The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
By: Shirley Linder, Quill Editor
Michael Bohnenkamp gave the police report in the absent of Chief Gary Smith who was in Springfield attending the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System Conference.
He reported 135 hours worked for the month with 5 traffic stops, 4 verbal warnings, 1 written warning, 7 service calls, 2 agency assists, 2 arrests, and 18 business checks.
An Emergency Services Disaster Agency (ESDA) ordinance was presented and passed that will which will set a protocol so if a disaster does occur they can be reimbursed.
The ordinance will be published in The Quill.
Bohnenkamp also reported he had met with Oquawka as they are looking to set up a new police department. Gladstone has their police department in place and Lomax and
Dallas City share a police department.
Mayor Eric Chockley told the board he needed to tell them what he had told Police Chief Gary Smith. Chockley said, "I came in here two weeks ago and Gary cornered me hard and I came out fighting. Gary came at me with both guns that we had missed two major catastrophes in this town and now we have to gear up for what could happen.
"Once again he was trying to get in my wallet and I just flat out told him, he wants a generator, he wants 5 million different things, and I said "no'." Chockley said, the idea of setting up the Emergency Services Disaster Agency is fine, but the idea of a generator and everything for a disaster center at the city hall, when a block away is the fire station, plus the churches and school, to go to in an emergency situation if it really goes that far south does not make sense.
He said Smith could write all the grants he could and anything he can get free is fine, but Chockley said, "We may have a partial board change and I do not want to do any major spending until after the next election.
He told the board this is just his opinion and said they could discuss it as a board in open forum if they wanted to.
The only board member to respond was Angela Myers, who said, "I agree with you Eric.".
Ronnie Gittings reported the 3rd and 4th filters will be cleaned this summer. Two filters were cleaned previously. He also made note that several septic tanks needed to be dug up this winter. In order to do this a jack hammer was borrowed from Lomax to get through the frozen ground. Should this continue to be a problem the village might need to look into buying a jack hammer.. He also noted that the septic tanks that were dug up had never been cleaned since the new system was installed. There is no schedule for cleaning the septic tanks.
Janine Harkness, representing the Regional Office of Education, requested the use of the village park for an after school program for West Central middle school students. The program would be held on Monday-Friday, June 1 to July 11th 8:00 a.m. until noon and would include arts and crafts and some recreation. The board approved the request.
The board entered executive session at 8:15 p.m. for the purpose of employee matters. Mayor Chockley said there would be no decisions made.
Present: Mayor Eric Chockley, Clerk Lou Ann Nortrup, Trustees, Lawrence Neff, Michael Bohnenkamp, Chris Cook, Leota Caldwell, David Vancil, Angela Myers, Employees, Ronnie Gittings, Mike Nelson, Guests, Janine Harkness, Tony Anderson, Amanda Kane, Deb Hale, Doug Hale, David Knutstrom and Shirley Linder.
The next board meeting will be on Monday, April 4, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.