The Marion City Council Finance and Legislation, Codes, and Regulations Committees met Tuesday evening and approved the transfer of a building to the Boys & Girls Club, adjustments to pension pick-ups for dispatchers and fire department personnel, and approved a new liquor permit for a roll-your-own store.
The building transfer comes following the Marion City Schools decision to consolidate their administrative offices at Grant Middle School. Rather than hold on to, or sell, one of those buildings, the City School District chose to offer the former Oak Street Elementary (most recently called the Lincoln Center) to the Boys & Girls Club of Marion County.
Before offering the building to the Boys & Girls Club, the district offered it to local charter schools as required by law. All the schools passed on the offer to purchase the building.
State law allows for the district to pass the building through the City of Marion to Boys & Girls Club of Marion County. That move took its first step Tuesday and will not cost the City of Marion anything.
Allison Miracle, Executive Director of Boys & Girls Club of Marion County, assured Council members that they have strong funding support from several organizations, including United Way of Marion County and the Marion Community Foundation. She also explained that the new building will allow them to start serving teens, which will open up new sources of funding.
After making needed upgrades to the building, the Boys & Girls Club hope to have the facility open and serving local youth in time for their summer program.
The Finance Committee also heard from Deputy Auditor Cathy Chaffin who shared the preliminary de-appropriations for the end of 2012. She stressed that the numbers are only a draft and will change, mainly due to salaries because the last pay period of the year is Friday. The final numbers will be presented to the full City Council at their final meeting of the year on Thursday, December 27, 2012.
Chaffin said there were no departments who had budgets that were overly out of line.
Tom Robbins, Safety Director, presented two changes to pension pick-ups to the Finance Committee. Pension pick-ups are the portions of an employee’s pension contribution that the City of Marion pays for that employee.
The changes presented Tuesday were previously approved by the bargaining units for the Dispatch and Fire Department employees. For Dispatch, the City’s pension pick-up will be reduced by another one percent down to four percent. Fire Department employees will see their pension pick-up by the City revert back up to six percent. Both changes are effective on January 1, 2013.
Legislation, Codes, and Regulations Committee met following the Finance Committee and approved the only item on their agenda, a new Liquor Permit application for U Roll It, located at 1315 Delaware Avenue. Neither the police nor fire department chief had any issues with the application.
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