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Logical and impassioned pleas to not cut the
work force from any of the departments, to find some other place to
cut costs were presented to a full council. Speakers were asked to
limit their presentation to three minutes due to the number who
wished to speak. They obligingly did so. It took well over an
hour before all were heard.
Kevin
Logan will be one of the two employees laid off from the fire
department. He is married with two children. His wife was laid off
from her job at Chester-East Lincoln last year.
Logan has not
actually been on the payroll since an injury and surgery took him
off the job in January 2002. He asked to be kept on since he is in
the middle of recovery and losing his health insurance through the
city will jeopardize his rehabilitation benefits.
Kevin Riggins
officially stood to speak on behalf of the police department, but he
said he wanted to speak on behalf of everyone wearing a badge
because their jobs are often inter-related. You have police going
out to investigate meth labs and they need the protection of the
fire department in clean-up if those labs explode. Both departments
are important to public safety and safety to each other.
“Laying off
police officers is the wrong thing to do at this time,” Riggins
said. The economy is down and with that, historically, the crime
rate always goes up. When things get bad drug use increases and
dealing increases. He says we are seeing this here and we are not
alone. He has been speaking to other communities very much like
Lincoln in nature and of like size and they are seeing the same
problems and drug use. “I can’t see laying off the people
protecting this town,” he concluded.
Giving credit
where credit was due, Officer Chuck Gunning spoke on behalf of the
police department, “I know Mr. Prather and he’s done his homework.”
In comparison he added, “Manpower is at the level that can support
this city.” He said, “Officer safety, response time and morale will
be compromised with cuts.”
Fire fighter
safety was the crux of the arguments presented on behalf of the fire
department as well. Fire fighter local union president Jim Davis
said the cuts will take the department below the NFPA standards.
According to Jim
Schrepner, regional vice president of the association of
firefighters of Illinois, set industry standards recommend a minimum
of seven fire fighters to man the various positions on any given
shift. There are currently 21 firefighters on the local force.
This will leave them a man short on two shifts.
“With out personnel we can not do this job,” Davis said.
He added that Mr.
Prather previously offered that if anyone could see where $150,000
could be cut from the budget they won’t have to make these employee
cuts. “We have three new aldermen coming in, give them a chance,”
he asked.
Finance
Chairman Verl Prather read his written statement to the audience.
He said that it is the toughest decision he has made in ten years.
He recognized the impact that this will have on the families. His
neighbor will be one of those that will be laid off. “I feel bad
about that,” he said, but there is no other way to do this.
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The last two years the departments have had no new equipment, no
new cars or any thing else. Interest revenues for the city have
gone down and costs have gone up.
Fire
Department salary increases have gone up the past two years, this
year and are slated to go up again next year. Department raises
were $61,000 last year and will be up $63,000 for the ’04 – 05
fiscal year.
The
general fund has been decreasing over the past couple of years.
Each year we find some limited funds to close out that see us
through that year only. The facts have been stated each time. We are
facing the same short fall as one year ago.
Prather made it clear that every effort has
already been made to cut the budget, even with the employee cuts the
city is $140,000 short still.
“It is a difficult recommendation to make to
the council. I have looked at the budget and it’s not a choice this
time to the city,” he said.
Mayor Beth Davis said, “Every day you put
your lives on the line. We do appreciate that.” “This has been the
most difficult decision for all of the council members and myself in
the last year.”
It has been three years of spending more
than we are bringing in. As an example last years investment income
was $90,000. This year it is only $8,000.
Alderman Glenn Shelton said he received
numerous calls asking that he vote not to cut the employees. He
said, “We made as many cuts as we thought we could make without
layoffs.” We even disagreed when we had those discussions.
However he stated, “ I’m still not convinced
that laying off from streets, fire and police would jeopardize our
public safety.”
Alderman George Mitchell sided with the
employees saying, “We have a lot invested in these people. They
seem to be working to do a good job. I can not see jeopardizing
jobs.”
