MARION -- The Marion City Council met for the first time in 2020, making changes to union contracts and abating millions in bond obligations, among its actions.
Council approves 20-mile radius for employee residency
The Marion City Council unanimously voted Monday night to extend the radius where city employees may reside from 10 miles to 20 miles from Marion City Hall.
Mayor's Chief of Staff Cody Moake said that the city's collective-bargaining unions agreed to the policy change; however, the fire department would still require firefighters to live within the 10-mile limit.
Marion Police Chief David Fitts had asked at the Dec. 10 council meeting for the 10-mile limit to be doubled, so that the MPD could employ qualified officers from a wider swath of Southern Illinois.
The council, with Mayor Mike Absher and commissioners Doug Patton, John M. Barwick Jr., Jim Webb and John Stoecklin, voted 5-0 to approve the rule change in the Marion city employee handbook.
$5.2 million in property taxes abated
More than $5.2 million in property taxes were abated on Monday night by the Marion City Council, which voted unanimously to forgo charging taxpayers for the repayment of general-obligation bonds.
With Mayor Mike Absher and commissioners Doug Patton, John M. Barwick Jr., Jim Webb and John Stoecklin, the council abated the property-tax payments on eight general-obligation bonds, issued from as far back as 2011, and ranging from $1.4 million to $230,499.
The bonds will be paid off with sales-tax revenues, said Mayor Absher, who spearheaded a policy change last year to eliminate property taxes in Marion in favor of a 0.75-percent increase in the city's sales tax.
In other business, the council unanimously approved a $216,294.61 loan agreement with Banterra Bank to finance the purchase of three vehicles for the Street Department.
And the council OKed economic-inducement agreements with Lynn Thomas LLC to develop homes at 1103 and 1105 E. Union St. in Residential TIF I.
City Hall to be closed on MLK Day
Marion City Hall will be closed next Monday, Martin Luther King Day.
"The first time," said Mayor Mike Absher, who asked the Marion Republican to report the holiday closing at the end of Monday night's City Council meeting.
