The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
By: Shirley Linder, Quill Editor
The Village of Stronghurst heard at the Monday, September 4th board meeting that the new water tower is nearing completion, but not quite there yet. Chris Cooper, Project Manager, for MSA presented the board with pay application # 13 in the amount of $9,400.25. He had been told by Maguire and Automatic Systems that they were very close to being complete.
However, Ronnie Gittings, reported Automatic Systems are not that close to being done. He said he started filling the water tower on Friday, Saturday night, and Sunday and on Monday morning at 5:30 a.m. it was over flowing. The chemical tests have been run and came back good and sent to the EPA so they should be receiving their permit very soon. The water tower was testing at 60 lbs, but he felt they should not start it at that pressure so backed it down to 50 lbs, as the old tower has been running at 48 lbs.
The problem that exists now is the touch screen which is blowing fuses. The touch screen has already been sent back to Oregon for repair once and was not back for 3 weeks. Gittings said they do not replace the touch screen, they repair it, causing a discussion as to how reliable is it going to be. The touch screen tells how many gallons of water is being pumped, how many hours it runs, etc. and without a manual back up Gittings said they are running blind without assess to this information.
Upon hearing all the information the board voted not to pay the pay request of $9,400.25 at this time.
Attorney Bill Rasmussen presented the new ordinances for gaming, saying they were pretty straight forward as they have to be in accordance with the Illinois State laws. The first ordinance passed was for repealing the prohibition of gambling. Bruce Caldwell cast the only no vote.
The ordinance authorizing actual gaming basically says the village is doing things in accordance with the Illinois law. It is limited to only those holding Class B liquor license so supermarkets and gas stations are not allowed to have the machines. The village can charge $25/year for each gaming machine and will received 5% of any profits made. Shane Reed, Jerry Nortrup, David Vancil cast yes votes while Bruce Caldwell and Mike Bohnenkamp cast no votes; Amanda Kane absent. Motion passed.
Mayor Brendan Schaley said words were totally inadequate to express his appreciation for the work the city employees did when the water main broke at the school. He stated there was a lot going on and it was hot and hard work but above it all the employees considered the community. Hollie Allen went above and beyond letting people know, when the automatic telephone system failed, also helped with providing water at the fire station for flushing and Ronnie Gittings thought completely outside the box when he had port-a-potties brought into town. Then on Saturday there was a malfunction and they got right back to it, getting it fixed as soon as possible. Schaley said every employee went above and beyond and they will never know how much it was appreciated.
The Police Report for August: 101.50 hours worked; 2 training hours; 431 miles on squad car; 1 traffic stop; 5 service calls; 26 business courtesy checks.
In other business the board:
Present were: President Brendan Schaley; Trustees, Mike Bohnenekamp, Bruce Caldwell, David Vancil, Jerry Nortrup, Shane Reeed, (Amanda Kane, absent); Employees, Ronnie Gittings, Hollie Allen, Arbry Vancil, Attorney Bill Rasmussen; Guests, Robbie Root, Chris Cooper, Rev. David Vidler, Yvonne Knapp, Kevin Geary, Randy Jarvis, Shirley Linder.
The next meeting will be held on Monday, October 1st, at 7:00 p.m.