Tuesday, September 20, 2011
 
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CITY BRIEFS:
Good budget management increases cash on hand

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[September 20, 2011]  Monday evening eight aldermen were present for the voting session of the Lincoln City Council. Aldermen Buzz Busby and Tom O' Donohue were absent for the evening. 

Public hearing 

Prior to calling the voting session to order, a public hearing was held according to city ordinance for the vacating of property. 

The request to vacate involves a section of Evans Street behind the now-vacant Lincoln Church of God. 

Gene Steinmarch was on hand for the hearing and said before the meeting that the Community Services Foundation is purchasing the church building, with plans to convert it to a group home for people with disabilities. He said the foundation currently has a group home in Atlanta they are going to vacate. The residents from that home will be moved to Lincoln. 

The Community Services Foundation has asked the city to vacate Evans behind the church so they can have green space on their lot.   

Last week Mayor Keith Snyder said the only problem that had been brought to light came from Ameren Illinois, which asked that they be able to maintain a 5-foot right of way along a utility line on the street. 

When Snyder called the hearing to order, he asked if anyone wished to object to the vacating, and no one responded. He then asked if there was anyone who wished to speak in favor of the action, and again no one responded. 

The hearing was then closed. 

Later in the meeting, when the motion came to a vote, it passed unanimously in favor of vacating the requested portion of Evans Street. 

City treasurer delivers report for August 

Chuck Conzo, city treasurer, delivered his monthly financial report for August. 

He started out by drawing attention to the general fund balance, which totaled $437,983.29. This is a drastic improvement over the August 2010 balance, which was only $79,617.74, and the August 2009 balance, which was $129,531.

Conzo said that what he sees is not that revenues have gotten all that much better, but rather the council and the finance committee have done a really good job in their budgeting efforts. He also acknowledged the city departments and said they were doing very well in monitoring their budgets and controlling expenses. 

Conzo shared that the Illinois Department of Revenue has issued an estimate of personal property replacement tax for the 2012 year. The estimate for the city of Lincoln for the full year comes to $292,946, a decrease of $43,277.23 from the current year. 

Commonly known as "replacement tax," this money is what has replaced local property tax for the past several years. In the 1970s, local businesses paid property tax to counties and municipalities just as residents did. But a change made by the state of Illinois took that revenue away from the counties and municipalities and replaced it with a tax paid to the state. 

Once received, a portion of that money is distributed back to local governments. Conzo said that of all the tax distributed, over 51 percent is going to Cook County, while the rest of the counties statewide get a portion of the balance. 

He also noted this is the fund Gov. Pat Quinn is proposing be used to pay for the regional superintendents of education. He noted that thus far it hasn' t been said specifically whose share that will come out of -- state, city or county -- but if it comes out of the city, it will be one more expense on reduced revenue. 

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Having just returned from an Illinois Municipal League conference in Chicago, Snyder said he had heard there that the money was tapped to come out of city funding. He noted he wanted to see the superintendents get their funding, but he didn' t think the city should be the ones to have to provide it. 

Other business 

In other business, the council unanimously passed a motion to approve an ordinance creating the position of city administrator in the city of Lincoln. 

The approval of bids for overlay projects involving brick streets was tabled, with plans to discuss the issue further at the next workshop meeting. 

The Fourth Street sewer repair bill to Petersburg Plumbing was approved, even though it came in $4,000 over the original estimate of $12,000.  

The sewer work had been approved on an emergency basis by Busby last week. Therefore, it required a two-thirds majority of all aldermen to pass, or seven votes. The motion was made by Alderwoman Mary Neitzel and passed unanimously with eight votes. 

Consent agenda 

Items on this week' s consent agenda included permission for Lincoln Community High School to do whitewashing on city streets for homecoming Sept. 30 and permission for a block party to be hosted by Full Gospel Evangelistic Center on North Monroe on Sept. 24.

Thank you 

Snyder shared that he had received thank-you cards to the city of Lincoln from the Lincoln Rural Explorers, a youth firefighter training program; from the Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce in appreciation of the city' s support of the art and balloon festival; and from Chris Graue, representing the Up in Smoke barbecue event. 

Police Chief Ken Greenslate said that speaking for himself and fire Chief Mark Miller, he wanted to thank the numerous organizations and businesses who had special recognitions in honor of first responders over the 9/11 weekend. He said all the displays of appreciation were greatly appreciated by the officers and firefighters. 

[By NILA SMITH]

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