City Officials and guests share comments on the events of the day at city council meeting Tuesday night

[July 12, 2017]  LINCOLN - On Tuesday night the Lincoln City Council was slated to have two meetings, a brief voting session to be followed immediately by the regular Committee of the Whole. At the opening of the night, Mayor Seth Goodman said that the C.O.W. would be cancelled because city staff had been working very long hours since the first wave of severe storms hit on Monday night, and they needed some down time.

The voting session was held with only two items on the agenda.

During the evening beginning with public participation, the events of the last 24 hours were discussed.

In the gallery, Cliff Marbel asked to speak. He said he wanted to comment on the city departments and offered compliments to the Lincoln Police and Fire Chiefs. He said that right after the storm on Monday evening, the fire department was out answering the needs of the community with the police department also working for the same cause.

He said that he appreciated the team work between chiefs Mark Miller and Paul Adams. He noted, “The Police Department went out and did their thing. They protected the place, they let the fire department know where they could get fire and ambulances through and where they couldn’t. They really took control of the situation in every aspect. The Fire Department did a good job. They not only took care of fires and sick calls, they also got their chain saws out and starting clearing streets. The two chiefs worked together and directed everything because the dispatchers could not keep up. Now that is pulling together folks.”

Lisa Bobb stood and said she wanted to echo the words of Marbel, and that she also thought the Streets and Alleys Department did a fine job.

At the end of the night, Mayor Goodman offered a recap of the press conference held earlier in the day and explained the value of declaring the city a disaster area.

City Administrator Clay Johnson also commended the street, fire and police departments. He also announced that the city of Normal will be sending two dump trucks and two knuckle trucks to town on Wednesday to assist the street department.

He noted that the Sewer Department was also involved, first working to get storm sewers cleaned out and functioning properly, then moving over to assist the Street Department in clearing debris.

Fire Chief Mark Miller reported that in the 23 hour period from 8 p.m. Monday evening to the 7 p.m. Tuesday City Council meeting the city fire department had responded to 53 calls and the Lincoln Rural Fire Protection had responded to five calls in the city. Between the two departments seven fire department vehicles were on the streets working through the night.

Calls to the fire department included lines downed, a structure fire, and people trapped in water in their cars.

Chief Miller commented that Wednesday would be hot and miserable with the heat index, and said for the community to be careful out there. Also to be very aware of lines down or any other hazard.

Street Department Superintendent Walt Landers reported that there are still a couple of streets closed as Ameren Illinois continues their efforts. But for the most part, most of the streets in town have at least one lane open.

Landers said folks who do their own yard cleaning to stack debris and brush on the curb, but asked to please not put debris on the street.

Landers said he was anticipating that over the next few days, more storm damage would come to light. Things missed in the initial hours after the storm will be seen as the week goes on. He asked that everyone be very cautious and to call the city with any concerns whatsoever.

He also shared that the landscape waste facility will be open daily the rest of this week and will hold regular hours on Saturday.

Aldermen Tracy Welch commented that the Nixel updates through the city of Lincoln had proven to be very valuable in the last 24 hours. He encouraged anyone who is not currently subscribed to do so. Subscribing to the service can be accomplished by texting the city zip code – 62656 to 888777.

[Nila Smith]