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Aldermen concerned about animal control

Two Vandalia aldermen said at Monday’s city council meeting that they plan to appear before the Fayette County Board in May to discuss the county’s animal control contract.
Brothers B. John Clark and Neil Clark said they are concerned about the percentage of dogs and cats being taken in that are euthanized.
B. John Clark brought up the issue at the April 7 meeting, saying that a local resident had approached him about that issue.
At that meeting, James Cloud of Montgomery County PAWS, an animal rescue group in the neighboring county, offered to help the city on the issue.
Aldermen were presented with information received from the Illinois Department of Agriculture on the number of animals taken in by animal control in Fayette and Montgomery counties.
Those numbers, Clark said, show that from 2010-12, 81 percent of the animals taken in here in Fayette County were euthanized, compared to 5.8 percent in Montgomery County.
“I’m distressed, to say the least,” Neil Clark said.
B. John Clark said that he has spoken to Fayette County Board Chairman Steve Knebel about the issue, and that he plans to attend the county board’s May 13 meeting to talk about the contract with Heaton-Heistand Veterinary Clinic.
Also at the meeting:
• The council agreed to set May 19-23 as Cleanup Week in Vandalia.
During that week, residents may set unwanted items out with their regular trash on their regular trash pickup days.
Exceptions on things being accepted by the city will be announced prior to Cleanup Week.
• The council voted to accept the retirement request filed by Kent L. Emerick, an officer with the city’s police department for the past 26 years.
“He has been a great officer,” Mayor Rick Gottman said about Emerick.
After approving Emerick’s retirement, the council voted to authorize the city’s police and fire commission to fill the vacancy created by the retirement.
• Aldermen were given a copy of a public notice on a meeting of the city’s planning commission next Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
At that meeting, the commission will review a request from Amie LeDuc to have property at 127 and 129 N. Eighth St. rezoned from light industrial to downtown commercial.
LeDuc would like to move her daycare business to the former Donaldson Carpet building just south of Randolph Street.
• The council, acting on the recommendation of its public safety committee, agreed to reject the two bids received on the city’s ladder truck.
The two bids for the aerial apparatus were opened at the council’s April 7 meeting: Nokomis Area Fire Protection District, $37,220, and the Litchfield Fire Department, $50,000.
Alderman Jerry Swarm, chairman of the public safety committee, reported that a fire truck broker is looking at the ladder truck this week and is expected to make an offer.
The department is replacing that fire apparatus with a new ladder truck, which will be completed this summer.
• The council approved the purchase of a transmission from NAPA Auto Parts in Vandalia for the pickup truck driven by city code enforcement officer Keith Meadows.
NAPA submitted the lowest of our bids received by the city, $1,889. Other bidders were: Hosick Motors, $2,350; Arthur Young Inc., $2,443.75; and Dan Hecht, $2,295.
• The council observed a moment of silence for Arthur “Buddy” Young, a long-time automobile dealer who was involved in and supported numerous community projects.
• The council agreed to ask the Illinois Department of Transportation to allow for the closure of Old Route 140 (Gallatin Street) from Fourth Street to Sixth Street between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, for the ABATE Bike Show and Family Festival.
• The council approved an ordinance that keeps cemetery fees unchanged for the current year. Previously enacted was an ordinance that would raise the fees by $25 this year.
As the action was taken, Neil Clark said he felt the need to explain why rates for the city cemeteries are higher than those at other, rural cemeteries.
Clark said the difference between the city cemeteries and others is that the city is offering “perpetual care,” while rural cemeteries most continually raise funds in order to continue maintenance of those properties.
• Gottman reported that the city is considering getting rid of lifeguards at the Vandalia Lake beach, and that aldermen will be acting on that matter at the May 5 meeting.
He said that the city has been consulting with the Illinois Municipal League on the issue, and that a number of other area municipal lakes don’t have lifeguards.
An option to having lifeguards, according to the IML, is posting a sign stating that swimmers at the beach who are under the age of 16 must be accompanied by responsible adults.
Another option is prohibiting swimming at the beach.
• Gottman reported that he will be asking Southwestern Electric Cooperative to move the transformer from in front of the theater being constructed off of Mattes Avenue by Rick Cripe.
Gottman said he is concerned that in the event of a transformer fire or explosion, people in line outside the theater could be injured or killed.
• Gottman reported that he, state Sen. Kyle McCarter (R-Lebanon), and city police and fire chiefs met with representatives of Enbridge, a company constructing a pipeline from Flanagan in Northern Illinois to Patoka.
The mayor said there is potential for Enbridge to use a number of local businesses during construction, which is scheduled to begin late this summer and be completed by the middle of next year.
 

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