LaSalle Insider

The LaSalle Fireman’s Dance is this Saturday February 26th…. Please try to attend as it is a great fundraiser for the department and a great time as well. Its at the Knights of Columbus at 209 Gooding Street -LaSalle.  Music will be performed by Road Angel.  Doors open at 7PM Music is at 8PM.  Tickets are only $6.00 per person. Its a great place to thank the fireman personally for all they do for us at great risk to themselves.  Hope to see you there!!!

I know we had a Council meeting this past Monday because I was there.  I also saw Matt Baker from the News Tribune there.  What I did not see was a story about what took place.  As of this posting there has been no News tribune coverage in the paper about the meeting.  Let me then, fill you in.

We had the standard reports accepted from the Police Income, and Treasurer and received communications in the form of the Department of Transportation showing we received$22,822.99 in motor fuel tax for January.

The illinois Department of Revenue reported we received a total of $102,617.30 in sales tax for the month of November of 2010.  This was down over $16,000 from the same month a year ago.

We accepted a bid from Len Trovero to bore  water main service under Route 6 and made payments to Sjostrom and CMT for our ongoing waste treament construction.

Under old business I stated for the record that I was opposed to hiring an intern form ISU  for 11 months for just under $25,000.00.  This person was approved by the Council by a vote of 7-0 at a meeting I could not attend due to a business commitment.   The intern will serve as an assistant in several offices and help in trying to obtain grants, as well as in the creation of a long term City Plan.  I felt we did not need the help at this point at that cost.  We have more pressing issues for the money at this time such as:

Repair of City Hall Building leak………estimated cost  $27,000 or more

Structural Issue with our City Garage………….no estimates yet

Cost of Demolition of Matthiesen School……..possibly $60,000

Leak from 9th Street Water Tower….no estimate

Add to this the fact that our sales tax revenue has decreased almost a quarter of a million dollars from a year ago and you may understand my concerns over unnecessary spending!  I have not seen any spending cuts at this point and I continue to see some unexpected expenses  like some listed above.  We can go forward with a City plan without this hiring and with regards to obtaining grants in the next 11 months… who are we kidding?

There is NO MONEY in the State or Federal government that should or will be given out for the forseeable future.  If any level of government doles out new money without first paying the bills we already have they should be asked to step down from office!

The Council, after some discussion, decided to go forward with the intern hiring…..oh well, I tried.

Alderman Bacidore was quite upset with a story entitled “Snow Job” that was posted on my site.  It seems he thought that the majority of the Council, when given a choice, would have moved forward with hiring an outside contractor to move the snow from downtown.  Alderman Green informed me that his poll of the alderman revealed that Aldermen Demes and myself were against it.  Add the fact that George , Chairman of the Finance Committee was opposed and Alderman Herndon was satisfied with whatever Alderman Green chose to do and you can see the majority was opposed.  Our city Attorney said it would have taken a super majority to act without the mayor’s consent.  We would have needed 6 of the 8 alderman to approve.  I thanked Alderman Bacidore for coming to the site and welcomed his comments pro or con to any story posted.

Finally discussion turned to the start up of our new ambulance service on Tuesday March 1st.  Please read the story on that which is posted separately here at the website.

A personal note ….The election is coming April 5th and I am running for re-election in the Fourth Ward.  I will be out in the coming weeks to see you and ask for your support…if anyone would like a sign for their yard please call me direct at 815-252-5854.  If you would like to help or offer your support it would be greatly appreciated!   Thank You

The day is finally here (or will be come Tuesday) that the City of LaSalle will have its own ambulance service under the supervision of our Fire Chief Andy Bacidore.  This has been a long process starting back with the previous administration.   Mayor Washkowiak, Chief Bacidore and I had met with the Peru ambulance service on several occasions to try and expand service to our community over what was then being offered.  We were able to get an ambulance placed at our Firehouse for part of the day but were never able to get 24 hour service here.  To the credit of Mayor Grove we moved forward and interviewed several companies that are able to supply paramedics as well as billing expertise to our city.  From there the council chose Paramedic Services of Illinois as a provider.  We also purchased two ambulances to house in our fire station instead of leasing from PSI.  The LaSalle service will be up and running as of Tuesday, March 1st.

Its important to note that this is not a private  company contracted to provide emergency service to the City but instead we hired personnel from this company and our City will be in control of management.  This is a major change from what we had before with the Peru service.  I look forward to this change under the control of our Fire Chief Andy Bacidore.  He has proven time and time again to be an excellent leader and I have no doubt the people of LaSalle will be pleased with our new service.

I want to thank the Peru Ambulance Company for their past service to our city and I wish them well in whatever changes their city government choose to make.  I also want to commend our Mayor for his progressive attitude in regards to this change.  And finally I would like to congratulate our very tired Fire Chief for his efforts and even more for his continued service to our City.  He, more than anyone else, deserves the credit for making this dream a reality.  We are very fortunate to have him….

