Iolans will hear the city’s new storm sirens at noon Friday.
Police Chief Jared Warner told Iola commissioners Tuesday that crews from Blue Valley Public Safety were installing the new $145,000 alert system and should have it online by Thursday.
The sirens will eventually have the ability to broadcast verbal messages of specific dangers such as tornadoes, severe thunderstorms or other public emergencies. Voice functions will not be installed for a few weeks, Warner said.
The sirens also can relay information back to the controller, enabling the city to conduct silent testing of the system.
With battery backups, the sirens can still function in case of power loss.
The equipment was purchased with funds from the city’s capital improvement reserves, generated with a portion of the city’s one-cent sales tax.
HIGHER HEALTH insurance premiums are in store for the city and its employees, commissioners were told.
The city must increase the amount it pays for each of the 104 employees receiving health insurance to $430 a month, up from $390. Employees enrolled in family health insurance plans must pay an additional
$250 a month on top of that. Employees with family plans formerly paid $200 a month.
The higher insurance premiums can be traced to the much-publicized federal health care legislation,
City Administrator Judy Brigham said, because it removes caps on catastrophic coverage, previously maxed at $3 million, and private nursing plans.
Because the city’s carrier, Blue Cross Blue Shield, is exposed to more potential costs, its clients must pay more in premiums, she said.
Also, Brigham noted, “we just had a bad year. We had employees, through no fault of their own, with illnesses that required high claims.”
The city has funds budgeted to cover the $651,420 necessary for employees’ premiums, Brigham said. However, it usually keeps extra in reserve, and Brigham asked commissioners to transfer $100,000 from utility reserves to the employee insurance fund. Of the transfer, $34,000 would come from the electric fund and $33,000 each from gas and wastewater funds. If unused, the funds would roll over for future years, Brigham said.
Because of the transfers — recommended by the Employee Task Force — Brigham said department heads have agreed to cut spending in their respective departments by 2.25 percent.
Commissioners agreed to the transfers.
Commissioner Bill Shirley noted that the city may have to look at its salary schedule in 2011 to determine if raises should be pared because of the rise in insurance premiums.
COMMISSIONERS endorsed a proposal for employees to participate in an ING 457 retirement plan. Human Resources Officer Ken Hunt explained the plan is similar to 401k retirement plans in the private sector and is an added option for employees already enrolled in the Kansas Public Employment Retirement System (KPERS).
Participation is funded solely by employees, not the city, Hunt noted.
TWO-YEAR appointments were renewed for City Attorney Chuck Apt, Municipal Judge Thomas Saxton, City Clerk Roxanne Hutton, Fire Chief Donald Leapheart, City Treasurer Debra Troxel and Warner as chief of police. Their contracts run through September 2012.
