By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
Discussion among City of Decatur officials and the MERIT Center board is ongoing over the center’s cleaning budget. Included in the conversation is any possible role for the county.
Some time ago, the person cleaning the MERIT Center had to step away for medical reasons.
Lynn Kressley, who has her own cleaning service, was brought in to handle the work for a time.
She did such an outstanding job that it was decided to retain Kressley full-time, working 23 hours a week in the building.
The current budget of $12,000 a year would need boosted, however, to $35,000 annually for the expanded cleaning services.
Clerk-treasurer Eran Hackman pointed out that the current budgeted funds are already insufficient. “We’re going to be short this year, so we need to make this up,” she said.
“It’s a great facility that has great use … it’s a facility that needs cleaned,” Councilman Matt Dyer noted.
“I’m not sure we should be fronting all the costs for it,” Councilman Tyler Fullenkamp added.
The city owns the MERIT Center, once an elementary school, but the county’s Adams County on Aging oversees the building, a deal for which it pays no rent.
Council decided to delay any decisions until later after Councilwoman Abby Wilder said she would talk to the MERIT Center board, of which she is a member.
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