At Tuesday night’s city council meeting, Mayor Jason A. Reeves proclaimed Oct. 23-31 Red Ribbon Week in Troy.

In honor of the week designated to speak to children about the use of illegal drugs and the abuse of prescription medication, the city held an essay contest and invited all middle school students in the area to participate.

Tuesday night, the first, second and third place winners were recognized for their ideas about staying drug free. Jaicee Todd, of Charles Henderson Middle School, won third place, Madisyn Johnson, of CHMS, won second place, and Brock Huner, of CHMS, was the top winner. All winners received certificates and Huner also received a $50 gift card.

Also at the council meeting, the council voted to allow the owners of 505 East Academy Street eight months to bring the property up to code before moving forward with demolishing the building deemed dilapidated by the city building inspector; to support an application for a League of Municipalities Quality of Life Award regarding the Troy Miracle League Playground project; to approve contracts for funding and services to East Central Mental Health, the Pike County Commission for elections and the Troy Arts Council; to remove dilapidated buildings at 815 East Academy St. and 105 Henderson Drive; to reappoint Ray Roddy to the Airport Committee; and to reappoint Octavia Jones to the Library Committee.

At the council’s executive work session prior to the council meeting, the city’s airport engineer Michelle Hunter explained possible upgrades to the Troy Municipal Airport for FYE2013. At the regular meeting, the council voted to approved a pre application plan to the Federal Aviation Administration for two projects – a safety fix for the airport’s main runway and repairs to a taxi area. The projects are estimated to cost about $424,000 of which the city’s match would be $21,000.

Finally, the council heard a first reading of a proposed ordinance in response to a CDG Engineers rate study regarding the municipality’s sewer and water rates. The council is considering raising the rate at the lowest recommended level in order to maintain sewer and water needs. The water rates would be $6, on average, for residential users and $10 for commercial users. For sewer rates, those amounts would be $10 and $2, respectively.

The council will vote on the utilities hike at the next scheduled meeting on Nov. 12.