SIDNEY — Sidney Water Park’s 2018 rates and prevailing wage legislation were among topics discussed during Sidney City Council’s workshop session, Monday.

Duane Gaier, parks and recreation director, said staff is recommending increasing the 2018 individual-only season pass to $33 from $32. He also recommended raising the daily admission fee for adults, seniors and youth to $4.50 from $4.25 and the daily admission for preschool children to $3.50 from $3. An ordinance will be introduced at the March 12 meeting.

In other business, a discussion ensued about whether council should develop a resolution to show support for House Bill 163 and Senate Bill 72 that exempts local governments from prevailing wage requirements.

The sample legislation that was provided for council by County Commissioner Julie Ehemann defines prevailing wage as the sum of the basic hourly rate of pay, contributions by a contractor of subcontractor to a fund, plan or program, and the costs to the contractor or subcontractor in providing various fringe benefits.

Opponents of prevailing wage laws, the sample legislation said, suggests they hurt free market competition and causes costs to escalate on public projects, as many calculations to determine the prevailing wage tend to identify union wages and benefits as the benchmark in a given community.

Sidney Mayor Mike Barhorst admitted that although he spoke in support of the legislation last year, he pointed out council has remained steadfast in choosing not to endorse issues, such as the school levy, for example. Because of this, he encouraged council members to instead send letters in support of the law.

Vice Mayor Mardie Milligan she feels this situation, is different because the legislation deals directly with Sidney’s money.

She pointed to the issue of the home rule authority and questioned why Sidney shouldn’t have the right to “spend their taxpayer’s money the way they see most efficient and economical.”

Council member Joe Ratermann agreed with Milligan’s point.

Barhorst said, “I certainly don’t disagree with that, I’ve said that repeatedly. But, again, I find it a little difficult to pick and choose what we support and don’t support.”

After some further brief discussion, council voted 4 to 2 against creating a resolution in support of the House and Senate bills. Council member Darryl Thurber was absent, Monday, and was excused by council.

Council also discussed the possibility of developing a sick leave donation program for city employees since such a policy currently does not exist.

City Manager Mark Cundiff brought the topic to council after a senior director had inquired about it as an possible option the there was a need to help another employee who had already used all of their leave. Various scenarios of why it could be needed or how it could be abused were discussed, including recalled examples previous of work places.

Cundiff noted that up to this point the city has not a sick leave donation program and has not had a problem.

The mayor noted that although the desire is always there to help, it can also come back as a mistake if the time is needed by the person who donated it.

Council determined to leave things the way it is currently and not to develop the program.

Also during Monday’s meeting, Barhorst said he had heard comments all over the spectrum about what the council’s discussion last week about what city should do about the deteriorating public pool. Some people had no idea the city subsidizes so much (about $84,000 per year) to keep it running, he said, and others couldn’t believe there was talk of closing it. Other council members said they also heard some of the same concerns.

During city manager comments, Cundiff announced after all of the recent rain, it just became apparent the roof on the Sidney Service Center must be replaced. The original 40-year-old roof will cost about $95,000 to replace. Currently, he said, there is only $25,000 in the service center fund.

Cundiff there are still many ash trees that needs to be removed. This winter 354 ash trees were taken down, and over the last four winters, over 1026 trees were removed. He also said the parks and recreation department is getting ready to tackle removing the large amount of overgrown honeysuckle from Sidney’s parks and get the ball fields ready.

Also he said residents can go now to the city website and review council’s scanned minutes from 1857 to the present.