The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
by Jeff Tee, Special For The Quill
The Oquawka Village Board held its regularly scheduled meeting on November 7th. Present were Trustees Don Rice, Brock Miller, Tammy Bundy, Troy Jern, Shawn Hurt; Mayor Pro Tem Scott Ray; Village Attorney Andy Youngquist; Village Clerk Callie Thacker; and Village Water Clerk Carey Thacker. Village President Lori Lipes was absent.
Resident Barry McClintock addressed the board to state he had done an audit of campers in the Village. He provided a map and explained there are twenty-two RV campsites in Oquawka with utility hookups, two of which appear to have people living in them full time. McClintock noted a RV wastewater tank that has been left sitting by the river near the end of Schuyler Street and stressed the need for more regulation of campers.
John Newton thanked the board for providing lights at the horseshoe pits located near the ball diamond.
Village Water Clerk Carey Thacker stated they had been looking in to new billing software for the water department. Thacker explained the current software doesn’t work well and the customer service provided by the current software company is terrible. She explained she and Callie had looked into as many as five different software companies and believed they had found one that was the best deal as far as cost, customer service, and the ability to customize once the new water project gets underway. The cost of new software would be approximately $12,225 to transition to the new product, and then $4725 per year after that, which is comparable to the current software price. Some of the benefits of the new software company are better customer service, customizable, ability for customers to pay their bill online, customers can see past payments, more user friendly for everyone, directly linked to the Village’s bank account which allows real time tracking of current funds; etc.
Motion by Bundy to switch to new software. Second by Hurt.
Rice: YES Miller: YES Bundy: YES Jern: YES Hurt: YES
Motion carried.
Mike Greenlief addressed the board to say they had received bids for phase one of the new water project from three companies. The companies who submitted bids are Laverdiere Construction, Advanced Plumbing, and Central Excavating. Actual bid prices were not announced publicly; however, it was noted that Laverdiere was approximately $200,000 less than the other two bids Motion by Miller to award bid to Laverdiere Construction. Second by Hurt.
Rice: YES Miller: YES Bundy: YES Jern: YES Hurt: YES
Ray mentioned he has heard some people are angry about the stakes that the Village workers are placing to mark water services. It was noted that some people had removed them and Ray asked what they could do about it. Youngquist stated the first thing to do is knock on the door and tell them they need to put the stake back. Bundy suggested putting a note on the Facebook page to not remove the stakes. Youngquist said he would look at the municipal code to check the legality of removing the stakes.
There was discussion about purchasing a new maintenance truck. No action was taken.
Police Chief Tim Edwards asked the board for a new ordinance to address the parking issue in front of the museum. He stated there is a continuing issue with a person parking a truck and trailer there and taking up several spots for hours at a time. The board discussed a time limit on parking on main street such as a 6-hour parking.
Jern stated he has been getting a lot of pressure from residents about having a night time officer. After some discussion, the board agreed to place an ad to hire another policeman to work nights and weekends.
The board voted unanimously to donate $150 to the Parks and Recreation Committee to purchase candy for Santa to handout after the Christmas Parade The parade will be held December 2nd at 6pm.
Nancy Bundy, representing the Parks and Tourism Committee, announced the committee will be doing a fund raiser by selling T-shirts. The T-Shirts will have a logo similar to the new museum sign and will feature a picture of an elephant and will have the words “Home of Norma Jean”.
The board voted unanimously to pay $4500 for half the cost of the sidewalk in front of the United Methodists Church on 3rd Street.
Meeting adjourned.
Jeff Tee
River Rat News
“Just the facts, Ma’am”