TRUMBULL COUNTY Mayor: Timber harvest to start as early as Monday

Once overtime funds are exhausted, no more will be paid, the mayor says.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- Residents could hear the sound of chain saws cutting timber on city-owned land as early as Monday.
Mayor James J. Melfi announced the timetable Tuesday during a meeting of the Girard Financial Planning and Supervision Commission.
The commission was appointed in 2001 to help get the city out of fiscal emergency.
Melfi told commission members that the city's general fund could realize about $500,000 in the next year to 18 months from harvesting the timber.
The city currently has an accumulated general fund deficit of about $1.6 million, said Nita Hendryx, the city's finance supervisor appointed by the state auditor.
Melfi will meet with city council's economic development committee at 2:30 p.m. Thursday to announce which one of three companies that have made proposals to the city to harvest the timber will get the contract.
He said the city's board of control will probably meet Friday to award the contract. Work could begin Monday.
Resource planning
Most of the harvest will occur around the Girard Lakes, but it includes all city property.
"It's a sensitive issue," Melfi told commission members, noting he will recommend the city hire a forester to account for trees that are removed.
"We are not raping the land. We want the city to remain very beautiful," Melfi asserted. However, he noted that not to harvest trees is not putting city resources to good use.
No overtime
In another matter, Melfi said that no overtime will be paid once appropriated overtime funds are exhausted.
Hendryx said that the police department used $53,600 of its annual budgeted $120,000 for overtime through the end of May. The fire department has spent $32,000 of its allocated $38,000.
Melfi said that once the funds are exhausted, he won't pay any more unless council appropriates added money. The mayor said he won't support such a move.
"When the overtime fund is dry, it's dry," Melfi said.
Also, city auditor Sam Zirafi pointed out that workers' compensation costs are increasing.
The city will pay $380,000 this year, compared with $200,000 paid annually by communities of similar size in the state.
By 2010, Zirafi explained, such compensation will be costing the city about $850,000 annually.