Here’s tonight’s Mayor’s Report:
We received good news concerning the restoration of a lake at Lakeside Park. The Illinois Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has been notified Fairfield will receive funding to do a preliminary investigation into the city’s drainage problems. Robert Matthew of the NRCS based in Champaign says funding should be available to start within a month. There will be more information on the work at our May 10th meeting. This is the first step in securing federal grant money to restore Lakeside lake and solve many of our Johnson Creek watershed issues.
We have learned many lessons from Saturday’s coordinated clean up in town. The Wayne County Health Department volunteered to work the electronics recycling at the fairgrounds and were deluged early in what one worker described as a “mob scene.” Many of the people who showed up with multiple devices were not from the city or even the county. Over 18,000 pounds (9 tons) were collected, filling the semi in less than 45 minutes. Meanwhile, the city experienced a similar deluge of junk at the Street and Bridge Department. FNB took in over a 2500 pounds of paper to shred at the bank parking lot. The county, the city and the health department have a meeting scheduled for next week to plan the next electronic recycling event.
We started Fraternal Order of Police negotiations today. Our three year agreement with them expires at the end of the month.
After a review of the market, the city was advised to buy at $5.37/per dekatherm for next month and May, 2023 blended together.
Over a year ago, the previous administration granted two Class C liquor licenses to establishments for the purposes of gaming. Wednesday I will inspect one of those establishments, Big Money Slots in downtown Fairfield. It has passed state plumbing and we believe it minimally meets the definition of being a restaurant.
