Chillicothe — Mayor Luke Feeney said that city revenue is now feeling the pain of last year’s paper mill closing, as council met in their new home at the renovated armory in Yoctangee Park.
In his briefing to council on November 9th, 2026, the mayor said the city budgeting process is $1.2M in excess of the projected revenue, so far. Hear him in his own words in the below video.
Feeney said that every department has presented their budget and funding requests for 2027, with the auditor and mayor working almost daily on the annual year-end process.
But there is a significant gap between revenue and expense in the general fund. He said the $1.2M excess equals about 12 city employees…though he is not looking at personnel cuts.
Feeney said he did eliminate additional staffing requests. He said department requests were thin on capital requests already, so that makes reducing funding more challenging.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do to get that number down, to balance the budget this year.”
The mayor said this is the first budget cycle to feel the full pain of the paper mill closing. That caused the loss of about 830 employees who paid city income tax, as well as income through city utilities, culminating in August of 2025.
Feeney said the city would try to update revenue projection as late as possible in the process (presumably to predict numbers as accurately as possible from the latest data).
He pointed out that council’s agenda Item 3 would also reduce the city’s revenue – a 12% reduction in city property taxes, to balance out an increase in state property taxes. (Council passed that ordinance unanimously on first reading.)
The mayor also mentioned next Monday’s data center zoning open house in the armory – see the flyer for that below.
Council started working out bugs in their new long-term temporary home in the former gymnasium – now “ballroom” – in Memorial Armory, after popular ribbon cuttings over the weekend.
About 30 people sat in the audience of the room that is rated for 227. A limited number of microphones, bad feedback at times, and other audio issues challenged Daniel Griesheimer of the Greater Chillicothe Ross County Film Commission, who again volunteered to give council live video coverage.
Council’s Facebook Live video on the Film Commission’s Facebook account starts at 0:01:40 with the 6pm committee meetings, the council session proper at 1:00, and the mayor’s briefing from 1:12 to 1:19.
If you missed Chillicothe Council in their new home at the renovated armory, below is a short walk-through video from Friday’s open house – part of my upcoming coverage of the ribbon cutting and open houses of renovated Yoctangee Park.
