Marion’s insurance bill to rise 6.3%
Staff writer
Marion’s insurance rates climbed $8,000 this year.
Insurance agent Alex Case told council members that next year’s price would be $133,572.
“With that said, inflationary factors have been applied to the property portion of the policy, resulting in the statement of values being increased by about $2 million to just over $23 million,” Case said.
The city’s policy will cost $62,707 for commercial property coverage, $11,793 for liability, $34,170 for cyber, $9,662 for automobiles, $9,682 for items such as lawn mowers, tractors, and utility poles, $6,832 for umbrella coverage, $100 for government crime, $4,437 for linebacker claims, and $2,934 for law enforcement liability.
Councilman Kevin Burkholder asked Case about liability coverage.
Six lawsuits have been filed against the city, five of them stemming from raids Aug. 11, 2023, on the Marion County Record and two houses, and one over insurance lawyer Jennifer Hill’s handling of open records requests.
Case said the city already was covered for the maximum for which the company tends to insure municipalities.
Council members also discussed a possible upgrade of the city website.
Website host CivicPlus provided a proposal for a system modification that would cost $4,000 with an annual recurring fee of $4,000 plus a cost escalator.
Mayor Mike Powers said he’d rather have someone come talk to the council. Interim city administrator Mark McAnarney said he would talk to contractor Lloyd Davies at Great Plains Computers and Networking about setting up a visit with the council.
Powers said he hoped people with comments about an ordinance that would prohibit people from living in campers would contact council members sooner rather than later.