By Crystal McGough, associate editor
SPRINGVILLE – The Springville City Council voted Monday night to adopt its budget for the 2022-2023 fiscal year with an amendment to the section regarding employee life insurance premiums.
The proposed budget had life insurance premiums set equally at $10,000 for all city employees. Previously, fire and police department employees had a premium of $30,000.
“In the budget, we increased the (health) insurance from 50% to 75%,” Councilor Sherry Reaves said “We implemented the merit plan. We discontinued the opt-out. We have a $10,000 life insurance across the board.”
After deliberation on the risks and responsibilities first responders face, in comparison to other city employees, as well as overall fairness toward all employees and their families, the council agreed to increase the life insurance premium across the board to $30,000.
“It’s these little things that make a big difference,” Mayor Dave Thomas said. “For example, … our police officers (used to be) one of the highest paid in the county; we had the best benefits in the county. Now, we’re middle of the pack. I don’t like being in the middle of the pack. I want to be out front, and if that means raising the death benefit for all of our employees to $30,000, let’s do that. Let’s do what we can, taking incremental little steps to make things more appealing so that we can attract firefighters and paramedics and police officers, as opposed to going the other direction.”
The council approved a motion to amend the budget to reflect the increase from $10,000 to $30,000, and then approved a motion to adopt the amended budget.
The council also unanimously approved funding for Springville’s “Sesquicentennial Celebration” in an amount not to exceed $30,000.
“This is our 150-year celebration,” Faith Community Fellowship Springville Campus Pastor Mike Ennis said. “We’re looking at a number of things: fireworks, music, actually commissioning some art that would outlive the celebration – something we can leave behind.”
The date and location for the Sesquicentennial Celebration is yet to be determined.
“As far as the money, I would prefer that future generations question that we spent too much rather than not enough,” Thomas said. “This is a big deal –150 years. We need to blow the lid off this thing.”
In other business, the council approved the following:
- Motion to fund three street lights in Village Trace subdivision
- Motion to amend job description, hiring criteria for new firefighter recruits
- Motion to create temporary administrative position
- Motion to approve K9 Officer compensation in the amount of $3,600.40
- Motion to approve MOU for School Resource Officers
- Motion to approve funding request from Parks & Recreation in the amount of $37,935
- Motion to renew Miss Historic Springville scholarship contract for 2023
- Ordinance 2022-06, amending business license ordinance regarding residential rental properties
The next meeting of the Springville City Council will be Monday, Oct. 3, 2022, beginning at 6 p.m.
Crystal McGough can be contacted at mcgoughcrystal@gmail.com