City of Chrisman says ‘no’ to fireworks
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The Chrisman City Council meeting began with a bit of bad news delivered by Chrisman Area Community Club President, Dan Moore. “I talked to IDOT and we can not put the banners (for the celebration) across the highway,” Moore said. “In case they blow down in front of a truck or a car, then cause an accident. I’ve got other options.”
Moore went on to ask if electricity and water would be available in Centennial Park during the celebration. Commissioner Thad Crispin stated there should be both. Moore also had a list of things that the Community Club thought needed to be done around town. “The Community Club and myself will help, all you have to do is ask,” Moore said.
With two and a half months left, Moore passed out the list to the councilmen to get their thoughts about what could be done. The fireworks display that was originally planned for Saturday has been switched to Friday night as to not interfere with the tractor pulls.
Jeremy Neal was in attendance just to remind the council that the sidewalk outside of Neal EMS hasn’t been getting any better. “I watched two people almost fall in fifteen minutes, so it still needs attention,” Neal said.
Commissioner Bryan Haddix reminded Neal that his sidewalk wasn’t the worst in town. “The engineer is still waiting on the final approval for our budget is what he told me,” Commissioner Thad Crispin said.
Erik Bohle brought it up to the council that two different ladies had asked him about the lights on the ball diamond. “One lady caught me on Washington and asked me what we were going to do with them,” Bohle said. Commissioner Crispin stated that he is in the process of trying to get them taken down. “I’m waiting to hear back from our electrician to see about getting things done,” Crispin said.
The City of Chrisman is taking steps to make its citizens feel a bit safer as they agreed to sign up for the Neighborhood Watch. “I talked to Scott Foster down in Paris, they’ve been getting folks to do things down there,” Commissioner Cory Chaney said. “They’ve been able to follow people down streets and find out where they live and who they are and catch them for breaking and entering, vandalism and things like that.”
Commissioner Brice Stratton provided an update on the Schulte Meter Install. A quote was received for the installation of one hundred and three meters. “We think those one hundred and three are the main reasons for the (water) leaks,” Stratton said. “They can get it done within two days and will program them.”
The three main users of water for the town: the High School, Grade School and Pleasant Meadows had to have antennas ordered for the meters. “I ordered all three of those at the same time and those things have a chip and a battery in them. They have to be special ordered for the size of the meter and they can’t get the chip for them,” Bohle said.
The two meters have been installed at the high school and elementary school. Commissioner Crispin pushed the issue of getting the nursing home to install their meter, since they took responsibility for the install. “Should we tell the nursing home that we have this company coming, maybe you should think about installing the meter?” asked Crispin. “If they’re not going do it, why not see about getting it taken care of?”
The total cost for the install would come to $7,300. “You’re running at a $12,000 deficit right now. An almost $27,000 deficit the last three months. I would hate to spend another $7,300,” said Mayor Danny Owen. “Some of this (deficit) is leaks.”
Stratton had also been talking to another company to do a survey on the leaks around town to find out the sources of the problem. “They’re going to do an audit for us under the Illinois Rural Water Association for free,” Bohle said. The paperwork has already been filled out and sent to proceed with the audit.
Commissioner Haddix questioned how the audit would be done. “To be honest, it’s based off of the questions that Autumn (city clerk) filled out, which I didn’t look at really,” Bohle said. “Whatever the numbers were, she had to provide them with detailed numbers on gallons of water.”
Haddix added that all those answers would do was tell them that they are in fact losing water, something the city already knew. “All of the auto meters that have been in the ground for the last two to three years, some of those, they haven’t been open since they’ve been put in,” Haddix said. “We need to physically go around and open every one of them like they used to and read them.”
The last time Bohle did the manual reads, last month, he put a star by the meters that were leaking and found a total of ten on the city side. “If it takes these guys two days to do one hundred and three meters and do all the programming, how long is it going to take you to do it?” asked Commissioner Chaney. “Twenty-eight days is what we figured,” replied Bohle. “That’s doing it eight hours a day, five days a week.”
This was something everyone agreed wasn’t feasible, with all the other matters that may arise during a normal work day. Though not everyone was on board, they knew the only way to get the meters installed in a timely manner was to approve the quote from Schulte.
The matter of the WWTP Loan was brought up next. Commissioner Chaney stated that his understanding was that the council was told in December they would have to get the loan in order to do the project, but has since then found that not to be true.
“Do we need this loan?” asked Crispin.
“We do need it, but not as soon as we did,” replied Chaney. “We spent money that we didn’t need to spend, but it is what it is unfortunately.”
Chaney stated that the City is aiming for the 2.8% to 3.15% interest for a two year period. In the amount of the payment from the bank, the interest rate can be included in that payment. The council approved the loan. The council went on to approve the ordinance supplement.
Last year, the city received numerous complaints about their neighbors setting off fireworks on July 4th. “We need an ordinance for a public firework display only because we’re going to continue to get complaints,” said Mayor Owen. In this ordinance, anyone other than the city who sets off fireworks in town, will be hit with a fine.
Commissioner Crispin had received a bid to repair the sinkhole in the parking lot of the Chrisman Nazarene Church. To fix the area, a total of two hundred feet and a thirty inch pipe, comes to $24,875. “That’s the only one that I got,” Crispin said. A total of three holes was recently discovered: one in the driveway, small one and another large one where the barricade is. “The two hundred feet would get us from where they stopped the first time they fixed it to the south side of the driveway,” Bohle said.
Bohle and Commissioner Haddix inspected the driveway, taking out some of the rock that had previously been put in. “It was a small hole, but as we took rock out, you can tell it was moved back out,” Haddix said.
Commissioner Crispin said his budget can be re-adjusted and Bohle mentioned that he reached out to two other places and both told him they weren’t interested in doing it.
“There’s going to be a lot of challenges there,” Chaney said.
A date to have the sinkhole fixed is yet to be determined, due to the bidder having plenty of work. The cost of the pipe to help fix the hole has gone up eleven percent in sixty days.
The cost may increase, but Crispin, and the council are hoping by the time the project can be completed, it will not have gone up too much. The bid was approved.
It was recently brought to Crispin that some people were upset that names were not on the memorial yet. The city has a list of names and would like to have the names included. “It’s been a year since we’ve taken over and we’ve gotten six names,” Crispin said. “Some people were upset they weren’t on it for Memorial Day and want to be on it for Veteran’s Day.”
The company for the etching of the names will be contacted as soon as possible for the new names to be put on.
Crispin stated that he would be in contact with the principal at the High School to find out about co-op for summer work. “The problem is minimum wage is too high. We used to hire four guys in the summer, but can’t afford it now, unless one of the other departments want to pitch in,” he said.
After an executive session to discuss personnel, the meeting was called back to regular session. In reports, Commissioner Crispin stated that he was waiting on approval from IDOT in order to move forward with street repairs.
Commissioner Haddix said that he had spoken to Matt Johnson from Fehr Graham and that Johnson said he was waiting on paperwork from B&T Drainage in order to move forward with part replacement. “We’re still trying to figure out the sinkholes in Humrichous’ yard,” Haddix said. “I found another one in my neighbor’s yard across the alley, west of me.”
Other matters taken care of at the meeting included approval of the special meeting minutes, building permits for 605 South Illinois, claims in the amount of $62,970.74. Opening date for bids on the property on South Illinois will be at the July 5th meeting.
