CEYLON — Ceylon City Council met Tuesday and discussed the increase in electricity rates for next year. Since REA is increasing its rates, the city will have to increase their rates. The city will go from a four-tier system to a one-tier system like a flat rate per kilowatt and a demand charge when the electricity is used a lot, such as for air conditioners in the summer and heating in the fall and winter. This helps to balance out the peaks in electricity use. The council approved the increase and the city clerk will send a letter to the residents of Ceylon to explain the rates.

The council also approved the $164,000+ budget for next year which only had an increase in the levy of 1.27 percent. The council also approved the 2020-5 junk ordinance, which will give the city more authority to clean up some of the residences that have been continually resisting ordinances for years. The council will ask nearby cities that have similar ordinances how they go about enforcement to give them an idea of what they should adopt for Ceylon. The council also will schedule a work date to go through the many city ordinances and update them.

The Ceylon Christmas Lighting Contest was approved and prizes will be $75 for first prize, $50 for second prize, and $25 for third prize. Prizes will come in the form of a credit to the resident’s utility bill. The city clerk will have a judge available on Dec. 18.

City employees reported that there was no forfeit sale this year due to the pandemic and other issues. The tree trimming is done for the season and yielded almost 100 loads of branches. The generator was upgraded and should be working by spring. There are electrical connections for the lift station and electric panel to be done and a base to be built.

The council members reported that the Beam Center was asked to be used as an election center for the referendum by the school district. The fire association is using the large washer and will be using the drying set up soon. Insurance questions about the vehicles of the fire department were discussed, which led to a discussion of the total number of vehicles on the insurance.

This being the last meeting in 2020, the outgoing council members, Tom Plumhoff and Fred Schmidtke were thanked for their years of service to the city of Ceylon.