With concerns about exorbitant increases for health insurance in the rear-view mirror, Iola City Council members agreed to reinstate regularly scheduled pay raises for its employees for the upcoming fiscal year.
Council members approved the merit and longevity raises Monday, after both had been eliminated over the summer while the Council hammered out the citys 2020 budget.
The concern then was a projected health insurance premium increase of 30 percent or more or about $137,000 over what had been budgeted. That prediction failed to materialize, however, after the Council moved the city from a self-insured plan to fully insured through Blue Cross Blue Shield.