Scio council keeps twice-monthly meetings

At its final meeting of 2025, Scio Village Council received clarification on indigent burial fees and agreed to continue meeting twice a month.

During the Dec. 30 meeting, Mayor James Clark said Village Solicitor Jack Felgenhauer changed guidance regarding monthly meetings, but Clark said holding only one meeting per month would not meet the village’s needs.

“We would have to pass all ordinances as emergencies or it would take three months to pass a regular ordinance,” Clark said. “The pay for you guys is set up as $100 a meeting, so you’d be cutting your salaries in half unless you pass another thing, but that wouldn’t take effect until the next election. I don’t think it’s feasible doing it myself, but that is not up to me.”

Council member Doug Whiteman agreed with Clark’s concerns about passing ordinances, and no other council member objected.

Clark also told council he received an email from Felgenhauer regarding the ongoing issue of indigent burial expenses being placed on the village. Clark read from the email, saying Felgenhauer stated the village is responsible for those expenses.

“Further research of the indigent burial expense ordinance reveals, as previously indicated, that the village is responsible for the costs of indigent persons,” Clark read. “Ironically, even if the deceased has a family that is indigent. That code section is vague as to who determines that indigency, but presumably the village would since it is the village that must ‘cause [the body] to be buried or cremated at the expense’ of the village.”

Felgenhauer also wrote that an indigent person is defined as “a person whose income does not exceed 150% of the federal poverty line for a family size equal to the size of the person’s family.”

Clark said Felgenhauer indicated the village is justified in requiring documentation of the death, residency and indigency of the deceased or the family, rather than receiving only a bill with a name.

Clark said he agreed but also felt the village should help determine whether burial or cremation is used.

“All we got was a bill, so why they’re making the decisions to do that when we’re getting the bill, I don’t know,” Clark said.

Clark said he will contact Harrison County Coroner Dr. Porsche Beetham, which Felgenhauer recommended in the email.