It was an "additional" night for the Warsaw City Council Monday.

The council approved three additional appropriations, totalling $345,700. However, taxpayers are still coming out ahead, in spite of the extra spending, the council said.

The council approved an additional appropriation request by city planner Jeff Noffsinger for $4,200 to fund an assistant during the summer.

Noffsinger said that the summer position, while not budgeted, is well within his department's overall spending plan because the permanent position of assistant city planner remains unfilled. Mayor Ernie Wiggins supported Noffsinger's request.

"I will say that we did have an assistant planner with Pat Hudson, with Jeff serving in that position, and that we don't have anyone in that position now," Wiggins said.

Noffsinger said the summer assistant will conduct a sign inventory for the department, as well as assist in other administrative functions.

The council also approved an additional appropriation request from the street department of $31,500 to buy a new street sweeper and garbage truck. The source of the funds is the reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Administration for the costs incurred by the city during the January snowstorm.

The final additional appropriation approved was for $310,000 to retire the 1992 aviation bond issue. Retiring the bonds early will save the city $40,187.50 in interest costs, Wiggins said. Councilman Paul Siebenmorgen abstained from the vote because the bonds are held by Lake City Bank, where Siebenmorgen is an officer.

In other business, the council approved three tax abatement requests from Dalton Corp., Instrumedical Technologies Inc. and Little Crow Foods.

The council also waived the building permit fees for Madison and Washington elementary schools and for Valley Springs Fellowship Church. [[In-content Ad]]