Skip to content

City will redraw its ward borders

For many, many decades, the city of Vandalia has used two major streets in the city to create the boundaries for its four aldermanic wards. But, over the years, changes in the city’s makeup has resulted in discrepancies in the size of the wards.
Therefore, Mayor Rick Gottman said, the city needs to create new boundaries.
The council voted on Monday to authorize city officials to begin the redistricting process.
“We have not done that in a number of years,” Gottman said.
“Some of the words have grown, and some have downsized,” he said.
A look at recent city elections shows that the boundary lines of Eighth Street and Randolph Street are no longer appropriate when it comes to having wards that have roughly the same number of residents.
In the 2013 municipal election, 37 votes were cast for a seat in Ward I (south of Randolph Street and east of Eighth Street), while 67 votes were cast in Ward IV (north of Randolph and west of Eighth Street).
In 2011, 130 votes were cast in Ward I, 247 in Ward II, 276 in Ward III and 436 in Ward IV.
“We’re huge, compared to (others),” Ward IV Alderman B. John Clark said.
Gottman told alderman that with the plan calling for redistricting to be done prior to the next municipal election, some of the them could be in different wards at the time of that election.
Also on Monday, the council approved two resolutions for the initial stage of the Thrill Hill bridge replacement project.
One of those resolutions states that the city will provide a 10-percent share of the total preliminary engineering cost, $10,012, and the second is an agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation through which IDOT will pay 80 percent of the engineering fee, $50,060.
The council approved two resolutions for the replacement of two bridges at Fifth and Randolph streets.
One resolutions stipulates that the city will contribute 20 percent of the total construction cost of about $1.34 million, or $290, and the second approves an agreement with Hurst-Roche Engineers for construction engineering services.
Scott Hunt of Hurst-Roche said that IDOT has approved the plans for the bridge replacements, and that the current schedule calls for the project to be put out for bids in March or April, with construction next summer.
Also at Monday’s meeting:
• The council voted to terminate its agreement with Who Says a Man Can’t Clean for cleaning services at city hall and the city’s Public Safety Building.
Gottman said that some of the aldermen asked about the amount paid for those services, and that a decision was made to consider making a change as a way of reducing its expenses.
Under the agreement, the city is paying $300 a week to have the two buildings cleaned, Gottman said.
The mayor said that he, Executive Assistant LaTisha Paslay and city Treasurer Alyssa Matar discussed the situation. “We feel we can do it cheaper,” Gottman said.
He said that the city needs someone for about four hours a week at each building for cleaning, and aldermen agreed to work on hiring someone for that number of hours for those services.
The council agreed to make the termination of the agreement effective in the middle of January.
• The council observed a moment of silence in memory of Lorraine Allen, a partner with her sister, Rita Mae Allen, in Allen’s Furniture.
 

Leave a Comment