The Austin City Council will be touring Packer Arena, Todd Park and the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center Monday evening, but first will be voting on the voluntary furlough program, among other agenda items.

The furlough program, if enacted, would allow workers to take voluntary unpaid time off from work to help the city with budget constraints. Workers taking up to 48 hours off in 2009 will not see benefits affected.

Also coming to a motion Monday will be suspending the hiring of an assistant fire chief. A resolution passed 6-1 at the last work session to discuss the issue further.

The last council had decided to go forward with the process, but current members were concerned that they hadn’t had much time to review the issue.

They were also concerned that because the position would likely be an outside hire, the department could lose a firefighter to make room.

The council will also have the chance Monday to accept a $413,025 grant from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development for flood mitigation.

The funds would cover acquisition and demolition of two identified residential structures, lift station construction, reimbursement for construction of an East Side Lake berm and a Turtle Creek flood study.

Austin would also provide $35,000 toward the project as part of the agreement.

When the regular meeting wraps up, council members will load up a bus for a city tour. The stops at Todd Park and the nature center will allow them to survey how tornado damage repairs are coming.

After that, the mayor and council members will also be touring city projects.

The City Council meeting will be at 5:30 in the council chambers.