Bonus plans dies on Council floor

By SAM HATCHER
The City of Lebanon, as many of us, has struggled during a difficult economic environment. The City has slashed budgets, cut services and been creative in a number of ways in order to make ends meet.

Credit for stabilizing the City’s budget woes should be handed to the mayor and members of the city council. Over the past two years they have made some tough decisions.

They’ve squabbled and fought and churned and in the end made critical decisions for which we may not all agree but decisions that we all understand have been necessary because of an ailing economy.

Among those penalized the most by the actions of the city fathers have been those employed by the City. Over the course of the last several months, City workers have been asked to step up and pay a greater percentage of their health insurance, wages have been frozen and in many cases workers have been asked to do their job and assume some of the duties of other workers.

These are and remain to be challenging times. The mayor, because of encouraging numbers over the past four months with respect to an increase in revenues for the City and the prospect of this trend continuing through December, is asking the council to reinstate this year a Christmas bonus plan for City employees.

These are not large Wall Street-like bonuses but instead rather small tokens. They in no way will replace or nearly replace the financial losses that have been sustained by each employee for the past two years.

It’s just, as the mayor puts it, a way to say “thanks.”