(Posted Oct. 26, 2016)
By Amanda Ensinger, Staff Writer
Lucie McMahon, the Fair Housing representative for Madison County, addressed Mount Sterling village council Oct. 24.
“The purpose of this (federal) program is to protect citizens from discrimination when they rent, buy or apply for loans for housing,” McMahon said. “We have gotten some complaints of this in the village, mostly related to renting properties.”
McMahon said residents can call a toll-free hotline, 1-800-850-0467, to register fair housing complaints. She also left pamphlets at the council meeting to further educate residents on their rights.
McMahon also noted that some residents may be eligible for grants to improve their properties. These grants include improvements to weatherize homes to save money on energy costs.
“We can do just about anything to a home, as long as you are covered by the grant,” she said. “As long as you have low to moderate household income, you are eligible.”
For more information, go to www.co.madison.oh.us/EHO.html.
In other discussion at the meeting, Mount Sterling village administrator John Martin gave an update on construction of the new water plant.
“Currently, we are bit behind schedule because of the recent weather,” he said. “However, the building of the foundation is about to start and the two main tanks are complete. Those are the things that take the longest to build, so once those are complete we should be in good shape.”
Martin still expects the plant to be complete by June 2017.
Council member Diane Spradlin spoke out against three ordinances related to the village employees health insurance plan. They included entering into a contract with Trusty Co. as the village’s health insurance broker, setting a percentage of health insurance premiums that is the responsibility of employees, and naming Medical Mutual of Ohio as the village’s medical insurance provider.
“The reason I’m voting ‘no’ on all of these is because I think we need to have additional deliberations in regards to this,” she said. “I have never seen any quotes from any other insurance providers besides Medical Mutual. I think it is fair to the employees and taxpayers to have a variety of options and not just one.”
Council has two more readings planned on all three ordinances before they plan to take a vote.