When all was
said, the council members did what they felt they had to do. The
votes were cast, 7 – 2, six city employees layoff notices are in the
mail today.
The two
dissenting votes were cast by Benny Huskins and Mitchell.
Assistant Fire
Chief Mark Miller today (Wednesday) said, “We will have to
reorganize everything we do. It can not be done the same way.”
[Jan
Youngquist]
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It started about an
hour before storm warnings were issued. The 911 system, which is
located in the Safety Complex below the Logan County Jail, was
flooded with water through the ceiling. A prisoner had clogged a
toilet and flushed it repeatedly to cause the flood.
The water affected
the system immediately. However, it did what it was supposed to do;
it automatically kicked over to the remote backup system. It was the
first time for the backup system to be used, even though it has been
available for years.
It was only minutes
later that storm warnings began. There wasn't a lot of storm warning
time when winds hit the backup location at the Rural Fire Department
and took the power out there.
The power was out,
but the backup generator kicked on and 911 was still functioning.
Calls continued to come in.
Not only was the
power out, but the tower that was built to withstand 100 mph winds
was downed.
Fulscher said that
there were 200 calls made to the 911 system during those short hours
with the storm, and he believes they didn't miss a call. Seventeen
calls were made to the Lincoln Fire Department. The Rural Fire
Department responded to a call of an overturned semi-truck on
Interstate 55. Other calls went to the police department.
In summary there were
three storms. The first was a microburst that helped create an F1
tornado with 70-90 mph winds. That led to a storm with winds that
were 80-100 mph. It was estimated that the winds that took the 911
tower down were 110 mph. Utility poles were downed and power was
affected to all the feeder communities from Lawndale to Atlanta.
Telephone service was variably disrupted.
Conservative damages
are estimated at $500,000. This figure is straight dollars for
damage. It does not include less tangible losses such as business
income to such places as the fast-food businesses that were closed
due to lack of electricity and so on.
Fulscher reported the
lessons learned from the event. The phone lines were very busy after
the storm. A separate phone line had to be established with
AmerenCILCO to be able to communicate with them as needed. This was
accomplished with ESDA's radio communications system.
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Illinois State Police
and Illinois Department of Transportation were called in to assist.
The ISP sent eight men to patrol for security in the blackout area.
IDOT has been assisting with cleanup.
Fulscher praised all
agencies and community leadership involved in the storm recovery. He
said, "We have practiced and trained; it was great to see a unified
command working between police, fire and EMS." This is the first
such event in years, and it was great seeing everyone working so
well together. There was not a voice raised during the whole time.
He added that the county board chairman, Dale Voyles, visited
frequently to keep up with what was happening throughout the
weekend.
Restoration
assistance will continue through next Monday. Residents are asked to
place only storm debris. No other debris will be picked up. The
state is assisting and they will not fund non-storm-related cleanup.
Indoor junk like toilets will not be picked up. This is not
Lincoln's spring cleanup. Do not leave debris for pickup in the
alleyways. Storm debris pickup at the street curbside will continue
from Wednesday through next Monday.
Fulscher introduced
Illinois Emergency Management Region Seven Coordinator Dan Smith.
Smith, who was traveling near Lincoln Friday afternoon, was here
minutes after the storm first struck and stayed the weekend. He gave
a progressive summary of the state's goals during and after the
disaster.
[Photo by Jan Youngquist]
Dan Smith
He said the first
priority was "life and safety." Illinois State Police were brought
in to provide traffic control and security of the blackout areas.
The next step was a
return to normalcy. The state can not go on private property to
remove anything. It must be on public right of way. Three street
crews were sent from IDOT with equipment and 20 inmates from Logan
Corrections to pick up debris.
Finally, the state
provides damage assessment. If damages are high enough, a state or
presidential disaster declaration can be requested and the area
affected may receive federal assistance for damages. While the
damages were significant to a few, he apologized that they were not
accumulatively enough to submit for a declaration.
Mayor Davis thanked the men for their
service on behalf of the city and praised their efforts.
[Jan
Youngquist]
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