Vote expected on 2 percent pay increase for Bel Air town employees

The Town of Bel Air is close to approving a 2 percent raise for its employees, and the final OK could come as early as the next town meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 3.

Town Administrator Chris Schlehr said at a town work session Tuesday that the resolution to give town employees the cost of living increase could be up for a vote by the town commissioners following a public hearing Jan. 3. If approved, the raises would cost the town $64,871 for its 96 employees.

Lisa Moody, Bel Air's finance director, told the town commissioners at the work session that the last raises for employees was in fiscal year 2010, which was also for 2 percent. Schlehr said he had requested a 1.5 percent cost of living increase for this current fiscal year, but the town commissioners did not approve it. The money was left in the contingency budget for this request, however.

The hearing on the pay increase resolution will start at 7:30 p.m. with the regular town meeting to follow.

Sewer upgrade

In other business from Tuesday's work session, Bel Air's Department of Public Works is close to starting a sewer inflow and infiltration elimination project in the town's Homestead Village neighborhood, according to town officials.

Moody said the town "didn't have the chance to get financing in place" and will need to declare intent for the project in order to be reimbursed with tax-exempt funding from the state. The project has been budgeted for $300,000.

Inflow and infiltration, where storm water and other water not needing treatment by a sewage plant makes its way into sewer lines and is eventually treated needlessly, is a long standing problem for many public sewage treatment systems.

Schlehr said the Homestead Village area of Bel Air is "the worst area we can delineate in the [town] for I and I [inflow and infiltration.]"

Moody said DPW is close to starting the project. DPW Director Randolph Robertson added that the Homestead sewer INI project is "strictly [for] the main lines."

Copyright © 2021, The Baltimore Sun, a Baltimore Sun Media Group publication | Place an Ad
70°