Hiram Council Delays Budget Vote

The Hiram City Council met Tuesday for a special called meeting at 6 p.m. After Interim Mayor Jack Paris called the meeting to order the council went into closed session to discuss personnel issues.

The council returned from the approximately 75-minute closed session and decided to forego any discussion of the remaining budget items. No votes were taken and the special session adjourned.

Interim Mayor Jack Paris said after the conclusion of the meeting that the council was not ready to discuss the agenda items in an open session yet.

During their regular meeting earlier this month, the council tabled an item to approve fiscal year 2012 budgets by resolution for General Fund, Water Fund, Hotel/Motel Fund, Sanitation Fund and Confiscated Fund. Paris said the vote could come on Sept. 6, which would be the next regular council meeting.

According to City Clerk Terri Graham, the three remaining items of new business on the special called meeting agenda were budget-related and added for discussion by the council including:

• MuniCode, to insure that city ordinances are in line with state law and compiled in an orderly fashion.
• Comprehensive/Master Plan, a 10-year plan coming up for renewal.
• Economic Development Organization, the city would consider another one-year renewal.
• Professional Consultant for Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) negotiation for the city’s piece of the sales tax pie collected by the state and distributed to counties and municipalities. Important for Hiram as the commercial center of Paulding County.

The one additional agenda item was a discussion of a franchise agreement with Appalachian Valley Fiber Net, a fiber network project just underway. The council has heard two presentations from Appalachian reps over the last two months, but councilmen have yet to make a decision on whether or not they would agree to an agreement. If an agreement was made, the city would stand to earn a 4-percent franchise tax from fiber net uses.