Coffee with the Mayor
Part Two – Lincoln Police discussion and
sewer talk
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[April 07, 2024]
On
the Saturday before Easter, Lincoln Mayor Tracy Welch hosted Coffee
with the Mayor at Guest House Coffee and Pastries. There was a large
turnout of Lincoln citizens for the event. Welch noted later that he
believed there were more people in attendance than at any of the
previous events.
Constituents were able to interact with the mayor and also
alderperson Kevin Bateman and Wanda Lee Rohlfs, and City Waste
Treatment Manager Andrew Bowns.
The first part of the day focused on the situation with the Logan
Correctional Center. There is a concern that when Governor JB
Pritzker announced that Stateville and Logan would be demolished and
rebuilt, he was precise on the location of the new Stateville, but
much vaguer about the future of Logan.
As the morning progressed, the talks shifted to other topics.
A comment was made that a third party not present had complained
that there was an issue with a lack of police presence in the
downtown area now that the police station is located on Fifth
Street. The constituent said he was just repeating what he had been
told, but there was a concern out there that the LPD does not spend
enough time downtown.
Welch said that there are a couple of factors included here. First,
he said when there is a problem, the LPD is quick to respond, but if
they aren’t notified they can’t know there is a problem. Secondly he
said there is a shortage of police officers in general. The shortage
comes from the fact that law enforcement is not being treated with
respect from a higher level. It was noted that the Safety Act has
made it frustrating for officers because someone arrested can be
released within minutes of incarceration, and they are free to go
out and commit another crime. It was noted that this happened not
long ago and was reported on national news. A person was arrested,
released, and minutes later murdered someone. The Safety Act made
that possible.
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Bateman said that there are not enough applicants for
officer positions. He said that the council has taken measures to
help the LPD hire. The live in the city rule has been modified so
that now an officer doesn’t have to life within a certain radius of
Lincoln. The council also has established a protocol where that the
chief is authorized to hire a certain number of officers. Bateman
said this saved time in that the Chief does not have to come back to
the council for each hire and doesn’t not have to wait for a
committee of the whole meeting and then a voting session which all
combined can take two or more weeks for approval. This helps, but
when there are not enough applicants then what can the city do?
Also, there was a few minutes spent on the fact that some people
think that voicing a concern on social media is just as good as
calling the police. Bateman said this had occurred and the end
result, he had asked the social media commentor why they did not
call the police, and the response was “I put it on Facebook, they
should have seen it there.” Not true Bateman said. If you want the
police, call the police.
There was a comment made about the former Lincoln Developmental
Center and a need for more veteran services. Welch said that Central
Illinois Veteran Commission Director Joe Schaler and others had
tried to get a portion of LDC for a facility for veterans with
emotional health issues, but the attempts had not yielded the
desired results. The citizen was also directed to the new Hope on
Fifth which will feature services for veterans along with many other
community services.
Bowns was asked to share information about the city waste treatment
facility. The city owns its waste treatment facility but contracts
its management out to Veolia Water. Bowns is employed by Veolia,
though not a stranger to Lincoln. Bown is the grandson of the late
Buzz Busby who was a city alderman for many years. Bown’s parents
are Cince Bowns and the late Jerry Bowns of Lincoln.
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Bowns spoke about the
complications of working with a very old sewer system. He
explained that Lincoln has a combined sewer system which means
that wastewater and storm water travers through the city to the
waste treatment plant in the same pipe. This is not widely
accepted as the proper method of deliver by today’s standards.
However, Bowns said that separating the two sewer lines would be
nearly impossible and very expensive. As a result the city has
to deal with a lot of issues with the Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency.
He said that EPA mandates is the reason for the recent
$15,000,000 upgrade to the sewer. The upgrade was done at the
city expense, and money had to be in essence borrowed, in order
to complete all the work. That “loan” came from the Illinois
State Revolving Funds with an interest rate of 1.1 percent.
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The money to pay the loan is being secured through
the change in sewer rates and the method of calculating those rates
that occurred a few years ago.
Bowns said that because the sewer is combined, special attention is
given to “rain events” in the city, as that rain can greatly
increase the volume of water going into the sewer plant. The EPA
wants that water to go into the treatment plant with as few effluent
releases as possible into public water ways. Bowns said depending on
the amount of rain, there are times when the sewer can system
releases untreated waste into the water stream. The city must
monitor every rain event and report when sewer and storm waters are
released.
Bowns was asked about the life span of the underground sewer lines.
He said it varied according to the materials used. In Lincoln a lot
of the underground sewer lines are clay tile. He said those pipes
range in diameter from 6-inch to 9-foot by 9-foot square.
He said the city had invested in a camera system that permitted the
sewer department to run a line into the sewer and identify where
there is damage or collapse of the sewer without digging it all up.
In additional they were utilizing new technology that permitted the
department to inject a resin membrane into the sewer line at the
damaged area and give it a coating that will last about 50 years. He
said the resin was sprayed in then after it was set, the camera and
a cutter is put into the line and sewer connections were cut out so
that sewerage could flow from buildings into the transport pipes
that eventually take it to the waste treatment plant. He said this
new technology was saving the city a great deal of money.
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The balance of the two-hour coffee with the mayor was
spent on a few different topics including citizens still voicing
concerns over the number of liquor and gambling establishments and
comments about the permitting of cannabis establishments from
growers to manufacturers to retailers within the city.
The Coffee with the Mayor events are hosted every other month by
Mayor Welch. Each event includes an invitation to city alderpersons
and department heads to participate. Under the open meetings act,
there can be only two alderpersons involved in each meeting.
[Nila Smith]
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