SOUTH POINT — Village employees in South Point will see an increase in the amount of paid vacation days, after the council passed an adjusted vacation package at their meeting on Tuesday.

Mayor Jeff Gaskin said police will be included in the package and most employees will be able to take vacation earlier.

Gaskin said part-time employees are included as well, as a retention measure.

Gaskin said the council also discussed $300,000 in upgrades to the front of the sewer plant.

He said these improvements will modify the filtration system to remove foreign materials from the water.

He said the village has received a grant for a new lift station for the system, with a location to be determined, and that part of the funds used for upgrades to the plant can be used for matching funds on the lift station.

Gaskin also noted that “blacktop plants are now open, which is good news for villages.” He said South Point plans to start road patching projects shortly.

Tuesday’s meeting of council took place a week after the scheduled date, after the previous week’s derecho storms took down a series of electric poles and left much of the village, including council chambers, without power.

Gaskin said the storm “opened our eyes that we are not prepared for an outage of this magnitude.”

He said, while the village has generators that were used for water and sewer plants, they are now looking into using leftover American Rescue Plan Act funds to purchase “more and bigger generators.”

Other than the power situation, Gaskin said the village received no major damage. He said the winds followed a straight line through South Point.

Power service was restored ahead of schedule, by crews from New River Electrical.

Gaskin posted on Facebook that he told those crews that if they were able to restore power by  the end of April 4 that he would declare it New River Electrical Day in the village.

“They worked hard and took time to speak to me,” he posted later in the day. “The big boss Andrew and the little boss Toby were especially helpful during the day. I don’t think we will meet much resistance to a proclamation that today April 4, 2024 shall be known to all as New River Electrical Day in the Village of South Point, Ohio. Thank you guys, you made an impossible looking job look easy. But I hope to not see you again.”