Savanna Urged to Support Highway 30 Corridor

By Michael Miller For The Prairie Advocate News

SAVANNA – The Savanna City Council heard an impassioned report from Barb Suehl on Tuesday, March 8th, detailing her attempts to lobby for the opening of the Highway 30 corridor and the full opening of the Thomson Correctional Center.

The meeting was attended by Council members Lois Hunsaker, Jeff Griswold, Bill Grummitt, Peg Haffey, Rosalie Hansen, Merle Long, and Bill Robinson, with Robert David absent. Also attending were Mayor Larry Stebbins, City Clerk Paul Hartman, City Attorney Phil Jensen, Comptroller/Treasurer Sheryl Sipe and Chief of Police Michael Moon, with Fire Chief Shawn Picolotti and Public Works Superintendent John Lindeman absent.

Robinson once again reported recent happenings in both the Water/Sewer/Refuse/Streets and Alleys Committee and the Finance Committee. The Water/Sewer/etc. Committee discussed the pros and cons of garbage pickup billing for vacant apartments with Moring Disposal’s Denny Pate. The Committee ultimately agreed to send the matter to the Ordinance Committee, and decided that if an apartment is empty for a billing quarter, the owner would not be charged for services during that quarter. If, however, someone was occupying an apartment in that building for any part of the quarter, the owner would be charged for service.

The Committee also reviewed the current Water/Sewer usage rates, with Robinson motioning to the Council to send to the Ordinance Committee the idea of raising the rates 3 percent annually, which Robinson said would be wiser than waiting for a longer period of time which would necessitate a much larger rate increase at once.

One area of financial help in paying for the new sewer plant is a potential grant of one million dollars, Robinson said. Also discussed was a “debt service charge” which would help build a pot of money which could be applied to paying for the new plant. This, Robinson repeated, would help “take the bite out of” later charges. He said no numbers were available yet for this potential charge.

Finances were next on the Council’s plate, with Robinson reporting on requests for funds from various departments. Public Works requested two budgeted items; an electric winch for pulling pump motors from pits, and a pressure washer that clears out confined spaces. The winch costs $1931.60 with a budget line of $1900.00 and the washer’s purchase price is $701.10, with $1200.00 budgeted, with a net outcome that is “well under budget”.

The Finance Committee also requested funds for a second drawdown payment on the City’s CDAP grant funds. This grant was for $350,000.00 and was applied to the sewer lining project, and the current payment would be for $2,875.00 to Willett, Hofmann and Associates for engineering services. The Committee also recommended going out for bids on the City’s group health insurance plan, with two plans being reviewed; normal health and normal health plus eye and dental coverage.

All of these recommendations were unanimously approved by the full Council.

The Council approved Warrant #11, bills for the month of February, in the amount of $385,082.68.

R.L. Bull has communicated with the City, requesting an easement for a geothermal pipeline for Manny Castro’s proposed new building at 211 Main Street. This proposed line would go “underneath the west alley and underneath Corey’s bulk plant and underneath the railroad and the City street west of the railroad and into the river.” Robinson made a motion to send this matter to the Building and Public Property Committee for further review.

Next the Council reviewed a flurry of Ordinance amendments, all of which were read by title only and approved. A newly beefed up Nuisance ordinance was first up, followed by an ordinance relating to removal of graffiti which had some language amended, as well as a change in the ordinance governing liquor sales (to allow for liquor sales on Christmas Day), and finally an amendment to the language of an ordinance covering standing committees.

Barb Suehl of Fulton addressed the Council at length, requesting support for a Highway 30 corridor as well as the full opening and staffing of the Thomson Correctional Center. She reviewed a trip she had recently made to Washington, D.C. to help facilitate these items, saying that Betty Steinert, Whiteside County Economic Development Director, had accompanied her and that the two had spoken to Senators Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk and others.

She requested that Durbin write a letter of support for this nineteen mile corridor, without which Suehl said that this area would be the “missing link” because Iowa is “pushing pushing, pushing” to have an Iowa 4 lane on Highway 30.

“We’ve got to bring the people over here to our most Western part of Illinois,” Suehl said. “We are the best kept secret.” She cited many of the positives of the area including the local beauty and Heritage Canyon but lamented that the two lane road limited the amount of people who would come here. She detailed some of the accidents on this nineteen mile stretch of road citing information that indicated “70 major accidents” had occurred on this stretch in the past year. She said this road is now “so utilized that it is now a safety issue.”

Suehl said she got a “total commitment” from each of the five officials she spoke with regarding the opening of the prison. She added that Durbin had contacted her since she had gotten home and urged her to have local officials send emails supporting the prison. She cited the massive losses to recent communities in the current census totals, including Savanna which saw a net loss of 13.6 percent.

She urged the Council and citizens to send letters of support for the corridor and the prison opening. She said she’d like to take one or two members of the Council on a future trip to Springfield to continue lobbying for these items.

Grummitt was the sole respondent to the address, saying he felt the whole Council “supported her crusade.” Suehl said “this is the only way we can now see any kind of economic boost and stability. We don’t have any way else of generating jobs when we’re declining and when we don’t have any of our businesses that are earning any kind of wages now.”

Stebbins made a mayoral proclamation opposing the proposed one percent sales tax measure by the West Carroll School District, writing that “the City of Savanna may suffer a loss of funds due to actions not aimed upon this income source” and that “it is for the good of community of the City of Savanna and it’s citizenship that any attempt to place these funds in jeopardy that the Mayor and City Council strongly object to any increase in tax that may have a detrimental effect.” (The City Council was added to this statement after approval was asked for and received at the meeting).

In Final Comments, Stebbins announced that on March 24th, the Carroll County Farm Bureau in Mt. Carroll will host an informational meeting regarding the proposed one percent sales tax increase for the County. Hansen complimented the Public Works crew for a great job of snow plowing, saying she’d been to eight states and that the snow removal in those states was “horrible” compared to Savanna’s. Haffey said she’d had reports of cracks in the 4th Street repairs, and Stebbins assured her that those cracks would be repaired.

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