Manila Mayor Clifford Veach presented the annual State of the City address at the Feb. 15 meeting calling 2009 a good year.
"The city of Manila is financially sound," Mayor Veach said. "We started the year with the ice storm in January. It was a terrible experience we hope to never experience again. Clean-up work lasted through April or May."
Veach reviewed the improvements to the city throughout the year. Projects included the purchase of three new storm sirens giving Manila a total of four sirens. City Park improvements were done in the amount of $40,000 to $50,000. Mayor Veach said the work at the park has been worth it and he hopes to continue with improvements.
Veach said out of four grant applications two had been approved, a Costner sewer addition and airport grants and improvements. The two pending grants are for generators and the construction of a public works building.
Veach said the bonds on the water improvement project had been paid off and they were able to cut the one fourth cent sales tax to the citizens. The city completed the annexation project, built a new fire station, completed work on two new lift stations, and purchased a new chipper truck and golf cart.
There were also renovations done to the big hangar at the airport and the city received approval for a fuel system at the airport.
"We were able to give the employee bonuses, hired a new city treasurer, got a new roof on the Head Start building, did repairs on one of the water pumps, changed ambulance services, sold the old fire station, moved the Boy Scouts to a better meeting building, hosted a successful Manila music show, had one of the largest Christmas parades ever, and purchased a new sound system at the community center," Veach said.
He said there is another grant pending for new heating and air conditioning system at the community center.
"All in all, we have had a good year and hope to have another one in 2010," Veach said.
In other business:
*Veach informed the council the 2008 audit had been completed.
"It looks good," he said. "We had a few items to respond to but nothing major."
*He announced there will be a 2010 Census representative in Manila on Monday for a public information meeting.
*The council voted to allow Mayor Veach to negotiate the city's TV cable contract with Ritter.
"I have a couple of minor things to discuss," Veach said. "They (Ritter) came in here and spent a lot of money. We have a good system and I would like to see them continue to do so. They care about their customers and you get a person when you call."
*The council voted unanimously to accept the lowest bid from Douglas Electric for installation of a manual switch in the new fire station. The switch will allow the power to go to generator when an outage occurs.