Gillespie City Treasurer Dan Fisher on Monday night urged members of the city council to move toward making a decision on financing and authorizing at least part of a proposed $10 million project to update the city’s aging water system. His comments came toward the end of a two-hour monthly meeting of the council at city hall. The issue is likely to be a topic of discussion during committee meetings later this month and is likely to be on the agenda for the council’s February meeting.

Fisher said Curry and Associates Engineers of Nashville, the city’s engineering firm, is working on preliminary engineering on the project, which includes needed repairs to the leaking Gillespie Lake dam and spillway to which the city has already committed itself. The total package is estimated at $10,000,000, but Fisher said the city could divide the project into two phases of $5 million each and finance the first $5 million without having to raise water rates to service the debt. The proposal is contingent upon the city using available surplus funds to pay off an existing $482,000 EPA loan, which Fisher said would free up money in the city’s budget to service a loan of $5 million. The kicker is that the city has three months to commit to borrowing federal money at a two percent interest rate.

Fisher told the council the trend in interest rates currently is upward and waiting to borrow the funds at a later date at a higher interest rate could force the council to consider a substantial increase in water rates to service the loan. “When you’re talking millions of dollars,” he said, a fraction of a percentage point in the interest rate could cost the city thousands of dollars or more over the life of the loan.

“We need to decide fairly quickly,” he said. “We could do a $5 million project without having to raise rates if we pay off that (EPA) loan.”

The EPA loan carries a 2.75 percent interest rate and is costing the city $180,000 monthly to service the debt. To borrow $5 million at 2 percent would cost the city about $205,000 monthly for a four-year loan, according to Fisher. Because the city would be paying off the EPA loan in order to borrow money at a lower rate, Fisher said the city would be spending less money “even if we decided to do the other half of the project later.”

If the city opted to not pay off the smaller EPA loan and proceed with the full $10 million project, Fisher said the city would be forced to raise water rates by as much as $7 to $21. Even with such a substantial increase, he said, local water bills for consumers would be less than what water customers in neighboring communities such as Carlinville, Litchfield and Hillsboro are paying.

Since the 2 percent money is locked in for three months, Fisher said the council must act quickly. Once the city commits to the loan, the rate cannot be raised. It could, however, go down in the unlikely event interest rates were to decline.

“Sometime in the next two months we have to decide how big of a project we want to do,” Fisher said. “In order to do $10 million, we would have to raise our rates substantially.”

A representative of Curry and Associates is expected to attend the February meeting of the council to further discuss the scope of the project and how it could be financed.

ALDERSON RESIGNS

Mayor John Hicks reported to the council that Ward 1 Ald. Jim Alderson tendered his resignation from the council, effective Dec. 31, creating a vacancy on the council. In addition, he said, recently appointed Ward 2 Ald. Collin Mussatto has not filed nominating petitions and does not intend to run for election to his seat on the council. Since no one else has submitted nominating petitions for the Ward 2 seat, Hicks said the council is likely to have a second vacancy after the April 4 consolidated election.

“We need representation from those wards,” Hicks said. “Come April, we’re going to be down to six people if no one steps up.”

UNION GRIEVANCES

Following a 40-minute executive session to discuss personnel and collective bargaining grievances, the council voted unanimously to direct the City Attorney Kevin Polo to “respond to all three grievances.” Without discussing details of the grievance, Polo confirmed for The BenGil Post that the grievances involved the Street and Water departments. Water Treatment Plant Operator Don Shuey was in the closed-door session for the entire 40 minutes of the session.

In other personnel action, the council approved Police Chief Jared DePoppe’s request to send T.J. Rakey of Litchfield to training for part-time police officers. DePoppe said Rakey previously lived in Benld and is a four-year Navy veteran.

Also in the area of personnel, the council voted upon the Mayor’s recommendation to promote Water Department employee Dale Demkey, Jr., to the position of operator with the appropriate increase in wages. The promotion was made retroactive to the date of the council’s December meeting. Hicks said the issue was discussed but not acted upon in December. Hicks also reported the city is accepting applications for a Utility Worker to be assigned to the Water Department.

DePoppe said two persons have completed part-time police training that was authorized by the council earlier, and are undergoing additional in-house training with the Gillespie Police Department before being added to the roster of part-time officers. “When that’s complete, hopefully the council will start seeing a reduction in overtime,” DePoppe said.

Earlier in the meeting, Fisher had grilled DePoppe extensively about the amount of “comp time” reported on his monthly report to the council. Police officers in December redeemed 222 hours of comp time they had earned through overtime service. Fisher said reports from the Police Department and other city departments should include more details about why overtime hours were needed.

“Every meeting we talk about staffing and needs,” Fisher said. “To get a handle on that, we need to have a deeper insight into how our time is being used. Each department should be able to explain their overtime hours–how much is structural overtime and how much is due to incidents. I’m not being critical. We need to understand why this occurs.”

Both DePoppe and Public Safety Chair Steve Kluthe said the information Fisher wanted is available and could be included on future police reports.

“I can absolutely give more detail,” DePoppe said, reiterating that not all of the comp time included on the December report was accumulated in one month.

