HUNTINGTON - Here comes The Plan.

For months, Huntington City Council members have wondered how Mayor David Felinton would tackle The Debt. Council and residents will know Monday.

A special call meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday in City Hall, when council will pour over Felinton's plan to rescue the city from a fiscal nightmare. After council voted to override the mayor's veto of a 5 percent budget cut, they ordered him to slice $1.5
million by 4:30 p.m. Monday.

Looming before the city is a $1.2 million to $1.5 million overrun in the medical insurance fund. The city is on a weekly payment schedule with Mountain State Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Felinton has said his debt reduction plan could include restructuring the city employees' health insurance plan. Restructuring could prove difficult, Councilman Chuck Polan says, since re-negotiating health insurance benefits would involve three or four union contracts.

"Whether that can be renegotiated in the short term, I don't know," Polan says. "They would still have a first-class insurance plan."

While the Felinton plan could include layoffs, Councilman Jim Insco says, "You can't cut in certain departments. There are no cuts to be cut." He points to service personnel as having most frequently fallen under the knife over the years, followed by the fire
and police departments. He believes the city is "administratively heavy."

"Any time you start to cut services," Insco says, "residents start asking questions."

Council President Mary Neely is optimistic fiscal relief is on the way. Once development projects like Pullman Square and Kinetic Park are completed, they
will boost significantly B&O tax revenue for the city.

"Down the line," she says, "there is a light at the end of the tunnel."

In the short term, Neely supports raising municipal fees. In her district, many Southside residents tell her the fees should be raised, she says. Fees haven't been raised in many years.

"I'm not doing the popular thing," Neely said about backing a municipal fee hike. "I'm doing what's right for Huntington."