City manager receives raise

Three Rivers City Manager Joe Bippus was given a 3 percent raise following action by the city commission Tuesday.

Bippus, who has served as city manager for nearly two decades, was awarded the raise above the 2 percent cost-of-living increase issued annually.

His 2018 salary was $116,000.

Mayor Tom Lowry cast the lone dissenting vote. Lowry said he is generally satisfied with the job Bippus has done, but a few issues in the past year kept him from supporting the motion.

Commissioners endorsing the raise said Bippus is effective in the role as the city’s highest, non-elected position, and that he had gone years without a raise in the past.