The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

Recommendations Made For Liquor Ordinance

By: Shirley Linder, Quill Editor

At the Village of Stronghurst's regular board meeting on August 5th, the liquor committee (Tony Anderson, Deb Hale, and Betty Waterman) brought their recommendations for the village liquor ordinance before the board for approval.

After several meetings of the committee and other residents they recommended adopting an ordinance similar to the one Henderson County has. It was agreed upon that a liquor license will be $1200 per year. The ordinance will be to sell any package liquor, not just beer, and there will be no limit on the number of licenses that can be issued in the village.

Village attorney, Bill Rasmussen, will now draw up the final version of the ordinance which will be presented to the board for passage at the September meeting.

Diana Taylor gave an update on the water spray park, saying a letter and brochure campaign is now in progress. She said donations have started coming in and when asked what would happen to the money if the goal of $134,000 was not met she stated,  I m not worried about it. She then told the board the Stronghurst Booster Club had been allowed to carry a $50,000 life insurance policy on Dr. Robert Pogue, which was to be used for enticing a new doctor to town should something happen to him. Now that Eagle View has the doctor situation covered, they felt the money should be used for a community project and have chosen the spray park. With that $50,000 and another $10,000 in donations they now have $60,000 banked for the project. The spray park will be built by volunteers and once completed the ownership will be turned over to the village. Since the project is costing 3 times the amount originally planned for the park, Mike Bohnenkamp will talk with the insurance company to check on the cost of liability insurance.

Curt Eisenmayer made some recommendations to the board regarding the fire hydrants. Some hydrants need to be replaced, some won t drain, and some have a very low flow to them, which could cause a real problem in case of a fire.

Yvonne Knapp of Raritan introduced herself to the board members and volunteered to help with grant writing should they so desire. She will come again next month with some suggestions as to where to start for making some long term plans for the village.

The police report for the month included: 151 working hours; 942 miles on the squad car; 2 traffic stops; 1 verbal warning; 1 uniform ticket; 6 service calls; 5 agency assists; 3 arrests; and 21 business checks.

Other business included:

• Ronnie Gittings said back-washing the filter at the water plant 3 times a week seems to be working and perhaps they could get by another year without replacing it at a cost of around $12,000
• Gittings has 2 bids for painting the water tower and is waiting to see if other bids come in.
• The board agreed to oil and chips 2 miles of streets, doing the ones which need it the worse.
• Board members voted to donate $5,000 to the water spray park
• Heard the Martha Warth property has been purchased by Bob Dillon.
• The board will advertise for another part time police officer as one is going down for surgery and Angie is now full time in Oquawka

Present at the meeting were: President Gary Root, Trustees, Mike Bohnenkamp, Brendan Schaley, Deb Hale, Betty Waterman, Tony Anderson, and David Vancil; Employees, Ronnie Gittings, Mike Nelson, Lou Ann Nortrup, Arb Vancil, and Bill Rasmussen, Guests, Fern Fude, Diana Taylor, Curt Eisenmayer, Yvonne Knapp, and Shirley Linder

The meeting adjourned at 8:50 p.m. until the September 3rd meeting at 7:00 p.m. at the village hall.