After Ironton City Council voted unanimously to adopt a resolution at a special meeting on Wednesday that would place a replacement flood protection levy on the November ballot, the final step in doing so lies in the hands of the Lawrence County Board of Elections.

Resolution 14-29 proposes a five-year 2-mill levy to replace the city’s current 1-mill levy. A measure Ironton Finance Director Kristen Martin said the Lawrence County Auditor’s Office certified would generate $265,500 a year; twice the amount of the current levy.

Council member Craig Harvey provided some flood insurance figures that showed an even bigger hit to residents’ pockets if the floodwall were decertified.

“I got a (flood) insurance quote from FEMA through my insurance agent,” he said. “My home right now on 11th Street in Ironton, I pay $24.50 a year via our flood levy. With what we are proposing that would make it $49 per year. If we lose our certification on our floodwall, with a $5,000 deductible, I would be paying $2,955 per year for mandatory flood insurance.”

Harvey added a flood insurance policy with a $2,000 deductible would carry a premium of $3,620 per year.

“The cheapest flood insurance I could get on my $70,000 home would be the $2,955 premium with a $5,000 deductible,” he said. “That’s opposed to $49 a year through this levy. I’m no mathematician but it seems to be I’d be saving $2,906 by just voting for a 1-mill increase in the floodwall levy.”

Council member Dave Frazer made the motion to adopt and Bob Cleary seconded.

“We’re not telling people how to vote,” Frazer said. “We’re just putting it on the ballot.”

Two ordinances are on the agenda for today’s regular council meeting.

Ordinance 14-30 setting the salary for the vice mayor and members of city council will have its first reading.

President of council and vice mayor Kevin Waldo said during the July 10 regular meeting of council he was “not going to quit talking about raises” unless the members of council disagreed with his proposal. Several members of council went on record in agreement with Waldo’s assertion that council members’ salaries are too low.

Waldo referred to ordinance 08-35 from April 24, 2008, which outlined the current salaries for council members and the vice mayor.

“In the ordinance the salaries were reduced from $250 for vice mayor and $150 for council members per month to $200 a month for vice mayor and $120 per month for city council members,” Waldo said. “I was opposed to that legislation and it passed anyway.”

Waldo iterated the importance of people knowing the current council has no authority to affect anything related to current members’ salaries.

The ordinance, if adopted, would pay the vice mayor $600 and council members $500 a month.

“The reason I am asking this gets done, again it doesn’t affect anyone who is sitting here, but would go into effect the next term of elected city council members. I think we need to come up something that’s going to incentivize somebody to run for city council. I don’t think the current salary of $120 is an incentive.”

Council member Bob Cleary said he was also opposed to the salary decrease set forth by ordinance 08-35 and he feels council members put a lot of “time, effort and hours” into their positions.

“I agree it needs to be raised,” Cleary said. “None of us sitting here today will see any of it. It’s terrible what we get now.”

Council member Aaron Bollinger also agreed with the need for a salary increase and said at the current pay he fears “a severe decrease in the pool of people to even run for election.”

Council meets at 6 p.m. on the third floor of the city center on South Third Street.