There was little discussion before two Tiffin City Council members gave the go ahead to have legislation prepared to loan $15,000 for completion of the Tiffin Police and Fire All Patriots Memorial.
During a meeting Tuesday evening, members of the Tiffin City Council Finance Committee agreed 2-0 to loan funds for the memorial. The short-term loan would extend for one year without interest. The loan would be paid back with donations, which memorial planners said still are being received.
"This is just to cover the ongoing fundraising. No city money is going to be used for this," said Fire Chief Bill Ennis.
Committee Member Brian Bilger added the loan is coming out of the NorthStar Industrial Fund, which can be used for economic development, rather than the General Fund.
During a council meeting last week, Rich Focht, president and CEO of Seneca Industrial and Economic Development Corp., said the loan was needed as the scope of the project expanded to include improvements to the surrounding sidewalk.
The memorial was dedicated Sunday and a ceremony was conducted Tuesday in recognition of Patriots Day.
Ennis said the memorial already has attracted people from out of the area, saying a family from Michigan had participated in Tuesday's event.
Chris Hafley, chairman of the memorial committee, said he has requests to add the memorial as a destination on bus tours of the area.
In another matter, the committee agreed to have legislation prepared to transfer $820 from the city council election line, which will not be used this year, to cover the cost of replacement pages for physical copies of the city ordinances, which was higher than budgeted.
Although the ordinances are available digitally through the city website, changes to the physical copies are printed yearly. Bilger said he would like to investigate reducing the number of copies printed to control costs.
Also, Finance Director Gwynn Reinhart told committee members about an issue with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency brownfield grant from 2009 which had an error at the EPA, resulting in funds being transferred from the wrong account.
Reinhart, who was given the information from Karen Bowers, director of development for SIEDC, said the solution would be to transfer between $13,000-$16,000 to the EPA, which would be returned soon after. Focht said it was not possible to fix the error through an accounting change.
Reinhart said the budget will have to be changed in order to make the transfer. After approval by a vote of 2-0, she said the legislation needs to be acted on at a meeting Monday.
