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VIENNA -- Vienna City Council voted to allocate its American Rescue Plan Act funds to the Utility Board and voted to table an Economic Development Advisory Committee at Thursday's meeting.
Council member Jim Leach read a resolution proposing the city to allocate the remaining $153,897 and $32,000 of accumulated interest, totaling $185,897 of ARPA funds to the Vienna Utility Board for rehabilitation of water well fields nine and ten.
The Utility Board submitted a proposal for the allocation to council at its Dec. 28 meeting, but city attorney Russell Skogstad said he was concerned the public wasn't given proper notification.
"Once all of the interest and all the other funds are allocated, this will close out our ARPA funds for this year or ever." Mayor Randy Rapp said.
The council passed the resolution unanimously 7-0.
The next item on the agenda was a resolution to create an Economic Development Advisory Committee to work with the Wood County Development Authority.
Leach introduced a motion to table the resolution, citing the lack of timely notification to council, confusion of the language and absence of Skogstad.
"The first time I've seen this is when this came on the agenda Monday," he said, referring to when the agenda is released on the city website.
Council member Kim Williams said she opposed the tabling the motion since the city had talked about economic development since July 2023.
"I don't think the fact that this is new on the agenda and you don't have but a few days ... that's how we conduct business around here," she said. "We voted on a $7 million pool and we got the designs for the first time two hours before."
"Mr. Skogstad is not here with us this evening and some of the language inside of the things he wrote in here is contradictory," Rapp said.
Rapp said while he supported tabling the resolution, he supported working with the Wood County Development Authority. He said developing an official committee for financial development was a big step for Vienna and he wanted Skogstad there to clarify items on the resolution.
Council member Chris Mancuso said the city needed to move ahead.
"I would really hate for the city to miss out on opportunities yet again by delaying this a few weeks after discussing this for almost seven months now," he said.
The motion to table the resolution passed 5-2, with Mancuso and Williams opposing.
The next item on the agenda was the first reading of an ordinance to create the development authority from the previous item.
Kristen Hainkel can be reached at khainkel@newsandsentinel.com