Colby council approves pay raises, health plans

By Nathaniel Underwood

The Colby City Council approved yearend raises for city employees and a health plan renewal for the Colby/Abbotsford Police Department at its most recent monthly meeting last Tuesday.

The board moved to give most of the city employees a $1 per hour raise for 2025 following a closed session at their regular meeting. They also agreed to a 50cent raise in July for those employees and a $2 per hour raise for both city clerk Connie Gurtner and public works director Harland Higley.

All employees were also allowed to carry over up to 40 hours of vacation time from 2024 to 2025.

The council also approved the Security Health Plan Premier plan and Enrich plan as health insurance options for city employees.

Additionally, the board gave their approval of the presented health care insurance for the joint police department for 2025. It was noted that the department and committee looked over other options, but they were not overly impressed with what they found. The department recommended renewing the Security Health plan for roughly $124,000, which is an increase of 23.75 percent, according to the police department’s report. It was also noted that if the police department left the co-op they are in to get a special rate for the health insurance, it could be difficult for them to re-enter the co-op in the future if they so wished.

While there was a significant increase to the premium cost, it was still said that the Security Health Plan offer was the best available.

Other business

■ ■ During the clerk’s report, it was noted that many owners of residential properties in the city would likely see their taxes increase this coming year. The city has created a brochure to explain the various factors that will influence the property taxes this year, including the recent reassessment of the city’s properties, a higher increase in equalized value in the city of Colby compared to surrounding townships, and the pair of school district referendums that passed in the November election.

It was noted during this report that taxes in the city had remained relatively level or even gone down over the last several years as the surrounding townships went through their own reassessments, so an increase was always going to happen when the city needed to undergo its own reassessment.

■ ■ A Christmas gift of a $50 chamber gift certificate for each city employee was approved by the board.