Ravenna City Council Faces Issues with Budgeting and Coronavirus

The Ravenna City Council met on Dec 7 at 7 pm to discuss the issues happening in the city, mainly with the cemeteries, environmental issues and COVID-19. 

During the report of the committee, the cemetery chairman Matt Harper and Paul Moskun discussed issues with the budget. The problem is that the cemeteries are in the “red” and need a long term solution to keep them out of the black.

The township wants to raise the cemeteries’ deductible to $1,500 and fire any part-time workers, just to help cut cost. It has been over 20 years since the cemeteries have had an increase in money and are looking for a way to change this. 

The budget for 2021 is about $8,200 short, however, they are still working on the budget before it has to be finalized. 

An issue facing the cemeteries was brought up at the last Ravenna City Council Public Safety Meeting, in which the township of Ravenna wants to leave the union between the city and them. As the township cannot afford the two cemeteries and sees leaving the union as a way to save money, however, the Council is in full support of the union and wants to look at a tax levy. However, the conclusion of that meeting did not give a full solution to the issue at hand. 

Along with the issues with the cemeteries, another issue was brought up during the reading of ordinances that dealt with removing sludge from the wastewater treatment plant. 

ORDINANCE NO. 2020-136 allowed the council to support a contract with Agri Sludge Inc and was passed with declaring an emergency 

 “The price could up go 1 to 3 pennies per ton compared to last year compared to the company used last year,” Paul Moskun, Ward 1. 

At the end of the meeting, Frank Seman, the mayor of Ravenna, discussed how in three months Ravenna went from 8 houses positive with COVID-19  to 257 houses positive with COVID-19.

“Listening to the news tonight and thanksgiving [numbers] hasn’t really even hit yet and Christmas is going to be worst than thanksgiving. So the Prognosis  is not good and we have a few more months of this to work through this before the vaccine.” 

The City Council Meeting was transitioned into Executive Session at 7:52 pm, ending the live stream. 

The Ravenna City Council meeting will begin at 7 pm tonight. The public can join here: https://t.co/nFkSSYGuJh

— ryanneLocker (@LockerRyanne) December 7, 2020

There is the entire twitter thread