 With little to discuss, the meeting lasted only about 35 minutes.
Sewer department wins grant
City engineer Mark Mathon said the sewer department has heard
that they have won a $240,000 award through the federal State and
Tribal Assistance Grant program.
STAG grants are reimbursement grants that cover 45 percent of an
already completed project. Mathon said the sewer department had
applied for reimbursement of expenses that occurred on the Pulaski
Street sewer line slip line project, which totaled approximately
$424,000.
Mathon said the Pulaski Street project was completed several
years ago. The original application for the grant was started by
Dave Kitzmiller, who was then the waste treatment manager, but it
has taken this long to actually win a grant award.
With the funding being after the fact, the money the city will
receive will be considered as revenue for the sewer department and
can now be used to cover the cost of any city expenditure directly
connected to that department.
Mathon said he has three projects in this year's budget that had
been put on hold pending an award from STAG.
Now that the money is available, the sewer department wants to
move forward with the projects: laying additional
concrete in the drying beds on the backside of the plant,
replacement of pumps in the plant's spray water system and
construction of a new storage building at the facility.
The total cost of these three projects comes to approximately
$180,000, leaving about $60,000 that could be used elsewhere in the
sewer department.
Alderwoman Marty Neitzel inquired about whether or not the
leftover money could be used for needed upgrades to the computer
software used in the sewer billing and records department, and she
was told that those upgrades would be an allowable expense.
Alderwoman Melody Anderson qualified the answer by saying that if
the money is going to be earmarked for an expense that is not
currently in the budget, it will have to be added into the annual
appropriations ordinance for the new year, which is set to be
completed by the end of July.
City considers Comcast for communications system at City
Hall
Alderwoman Joni Tibbs said she has been discussing with
Comcast Communications the possibility of switching the telephone
systems in City Hall to Comcast's broadband-based service.
Currently phone service is coming to City Hall from Verizon, with
a separate provider for long-distance.
Tibbs said she had given city attorney Bill Bates a copy of the
Comcast contract to review.
Bates said the contract was pretty simple. The contract is for a
term of three years, with payments to be made monthly.
He said there was a disclaimer in the contract that referred to
the company's possible inability to provide service for 911.
Bates added that in the contract there is a reference to the
company website, which he has not yet had time to look at, but will
in the near future.
He also added that his only concern about the switch was that
with an Internet-based phone system, if Comcast goes down, the
phones in City Hall will not function.
Anderson asked about the terms in the contract that would allow
the city to cancel, and Bates said there was no such provision. The
term is three years, and the city will have to go along with that.
Tibbs said that in looking at the cost, the city could save
approximately $4,000 a year by making this switch. She added that
she had been told by Comcast that the contract would also
automatically upgrade the Internet service the city already has.
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Alderman Tom O'Donohue asked if the city would have any upfront
costs for equipment, and Tibbs said no. He also asked if she had
documents on the estimated savings, and Tibbs said she did and that
she would share the information with him.
Bates will look at the information provided on the Comcast
website and report back to Tibbs.
O'Donohue volunteers to look at insurance
As the vice chair of the insurance committee and with insurance
being his area of expertise, O'Donohue told the council that he
volunteered to examine the city's insurance policies.
He has started with the workers' compensation plan and currently
has one question that has gone unanswered.
O'Donohue said that employees who are off work and on workers'
compensation are still drawing their full salary from the city. He
wondered if anyone could tell him why that is. According to Illinois
state law, injured workers are supposed to be paid 66 2/3 percent of
their salary by the workers' compensation provider.
Bates said he believes the salary payment is a part of the
collective bargaining agreement for the city employees. His
understanding is that injured employees will receive pay from the
city and sign their workers' comp checks over to their employer.
Anderson, who is the finance committee chair, said she
believed Bates to be correct in his explanation, but she will
investigate it further and let O'Donohue know what she finds.
Street closures to go on consent agenda
The following petitions were added to the consent agenda for the
next voting session:
The Lincoln Christian Church has requested that Hamilton Street
be closed between Pekin and Delavan on June 27 between 5:30 and 8:30
p.m. for their Vacation Bible School kickoff family night.
Main Street Lincoln and the Railsplitter Antique Car Club asked
for the closure of the intersection of Pulaski and Kickapoo on the
evening of June 26. This closing is in addition to the normal street
closures for the monthly car shows.
On this particular evening, Main Street and the car club will
host a St. Jude fundraiser that will include live music and a
barbecue dinner.
Wanda Lee Rohlfs, Main Street Lincoln's director, said the
intersection was chosen because of access to electricity, which is
needed for the food service as well as the live music.
Chuck Conzo was also in attendance, representing the committee
for the Fourth of July celebration. The committee was requesting
street closures as well as a police escort for the children's parade
scheduled for the morning of July 4.
As in past years, the parade will commence at Scully Park and
proceed from there via McLean Street and Wyatt Avenue to the Lincoln
Park District complex.
According to Conzo, with the exception of the parade, all Fourth
of July activities will take place at the park district complex. He said
that the celebration was scaled down compared with previous years
but will still include the water fights after the parade, a
watermelon feed and fireworks at dusk.
[By NILA SMITH]
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