SALT SPREADER

The routine purchase of a salt spreader for Gillespie Lake led to a brief discussion of union rules regarding its operation. The council approved the $1,800 purchase on a motion by Ald. Frank Barrett, seconded by Ald. Mussatto. Barrett told the council that after a recent ice storm, Lake employee Gary Thornhill had to use a push seed-spreader to spread fly ash on lake roadways. “This is something both the lake and the Street Department can use,” Barrett said.

Once the purchase was approved, however, the discussion focused on who would be authorized to use the 225-pound capacity spreader.

“We need to make a clarification on who is going to drive it, based on the grievances we just had to vote on,” City Treasurer Fisher commented.

Aldermen debated about whether the equipment could be left on a truck assigned to the Lake and be used by both Street Department and Lake employees, or whether it would have to be removed and put onto a Street Department truck when it was being used on city streets. Ultimately, the consensus was that the spreader could be left on the Lake truck, but Street Department employees would have to drive the truck when it was being used within the city limits.

“As long as he’s not in town driving it, there wouldn’t be a problem,” said Nathan Thornhill, a Street Department employee speaking for the Laborers Union.

GENERATOR AND SIREN

Mayor Hicks told council members he plans to advertised for bids to find a contractor capable of moving the generator formerly used by the Police Department to the Civic Center. He said moving the equipment would enable the city to use the Civic Center as a cooling center or heating center in the event of a power outage in the city resulting from a disaster. The director of the ESDA Committee and Ald. Jan Weidner plan to develop bidding specifications for the project.

“We were told the wiring here is inadequate for that generator,” Hicks commented. “But if the wiring is inadequate for a generator, it’s inadequate for anything whether the power is coming from a generator or Ameren.” He asked ESDA to be involved in drafting bidding specifications because the project is likely to involve ESDA funds.

Council members also heard a report from Mussatto regarding the siren at the former location of the Police Department. Mussatto said the contractor is in the process of getting a control box ready to be mounted on the same pole with the siren. The box will be equipped with an encoder to communicate with the Police Department and activate other sirens in other parts of the city. Total cost of the project, previously approved by the council, is $3,600.

Hicks said the siren originally was used for fire calls before cell phones and two-way radios eliminated the need for it. The city is covered by other emergency sirens at the Water Department, Gillespie High School, the tennis courts and the city cemetery, he said.

“Before we spent a lot of money on this siren,” Hicks said, “I think we should look at putting a new one somewhere else.”

Mussatto, however, said the siren near the Civic Center is the main siren for the city and is the source for signaling other sirens in town to sound.

ACTIONS TABLED

The council tabled action on entering into a contract with Frontier to provide internet services at the Gillespie Lake office. Gary Thornhill reported that the Lake is located in a 618 telephone exchange, requiring Lake employees to place a long distance call each time they call the city. He said Frontier could provide phone service with unlimited long distance, bundled with internet service, for $59.98 per month. The internet connection would enable Lake employees to more efficiently process debit and credit cards for purchases, and would provide an opportunity for the Lake Office to sell Illinois hunting and fishing licenses. The measure would require the city to enter into a two-year contract with Frontier.

Several aldermen questioned whether the amount spent on long distance calls would justify entering into a contract with Frontier. They also questioned whether or not Frontier could provide reliable service and whether or not the city could break the contract if Frontier failed to provide adequate service.

“Let’s kick it back to committee,” Fisher suggested. “Another month isn’t going to make any difference. It’s a two-year contract and if it doesn’t work, we could be stuck with it.” Fisher asked to have city office workers compile phone records so the council can review long distance charges at the lake and for city to further negotiate with Frontier for clarification. “I’m not saying it’s not needed, but we’re kind of operating blind here.”

The council also tabled action on a proposal to write an ordinance requiring stop signs on Rice Street at East Spruce Street, pending additional research. Ald. Barrett said the request was being made because there have been “three T-bone crashes there is the last year and a half.” Ald. Kluthe said that when he was working as a police officer, he also handled several accidents at the intersection.

Mayor Hicks distributed a report on liquor license classifications that he requested last month. Ald. Kluthe compiled the report, which Hicks asked aldermen to study with an eye toward taking action in February.

“I think we need to take a look at this over the next couple of weeks, discuss it in committee and bring it up at our next meeting,” Hicks said.

Action also was deferred on a proposal to replace the floor at the Gillespie Lake office with vinyl flooring. Hicks asked Ald. Barrett to obtain formal bids and return to the council in February with a recommendation

All four issues are likely to be on the agenda for the council’s February meeting.

On the Mayor’s recommendation, the council also referred to committee with power to act on the review and acceptance of bids from vendors to supply chemicals for the coming year at the water treatment plant.

OTHER ACTION

In other action, the council:

• Accepted a bid of $2,236 from Lee Garrison, Gillespie, to replace the roof on a 13-by-14-foot shed at the sewage lagoon with a metal roof. Garrison was the lower of two bidders who submitted proposals for the project.
• Accepted a bid of $1,685 from Randall Jones, Gillespie, to purchase a surplus 2014 Crown Victoria vehicle with 121,000 miles on the odometer. Jones submitted the highest of four bids for the vehicle.
• Declared a step-truck and snow plow as surplus property and agreed to advertised for bids to dispose of the property. A grader also may be added to the list pending a report on how much the city would need to spend to repair the piece of equipment.

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