The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
By: Shirley Linder, Executive Editor
At the April 7th, Village of Stronghurst board meeting, Ronnie Gittings reported on the current water situation and the upcoming summer events.
Gittings reported that the village is currently using around 68,000 gallons of water per day, which they are able to supply.
However, he reported with summer coming and the usage going up, due to car washing, filling pools, watering lawns, etc. they will not be able to keep up without hauling water.
This all could change if we were to get more rainfall, but due to summers usually being hot and dry he is not looking for this to happen.
Gittings stated if the usage goes up to 75,000 gallon per day or more, they would not be able to supply enough water without hauling it in.
Therefore, he is suggesting there be no flowers planted in the park as they are watered 2 or 3 times a week.
Also that the spray park, unless things change, will not be in operation due to the amount of water used.
He said the village will also not be able to supply the 30,000 gallons of water to the week-long family reunion that is held at the fair ground each year.
He stated the fair board has talked of bringing in more port-a-potties during the fair to help with the water situation.
He informed the board the EPA is having him fill 19 bottles of water from the deep well for testing 4 times a year, when it has only been once a year before.
David Knutstrom reported to the kids, in the park, have been kicking volleyballs, basketballs, etc into the netting on the pickle ball court, there by stretching it and he has had to take it down.
They have also kicked holes in the fencing around the pickle ball court. His question was “why are the cameras not being used.”
He was told he needs to file a complaint and if he sees something to notify someone and they can go back and look at the footage.
However it has to be proven the damage was intentional. Mayor Brendan Schaley suggested they put up a volleyball net for the kids to have something to kick their ball over. The board agreed to the suggestion.
Knutstrom also said the Stronghurst Booster Club was talking of putting up some shade around the spray park if it was possible to use it this year.
Police report for March included: 33.5 hours worked; 2 training hours; 82 miles on squad car; 2 service calls; 1 juvenile arrest.
Mike Swisher told the board the finance committee had met with Benton & Associates, Inc., regarding steps to move ahead with the digging of a new well.
Benton & Associates, Inc. had done research with other towns on what they charged for water and Stronghurst was not out of the realm of anything different than they charge. Moving forward the village needs a new well and the best place for it is in the river bottom.
Right now the Illinois medium household is at $72,205 collected and the Stronghurst medium household is $51,979 which is 72% of medium household charge for water. Therefore the net income basically is showing, for grant funding, there is not enough money to pay for a loan, making them unable to receive anything.
The finance committee made the recommendation to raise the water rate from $20 for the first 2,000 gallons to $25 for the first 2,000 gallons and leave the remaining gallons at the current rate of $4 per 1,000.
The other recommen-dation of the committee is to split the computer accounting into three individual accounts, water, sewer, garbage. At present they are all lumped together. By doing this it can be determined if the water account is paying for itself. No votes were taken as this needs to be in ordinance form and will be placed on next month’s agenda.
Mayor Schaley presented a cost from Ameren to install all LED lighting in the village buildings. Following a discussion on the cost verses the savings (approximately $2500 to install with at $58 savings per month) it was decided to have employee Jeff Nichols install more lighting where necessary. “Ameren is in charge of all the street lights but will not replace bulbs until they burn out,” Schaley told the board.
In other business the board:
The board entered closed session 7:15 p.m. for the purpose of employee compensation and new employment.
Following closed it was voted to give three employees, Ronnie Gittings, Brittany Smith, and Jeff Nichols, a $1.00 per hour raise.
Present were: Mayor Brendan Schaley; Trustees, Mike Bohnenkamp, Janice Smith, Paige Torrance; Amanda Van Arsdale, Mike Swisher, Nathan Harden; Employees, Ronnie Gittings, Brittany Smith; Guests, David Knutstrom, Randy Jarvis, Shirley Linder
The next board meeting will be held Monday, May 5, at 6 p.m.