Newly-elected Carlinville mayor Doug Downey shares plans during Rotary Club meeting

 

By JACKSON WILSON
Enquirer Democrat Reporter

Doug Downey served as the guest speaker at the Apr. 17 Carlinville Rotary Club meeting to share some plans he envisioned for his upcoming tenure as the newly-elected mayor of Carlinville.

Downey went to Western Illinois University and earned a degree in business administration while minoring in economics. In addition to his newly-assigned mayor duties, he will remain working on a master’s in emergency management through the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign after starting that particular degree at MacMurray.

Downey first came to Carlinville in 1991 and “felt welcome as soon as he got here.”

“This has been a very welcoming community,” Downey said. “When my family came over to visit me they talked about how beautiful and vibrant it is.”

In 2005, Downey joined the city as a zoning administrator. Then, in 2013, Downey was elected to be an Alderman on Carlinville’s city council. He has maintained that title for the past 12 years and will officially begin his term as the town’s new mayor next month.

When he’s not doing community service, which he is highly devoted to, Downey works as a director for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA).

Downey has also gotten involved with the Carlinville Chamber of Commerce and Christmas market as part of his “deep commitment to the community.”

Downey immediately delved into the fact that Carlinville had a lot to offer, including the iconic Blackburn College, where the Rotary meeting was held.

“It’s truly one of our biggest assets,” said Downey. “It brings a lot of people and money to the town and its a great educational facility with a good employer base.”

Downey also touched on the local hospital chain, which has been constantly expanding. As someone who worked for the Carlinville hospital at its old facility back in the day, Downey was pleased with what had been developing.

Downey then credited the many clubs and organizations as well as the many employers striving to grow and flourish Carlinville’s historic town.

Following his compliments and introduction, Downey began going over his plans.

Downey started by discussing the idea of putting together a program for the city’s road and sidewalks that will be much more enhanced. He had also been in touch with the street department about spearheading the implementation of asphalt rather than chipping and oil because asphalt “lasts a lot longer, looks a lot better and is more durable” for roads.

“I think it’ll be a little more costly but I think, in the long run, it will be much more beneficial to us,” Downey said.

Downey would like to potentially hire a city manager, which Carlinville has never done before. “A lot of cities our size are instituting that type of style,” said Downey. “The benefits of that – myself and the Aldermen are not full-time people. They are not meant to be full-time jobs. So, we may have some ideas. We may have some vision. But, it takes someone who’s going to have the experience and education to research that project, do the ground work and do the leg work to make that happen.”

Downey would also like to add a code officer, who issues citations for code violations, whether it would be unkept properties, trash in yards, unlicensed vehicles, scrap, etc. in order to lighten a heavy load of duties for law enforcement.

Downey urged the city to increase social media usage for better coverage of meetings and sharing of public information.

Downey is also for starting an annual “State of the City” address – a presentation headlining what the city is doing with public works projects, community security, grants, etc.

“This way, we would get an opportunity for us to make a presentation and for residents to ask questions about anything that concerns them and get an answer that night,” Downey said. “Right now, we don’t have the format to do that. We have city council meetings but that’s for council to do their business. There’s also the public comment section but that’s just for people to make public comment. So, I think we’re going to look to do this so residents can come and ask questions. Or, they can submit questions that we will answer.”

In response to the ongoing concerns regarding water issues, Downey brought up the Alluvial Water Project, which consists of multiple communities in Carlinville, Bunker Hill, Central Macoupin Water District, Dorchester and Jersey Rural Water coming together to develop a regional system that will supply water to each of these illustrated areas. This project, which was started eight years ago, carries the goal of resolving problems caused by outdated treatment plants that are too expensive to maintain. So, the intention of this project was to build a state-of-the-art facility that would service each of the struggling communities with room for expansion in the future.

Water and sewer maintenance on West Main is also going to be necessary because the state will be tearing up that section of town to lay new foundation, roads and sidewalks. Downey said that that will happen in 2027 and mentioned that it will be the city’s responsibility to replace the current water and sewer and upgrade it so everything transitions smoothly.

Downey then mentioned that the city is looking to upgrade its sewer plant, which is 70 years old. Since the city had already been fined by the EPA because of inabilities to meet certain standards or criteria for that outdated plant, Downey said that “it’s not cost-prohibitive to upgrade or replace those systems. The best and most technological way to do it would be to build a new one. So, we’re doing that. We’ve purchased land next to the current plant to build a new one, which will probably be estimated as a $30 million facility. But, when it’s built, it will be more advanced than the one we currently have now.” Downey would also like to eventually see the city’s sewage and water separated, meaning that rainwater goes directly to the lake while sewage is pumped to the sewer plant.

“We’re still probably about three or four years out from anything major happening there but we’ve got to do it,” Downey said.

Other goals of Downey included artistic upgrades around town and on the square, plus improvement of assistance on city-wide fall clean-ups.