The Meridian City Council is expected to vote on pay raises for city employees as well as take action on relocating a sewer easement along North Frontage Road when it meets on Nov. 7.
In a work session Tuesday, Councilman George Thomas said the council had received information from the city administration about what the raises would cost and can now move forward with increasing employees’ pay.
Prior to approving the 2024 fiscal year budget, the council moved approximately $500,000 into the legislative fund to be put toward future raises. The goal was to earmark the money and put it aside as the city administration and council members worked out who would receive a raise and how much the city can afford.
With the numbers crunched, Thomas said, the council can put the raises up for a vote.
“We have the money available,” he said.
Under the council’s plan, all hourly, overtime eligible workers in the city would receive a $1,000 per year raise. Hourly, overtime eligible certified police officers would receive an additional increase for a total of $2,000 per year.
Councilman Joe Norwood Jr., who serves as council president, said the plan would require two separate actions by the council to complete. First, he said, the council will need to vote to authorize the raises. Second, a budget amendment will be needed to move the funding out of the council-controlled legislative fund and distribute it among the city’s departments.
Thomas said he wanted to move quickly as there are sure to be some city workers who can use the extra money during the upcoming holiday season. Once approved, he said the raises will hopefully go into effect by the end of November.
Sewer relocation
In other business, the council learned about a plan to relocate a sewer line along North Frontage Road as replacing the current pipe is neither practical or financially feasible.
Jason Gault of Kimley-Horn, an engineering firm contracted with the city to help with the physical sewer infrastructure aspect of the federal consent decree, said the current pipe runs through the right-of-way along with gas, electric and other lines. The number of utilities in the area makes it difficult to access the line to make repairs and even harder to install new pipe, he said.
“The old pipe, because of where it’s at, is basically not serviceable,” he said.
Instead of trying to work around so many different utilities, the plan instead is to install a new pipe that runs up into the parking lots of Dirt Cheap, China Buffet and others. That will give the city a site clear of other pipes, cables and conduits to avoid and make the project much easier.
City Attorney Will Simmons said two of the landowners involved have agreed to sell the city the necessary rights-of-way needed for the project at an appraised value of $10,000. The council, he said, will need to vote to authorize those payments in its upcoming meeting.
Gault said this solution will also end up saving the city money as the costs to run bypass pumps alone would exceed $10,000 if the old line had to be swapped out. With the new pipe, the city can skip the pumps all together and just let wastewater run through the old pipe until the project is complete.
Thomas said he would like to see the city run conduit along with the new sewer pipe while the ground is dug up. Underground utilities are becoming more and more prevalent, and adding conduit now sets the city up for future development.
The city can look at what it would cost to run conduit, but some care will need to be taken to make sure it stays separated from the sewer project itself, Gault said. The sewer line work is being paid for from the consent decree fund, which is a $41 million bond being paid for by increases to Meridian residents’ water bills. That money is earmarked specifically for water and sewer, so any conduit will need to be funded separately.
The council is set to meet next at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 7, in the auditorium on the third floor of city hall.