Retirement benefits for City of Alba employees got a big boost with recent action by the city council Dec. 2.

After reviewing the city’s retirement plan, the council agreed to increase the city’s match to two-to-one and added a one time benefit of 100 percent updated service credits.

The result will be that three longtime city employees will see their benefits boosted when they do leave the city. Future employees will also benefit from the increases.

As a result the city will see its cost for contributing to the state retirement plan rise to 12.81 percent of payroll, compared to the current 2.17 percent.

That amounts to an additional cost of $146,000 over the next 10 years.

The city had been matching at one-to-one since joining the retirement system in 2003.

One area the council has been working on to see if the improvements could be made was whether the first year expense could be worked into the 2020 budget, which began Oct. 1.

City council member Tammy Kirkpatrick said the extra expense could be absorbed and still have a budget with a small surplus.

Once the additional expense is paid off in 10 years, the city’s share will drop back to around 4.8 percent, according to Anthony Mills with the Texas Municipal Retirement System.

The changes take effect Jan. 1.

The council also accepted an agreement from Nextlink Internet to rent space on the city water tower for $150 month.

They also reviewed possible ordinances for environmental and health codes and vacant buildings for future consideration.