The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

Baseball diamond refurbishing talks continue

By Sally Day for the Quill

For the fifth month in a row, discussion turned to the Village's Baseball Diamond, during the monthly meeting of the Oquawka Village Board on Monday, November 5, 2012.

Businessman and resident Pete Miller opened the discussion by telling board members that all of the sod for the project has been donated. He then noted that much of the irrigation has been donated, as well. Steve Lumbeck, who began this project was not present, and Miller was acting in his stead. The equipment to tear up the outfield and get this started has been donated. Miller was there to ask the board to back up the group in case they needed extra money at the end of their plan. He guessed it would be about $1500, but said they may not need it.

Miller said they would only need the money in the spring if they could not finish it with all the donations they had received and are receiving.

Board member Todd Shinberger said, "We have already agreed to give you $6500, and now it has snowballed."

"It is hard to commit anymore money," remarked Jason Howard, board member. "I don't have a problem moving forward. It is just the commitment of the money."

Oquawka Village Treasurer, Toot Miller mentioned that monies from the concession stand, at the ball field, seem to funnel into other accounts. She added that there were CDs and accounts which could be used for this purpose.

Pete Miller continued, "We can take pride in this as a community. (This community) is so far behind the times, it is ridiculous. We are asking for your support; we would even take it (the money) as a loan."

Board member Nancy Bundy made the motion to allow no more than $1500 to be donated to the Oquawka Youth Baseball League, if it is needed. Cindy Henry seconded the motion. Roll call vote was as follows: Jeff Robbins, no; Cindy Henry, yes; Jason Howard, no; Troy Jern, absent; Todd Shinberger, no; and Nancy Bundy, yes. The motion failed.

Another motion was made to allow the Oquawka Youth Baseball League to complete the project. The motion passed unanimously.

While Pete Miller had the floor, he discussed another ongoing issue with the board. He noted that behind the village hall, where he plans to add a level of gravel to the property he owns, the village needs to repair it for leakage.

Village employees will get an estimate to fix the problem and they will notify the gas company to lower pipe behind the building allowing them to make necessary repairs.

Donna Dunn, an agent of Stanton/Ingersoll Insurance Company was present to explain to the board members that their insurance commitments needed to be updated. For example, they had the water tower insured for approximately $200,000 when it would cost approximately $800,000 to replace, and the Museum is insured for $17,000 when it would cost $300,000 to rebuild. The insurance company will work with the board to insure these numbers meet a more suitable amount. The board passed a motion to pay Illinois Counties Risk Management Insurance $32,314 for their annual fee.

Coral Seitz, on behalf of the Oquawka Christmas Belles, was present to request a donation for their organization. She explained they assisted 65 to 75 area children at Christmastime, by offering toys, clothes and needs. And, when those things were purchased, used additional monies to purchase hams and turkeys for their families. She also noted that The Christmas Belles would be hosting a soup supper on December 1, in conjunction with the annual Christmas Parade. The board agreed to donate $3500 to the Oquawka Belles for their 2012 Christmas Toy Drive.

In other business, the board:

• heard from Police Chief Todd Miller, who turned in a log denoting the number of calls for service at 150 and the number of arrests at 12, for the month of October. Another item Chief Miller mentioned was that crime reporting to the state is now done on the internet and that the village needed a static IP address, an IP address which will not change in the case of outage or electrical failure. He has taken care of this matter. He also told board members that all the Oquawka officers were now wearing their cameras at all times. Chief Miller also told the board that one of their squad cars was in need of repair. The board asked him to get some prices of some used cars to be used as a squad car for the village.
• heard a request from Rosalie Melvin, who asked that the Museum be allowed to put up pictures of all the mayors of the village from the time it was established. The village was incorporated in 1837.
• learned from Fire Chief Hal Jern, that his department is continuing to pursue making his department a Fire Protection District. He said a Public Information meeting will be held in the near future.
• was introduced to Rick Sinnott, P.E., P.L.S. of Klinger and Associates Engineering Company.
• passed a motion to adopt the Ordinance Books, which had been codified by Sterling Codifiers.
• heard from Zoning Officer Bill Moody who submitted 3 building permits.