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Logical and
impassioned pleas to not cut the work force from any of the
departments, to find some other place to cut costs were presented to
a full council. Speakers were asked to limit their presentation to
three minutes due to the number who wished to speak. They obligingly
did so. It took well over an hour before all were heard.
Kevin Logan will be
one of the two employees laid off from the fire department. He is
married with two children. His wife was laid off from her job at
Chester-East Lincoln last year.
Logan has not
actually been on the payroll since an injury and surgery took him
off the job in January 2002. He asked to be kept on since he is in
the middle of recovery, and losing his health insurance through the
city will jeopardize his rehabilitation benefits.
Kevin Riggins
officially stood to speak on behalf of the police department, but he
said he wanted to speak on behalf of everyone wearing a badge
because their jobs are often interrelated. You have police going out
to investigate meth labs and they need the protection of the fire
department in cleanup if those labs explode. Both departments are
important to public safety and safety to each other.
"Laying off police
officers is the wrong thing to do at this time," Riggins said. The
economy is down and with that, historically, the crime rate always
goes up. When things get bad, drug use increases and dealing
increases. He says we are seeing this here, and we are not alone. He
has been speaking to other communities very much like Lincoln in
nature and of like size, and they are seeing the same problems and
drug use. "I can't see laying off the people protecting this town,"
he concluded.
Giving credit where
credit was due, Officer Chuck Gunning spoke on behalf of the police
department: "I know Mr. Prather, and he's done his homework." In
comparison he added, "Manpower is at the level that can support this
city." He said, "Officer safety, response time and morale will be
compromised with cuts."
Firefighter safety
was the crux of the arguments presented on behalf of the fire
department as well. Firefighter local union president Jim Davis said
the cuts will take the department below the NFPA standards.
According to Jim
Schrepner, regional vice president of the Illinois Firefighter's
Association, set industry standards recommend a minimum of seven
firefighters to man the various positions on any given shift. There
are currently 21 firefighters on the local force. This will leave
them a man short on two shifts.
"Without personnel we
cannot do this job," Davis said.
He added that Mr.
Prather previously offered that if anyone could see where $150,000
could be cut from the budget, they won't have to make these employee
cuts. "We have three new aldermen coming in; give them a chance," he
asked.
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Finance chairman Verl
Prather read his written statement to the audience. He said that it
is the toughest decision he has made in 10 years. He recognized the
impact that this will have on the families. His neighbor will be one
of those that will be laid off. "I feel bad about that," he said,
but there is no other way to do this.
The last two years
the departments have had no new equipment, no new cars or anything
else. Interest revenues for the city have gone down and costs have
gone up.
Fire department
salary increases have gone up the past two years, this year and are
slated to go up again next year. Department raises were $61,000 last
year and will be up $63,000 for the '04-'05 fiscal year.
The general fund has
been decreasing over the past couple of years. Each year we find
some limited funds to close out that see us through that year only.
The facts have been stated each time. We are facing the same
shortfall as one year ago.
Prather made it clear
that every effort has already been made to cut the budget. Even with
the employee cuts, the city is $140,000 short still.
"It is a difficult
recommendation to make to the council. I have looked at the budget,
and it's not a choice this time to the city," he said.
Mayor Beth Davis
said, "Every day you put your lives on the line. We do appreciate
that. This has been the most difficult decision for all of the
council members and myself in the last year."
It has been three
years of spending more than we are bringing in. As an example, last
year's investment income was $80,000. This year it is only $8,000.
Alderman Glenn
Shelton said he received numerous calls asking that he vote not to
cut the employees. He said, "We made as many cuts as we thought we
could make without layoffs."
However, he stated,
"I'm still not convinced that laying off from streets, fire and
police would jeopardize our public safety."
Alderman George
Mitchell sided with the employees, saying, "We have a lot invested
in these people. They seem to be working to do a good job. I cannot
see jeopardizing jobs."
When all was said,
the council members did what they felt they had to do. The votes
were cast, 7-2. Six city employees' layoff notices are in the mail
today.
