One of the Ironton police officers who was laid off in May will be back on the job soon.

Meanwhile, city leaders will sit down this week with both the police and public works unions to see if agreements can be reached.

Mayor Rich Blankenship said Friday when the department laid off three officers a month ago, the savings from the three layoffs amounted to more than the seven-and-a-half percent budget cut council required each department to make earlier this year. That allowed for one officer to be returned to employment. Jamie Pruitt will be brought back, leaving Chad Artrip left to be recalled.

Officer Grover Carter, who had already retired from the department but had returned to work, volunteered to be laid off.

Blankenship said he plans to meet with both the Fraternal Order of Police Local 75 and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 771 again this week to discuss solutions to their budgets in hopes of meeting the mandated seven-and-a-half percent cut without layoffs.

Ironton City Council tabled action on both union agreements during a special meeting Thursday.

Council members said after the meeting they did not think these agreements were the best the city and the unions could do.

“We’re going to continue to work on a better arrangement,” Blankenship said.

Six employees with the public works union also remain unemployed.

Both the police and public works union chose to meet their budget cuts with layoffs; the firefighters union agreed to make cuts in their food and uniform line items and to begin paying three percent of their retirement pickup to achieve its seven-and-a-half percent reduction.