The Harlan City Council approved a first reading of the 2018 property tax rates during a meeting on Monday.

Mayor Danny Howard called on Harlan City Treasurer Charles Guyn to give his financial report, which led up to the property tax ordinance discussion.

“Item number three is proposed tax rates,” Guyn told the panel during his report. “Real property, last year’s rate was .470, this year’s rate computed is .472.”

Guyn told the council the city of Harlan lost $930,710 in real property value between 2017 and 2018.

“If you go back to 2010, which was the high property value year, since then we have lost $2.281 million in the value of property,” Guyn said. “Surprisingly, commercial went up $610,000, but we had an overall decrease in the total taxable value of property of $319,000. Personal property increased by $3 million. That rate went from .490 to .4347…I am proposing this be the first reading of the 2018 tax rates for real property of .472 and personal property .4347.”

Following some discussion, the council approved the first reading placing the tax rate for real property at .472 cents per $100 and for personal property at .4347 cents per $100.

In other council activities:

• Harlan City Fire Chief Linette Hutchinson reported her department performed three commercial inspections, two single-family dwelling inspections, completed 36 man hours of training and responded to five calls;

• Harlan City Police Chief Mike Thomas reported his department received 1,935 dispatch calls, produced 12 accident reports, opened 14 criminal cases, issued 39 citations and made 19 arrest.