City briefs           

Art and balloon fest shaping up, and other information bits

[JUNE 30, 2005]  Patrick Doolin, president of the Lincoln/Logan Chamber of Commerce, updated the council on plans for this year's Lincoln Art & Balloon Festival. The committee has been working out a number of details to move the balloon fest portion to the Logan County Airport grounds. Doolin said that they have worked with the Logan County Sheriff's Department on getting traffic flow patterns established, and they completed two meetings with the neighborhoods that will be most affected. Railsplitter and Mayfair residents will have residential passes to get in and out easily.

The Kid's Zone, located at the corner of Kickapoo and Pekin streets, will be expanded this year. Corporate sponsors will be bringing their Family Fun Center. Doolin requested street closure for between Broadway and Pekin streets for the entertainment center and truck hosted by Coca-Cola, Frito-Lay and Jelly Belly.

Road construction

Bids were opened for road construction projects associated with the new developments on the west side.

Illinois Valley Paving was the only bidder on the temporary Madigan Drive bid, at $151,253.11.

Mark Mathon

Motor fuel tax materials bids had two items with no bidders. Mark Mathon said that in this case the standard procedure is to go out and get quotes and pick a supplier. He felt that since one of the items is in excess of $10,000, it would be important to get several quotes.

Insurance issues

City attorney Bill Bates was contacted by an attorney for Mr. Horton of the Horton Group, Chicago. He said he would like to come down to Lincoln to discuss the behavior of Debra Callahan of Independent Risk Managers, the city's former insurance consultant. He will be down in a couple of weeks.

The city fired the consultant for not disclosing relationships to the insurance company and agent that she recommended and for recommending policies that did not meet bid specs and not pointing that out.

The city has not chosen a new consultant.

Accomplishment

The council celebrated city engineer Mark Mathon's latest news. Mathon received a letter this week confirming that he passed the civil engineer's test that he took in April.

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