The two dissenting
votes were cast by Benny Huskins and Mitchell.
Assistant Fire Chief Mark Miller said
today (Tuesday), "We will have to reorganize everything we do. It
cannot be done the same way."
[Jan
Youngquist]
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It started about an
hour before storm warnings were issued. The 911 system, which is
located in the Safety Complex below the Logan County Jail, was
flooded with water through the ceiling. A prisoner had clogged a
toilet and flushed it repeatedly to cause the flood.
The water affected
the system immediately. However, it did what it was supposed to do;
it automatically kicked over to the remote backup system. It was the
first time for the backup system to be used, even though it has been
available for years.
It was only minutes
later that storm warnings began. There wasn't a lot of storm warning
time when winds hit the backup location at the Rural Fire Department
and took the power out there.
The power was out,
but the backup generator kicked on and 911 was still functioning.
Calls continued to come in.
Not only was the
power out, but the tower that was built to withstand 100 mph winds
was downed.
Fulscher said that
there were 200 calls made to the 911 system during those short hours
with the storm, and he believes they didn't miss a call. Seventeen
calls were made to the Lincoln Fire Department. The Rural Fire
Department responded to a call of an overturned semi-truck on
Interstate 55. Other calls went to the police department.
In summary there were
three storms. The first was a microburst that helped create an F1
tornado with 70-90 mph winds. That led to a storm with winds that
were 80-100 mph. It was estimated that the winds that took the 911
tower down were 110 mph. Utility poles were downed and power was
affected to all the feeder communities from Lawndale to Atlanta.
Telephone service was variably disrupted.
Conservative damages
are estimated at $500,000. This figure is straight dollars for
damage. It does not include less tangible losses such as business
income to such places as the fast-food businesses that were closed
due to lack of electricity and so on.
Fulscher reported the
lessons learned from the event. The phone lines were very busy after
the storm. A separate phone line had to be established with
AmerenCILCO to be able to communicate with them as needed. This was
accomplished with ESDA's radio communications system.
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Illinois State Police
and Illinois Department of Transportation were called in to assist.
The ISP sent eight men to patrol for security in the blackout area.
IDOT has been assisting with cleanup.
Fulscher praised all
agencies and community leadership involved in the storm recovery. He
said, "We have practiced and trained; it was great to see a unified
command working between police, fire and EMS." This is the first
such event in years, and it was great seeing everyone working so
well together. There was not a voice raised during the whole time.
He added that the county board chairman, Dale Voyles, visited
frequently to keep up with what was happening throughout the
weekend.
Restoration
assistance will continue through next Monday. Residents are asked to
place only storm debris. No other debris will be picked up. The
state is assisting and they will not fund non-storm-related cleanup.
Indoor junk like toilets will not be picked up. This is not
Lincoln's spring cleanup. Do not leave debris for pickup in the
alleyways. Storm debris pickup at the street curbside will continue
from Wednesday through next Monday.
Fulscher introduced
Illinois Emergency Management Region Seven Coordinator Dan Smith.
Smith, who was traveling near Lincoln Friday afternoon, was here
minutes after the storm first struck and stayed the weekend. He gave
a progressive summary of the state's goals during and after the
disaster.
[Photo by Jan Youngquist]
Dan Smith
He said the first
priority was "life and safety." Illinois State Police were brought
in to provide traffic control and security of the blackout areas.
The next step was a
return to normalcy. The state can not go on private property to
remove anything. It must be on public right of way. Three street
crews were sent from IDOT with equipment and 20 inmates from Logan
Corrections to pick up debris.
Finally, the state
provides damage assessment. If damages are high enough, a state or
presidential disaster declaration can be requested and the area
affected may receive federal assistance for damages. While the
damages were significant to a few, he apologized that they were not
accumulatively enough to submit for a declaration.
Mayor Davis thanked the men for their
service on behalf of the city and praised their efforts.
[Jan
Youngquist]
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