At a recent meeting of the Ironton City Council’s Finance Committee it was revealed that annual workers’ compensation payments have been cut more than half since 2010.

Ironton Mayor Rich Blankenship attributed the savings to the hiring of the city’s benefits coordinator Katrina Keith in 2008.

“In 2010 we paid $303,000 in workers’ compensation premiums,” Blankenship said. “In 2013 we paid out $134,000.”

The $169,000 decrease in premiums, Blankenship said, stems from the implementation of safety programs, a back-to-work program for employees injured on the job and random drug testing, all of which are coordinated by Keith.

“The random drug testing has been very beneficial to the city,” Blankenship said. “All of the programs she oversees have helped reduce the amount of workers’ compensation.”

The committee also adopted an ordinance at the meeting to pay American Legal Publishing Company $6,900 to update the collection of the the city’s ordinances. It has been four years since the ordinances have been recorded and bound, Blankenship said.

Other ordinances the committee agreed to bring before council were an agreement with the Ohio Department of Transportation for paving and street repair; an agreement with the Ironton-Lawrence County Community Action Organization for grant writing and execution; and an extension of an existing ordinance that allocates 6 percent of the $11.50 monthly garbage bills into the garbage equipment replacement fund.

These ordinances will be introduced for adoption at the next meeting of city council at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 13. The council’s industrial and commercial committee will meet the same day at 5:30 p.m.