When last I reported to you, the city workers were planning on removing the snow from downtown.  That was changed by Mayor Grove who texted and called certain city officials and informed them that he wanted the snow removed Saturday night by a private contractor.  While I don’t dispute he has the authority to do this I do question the reasons and the methods used.

Lets back up a moment.  The snow arrived on Tuesday afternoon till  Wednesday afternoon  a week ago.  The mayor was on a cruise Thursday till Monday  or Tuesday of this week.  He had the council meeting moved to Tuesday so he would be back in town for it.  In the past when a Mayor was out of town the meetings went forward on the regular night and the council appointed a member to chair the meeting in his place.  I did not see the reason to move the meeting but it was not the council’s call.  Also when the Mayor is away he appoints someone to be acting mayor in his absence.  Usually the longest serving alderman is chosen.  In this case it would have been alderman Green.  The Mayor did not appoint anyone and this led to the confusion as to what was to be done during the snow issue of 2011.

Originally our Superintendent of Public works stated we would move the snow downtown starting on Friday and it would take a few days to complete.  The snow would be piled in Hegeler Park .   In the Mayor’s absence, Alderman Green poled the council via phone and it was decided that this would be the plan.  In this way all aldermen could answer any questions  that were  asked by their constituents.

I reported the same information here last weekend but when I arrived at the council meeting on Tuesday I was told that plan was changed by the Mayor.

He informed the Council after the fact and it led to some problems.  First the removal was done from one o’clock in the morning till about six o’clock on Sunday.  I fielded calls from neighbors asking why trucks and an endloader were making noise in a residential neighborhood while people were trying to sleep. Second , the cost of the removal by a private contractor  was estimated   between $3,600 to $5,000.  Money we don’t have in the general fund and money which was taken from the downtown TIF.  That TIF has a small balance in it and these funds could have been saved for a more important use.

Now, can a Mayor do this?….yes.  Should a Mayor do this?…you tell me.

My question , once again is why doesn’t the Mayor consult with his Council on issues of this nature?  This is why we have the form of Municipal government that we have.

I was downtown on Saturday night  before the snow removal began.  It appeared that the snow had not hurt business.  In fact the restaurant I was in seemed busier than it had been in some time.  I admit the snow might  have caused problems with deliveries for a day or two but that inconvenience could have been worked out and the city would have saved money at a time when we need every dollar we can get!

The Mayor has been advised to appoint someone in his place should he be gone in the future.  I hope he takes the advice.  I hope this was a learning experience and we move forward from here.

Let me know what you think…

Well hopefully everyone came out unscathed by the “big snow” of 2011. Here in the city we dealt as well as could be expected considering the amount of snow and the length of time it took to fall.  We were hopeful to clear some if not all of the downtown snow starting on Friday but a large water leak on Bucklin held that up. With the Mayor being out of town on a cruise one alderman wanted us to pay an outside contractor to move it.  We had cleared the parking lot at hegeler Park to dump the snow there.  The city workers were scheduled to start moving it on Friday, but as mentioned, they were needed elsewhere.  The cost to job it out was set at about $5,000.00.  Fortunately cooler heads prevailed and we have decided to wait for the city workers to move it.  Although there is some inconvenience downtown, the city cannot afford to make any unnecessary payouts at this time.

I was sorry to hear about the passing of Peter Miller.  I only spoke with him on a few occasions but he seemed to be a very generous man and deeply involved with his community.  His death has been reported as an apparent suicide in some news outlets.  If this is true it makes his passing even sadder.

Please note that our council meeting has been moved to Tuesday instead of Monday to accommodate the Mayors vacation.  Generally when the mayor is gone for any reason , the council would appoint  a mayor pro-tem to chair the meeting.  Apparently Mayor Grove did not want to miss the meeting.

And finally many of you will be watching the Super Bowl tommorrow .

The insider has decided to predict that Green Bay will defeat The Steelers 37-23.  Let’s see how well we do…..

It was quite a shock reading about Alderman Ron Wren’s passing.  He and I both began serving as alderman in our respective cities on the same date back in 1997.  I have known Ron since I was a teenager.  My family and his young family were both members of a group called the “Traveling Cavaliers”.  It was a club dedicated to camping at nearby State Parks and campgrounds.  Many local families participated and we had some great weekends together back in the late 1960′s.

I also had the opportunity to spend some time with Ron when we would see each other at the Municipal Convention in Chicago or run into him locally where we would stop and compare notes about our cities.

He was always smiling and willing to take some time for you and any questions you would have.  He will be missed and will be remembered for his devotion to a city he truly loved…..  my condolences to his family