Cassie Eaton leaving the Carmi Light and Water office as clerk opened a spot. It appeared Carmi Council might make a hire at Tuesday evening’s meeting; it didn’t happen though. It was the final agenda item for open session and out of six potentials, a committee singled out one as the best choice.
Mayor Jeff Pollard: Doug [Hays] and Sheila [Headlee] and Brad [Attebury] and Brooke [Harrison] and I conducted interviews on Friday. We had six candidates. They narrowed it down to one. I told all of them when we met with them that I was basically not going to be [involved in] the interviewing process because obviously for obvious reasons I’m not going to be here in two months. So, I let Brooke and Sheila and Brad and Doug pretty much run the situation. So they narrowed it down to one candidate, if you [sic] wanna…
Doug Hays: I do but before we do that, I would actually like that we go ahead and move this into closed session because I’ve been asked [by] some aldermen some questions. I think it would just be better to speak in closed.
Pollard: Ok…yeah, well that was the thing. I told them since the other ones didn’t know they’re employed that we would go into closed session so that’s fine.
Council would emerge and decided to table the hiring.
In other news from the meeting, Gary and Carol Goff have been granted a permit that will allow them to place a mobile home permit at 605/607 North 1st Street.
About a month ago, the council heard from IMEA [Illinois Municipal Electric Agency] representatives who asked the city for a commitment to begin in 2035. Read more at City Council Considers Illinois Municipal Electric Agency Partnership Moving Forward – WRUL-FM
It was back on the agenda Tuesday as council needed to make a decision prior to April. City leaders including Brad Attebury and City Engineer David Coston said it was the right move and council unanimously voted to extend the 20-year agreement.
Council will also be spending money after hearing from City Supervisor Brad Attebury and Jim Brown from Brown & Roberts Engineering. Carmi’s Sewage Treatment plant was built in the 1970’s and after around 50 years, “digester”, piping, aerators, diffusers and more need some rehabilitation. The city is eligible for an IEPA loan with a 45% forgiveness on a price tag of an estimated $700,000.
What really matters to you is this. The grant or forgiveness would be about $298,000 and the loan at 1% over 20 years would be $365,200. Now your annual debt service every year for the next 20 years to pay for this work would be about $20,451. So that’s the real dollar amount you’re facing to make a decision on.
Brown says it’s a project they’ve been working on since 2021. Council agreed and voted unanimously to move forward with seeking bids. Without issue, Brown says the work could be completed this year.
Council will get engine 12 at the power plant back in service. Council voted to accept the service estimate amounting to $12,720.44. Attebury has details.
Engine 12, we retired it officially a few months ago. When we had this company down to look at Engine 7 and a few others, I asked them what they thought because at first we thought it was going to take a complete engine overhaul. After talking to them, they thought an engine tuneup and timing adjustment…it’s having a hard time passing emissions; Sarah [with IEMA] said it barely missed last time…so he was thinking maybe an engine tuneup and timing would get us back in compliance.
Getting engine 12 back in service and in compliance brings with it some IEMA credits that financially will benefit the city.
If everything passes and they approve it, we’ll get our credits back. I asked for the credits we’ve lost in the last year and that total is $62,431 so I feel like spending $12,000 to try to get the engine back in service to get the credits back is worth it in the long run.
Council agreed and approved the spending.
Council approved a City Reimbursement Form alteration and approved a pay request to Brown & Roberts for the Saunders Avenue project. The engineering invoice is in the amount of $4,674.49.
Council went into closed session at 5:50pm. Leaders will next gather on Tuesday, March 4th.
