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Lebanon City Council handled an assortment of financial, personnel, and miscellaneous matters at its monthly meeting last night.
Mayor Sherry Capello discussed a state audit of the city’s liquid fuels tax fund for Jan.1, 2021 through Dec. 31, 2022. It revealed no material deficiencies, but found a clerical error that has been corrected. The mayor said that $156,320 in liquid fuels tax funds were used to pay bills but the expenditure was initially posted to the wrong account.
The Liquid Fuels Tax funds street maintenance and construction.
Capello reported that, as of Sept. 30, with the year 75% complete, revenues were at 97% of annual budget projections, and expenses at 64%.
Council approved a resolution authorizing city administrators to file a Keystone Grant application with the commonwealth’s Department of Education for money to renovate and modernize the 28-year-old public restrooms at the Lebanon Community Library. The project will cost $137,000, split 50/50 between grant and library funds.
Michelle Hawk, the library’s executive director, updated council on library programs, including the summer reading program and “Books-to-Go,” which brings books to homebound readers. Hawk asked council to increase the city’s 2024 contribution to the library to $37,000, $4,000 above the 2023 allocation, to help attract and retain staff.
Capello announced several appointments to city positions:
- William Bishop has been reappointed to the Fire and Police Civil Service Commission for a four-year term, effective Oct, 1. Bishop has served on the commission since January 2017.
- Local realtor Brad Longenecker has been appointed to the City of Lebanon Authority to fill the unexpired term of Gary Matthew, who died in July. The term expires on Jan. 1, 2027.
- Chad Yeagley has been picked to head the Department of Public Works, effective Oct. 16. He succeeds longtime director Robin Getz, who has retired.
Council gave final approval to the inclusion of four ordinances passed since 2022 in the city’s codified ordinances. Codification indexes all ordinances in a single database so they can be found easily.
Council preliminarily approved an amendment to the city’s parking meter ordinance making Juneteenth a parking meter holiday. The change will have to be approved again at next month’s meeting to become final.
Retiring Public Works director honored
Capello presented a Certificate of Recognition to Robin Getz, who has been the city’s Public Works director since 2014. She will retire on Nov. 3 after nine years as director of the department.
Before coming to the city, she held positions in a number of other municipal governments.
“[Robin] came to the city with 27 years of local government experience,” Capello said. “She will be missed by her co-workers, friends, and me.”
Getz thanked the mayor and council, noting that “after doing almost 38 years of nighttime meetings, daytime meetings … you reach a point where, OK, now I’m going to enjoy life and the grandkids and do some traveling.”
It’s budget time
City Council will hold public 2024 budget hearings on Thursday, Nov. 9, at 4:45 p.m. and on Tuesday, Nov. 14, at 6 p.m., in the City Hall multi-purpose room, 735 Cumberland St., first floor, Lebanon.
A special council meeting to adopt the 2024 budget has been set for Thursday, Nov. 16 4:45 p.m.
The city has a $15.6 million 2023 budget, and hasn’t raised property taxes in eight years.
Next Lebanon City Council meetings
City Council’s next pre-council planning meeting will be on Tuesday, Nov. 21, at 4:45 p.m. The next regular monthly council meeting will be on Monday, Nov. 27, at 6:30 p.m.
Meetings are open to the public and will be held in the City Hall multi-purpose room, 735 Cumberland St., first floor, Lebanon.
Meetings are also streamed live on YouTube here.
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