Health costs cut

DUNKIRK — Health insurance benefits for city employees will undergo a major revision in February as the city tries to get a handle on its expenses.
Dunkirk City Council unanimously agreed Monday with Mayor Dan Watson’s recommendation to increase the deductible and shift the cost of vision and dental insurance to employees.
Those changes will save the city of Dunkirk about $42,000 a year, when compared to the renewal rates the city had received from its insurance company.
Currently, city employees pay $1 a year for health insurance coverage with a $500 deductible and receive vision and dental coverage at city expense.
Beginning Feb. 1, employees will still pay $1 a year for coverage with a $1,000 deductible and will have to pay for their own optional vision and dental coverage.
“The only difference, mainly, is the deductible, and to be honest with you I don’t know how long we can maintain the $1,000,” Watson said.
Coverage will be with PHP (Physicians Health Plan) through the Sagamore network.
The cost of health insurance is now about $12,000 per year per employee, Watson said. That will be closer to $10,000 per year per employee under the new plan.
“We tried to be as concerned for our employees as we could,” said council member Judy Garr.
“There’s a lot of time and thought invested in this,” added Watson.
Research on competing health care proposals was done for the city by Jennifer Heckman of Strategic Employee Benefits.
Much of the council’s time Monday night was taken up by consideration of requests for adjustments to water bills.
“Unless it’s an underground leak, there’s no adjustment,” Watson said.
But in some cases, leaks had been corrected and property owners were asking to pay the higher bills over time to avoid having service shut off. In other cases, bills had jumped because a software glitch between hand-held meter reading equipment and computer software had been corrected.
Water department superintendent Dace Mumbower will be double-checking meters in an effort to track down any undetected leaks.
But at least one customer, Marc Myers, urged placing the city water utility back under the control of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.
“There’s nobody looking out for us now,” he said.
Watson expressed frustration with the situation. “I don’t like these adjustments,” he said. “I don’t want these to become (an ongoing issue).”
In other business, the council:
•Approved a payment of $25,043.86 to MK Betts Engineering and Contracting, Anderson, for work to date on the city’s wastewater treatment plant improvements.
•Heard Garr say there will be a delay in reading water meters because of the current low temperatures.
“We’ll get to them as soon as we can,” she said.
•Approved paying two officers at the Dunkirk Police Department for vacation days and personal days they couldn’t use in 2012 because the department was short one officer for three months.
•Approved purchase of an electric positive ventilation fan for the fire department at a cost of about $1,700.


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