By Kelsi Langston
For the Miami Valley Today
COVINGTON — Budgets, appropriations, and modifications to the employee manual were among the topics of discussion at this week’s regular village of Covington Council meeting.
Kay McKinney, the Secretary-treasurer elect from the Covington-Newberry Historical Society, presented the council with a current list of maintenance and updates needed to keep the building that houses the Fort Rowdy Museum operational, as well as a timeline describing previous repairs. The village of Covington owns the property, located at 101 East Spring Street, which it rents to the Historical Society. The building is currently the only structure in Covington that is on the National Register of Historic Places. According to the original lease that was signed in 1982, the village is responsible for maintenance and repair of the exterior of the building, while the renter — in this case, the Historical Society — is responsible for upkeep of the interior.
McKinney shared changes that have been made throughout the past year to the interior including new electricity, lighting, updated displays, and the purchase of three historical markers, all of which were made possible due to funds received from the Roy Weikert Trust. She also expressed that numerous costly repairs, both interior and exterior, are still needed. She concluded her presentation by asking the council to consider appropriating funds to the Historical Society for completion of repairs.
In other news, Covington’s Hometown Christmas celebration will be held from Dec. 3 to Dec. 4. Village Administrator Kyle Hinkleman said there will be some modifications to the Home Decorating Contest this year.
“We’re not going to do the scoring and the judging quite the same. It’s going to be a little different. It’s really going to be a more community based approach,” Hinkelman said. “We’re going to have an awards ceremony … It’ll be a lot of fun where we can all get together and celebrate each other in the effort that we went to to make our community a little prettier in the Christmas season.”
The council held second readings of three ordinances. The first ordinance would allow for modifying the employee manual, the second for modifying the Position Description Plan, creation of new positions and employee title changes, and the third was a salary ordinance for the year 2022. There was also the second reading of a resolution to modify the village administrator contract.
First readings were held for the adoption of a budget for the year 2022, as well as an ordinance for reappropriation of funds in the 2021 budget. The ordinance for appropriation of funds was approved after the council waived the three-reading rule.
