit the city’s water revenue hard.

"Ironton Iron was our biggest user of water and now that we’ve lost that, we have lost a big source of income," Mrs. Anderson said. "We are looking to have a projection sometime next month of exactly how bad it will hit us over the next 20 years."