43
Youngstown OKs 3-year deal with street dept. union
Officials also void 1974 law that made it illegal to ride bicycles, motorcycles in downtown
YOUNGSTOWN
City council approved a three-year contract with its street department union that freezes the salaries of union members for 2017 and 2018 and gives them a 1-percent raise in 2019.
The Teamsters Local 377, which represents about 37 street department workers, already had ratified the deal before council’s Wednesday vote.
The contract, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, also gives each member $805 a year in “exposure pay consistent with other bargaining units” such as police, fire and wastewater union members, according to a summary of the contract.
The contract is consistent with what other city employee unions are receiving, said Law Director Martin Hume.
Also, council voted to repeal a 1974 law making it illegal to ride bicycles and motorcycles in the heart of downtown.
The law hasn’t been enforced for years, and was approved shortly after the city closed Federal Street and turned it into a pedestrian plaza.
The city took down the plaza in 2005 and reopened Federal Street to vehicular traffic, but never took the law off the books.
The repeal happened after a bicyclist brought up the law during a Jan. 19 public hearing on a proposed bike path between downtown and Mill Creek MetroParks.
“We’re going for a grant to create a bike bath and make the city more biker-friendly, so this law serves no purpose,” said Councilwoman Lauren McNally, D-5th, who co-sponsored the ordinance. “Technically, the police could have pulled people over on that law, but it hasn’t been an issue or a problem.”
Council also voted to allow the board of control to enter into a contract with the state to resurface two of downtown’s busiest streets – West Federal Street between Phelps and Walnut streets and Market Street from Front to Commerce streets.
The work would cost about $400,000 with the state providing 80 percent of the funding, about $320,000, and the city responsible for the rest, about $80,000.
The work would shut down the two streets for about two weeks in August, the mayor said.
Also, council authorized the board of control to sign an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to have the federal agency fund 75 percent of the money needed to hire six police officers.
The federal Community Oriented Policing Services program would provide $747,368 with the city paying $249,123 for the new hires over a three-year period.
The city plans to hire five of the six patrol officers in the next couple of weeks with the final one hired in the next month or two, the mayor said.