City sets Oct. 31 as trick-or-trick night

At Monday’s Vandalia City Council meeting:

• The council set Saturday, Oct. 31, as trick-or-treat night in Vandalia. Trick-or-treating will be allowed for children up through sixth-grade age from 6-8 o’clock that evening.

• The council approved an agreement with the Farnsworth Group of Effingham for engineering services related to the city’s attempt to get its Kaskaskia River raw water intake working properly.

The Farnsworth will perform a hydrographic survey of six sections of the river near the intake.

That survey will determine, among other things, just how much is left of a finger dyke located near the intake, and where that portion of the dyke that has been washed away ended up.

The estimated cost of the survey is $5,000.

Brosman asked about the possibility of the cost rising above that figure, due to the fact that the work is being performed on a time and materials basis.

But Hobler said he feels that, all things considered, it’s not worth spending time on debating that issue.

“We’ve already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on this (intake),” Hobler said. We’ve gone this far – why drag our feet now?”

Farnsworth was scheduled to begin work on the survey this week.

• The council accepted the bid of Precise Construction of rural Vandalia for repair work on the Vandalia Lake spillway.

Precise Construction’s bid of $38,900 was the lowest of seven received by the city.

Scott Hunt of Hurst-Roche Engineers of Hillsboro said the bids ranged from $38,900 to $79,247.

The engineers’ estimate is $46,300.

• The council approved the purchase of 1.24 acres of land on the city’s west side from Ley Deal Farms Inc.

The purchase, which includes a supplement right-of-way easement of .59 acres, was needed in order for the city to complete water and sewer lines in the southwest quadrant of the city’s western Interstate 70 interchange, according to Morani.

Under the agreement, the city will pay Ley Deal Farms $1,000 to cover its administrative costs and expenses in transferring the ownership of the land.

The land is at the far west end of Main Street, west of Vandalia Tractor and Equipment.

• Gottman reported that residents living along Fillmore Street near Rock Island Avenue have expressed concerns about people parking on both sides of Fillmore for Family YMCA of Fayette County activities on nearby Miller Field.

Those residents say that vehicles parked on both sides of the street cause traffic problems and makes it difficult for them to back out of their driveways.

One reason that vehicles are parked on both sides of the street is that the city recently granted the YMCA’s request to prohibit parking on the west side of Rock Island Avenue, west of Miller Field.