Health insurance costs are going down for Iola city employees.
City Council members heard the good news Monday as they renewed the city’s medical insurance policy for 2017-18.
The premiums for the upcoming year — based on claims history over the past 32 months and statewide averages — will drop 7.55 percent, City Clerk Roxanne Hutton noted in a written presentation to Council members.
The city pays 100 percent of the premium for employees — $418 a month for the past year — and $692 toward family premiums, with those employees paying an additional $250 monthly.
Those premiums will decrease to $401.92 for single employees and $656.07 for family plans. Prices also will drop slightly for retirees and COBRA participants as well.
In addition to the lower costs, the reserve balance for the city’s health insurance fund, currently at more than $600,000, will allow the city to once again pay into the fund at 125 percent of the expected premiums for the upcoming year. Budgetary restraints had forced the city to pull back from that threshold over the past year, paying into the fund at 112 percent of expected premiums.
The city is partially self-insured under a $1,500/$3,000 deductible plan that has been in place since 2004, when the city introduced its health savings account plan.
Council members unanimously accepted the proposed rates for 2017-18.
EDDIE RADFORD has one last week to clear his property at 26 N. Third St. before a demolition crew will be on site to finish the job.
Council members accepted a demo bid from Ray’s Metal Depot, LaHarpe, to clear Radford’s property and another at 310 N. Fourth St. Ray’s bid totaled $5,100 — $1,950 for Radford’s; $3,150 for the Fourth Street home — and was the lowest of four. Work likely will start next Tuesday or soon thereafter.
Radford attended Monday’s meeting, and implored the Council to give him an extension to clear the property himself. Since early August, he has demolished about half of his trailer house and pulled assorted items from his garage.
“I’ve got help now, and I’ve got more hands coming in,” Radford said. “If you give me two weeks, I’ll make sure it’s cleaned up.”
Council members heard from Code Enforcement Officer Gregg Hutton and Assistant City Administrator Corey Schinstock, who noted Radford was aware his property needed to be cleared well before he started work in early August.
Radford told the Council his estranged wife had refused to leave the property, preventing him from starting the cleanup work earlier.
“We’ve given Mr. Radford many, many opportunities to address the issue,” Hutton said.
COUNCIL members voted, 7-1, to ratify the city’s 2018 spending plan, which incorporates a 3.5-mill increase in property tax levies.
The $29 million budget will be supported in part with an ad valorem tax levy of about 48.9 mills.
That means the owner of a $100,000 home will spend roughly $562 in property taxes to support Iola’s budget in 2018, or about $40 more than was spent for this year’s spending plan. Those figures do not account for property taxes for other taxing agents, such as USD 257, Allen County and Allen Community College.
Beverly Franklin cast the lone dissenting vote.
“It’s not a pretty budget, but it’s a budget that meets state compliance,” Councilman Jon Wells said. “This is what we’ve got to do.”
Still to be determined is if/when the council will take a look again at electric and water rates.
City Administrator Sid Fleming told the Council at its Aug. 14 meeting both of those funds are still not where he wants them to be, and to brace for a proposed increase.
THE COUNCIL:
— Approved a request from the Iola Fire Department to allow firefighters to host a boot block from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday at the intersection of Madison and Washington avenues. The proceeds will benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
— Approved a request from Rookies Bar and Grill to host a beer garden from noon to 10 p.m. Oct. 14 as part of Farm-City Days, at the intersection of Jefferson and East streets.
