Ronceverte city officials have approved a longevity payment for city workers to thank them for serving their community.
The longevity payment, already offered to the city’s police officers, will be given on an employee’s anniversary of employment, beginning the third year.
At the Ronceverte City Council meeting Monday evening, Oct. 3, city administrator Pamela Mentz explained the reason for the yearly payment.
The payment to police officers began eight years ago, she said, to remain competitive against other cities and towns that can pay more.
“Now, we’ve got to think about the other employees. We have a lot of other people who are staff who are very valuable people,” she said.
“We’ve got some people who are trying to move on to bigger cities because they have more money and they pay more,” said Mentz. “I think we can do this to show (our employees) that we appreciate them — ‘we appreciate you staying with us’ — it’s just a small thing to show appreciation that I think that everybody has.”
According to Mentz, for the past eight years the police department’s longevity payment structure has been $75 per year, beginning at three years and capping at 10, and her recommendation to council was to increase the amount to $100 to police and all other city staff including city hall employees and wastewater, trash, water, and streets department staff.
The third-year payment was voted on and approved at $100 with increases of $100 per year, capping at 10 years.
In other business, civil engineer Bob Hazelwood updated the council on ongoing repairs to the city’s water system, stating that about one-third of citizens’ water lines and meters have been replaced along with 25% of the city’s water mains.
Additionally, he said, the city has two new water tanks.
Hazelwood stated that before the water infrastructure improvement projects began, the city of Ronceverte was purchasing 400,000 gallons of water from Lewisburg per day; improvements to the water infrastructure have resulted in the city purchasing less than 200,000 gallons per day.
Hazelwood said that grant funding to continue to replace water lines is pending.
During the portion of the meeting in which the city administrator, the mayor, and council members make comments and announcements, the following were made:
· Mayor Deena Pack thanked emergency workers for their work over the weekend, directing traffic and overseeing cleanup on Lewisburg Avenue where a utility pole had fallen.
· Mentz announced that construction of a splash pad on Island Park continues, and she expects it to be ready by spring. There will be a groundbreaking ceremony for the splash pad on Oct. 17 at 1 p.m.
· The Ronceverte Library will hold its annual book sale on Oct. 7.
· People’s Bank is sponsoring a Halloween yard decorating contest for the month of October. Three winners will receive gift cards. Winners will be announced Oct. 28.
· Trick or treating will be held on Monday, Oct. 31, from 6-8 p.m. at houses with their porch lights turned on.
