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City takes first steps to break from county DCD

A city plan to break away from the Huntington Countywide Department of Community Development moved forward on Tuesday, April 8, despite concerns voiced by the president of the Huntington County Commissioners.

Members of the Huntington Common Council gave final approval to a pair of ordinances that appropriate funds and set employee salaries for a new Department of Community Development and Redevelopment that would serve only the city of Huntington.

That would remove the city from the countywide DCD, which was formed more than 20 years ago to oversee planning, zoning and building regulations in the city of Huntington as well as all towns and rural areas in Huntington County.

"I'm a little in the dark as to why this is being done," Commissioners President Larry Buzzard told city council members during their April 8 meeting.

Buzzard said city officials have not discussed the plan with the commissioners and that he learned of it only when Mayor Brooks Fetters called him a week before the city council's March 25 meeting to tell him the proposal would be introduced to council at that time.

The city currently provides some of the funding to operate the countywide DCD, and the loss of that funding would affect the county budget, Buzzard said. A split would also have an effect on contractors doing business in the county, he added, and could have a negative effect on city-county cooperation.

County revenue, as well as revenue for Huntington Township, Huntington County Community Schools and the Huntington City-Township Public Library would also be affected by a recently-announced annexation plan by the city, Buzzard said.

"It seems obvious to me the two issues are connected," Buzzard said.

Neither Fetters nor council members responded immediately to Buzzard's comments, but they did address the issues later in the meeting as they prepared to vote on the pair of ordinances.

The ordinance to appropriate $259,500 to establish the city department was approved on a 4-2 vote, with council members Paul Pike and Wayne Powell dissenting. The second ordinance, establishing salaries for the department's three employees, was approved 5-1, with Pike dissenting. Councilman Jim Long was absent.

Fetters told council members he believes the city would be better served by a department that focuses solely on city issues, which he says differ from issues in the county or the smaller towns.

"The needs and demands of those communities are different kinds of issues," Fetters said.

"We have enough work on our own ... that it warrants our own office here."

The city, he added, has its own comprehensive plan for development.

"We need to have a planning department that moves along that plan," he said.

Fetters noted that the countywide DCD and its director, Mark Mussman, report directly to the county commissioners. While he's heard about DCD issues affecting the city, he said, he's had no direct communication about those issues from county officials.

"Honestly, I can count on one hand the number of times the commissioners have spoken to me about concerns that they have," Fetters said.

The apparent lack of communication with the county "kind of concerns me," Councilman Charles Chapman said.

Fetters said he notified Buzzard that a legal notice would be published requesting the additional appropriation to establish the city department.

"It's a two-way street," Fetters said. "He's had no communication with me about it, either."

The city must give 60-day notice before it can leave the countywide DCD and has not yet done that, Fetters said.

In other business:

• Council gave final approval to an ordinance offering early retirement incentives to city employees who are at least 58 years old and have at least 20 years of service. Seventeen of the city's 40 employees are eligible to participate in the voluntary program.

• Council approved on first reading the vacation of an alley adjacent to the former YMCA building on Warren Street. The alley runs from Washington Street to Park Drive and is parallel with Warren and Guilford streets. An Ohio-based company has proposed building a Senior Citizen apartment building on the site.

• Council approved a 10-year tax abatement for Continental Structural Plastics. CSP is installing approximately $1.6 million in new manufacturing and IT equipment. With the abatement, property taxes on that equipment will be phased in over 10 years.