Carlinville Council features lake property discussions

By ERIN SANSON
Enquirer~Democrat Reporter

Matters at Carlinville lake were a focus of the Monday, Sept. 19 Carlinville City Council meeting. Discussion was held over a property lease at the lake as well as a noise complaint during public comment. Other items discussed were for change orders to the Public Safety Center and an employee resignation.

Lake Property Lease

Discussion was held over transferring a lease at Carlinville Lake from the City to John Payne. The property has both a trailer and cabin located on it. The action came out of the Lake Committee meeting, which voted 4-1 to approve the lease transfer. Payne was looking to clean up the trailer on the site and redo the cabin.

Alderman Doug Downey expressed his disapproval of the plan, saying it goes against the original intents of the cabins at the lake. Downey also mentioned that the council had at one time agreed to tear down the cabin and the trailer and return the property to an empty lot.

Alderman Randy Ober also had objections to part of the new plan. Ober said that at the beginning of summer the council hired a dumpster so an unnamed person could come in and tear down the trailer but instead took only the parts of the trailer they wanted and left the rest. Ober said he does not view the building as a shed or shack like Downey said he did because there are windows, a bathroom, and a kitchen area. The cabin is hooked up to all utilities.

Ober said he is okay with Payne leasing the cabin but he does have an issue with him agreeing to tear down the trailer as the council had already been through a similar process once this summer and did not want to invest more money to not have the trailer be removed. Ober said there was money in the budget to tear the trailer down themselves and then they could lease the cabin to Payne.

Ober made the motion to tear down the trailer and then lease the cabin, which was seconded by Alderman Dick McClain. The motion was passed 5-3. Downey, Levora and Wagstaff voted against the motion.

Public Comment

Two individuals came before the council during the public comment portion of the meeting.

Bill Stillwell addressed the council with complaints of the company installing the fiber optic cables in town. Stillwell said the company had dug up part of his driveway to lay wires but had then only backfilled the drive with dirt, not rock. Mayor Sarah Oswald told Stillwell that there were numbers of people he could call to complain about the problem. Alderman Kim Harber said the he thought Public Works Director Dan Held would need to get in touch with the individual who applied for the permit. Harber also said that he has already walked multiple constituents through the process of filing a complaint online.

The company is obligated to restore the property to the way it was found and the standards of the city ordinances. Oswald told Stillwell she would send Held to look at the driveway. Harber agreed, saying, “If they’re not following the guidelines then we need to have Dan look at it and they need to be told ‘Stop, your permit is no longer valid.’”

Penny Powers also came to the meeting to discuss an issue at Carlinville Lake. She told the council that she was camping over the weekend at the lake while the campground was holding a “Hippie Prom.” Powers said that music was being played until 1 a.m., keeping everyone else awake. Powers said she spoke to the lake manager John Watermeier, who told her that the music had been approved to play until 1 a.m. Oswald said she would look into the issue for Powers.

Resignation

Carlinville Representative on the Illinois Alluvial Regional Water Company Board Joe Direso resigned from his position on Sept. 9. Direso warned the council in prior Alluvial updates that should the Alluvial board vote to make in-person meeting attendance mandatory, he would continue to attend via Zoom until he was denied access and which point it will be up to the city to challenge the policy or appoint another representative.

In his resignation letter Direso wrote, “I wish the city the best in moving forward with the project. I hope that my elected officials can work through the operational issues at hand before entering into a new agreement with IARWC.”

Direso’s resignation was accepted by the council, which also noted that it was thankful for the time Direso had put into the project.

Public Safety Center

Two change orders were approved for the Public Safety Center. An eyewash station and water bottle filler was added to the project. The wash station and bottle filler added an additional $9,179.37 to the total cost of the project. A second change order for roof patching was also approved. Police Chief Dave Haley said that the roof patching is for resealing seams in the roof, especially where new HVAC units have been placed. The roof patching costs an additional $9,983.25. The original contract sum was for $2,369,952.00. With the various change orders, including the two approved on Monday night, the new contract sum is $2,443,799.42.

Other Business

Alderman Bill Link brought up a request from property owners on Breckenridge Street to put in a street light. The neighbors were in favor of a streetlight being placed as the area becomes so dark at night. The city would have to contact Ameren to install the light and would then pay a $10 monthly fee for the new light in additional to the $10 fee they pay monthly for all of the other lights in town. The motion was approved.

The city approved the motion to put together a bid for a new cleaning service for various city buildings. So far the scope of the work will include the police department, public works, city hall and the Amtrak Station.