Members of the Bellefontaine City Council have set an April timeline to determine whether to resume in-person regular meetings, or to continue to meet online via the Zoom platform, as they have since the middle of the pandemic.
Council president Zeb Wagner in a regular meeting conducted Tuesday online invited his fellow members of council to consider their preference for how to meet going forward.
Returning to city council chambers for regular, in-person meetings is one option, Wagner said.
However, council could also consider meeting together at the Distance Learning Center inside Bellefontaine High School. Meeting there would allow for greater social distancing among members of council, and may even permit some public attendance during meetings.
Regardless, any meeting in-person would require council members to wear masks, no matter where it was located.
Council’s next regular meeting — March 23 — will also be online. A decision whether to return to in-person council meetings, or to continue meeting online could come then.
As for action taken by council during the meeting, the 2021 permanent appropriations were approved on second reading.
Total appropriations for 2021 amount to $28,438,881, with around $10.1 million allocated for the General Fund. Both the total and General Fund appropriation figures are slightly reduced from the 2020 budget, council related during the meeting.
Specific line-item allocations within the General Fund include $3.7 million and $1.9 million for the Bellefontaine police and fire departments, respectively. A total of $824,690 was allocated to fund the Bellefontaine Municipal Court.
Also Tuesday, council approved an ordinance authorizing the service-safety director to seek bids for a water line replacement project currently in the works for the area of Allison, Milligan, Knowlton and Reservoir roads.
The estimated $450,000 project will be paid for out of the water construction fund