SALEM — City council voted to expand the operating hours for the city’s designated outdoor refreshment area (DORA) in its meeting Tuesday.

Council voted unanimously to approve a resolution expanding the DORA hours from noon through 10 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, to Monday through Saturday during the same hours. City council was requested to expand the DORA to be in operation daily by Scott Larrick, Owner of the OG Ltd. on Broadway Avenue, in a March 18 meeting of the committee of the whole. In a subsequent meeting of the rules and ordinances committee on April 1, it was decided to pare that request back slightly to six days and not have the DORA in effect on Sundays.

Council also approved updates to the city’s wage ordinance and fee schedule. The wage ordinance update codifies an already existing policy in the utilities department to give its non-represented employees the same annual raises that their union employees negotiate. The fee schedule update reduces the fees for environmental inspections from $550 for properties without electricity and $625 for those with electricity to $137 and $165, respectively, and adds food truck inspection fees of $137.50 a day for units without electricity, and $165 for those with.

Other matters approved included participation in the annual Ohio Department of Transportation salt contract; a resolution authorizing and directing Mayor Cydni Baronzzi Dickey to apply for grant funding from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Nature Works program for the repair of pavilions at Centennial Park; and a resolution authorizing the utilities department to enter into a water supply revolving loan account agreement on behalf of the city for the second phase of improvements at the water treatment plant.

During her report Dickey thanked everyone who attended the city’s open forum on the city tax issues up for renewal in the May 6 primary election and encouraged residents regardless of their opinion on any given issue to participate in the upcoming election and vote.

Law Director Brooke Zellers thanked everyone who participated in the city’s press conference on April 11 and stressed the importance of renewing the tax issues on the ballot.

“People need to understand how imperative it is that those [taxes] remain in place. We can’t run our parks without it, the county can’t run without it, we can’t keep our streets in the condition they are without that levy,” said Zellers.

During his report City Service Safety Director Joe Cappuzzello said that the ongoing paving work on State Street and North Lincoln was ahead of schedule and that milling was expected to be completed this week. He said that if work continued at this pace the first phase of paving work should begin next week weather permitting, and that all updates would be broadcast to residents through the city’s TextMyGov and the Police Department’s Facebook page. He also reminded residents to take care while driving on State and Lincoln as work continues.

“Be careful when you’re driving while this grinding takes place, we went down about two and three eighths of an inch, so that’s quite a drop off. Even though they’ve done some feathering with some patch work to make sure it’s a smoother transition you still need to be careful to do that,” said Cappuzzello.

Cappuzzello also said that installation had begun on the sprinkler system at Lincoln Plaza on Tuesday and that it should be completed by the end of the week.

City council will meet next at 7 p.m. May 7.