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City bill payer licks cash

At least one city resident not happy with paying his bills from the city did his part to possibly spread the coronavirus.
During Monday’s city council meeting, City Clerk Peggy Bowen told aldermen that “some people that aren’t too kind about giving you the money, licking on it before they give it to you.
“We had a couple of cases like that,” Bowen said.
“You would think people would have more respect for the people they’re giving their money to.”
She said that one person paying with a stack of bills who used her thumb and mouth to separate the money.
Gottman told Bowen that her staff should get the license plate of vehicles when that happens.
Police Chief Jeff Ray said that there would have to be a determination whether a person is licking bills intentionally, and that information on any such incident would be forwarded to the state’s attorney’s office for consideration of charges.
A charge of disorderly conduct would likely be the most appropriate with such an incident, Ray said.
Bowen also told aldermen that it’s been noticed that there are some boaters on the lake who do not have current license stickers.
“We’re going back to the same thing we had a few years ago. That might be something that someone needs to look into,” she said.
Alderman Russ Stunkel, chairman of the lake committee, said an issue with that is that with the cutbacks due to COVID-19, the city does not have lake patrol personnel at the lake, “so, that news probably traveled fast.”
During his committee report, Stunkel said that Barker asked at the previous council meeting about any issues with people riding four-wheelers along the dam bank.
“They seem to be accelerating, the number of four-wheelers that are tearing up our dam,” Stunkel said.
“We put up new signs, so it’s not because they don’t understand. I (would) hope they understand ‘No Trespassing,’ but they don’t comply,” he said.
Stunkel added that it’s not just people living in that area.
“They’re not all living around there,” he said. “You can see the tracks (from the road).”
Also at the meeting, Alderman Andy Lester suggested again that the council look at changing its restrictions on burning leaves and other landscape waste.
He said that he recently heard from a constituent who has a child with asthma, and that people in the medical community have spoken to the council about issues related to burning.
Lester suggested amending the burning ordinance to prohibit burning on weekends and holidays from May through the end of October.
Gottman said that they had talked about such a change previously and that one of the issues is that many people work Monday through Friday and do yard work on weekends.
Lester said that with extended daylight hours, residents would be able to do their yardwork after work.
“I just wanted to put it out there for everyone’s consideration,” Lester said.
City Administrator LaTisha Paslay reported that the city had applied for Rebuild Illinois capital assessment, and that she learned that the city will receive some of those funds.
Paslay said the city’s first installment will be $77,349.25, and that they are hoping for two distributions this year.
Those funds, she said, can be used for capital projects such as roads and bridges.
Gottman said that the city has a lot of capital improvement projects “in the works” and that there will be discussions on which projects will be funded with those monies.
Also at the meeting:
• The council approved the Vandalia Lake lot transfers of No. 75 from Chad Dane of Vandalia to John and Dana Feltner of Brownstown; No. 119 from Lisa Smith of Brownstown to Greg and Amy Schaal of Shobonier; No. 119A from Roger Smith of Brownstown to Brent Horner and Susan Schwarm of Vandalia; and No. 87 from Tim and Barbara Henna/Jenny Sefton of Vandalia to Zeke and Mary Philpot of Vandalia.

 

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