 A citizen came to talk about his feelings on a person he believes is
a candidate for the Lincoln police chief position, and Andy Hamilton
of Opportunity Alliance offered information on an upcoming amendment
to the enterprise zone.But perhaps the best news of the night was
the last item discussed.
Gordon McCann: One property lost, one under fire
Mayor Keith Snyder said that he and city attorney Bill Bates had
new information about "our friend Mr. McCann."
Bates said he had received information from the Illinois
Environmental Protection Agency that they have sent notices to
Gordon McCann telling him to clean up his properties on Webster
Drive and North Jefferson.
Bates said he has been trying to get the EPA involved in these
derelict properties for a while.
While those EPA notices do include the Jefferson Street address,
Snyder announced that the trash-ridden residence is no longer the
property of McCann.
He said he had learned that the property has sold for taxes, was
purchased by Jefferson Street Church, and they have already begun
work on getting the mess cleaned up.
McGinnis addresses council regarding Richard Montcalm
At the beginning of the Tuesday night meeting, Clinton McGinnis
asked to be heard regarding Richard Montcalm.
McGinnis has heard that Montcalm is vying for the position of
chief of police for the city of Lincoln, replacing the retiring
Stuart Erlenbush.
He wanted the council to know that he was very much opposed to
Montcalm being placed in that position.
"I personally have had problems with this individual," McGinnis
said.
He explained that he has a son who is developmentally challenged,
and while he is 36 years old, he has the mind of a child. His son
had a habit of going to a local bar, getting intoxicated and then
going outside to urinate.
McGinnis said that he had faced personal ridicule from Montcalm
because of the actions of his son and has been hurt by Montcalm as
well as the former city administration.
He added that he had given Snyder written information regarding
his claims and would answer any questions the council might have.
To date, the three-person committee of Alderwoman Marty Neitzel,
Alderman Jeff Hoinacki and Snyder has made no public announcements
on who the candidates for the city's chief of police are or whether
they are nearing the end of their search.
Montcalm is currently with the Logan County Sheriff's Department
and is a former police chief for the city of Lincoln.
Hamilton outlines changes to enterprise zone
Andy Hamilton of Opportunity Alliance LLC presented proposed
changes to the enterprise zone as a follow-up on a discussion with
the council several weeks ago.
After Elkhart Grain was added to the zone last summer, Hamilton
said the county board had asked that Opportunity Alliance
investigate whether or not there were other grain elevators that
could benefit from being in the zone.
In doing so, he had found that indeed there were, and the
additions he was presenting on Tuesday night are designed to include
Hartsburg, Atlanta and New Holland, to assist Hartsburg Grain Co.,
Farmers Grain Co., Taloma Grain and Elkhart Grain.
Hamilton said that the addition was going to take up 0.21 square
miles of the zone space. This would bring the area total to 10.9
square miles, leaving approximately 4 square miles available for future
additions.
He said the proposal would be presented to New Holland on
Wednesday, the city of Lincoln next Monday, the county and Atlanta
on Tuesday, and Hartsburg on March 29.
When Hamilton was finished, Alderwoman Melody Anderson asked how
adding these communities to the enterprise zone would affect local
schools.
He answered that the tax breaks given to enterprise zone
participants had no effect on local schools.
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 Snyder said he had talked to Hamilton about waiving
the building permit fees in the enterprise zone. Currently the city
waives 100 percent of those fees, but he wanted to investigate
whether or not they could waive a lesser amount.
The result is that the fees can be adjusted instead
of waived completely, and therefore in this agreement it is stated
that building permit fees will be discounted 50 percent to
enterprise zone participants.
Snyder said that the city needed to claim some
revenue from the permits to help fund the building and safety
office.
Bates said that there is a conflict for him in this
particular situation because his son, Blinn Bates, is the attorney
for the village of New Holland as well as Atlanta.
He said that there needs to be disclosure of this
conflict, and that the city might consider bringing in a special
attorney for this case.
In the meantime, Bates said he can offer no legal
advice to the city, because the conflict has not been fully
disclosed to all the parties.
Sign ordinance meeting canceled
On Feb. 23 the ordinance committee met to go through
the sign ordinance document that has been on the table since last
May. The committee worked through the first 11 pages and slashed
several items.
Neitzel, as the ordinance chair, had heard from
council members that the reported 30-plus-page document was too
hefty for the city and needed to be streamlined.
At the end of the Feb. 23 meeting, Neitzel called
for another meeting at 6 p.m. March 23 to finish the edit,
hopefully.
At this week's meeting she said she was going to
cancel the next committee meeting because she has talked with the
newly hired building and safety officer, John Lebegue, and he has
agreed to sit down and go through the document with her, offering
his advice on what needs to be in the ordinance.
Anderson says to be thinking about changes to the
2011-12 budget process
Anderson said that at the budget workshop on
Saturday, the council heard from various groups requesting financial
support from the city.
She said that in the past it has been discussed
whether or not the city should start weaning these groups off city
funding.
If that is something the council wants to do,
Anderson said they should make the decision as early as possible so
these groups will know well ahead of time that for the 2011-2012
budget year they may have their funding reduced or eliminated.
Currently the city is working to put together their
2010-2011 budget, which will include support to these organizations.
Fifth Street IDOT project could include sidewalks
City engineer Mark Mathon said that in a meeting with the
Illinois Department of Transportation, it was discussed that several
sections of sidewalk are missing between Evans and Keokuk, the area
that is slated for resurfacing by IDOT this year.
IDOT has said that they can incorporate sidewalks into the plan
if the city would so desire.
Mathon said that approximately 6,000 square feet of the sidewalk
was actually brick that has been lost over the years, the longest
stretch of which is approximately 240 feet.
If the city would want to add sidewalk replacement to the IDOT
agreement, it would be 100 percent responsible for removing the old
brick and would have to bear 50 percent of the cost for the new
sidewalk.
Alderman David Armbrust asked what the cost would be to the city.
Mathon said the exact cost had not been discussed, but he estimated
it would run in the $20,000 range for the replacement only.
If the city wants to do this, IDOT will issue a new letter of
intent, and the specific dollar figures will be listed then.
[By NILA SMITH]
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