Carlinville Council gets brief Alluvial update, approves Square use

By ERIN SANSON
Enquirer~Democrat Reporter

The Carlinville City Council held a short first meeting on Monday, Oct. 2. There were several requests to use the Square for a variety of events.

Upcoming events

The Varsity Cheerleaders requested they be allowed to sell Krispy Kreme donuts on Oct. 14 on the Square and in front of City Hall. Their request was approved.

Several business owners on the Square came together to request the use of the Square on Oct. 19 for a ‘Witches Night Out’ event. This event will be held from 4-8 p.m. and would utilize the Gazebo area for a Witches Hat decorating booth and there will be a “cackling contest.” The council approved the event requests.

Jon Convery, on behalf of Brave Hazel Boutique and the Brave Days event coming up Oct. 6-7, came to the council to request more space on the Square. Brave Days will be splitting the area with Carlinville Market Days and Convery requested additional space be blocked off on the inside of the Square to accommodate all of the vendors. His request for more space was approved.

Alluvial update

Dan Held provided an update to the council from the Alluvial regional Water Company board. Easement agreements are 56 percent complete, two percent of landowners verbally committed to the easements and about 33 percent are out for signature. Held says that Alluvial has made enough progress that they are beginning to look at staging the project and determining in what order elements will be built. There are several public meetings coming up sponsored by Alluvial. On Oct. 17, there is a meeting at the MJM Building in Carlinville at 6 p.m. There is a meeting on Oct. 18 at the same time at the Archer Building in Shipman. The next week there are meetings on Oct. 23 and 24 at 6 p.m. at Jersey County Rural Water in Jerseyville and the Bunker Hill City Hall on those respective dates.

Public comment

Alderman Randy Ober made a public comment regarding mattresses being left in citizens yards. Ober said he has seen many mattresses being left outside peoples homes, which get wet and then begin being used by animals to nest.

He asks all citizens to call their trash company to schedule the mattress to be picked up. Alderman Doug Downey also added that there are several city sponsored clean up days throughout the year that could be used to dispose of these mattresses and other similar materials.

Dan Held spoke during public comment in regards to the boil order that went into effect in Carlinville over the weekend. Held said “while the city workers were working to isolate the area, the water level in the tower continued dropping and got down to about five feet.” The public works dept. made the decision to shut the tower down and worked to fix the break until about 2 a.m. Boil order samples were pulled on Monday and sent to be tested. Held said they expected to have results back on Tuesday afternoon. The boil order was eventually lifted on Tuesday afternoon. Held, as well as the Council members offered their thanks to the public works crew and everyone who came out to help.