In a brief, fast-paced meeting Monday night, members of the Benld City Council voted to renew the city’s liability insurance policy with the Illinois Municipal League and agreed to spend $3,775 for repairs to a restroom floor at the city park. With few items on the agenda, the meeting concluded within 25 minutes, including a […]

Members of the Gillespie City Council voted Wednesday night to resume water shut-offs for delinquent customers as of Nov. 14. The council also approved a deal with Adam Tallman, owner of Dingers batting cages, to expand the parking lot at the Gillespie Police Department station, agreed to investigate a complaint about alleged stormwater diversion from […]

Despite concerns over the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Benld City Council members voted 3-1 Monday night to set trick-or-treating hours from 6 to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Oct. 30 and 31. The issue was not on the council’s previously published agenda. Ald. John Balzraine, objecting to the idea of allowing trick-or-treating during the pandemic, voted […]

Members of the Benld City Council on Monday night approved the appointment of Jason Simmons, Brighton, as a part-time ordinance enforcement officer for the City of Benld. Mayor Jim Kelly’s recommendation to hire Simmons was approved on a motion by Ald. John Balzraine, seconded by Ald. Dustin Fletcher.  “Anything I can do to help improve […]

With one alderman sidelined in quarantine, the Gillespie City Council voted unanimously Monday night to hire an interim city attorney to pinch hit for City Attorney Kevin Polo, held preliminary discussions regarding the fate of the Canna Theatre building and pledged to address deteriorating conditions at Big Brick City Park. The meeting was held in […]

Members of the Benld City Council on Monday night voted unanimously to adopt a $1.8 million appropriations ordinance during the council’s regular monthly meeting, and seated John Balzraine as a Ward 1 alderman, replacing former Ald. Teresa Tucker who resigned from the council last month. The appropriation sets spending limits for the fiscal year that […]

On a motion by Ald. Tilashalski, seconded by Ald. Fletcher, the Benld City Council voted Monday night to formally “deactivate” the Benld Police Department—a final step in turning over police protection to the City of Gillespie. The deactivation is effective July 1. “The reason we are deactivating is so, if in the future, Benld decides […]

Members of the Gillespie City Council on Monday night approved the annual appropriations ordinance, got a first look at boundaries proposed for a tentative new Tax Increment Financing district, hammered out details of a counter-offer on a contract to provide dispatching services for the Gillespie-Benld Area Ambulance Service, and approved a zoning change that paves […]

The Benld City Council is poised to increase sewer rates but the amount of the increase and how it will impact consumers’ total water/sewer bills have yet to be determined. The move to hike sewer rates is prompted by a letter from the city’s engineers, HMG Engineers, indicating that local sewer rates must meet a […]

After a lengthy and sometimes terse discussion, Gillespie Mayor John Hicks told Rick Verticchio, attorney for the Village of Lake KaHo, that the city would produce a counteroffer to a Lake KaHo proposal under which the village would continue to purchase water from the City of Gillespie. In other action, the council voted during its […]