The city’s Depot Square project took a step forward Thursday evening.

At its regular meeting the Ironton City Council passed an ordinance awarding bids for the project, which will be the construction of a shelter for a farmer’s market area in the downtown area of town.

The project will be paid for by a Downtown Improvement Grant from the Ohio Department of Development and KYOVA Enhancement funding.

The winning bids are as follows: civil contract to Boone Coleman Construction for $201,867; electric contract to West End Electric Company for $215,138; and general contract to Portco Inc. for $410,000.

Also at the meeting Ironton Police Chief Jim Carey spoke about Rally on the River. Patrolling the event will cost the city $6,400 for officer overtime, not $9,000 like he had predicted, Carey said. Toward that $6,400, Frog Town has donated $1,200, Carey said. The Ohio State Highway Patrol, Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office and Department of Liquor Control also patrolled at the four-day event.

The highway patrol stopped 300 individuals, most of which concerned motorcycle endorsements, Carey said. The highway patrol also made 16 driving under the influence arrests, 12 of which were directly related the Rally, he said.

IPD cited two vendors who failed to comply with a recently-enacted vendors ordinance. One of the vendors paid the fee while the other did not and was cited three times, Carey said. Earlier this week a judge dismissed the charges.

Carey said overall the event went well this year.

“I’m not personally endorsing that (event) but things went extremely, extremely well,” Carey said.

In other action, the Ironton City Council also:

• Heard from Ironton resident Donna Bess of Karin Street about problems with the sanitary sewer in her neighborhood. Bess told council that at times her toilets don’t flush or overflow.

“You can’t take a bath or run a clothes washer,” she said.

The problems occur when the ground is saturated and it rains, she said. She added that she has lived on Karin Street since 1964 and the problems with the sewer started about three years ago.

• Heard from an Ironton resident who spoke about a recent incident during which her son and daughter-in-law were allegedly assaulted. Charges against the suspects are pending. The woman asked council members not to influence officials against proceeding with charges against the suspects.

• Passed an ordinance amending the city’s annual operating budget for this fiscal year