STEUBENVILLE — It doesn’t look like overhead lights are going to add to the magic of the Steubenville Nutcracker Village this year.

During Tuesday’s meeting, City Manager Jim Mavromatis showed City Council the paperwork involved in getting AEP to sign off on plans to string Christmas lights from utility poles in the Nutcracker Village limits.

Mavromatis said AEP is requiring the city to do a “full attachment” agreement.

“We have to submit our plans, exactly what’s going to be attached, weights — it all has to go to AEP, their engineers, and then they will either approve or not approve it,” he said after the meeting.

He said time is not on their side: The whole process could take as much as six months to navigate, but the 2024 Nutcracker Village kicks off about a month from now.

“It’s just the hanging part that’s the issue, that’s what AEP is concerned about,” Mavromatis said.

Council also heard budget requests from the water and wastewater department heads, the last to present their proposed spending plans for 2025 — both of them talking about the projects that have been completed as well as those that lie ahead:

• Water Superintendent Jim Jenkins discussed the upcoming Belleview tank rehabilitation as well as Phase II of the filtration plant upgrade. Design work is expected to begin next year for both.

• Wastewater Superintendent Chuck Murphy pointed to his headworks project, which involves construction of a new building equipped with automatic barscreens to remove things like rags and leaves, plus a new grit removal system to keep things like sand, small rocks and eggshells out. The new building and equipment will be required to handle a lot more flow during wet weather to significantly reduce the amount of sewage and rainwater that goes to the river during wet weather. He’s also still looking for the go-ahead for a sinkhole project on the old Weirton Steel property.

“Now that we have been through all the budget workshops, the finance department will work with the city manager over the next few weeks to finalize the budget,” Finance Director Dave Lewis said. “We will be meeting with each department head to discuss any necessary changes that we need to make in order to balance the budget. After this process is complete we will present a draft budget to City Council.”

Mavromatis also said the plans for renaming Seventh Street “Martin Luther King Boulevard” are being fine-tuned, adding he’s “had probably four meetings now” with citizens helping decide the logistics.

“We don’t have to change addresses on homes, that would have been a major headache for residents,” he said. “… We just have to decide how many signs (we want) and where to put them, but (whatever the group comes up with), we’ll bring it to council for a final decision.”

Council also:

• Was reminded that the planning committee will meet at 6:30 p.m. Nov 19 to discuss the status of the North End Choice Neighborhood Grant project.

• Heard first readings of ordinances that would authorize Mavromatis to contract with Arcadis to do professional engineering design services for the Belleview tank rehab and updating the zoning code to bring it into compliance with the 2024 edition of the International Property Maintenance code.

• Heard Mayor Jerry Barilla’s plea for residents “to pray for a safe election and a fair election, and no matter the outcome that we accept the results and (that) violence is not a part of the process.”

• Voted to meet behind closed doors to discuss personnel issues, “specifically pertaining to issues related to job performance” of the M&R director.