 Miller asks for one new hire
Fire Chief Mark Miller asked that a motion be added to next
week's agenda to approve one new hire for the city fire department.
Miller said the hire would be an entry-level position. According
to city and union rules, the hire will be the first person on the
eligibility list, as determined by the police and fire commission.
In the budget for the new fiscal year, there are provisions for
one new hire this year.
Greenslate also asks for one new hire
Also included in the new budget are provisions for one new hire
for the city police department.
Police Chief Ken Greenslate said he'd like to do a lateral hire
for one new officer. A lateral hire would mean that the person
coming into the position could come in with experience and
immediately be ranked as sergeant.
In May of 2010 Greenslate was promoted from sergeant to chief of
police. In that year, his former position went unfilled.
Greenslate was asked about the pay scale for a lateral hire
versus an entry-level position, and he said yes, the pay would be
higher, but there were advantages to consider.
With an entry-level new hire, having no experience, the person
would be required to team up with another officer for the first
year. Greenslate said the training time would mean the new hire
would really not be an added man to the force right away because he
could not work independently.
He said that yes, the city would spend more on salary with an
experienced person, but the officer would truly be earning his pay.
City considers offering early retirement
Greenslate told the council that Officer Robert Rawlins has
expressed an interest in taking early retirement if the city will
agree to pay half of his health insurance immediately upon
retirement.
Currently any city employee who has worked for the city an
appropriate amount of time is eligible to retire at age 50 but must
pay 100 percent of their health insurance until they reach 55. At
age 55, the city then takes over 50 percent of the insurance
premium.
City attorney Bill Bates said the city could not tailor an offer
specifically for Rawlins. He noted it would have to be an offering
to anyone who was eligible.
As the discussion progressed, it came into question whether or
not the same offer could be made to employees who are enrolled in
the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund.
The city has in recent years done an early retirement incentive
with IMRF and is not eligible to do another one yet. The IMRF deal
offered previously was more of a "buyout" than a retirement plan.
The city is paying into the IMRF for that buyout and can't do
anything else until the debt is paid off.
In the end, the council decided they needed to do more
investigating into this issue before placing it on the agenda.
Street signs and lights
Tracy Jackson, street and alley superintendent, has prepared a
list of all city street signs that need to be replaced or repaired.
It was requested that as aldermen are out and about in the city,
if they see a damaged or missing sign and it isn't on the list, to
please report it.
Alderwoman Stacy Bacon asked if a similar list could be made for
street lights. She noted there are several that are out.
Jackson said a large majority of the lights in the city are the
property of Ameren, and reports of outages should be made to them.
He said he could take information and make the report to Ameren, or
city residents can do it themselves.
Bacon asked specifically about lighting on the city's west side
in the vicinity of the Cracker Barrel. Jackson said those were
indeed city lights and that replacement parts have been on back
order for quite some time.
Ray LaHood and others respond to city's high-speed rail requests
In April, the high-speed rail committee co-chaired by Mayor Keith
Snyder and Darren Forgy of Prairie Engineers submitted a list of
requests to a variety of officials involved in the state's
high-speed rail program.
Included in the list of people who received the documents was Ray
LaHood, U.S. secretary of transportation; Gary Hannig, Illinois
Department of Transportation secretary; Mike Rock, Union Pacific
vice president over external relations; and Michael E. Stead, rail
safety administrator for the Illinois Commerce Commission.
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Snyder shared Tuesday night that he had heard from all four of
these individuals and was pleased to know that the city's opinions
and requests are being heard.
In his letter LaHood stated that the use of high-speed rail
funding and the implementation of improvement is the responsibility
of individual states. He suggested that the city continue to work
closely with IDOT in addressing their needs.
Snyder read an excerpt from the Hannig letter:
As you may know,
the Chicago-St. Louis High-Speed Rail (HSR) project includes a
number of planning and assessment efforts which affect the
surrounding communities through which the HSR service will pass. We
believe these efforts will establish a base from which to launch
discussions by the affected communities leading to mutually
agreeable and financially defensible improvements to ameliorate the
effects of higher passenger train speeds. The input of your
committee will serve to streamline this process for Lincoln.
Snyder said he was pleased by this statement, which shows that
Lincoln truly is ahead of the game on these issues.
The email response to Snyder from Stead of the ICC stated that
the committee document would be forwarded to Parsons Brinckerhoff,
IDOT's consultant for the high-speed rail project, and that firm
will review all the information provided.
More crossing closures coming
Snyder said that in relation to high-speed rail, he's been
notified that between May 16 and 23, the Pulaski, Broadway and Pekin
Street crossings will be closed for construction. He said he was
also told that at the same time there would have to be some
temporary closings at Tremont and Keokuk.
Snyder said he had asked that Union Pacific not close all five
crossings on the weekend of high school graduation. He said UP will
get back to him on that request.
Along the same topic, Alderwoman Marty Neitzel asked what was
going on with the North Kickapoo crossing.
The crossings at North Kickapoo and on Route 10 near Lincoln
Christian University are the responsibility of Canadian National.
Snyder said he had filed complaints and recently followed up with
Canadian National and was told the problems would be addressed soon.
Comcast releases gross revenue and franchise fees report
The city of Lincoln earns a 5 percent franchise fee for all money
collected by Comcast for video services. The fees do not apply to
money collected by the company for Internet or telephone service.
Tuesday night Snyder shared a report from Comcast showing their
quarterly earnings and payments made to the city over the last three
years.
Relating quarter to quarter, on March 31, 2008, total receipts
were $808,440.60, with franchise fees to the city being $40,422.03.
In the same time period in 2009, the figures were $829,986.60 and
$41,999.33 respectively. In 2010 the numbers were $797,876.66 and
$39,893.83, and for 2011 they are $891,502.85 and $44,575.14
respectively.
Total gross revenues for Comcast for the calendar year 2010 came
to $3,427,550.77. In that year, payments to the city totaled
$170,377.54.
In the first quarter of 2011 Comcast is reporting an increase in
revenues of 11.73 percent over the same period in 2010, and their
payment to the city is up $4,681 over that same time period.
[By NILA SMITH]
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