At Monday night’s Loogootee City Council meeting, Mayor Noel Harty said he learned from the clerk-treasurer that the election may only cost around $40,000. He recommended taking $23,000 out of the riverboat fund, $35,000 from the rainy day fund, and $58,000 from LOIT (local option income tax) and transferring it to the general fund for a total of $116,000 to cover the shortfall. Mayor Harty said they had discussed cutting the city’s dispatch hours at their budget workshop to save money. He said since that meeting, he has received a lot of negative feedback from employees, council members, and the public. So, he believes they should leave dispatch hours as is, which would add an additional $40,000 back into the budget. Council Member Rick Norris said he is not in favor of cutting dispatch hours. He said someone walking into the police department to get help needs to have a dispatcher available. The mayor told the council that with the total cuts made, he recommends giving a one-dollar per hour raise to all city employees for next year, including himself and the clerk-treasurer. He said the exceptions would be the fire department and pool employees. The fire chief would receive a $500 raise to $4,000 a year; the assistant chief would move up to $2,500; the fire captain would be bumped to $1,500; and the fire lieutenant would receive up to $1,250 a year. The mayor said he talked to the Loogootee School Superintendent, Dr. Harmon, about the school applying for grants to help pay for the school resource officer. The school currently pays the city $28,000 toward the position, with the city paying around $70,000 including benefits. According to the mayor, Dr. Harmon said they only receive $15,000 a year in safety grants and there are not any other grants available at this time.
