Kettering OKs city manager pay raise, plus $1.5M for variety of projects

Council also voted this week to allow Greeson to seek bids or negotiate contracts for projects ranging from bridge upgrades and road work preparation to improvements at Delco Park and the Kettering Recreation Complex water park.

City manager details

Greeson’s percentage increase is the same as the raises council approved last month for all non-union workers in the 2024 budget, Kettering Mayor Peggy Lehner said. It is retroactive to Dec. 18, when other pay hikes were approved, she said.

Greeson either met expectations, exceeded them or received scores of exceptional in all of the nearly 20 categories in which he was evaluated Dec. 19, according to city records.

“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t run into someone out in the community who says something to the effect that ‘you really got a great hire there.’ It’s been a pleasure to work with him,” Lehner told the Dayton Daily News in late September.

Kettering council approved a $200,000 a year contract for Greeson in October 2022, when it appointed him to succeed Mark Schwieterman. Schwieterman had announced several months prior he would be resigning at the end of that year, and Greeson’s employment with the city started in December 2022.

City projects approved

Other measures approved by City Council Tuesday night allow Greeson to contract for the following items, all of which are budgeted:

· Danube Court bridge rehabilitation, $708,000. An Ohio Department of Transportation grant will fund $672,000 of the cost of the project just south of Woodman Lanes, Assistant City Manager Steve Bergstresser said

· Repairing and renovating Delco Park’s BMX bike track, $165,000.

· Maintaining, removing and replacing city-owned trees, $150,000.

· Polen Farm paver patio repair and replacement, $120,000.

· Beavertown Cemetery parks maintenance storage building replacement, $119,000.

· Lincoln Park Civic Commons tree, tree grates and concrete removal and replacement, $100,000.

· Marshall Road right of way acquisitions from East David Road to Wilmington Pike, $80,000.

· Kettering Municipal Court carpet replacement, $60,000.

· Adventure Reef Water Park patching and repainting, $40,000.

City Council also approved changes to add $74,000 to the Rosewood Arts Centre landscaping project, bringing the total to $208,000, city records show. The Kettering Parks Foundation will fund the added cost, Bergstresser said.

Council also passed a measure to contribute $5,000 to the First Four Hoopla ticket program.