Bald eagles, the nation’s beautiful national symbol, are becoming increasingly common around Macoupin County.

Once rare in the area, the eagles have now been seen in various locales in the area. In Carlinville last summer, numerous residents reported bald eagle sightings over the city.

Other places in the county where eagles have been spotted in recent times include areas near Medora, Chesterfield, Wilsonville, Hagaman, and Beaver Dam State Park.

Nearby, a bald eagle couple, nicknamed George and Martha in honor of the first President and his wife, has captivated visitors to Lake Lou Yaeger in Litchfield. 

Scott Isringhausen, an Urban Fishing Coordinator in Regions 4 and 5 with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, says that when he first began, there was only one bald eagle nest in the entire state.            

“Now there are hundreds of nests in Illinois,” he said. “Eagles are coming into places where you wouldn’t typically see them. They’re beginning to feed on things other than fish, and some are moving inland.”

Near Macoupin County, wintering bald eagles have been a major tourist attraction along the Great River Road near Alton and Grafton for the last twenty-five years. Illinois claims to have more wintering bald eagles than any other state but Alaska.

To the north in Morgan County, another popular spot for eagles is along the Illinois River at Meredosia.  Other top sites for eagles in the state include areas around Starved Rock State Park in northern Illinois, as well as Quincy, Galena, and Jonesboro.

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Tom Emery may be reached at 217-710-8392. 

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Following the success of the first event held on July 4, a second version of the Americana Harvest Festival will be held on Saturday, October 5 at Benld City Park. The event will run from 10 am to 6 pm and will feature food, music, and dancing, with no admission.

The festival begins with an acoustic jam organized by Kelley Hatlee from 10 am to 12 noon. Jam features traditional American music, bluegrass, country, gospel, and folk. Bluegrass Band plays from 12 noon until 2 pm pm followed by line dancing, original songs by Jess Barker, and concludes with a high-energy country band and couples dancing.

Kendal Lowery’s  ‘American Barracks Table Restaurant’ in Gillespie will be selling high-quality local food at the event.

Bring your instrument and join in, come and dance the afternoon away, or bring a lawnchair to sitback and relax to outdoor music.

After several minutes of discussion and debate, the Gillespie City Council on Monday night adopted a resolution that enables the city to collect a $100 late fee for lake lot lease payments that come in after the April 1 deadline. Council members also endorsed a privately funded program proposed by two sisters to purchase and display banners on Macoupin Street to recognize individual local military personnel.

Lake lot lease-holders are required to pay their $750 annual lease payment on April 1. Under the new policy, the city will impose a $100 late fee. If the lease remains unpaid after May 31, the city will terminate the lease.

Debate centered on whether or not a new leaseholder would be responsible for the unpaid late fee. City Attorney Rick Verticchio wrote the resolution to attach the fee to the lot rather than the lease-holder, meaning a new owner would have to redeem the late fee to rent the lot. Ald. Janet Odell-Mueller, however, said such a policy would be unfair to the new lease-holder.

Verticchio said he wrote the resolution to prevent families or friends from transferring lots from one to another without paying for the previous year’s lease. He said a person could conceivably default on a year’s lease, transfer the property to a family member or friend who could do the same thing a year later. “This is to prevent ‘sweetheart deals’,” Verticchio said, where a group of friends or family members could retain a lot indefinitely without ever paying for a lease.

Ald. Landon Pettit pointed out, however, that lease-holders are required to pay a deposit equal to a one-year lease. Meaning the city will get the lease payment when the lease-holder forfeits the lease. At that point, Odell-Mueller said, the lease-holder would not be transferring the lease. Instead, the city would have control of the property.

Verticchio said he was not aware of the deposit issue and suggested he could reword a portion of the resolution to indicate that in the event the lease is terminated the deposit would be applied to the balance due and the penalty would be waived. Essentially, the penalty applies only if the delinquent lease-holder chooses to retain the lease by paying the penalty plus the annual lease.

At one point, Mayor John Hicks suggested referring the resolution back to committee to hammer out the final language, Ultimately, however, the council voted unanimously to adopt the resolution with the changes Verticchio suggested.

MILITARY HEROES BANNERS

On a motion by Ald. Wendy Rolando, the council voted unanimously to give permission to Jennifer Carter and her sister, Jodi Carpani, to purchase and place banners honoring local military personnel on Veterans Day. Carter said the women hope to have the banners on Macoupin Street in time for Veterans Day this year.

