The supporters of installing a $7 municipal fee in Ironton may have known they were beat as they walked into their Thursday meeting of the Ironton City Council, but they knew the had to try.

Councilman Jesse Roberts, a former opponent of the fee, proposed adding the fee to monthly utility along with council chairman Jim Tordiff, and councilman Richard Price for the second time in as many meetings.

The ordinance failed at the last meeting by a 4-3 margin, but supporters wanted one more chance to plead their case.

The first plea came from the mayor, a long-time proponent of installing a municipal fee.

"Without it, it's going to be difficult, if not impossible, to manage next year's budget," Elam said. "I ask for your support, and I ask on behalf of the citizens of Ironton."

Councilman Chuck O'Leary, who had until recently been a fervent municipal fee supporter, said that if the municipal fee were to pass now, it could sound a death knell for other levies on the ballot, such as one that will pay for improvement to Ironton schools.

"I think with those $18.50 in increases over the past few months that this would be the final nail in the coffin of the other levies that are on the ballot this November," O'Leary said.

"With $7 here, plus $14.50, I don't think our $10 municipal fee has a prayer of passing, I don't think the school levy has a prayer of passing and I don't think the floodwall levy has a prayer of passing."

Tordiff emphasized a responsibility he felt the council had to place the fee, and asked the councilmen to put the good of the city ahead of their political futures.

All the pleading, in the end, was for naught. The vote was split in the same way it was at the Aug. 11 meeting, with Roberts, Price and Tordiff voting for the measure and Nenni, Isaac, O'Leary and Pyles voting against.

Pyles said he simply couldn't justify throwing money at the problem until the city's budgetary woes were fully understood.

"I've said all along that we need to continue to look at and assess what we're doing," Pyles said. "There's not one member here who doesn't think we need additional money, but it's going to be temporary, we're going to be sitting here in the future wanting to add to the municipal fee, because I don't think we've done the homework yet to look at the really important components of our cost."

Still on money matters, the sanitation rates will be going up as council added $2 to all residential customer's garbage bills and anywhere from $5 to $34 per month for commercial customers.

The fee increase is required, according to the ordinance, for the city to maintain the fund and keep it from operating with a negative balance.

Also during the meeting:

An ordinance to put a change to the way fire and police chiefs are selected in Ironton on the ballot managed to both pass and fail.

It received five votes, but the two voting against (Tordiff and Isaac) meant that the change could not be passed as an emergency measure, and therefore could not be passed in time for it to be placed on the ballot.