Arthur K-9 Unit in need of donations for air conditioning system
Household items clogging pumps at lift station
By ARIANA R. CHERRY
Staff Writer
Treasurer Mike Hilgenberg reported $42,663.13 in expenditures at the most recent meeting of the Arthur Village Board meeting. Some of those expenses included payments to Coach House and to Advance Disposal for city clean up day.
During the comment session, Trustee Jim Flemming thanked the police department for their service during the tractor cruise. There were 147 tractors that participated and around 290 were served at lunch. Justin Ray congratulated the softball and track team for their representation of our school district. “I thought they all did a great job for a small community,” commented Trustee Dave Tiffan.
Chief Goodman informed the board that he had about 35-40 volunteers to help with fireworks for Saturday night, five volunteers from the Illinois Emergency Alarm System and 15 emergency help volunteers from Douglas county. He also mentioned that he is making preparations for the fair.
Grant Corum of Public Works stated that past Thursday, the pumps and the alarms weren’t working at the lift station. He informed the board that part of the problem was the age of the pumps and a variety of things can get caught in them. Some of the items getting caught in the pumps were cleaning products and adult diapers which were clogging them. An upgrade to the lift station was approved but it could be six to nine months before it is completed.
The board approved placing a memorial street sign in Noel Dicks’ name close to his house on the northwest corner. Mayor Rod Randall would like to leave all of the memorial street signs up until after the sesquicentennial celebration.
The K-9 unit of the police department spoke about air conditioning needs for their dog. There has been a struggle to keep the garage cool because of funding. The temperature for the dog needs to be under 85 degrees. If it is kept around 68 degrees, he could get sick and get a heat stroke once outside. The K-9 unit is not asking for funding to come from the police department, as it is trying to use funds from the K-9 donations only. The amount of funds that are needed is between $2,500-$3,000. These funds could be needed annually. After some discussion, $3,000 in funding through donations was approved for the air conditioning system.
There has been some trouble with the time clock software and keeping track of holiday and comp time for the city employees. Sometimes, extra paperwork is still needed to total employees’ work time. The cost to renew the time clock software is $1,500. Comptroller Erica Carter mentioned that the training wasn’t very good in setting up and learning the software and it doesn’t have the necessary services that are needed to keep track of employees’ times. A motion was made to not renew the time clock software and to use paperforms in the meantime while research is done for new software.
