Outgoing London city council member Dick Minner accepts a plaque in appreciation of his 38 years on the fire department and 16 years on city council.
(Posted Dec. 27, 2017)
By Kristy Zurbrick, Madison Editor
One billion, seven hundred and two million, nine hundred and forty-four thousand.
“That’s the number of seconds Mr. Dick Minner has worked for the city of London,” said Mayor Pat Closser before presenting the outgoing city council member with an appreciation plaque.
Minner worked for the London Fire Department for 38 years and served on council for 16 years. His final term on council comes to a close Dec. 31. He did not run for re-election. Council passed a resolution in appreciation of his 54 years of service to the city.
“It was an honor to serve with the mayor and safety-service director. It’s been a great council. I’ll miss you all, but I won’t miss coming here (to council meetings),” Minner said.
Council member Rex Castle said he appreciated Minner’s “wealth of knowledge of the city” and his bluntness. He said he hoped Minner would consider staying on some of the city’s committees.
Closser said he has both Minner and outgoing council member Megan Douglas in mind for committee appointments for 2018. Several council members thanked Douglas for her service during her two-year term. She was not re-elected.
“It was an honor serving the city,” Douglas said.
In other business, council:
• tabled legislation calling for an increase in wages for elected and appointed city officials. Castle said council needs to “further investigate what is right and fair.”
• approved increases to salary ranges for city department heads and personnel. The ranges represent the minimum and maximum salaries the city can offer for these positions.
• held a 23-minute executive session to discuss the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion or compensation of a public employee or official. Council did not discuss or take an action regarding the session.
• approved the city budget for 2018. The grand total is $19,971,088. Of that, the general fund total is $4,986,297.
“This is a deficit budget, based on revenue projections by the auditor’s office,” Castle said. “It sounds like and is a lot of money, but the track record, I feel, of the administration is they are spending below their budget by 10 percent, which that falls under that guideline. So, I feel very comfortable in the expenses budgeted for the general fund.”
Council member Trint Hatt, who served on the finance committee with Castle and Brenda Russell, thanked everyone involved in putting together the budget.
“We worked diligently–late nights, some arguments–but I think we got to a good place and a good budget, and I think it’s something that will move the city forward.”
• approved a proposal to ask the State of Ohio to set aside in its next capital budget $400,000 to complete Access Cowling, the accessible playground project at Cowling Park.