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“We would like the city council’s permission to recognize our community heroes,” Carter said, addressing the council, “and we would like permission to ask the community to join us in honoring them sponsoring a banner.”

Carter said there are 20 brackets currently available on Macoupin Street to mount the banners. The banners are two-sided, meaning the pair could honor up to 40 veterans at the moment. She said the number of banners could be expanded if some of the broken brackets are replaced.

The banners cost $80 each, and the sisters plan to seek the support of community members to pay for them. Carter said they will not profit from the project.

“We will bear the responsibility to organize and solicit our community to sponsor a local veteran with a hometown heroes banner to be hung every year on Veterans Day,” Carter said. “My sister and I will be responsible for hanging and removing the banners each year.”

She said the banners will be similar to those currently displayed in Wilsonville, Edwardsville and Bunker Hill. The project will not interfere with Miners flags that are displayed on Macoupin Street during football season.

“My fear is that we will have more people wanting banners than we have brackets for,” Carter said. She said they will approach the Benld City Council for permission to hang banners in that community if a significant number of people want to honor Benld veterans.

Mayor Hicks noted that there will be more poles available for displaying banners when the city’s Streetscape project is finished. 

Last month, Ald. Rolando received the permission of the council to solicit donations to buy new American flags for Macoupin Street. She said she can work with the sisters to see if the banners can be displayed on the same pole with the flags, or possibly have the flags on alternate poles along the Main Street.

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WATER BILL POLICY

After a lengthy discussion, Mayor Hicks asked the Public Works Committee to work on establishing a policy for collecting delinquent water bills when a residence is sold to a new owner. The discussion stemmed from concerns voiced by Jack Taylor who recently purchased a vacant home with the intention of renovating it for resale. After closing on the real estate, he learned there was a $200 delinquent water bill he was required to pay before having the water turned on.

“Had he come up to city hall and asked them to check that address, they would have told him about the outstanding bill,” Verticchio said.

Taylor complained that he had a title search completed but the city had not placed a lien against the property. “If someone buys a house, they’re going to do a title search. No one is going to come up here and check the water bill,” he said. “I’m just saying it’s unfair to the buyer.”

Verticchio said filing a lien on a $200 water bill would not be practical. The city would have to pay him for his services plus a $81 filing fee. “At that point you’ve doubled the bill,” he said. “All of sudden, $200 is $400.” Most municipalities, he said, do not file formal liens until the delinquent bill reaches $500.

City Treasurer Dan Fisher said the city cannot waive delinquent water bills because of money the city received from USDA for its water infrastructure project completed two years ago. “We have a loan with the federal government. Under the terms of that loan, we have to collect all bills,” he said. “We have to be able to collect that money to uphold our end of our agreement with the federal government.”

Fisher recommended that the Water Department shut off water service for delinquent customers sooner so excessive bills do not accrue.

Hicks recommended that the Public Works Committee work on a policy regarding delinquent water bills. One possible solution, he said, would be to remove water meters from vacant homes with delinquent bills.

“That way, the buyer would have to call the Water Department to have the water turned on, and they would tell them that there’s a bill against it,” he said.

He told Taylor he would look at the bill and see if there were late fees or interest that could be waived. 

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STOP SIGNS

The council approved an ordinance to place stop signs at the intersection of LJ Avenue and Oak Street to facilitate rerouted bus traffic resulting from Community Unit School District 7’s decision to convene and dismiss school at the same times for all its buildings.

Ald. Odell-Mueller questioned whether the safety of elementary students crossing the road would be jeopardized by the rerouted buses.

Fisher responded that the school district is working with the city to apply for a safety grant to install sidewalks in the area of BenGil Elementary School to address safety concerns.

OTHER ACTION

In other action, the council:

• Ratified the Mayor’s appointment of Dave Tucker, Kelley Hatlee and Katie Drummond to the Gillespie Public Library Board of Directors.
• Agreed to accept a bid of $15,500 from Cahokia Township for the purchase of a surplus dump truck, and a bid of $5,000 from Kinney Construction for a surplus vacuum truck. No bids were received for a street sweeper that also was declared as surplus property last month.
• Accepted a total bid of $760 from Jim Feeley to remove trees in the 800 block of Frey Street, the 600 block of Adams Street and at Big Brick Park.
• Voted to establish a separate checking account for funds generated from the city’s second Tax Increment Financing district.

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