Tonight, the Ironton City Council will decide whether to pay for an engineer to come in and figure out why four houses on North Second Street keep having its basements flood when it rains.

The subject has come up at the last three council meetings and council has said they want to get to the bottom of the problem. The houses are older homes that didn’t have flooding issues until the city was ordered by the Ohio EPA to separate the sewer and stormwater lines. The four houses have had flooding issues since February 2014.

Ordinance 17-32, if passed, would have the city hire an independent engineering firm to evaluate and determine the cause of the repeated flooding. The cost would be no more than $15,000 and would be paid from the city’s Storm Water Utility Fund.

Other items on the agenda are second readings for the purchase of six new dumpsters, renewing a contract between the Ironton Police Department and Ohio University Southern for security and an amendment to the city budget.

Under communications, there are two items, one is a liquor license transfer and the other is a new liquor license permit.

Before the regular council meeting, the finance committee will meet at 5:45 p.m. Council will meet at 6 p.m. in their chambers on the third floor of the Ironton City Center.