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Outside agencies seek funding from Vienna City Council

Photo by Madeline Scarborough Mayor Randy Rapp, Recorder Cathy Smith and Council member Roger Bibbee listen as Council member Mike Elam explains his questions on the city insurance selection process.

VIENNA — Budget presentations continued at Thursday’s Vienna City Council meeting with outside agencies presenting reports on how they help the city and asking for money for programs.

Twelve organizations presented on Thursday, almost all just requesting a continuation of funding at the same as last budget season.

A few of the outside organizations were the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department, the Vienna Public Library and Latrobe Street Mission.

The Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department asked for $4,800 for the upcoming fiscal year for basic public health services.

“There have been 208 confirmed cases of Hepatitis A as of last Friday since October,” said Eric Walker, administrator of the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department.

Brenda Call, director of the Vienna Public Library, discussed the value of the library to the community.

“We held 343 events last year,” Call said.

Call brought figures to show service population, total materials, registered borrowers, annual circulation and annual visits.

Jim Sims, assistant director with the Latrobe Street Mission, presented the growth it has seen in the past year.

“We supplied 19,396 beds and over 15,000 meals last year,” Sims said.

Sims said the new women’s and children’s dorms are open and the construction has began on the sober living quarters.

After the budget presentations were complete, council went into a nine-minute executive session concerning an employee matter; no decisions were made.

The employee insurance discussion continued from previous meetings into Thursday’s meeting.

“The insurance plan needs to come through council not the committee,” Council member Mike Elam said.

Mayor Randy Rapp brought the minutes from last year’s insurance committee meeting that Elam and Council member Roger Conley had asked to see, and said he would give them to Elam after the meeting.

“There are no secrets; you will see everything the committee sees,” Rapp said.

Conley pointed out that in the past the council has never seen what the committee sees, and only receives the end result of what the committee decides as the city insurance.

“Well, you will see this year,” Rapp said.

“I want to see all the bids available,” Conley said.

Council member Bruce Rogers agreed with Conley and Elam that the whole insurance selection process needs to be more transparent.

“We never see the options for the different plans,” Rogers said.

Conley wanted to know who makes the decisions to make changes to what kind of insurance the city accepts. Rapp did not provide an answer to this question at the time, because Conley did not have documentation for everyone on council that shows the changes he was referring to. The topic will be brought up at the next council meeting on Feb. 28.

Rogers, Elam and Conley all said the insurance numbers needed to be reviewed by council before the budget is finalized.

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