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Scott County Times

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2020

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WINCHESTER, IL 62694

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VOLUME NO. 153 NUMBER 11

Times

Winchester Council approves fighting gas increase

NEWS

By CARMEN ENSINGER Scott County Times The Winchester City Council unanimously approved spending up to $7,000 to fight a proposed 400 percent increase in natural gas costs to the city and its customers. The city receives its natural gas from Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Company who is proposing an up to 400 percent increase in the cost of transportation to Winchester and all of the other customers serviced along its line, which runs from the panhandle of Texas to Ohio. Last month the council dis-

Supporting our team. See page A3 Colon cancer screening kit pick up March 19 and 20. See page A4

SPORTS

Cougars unable to hold off Madison rally. See page A6

WEEKEND WEATHER FRIDAY, MARCH 13

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Scott County Times

cussed joining in a lawsuit to fight the proposed increase but because there was not cap on the limit the city would be spending, the idea was postponed. “We were not going to sign an open-ended agreement for legal fees without a cap on how much we would be spending,” Winchester Mayor Rex McIntire said. “Since that time, they have told us that our cost would be no more than $7,000 and possibly less, depending on how many more municipalities join in on the lawsuit.” The amount of money charged to the municipality

is based on the number of gas customers served. If the city doesn’t join in on the lawsuit and the proposed 400 percent increase is approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the city would see an increase of around $110,000 per year in natural gas costs, which would be passed onto its consumers. “I think it is in our best interest to chip in and join in the lawsuit,” Mayor Rex McIntire said. “However, since it isn’t on our agenda tonight, I want the council to give me the consensus tonight to join in the lawsuit and then approve it in a motion next month.”

Still on the subject of gas rates, McIntire said that there was an error in last month’s billing system for gas usage for some customers in the city. “There was something wrong in the January billing for the month of December,” McIntire said. “For some reason, everyone who used above the minimum rate got billed an extra $39,15 that we are going to have to credit back to our customer.” With around 700 utility customers, that comes out to around $27,400 that the city is going to have to reimburse its customers. That is not good news for

the city since it has been facing a net loss in revenue in the gas department for the past four years to the tune of $37,000 “The gas system needs $225,000 above gas costs to operate at a break even,”McIntire said. “Our current rate of an additional $2.46 per therm is not covering our cost. We need to go up to $3.15 per therm which would be adding an additional .69 cents. The point is everybody is going to have to pitch and pay for it. My bill, and I have a pretty big house is going to go up around $15 bucks a month.”

Winchester moving ahead with municipal court system By CARMEN ENSINGER Scott County Times Winchester City Attorney John Paul Coonrod presented a very thick stack of papers ultimately setting up Winchester’s municipal court System in the very near future. “This is a pretty thick piece of work because it basically creates a court system out of thin air,” he said. “Cities can create their own court systems and you may ask why we would want to do that. The answer is we can’t enforce our own ordinances without spending around $2,000 in the regular court system.” This court system would be specifically for ordinance violations such as junk accumulating on a property, unmowed grass, derelict cars, etc. “Instead of going through the regular court system, we would get an administrative hearing officer to preside over the proceedings,” Coonrod said. “This person, most likely a former municipal judge, would give me a number which would be his cost per hearing. Added into that the cost of legal services, which would be an hourly rate I think we arrived about $380 per hearing, compared to $2,000 per hearing in the regular court system.” The information is so thick because it takes into account every contingency. “This covers everything from the serv-

ing of summons or subpoenas, how the hearing would go about, what rules of evidence would apply,” Coonrod said. “What final court orders would look like, what happens if the person doesn’t show up for the hearing and how the city would enforce that. I looked at other court systems and drafted this to comply with due process and no more. That is how we condense the process and make it cheaper. Every citation would go through the council.” Katie Gregory, with the Winchester Civic Group presented to the council the upcoming events for the Parks and Recreation section of the Civic Group. “Our first park cleanup is scheduled for April 25 from 10 to 12 p.m. and we would like to have access to the pavilions,” she said. “We would be raking and fluffing the existing mulch and we would like guidance from the council on what to do with the benches in the pavilion which were donated by the Civic Group.” Another spring clean up and fun day is scheduled for May 30 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. which would also include a cookout in the shelter area and a 3 on 3 tournament and possibly a bounce house and games. There will be no raffle this year to give local organizations a break on donating constantly. A 5k is being planned for the fall but no date has been set or that yet. (See, SYSTEM, A4)

Winchester Council approves pool bid By CARMEN ENSINGER Scott County Times The Winchester City Council approved the low bid for Phase 1 of the Winchester Municipal Pool renovations at the March 4 city council meeting. The city was forced to break the project down, which originally included a new filter bulding and new bath house, because the low bid came in at than$1 million, more than $300,000 over the projected $678,000 cost of the project. The city received a 50/50 matching grant from the USDA through their Open Spaces Land Acquisition and Development (OSLAD) grant. Any overages in the projected project cost would have to be bore by the city. Rather than cancel the entire project, the council decided to ask their engineers, Benton and Associates, to break the project down into phases. Phase 1 included updating the filter building. Bids were opened on Feb. 27. “We probably got some better numbers letting local guys bid this part of the project and it worked out in your favor,” Greg Hillis with Benton and Associates said. “At the last council meeting we were shooting for around

CAN’T

a bid of $230,000 to $240,000 and the low bid came in well under that.” Doyle Plumbing and Heating of Jacksonville submitted the low bid at $160,876 along with submitting an alternate bid that took into consideration different construction materials. Instead of wood studs, the alternate bid, which came in $12,600 higher than the original bid, included a split face block which would be much more durable. “You are probably looking at the building lasting 15 to 20 years with the wood studs,” Hillis said. “But with the block wall you are looking at 20 to 30 years easily,” Mayor Rex McIntire was in favor of going with the higher alternate bid. “I’m thinking of longevity of the building and since the bid came in well under what we were anticipating, I think it is in our best interest to accept the alternate bid,” he said. “Plus, the blocks are going to look a lot better and give us a lot better building.” Hillis said he hopes that Phase 2 of the project, which is the building of the new bathhouse, is scheduled to be let for (See, BID, A3)

Carmen Ensinger/Scott County Times

FORGET THE SNACKS.

Callie Angenet and Whitney Kunz grab a bag of chips as they go down the line during Free Lunch Monday sponsored by local area churches and served at the Winchester First Baptist Church.

Submitted photo

LEARNING A LIFE SAVING MEASURE Winchester grade school principal Andy Stumph performs the Heimlich maneuver on a dummy. The Winchester school district paid to have 16 teachers and staff certified and will do the remaining staff next month.

Bluffs urging residents to take census seriously By BETH ZUMWALT Pike Press The village of Bluffs is trying to impress on its residents how important filling out the U.S. census forms is. “That’s how we get grant money and other money for projects that we would normally have to pay for out of our budget,” Linda Sapp, village president, said. “It’s important we get everyone counted.” Sapp said the village has purchased a laptop computer that will be available during working hours at city hall, for anyone who wants to fill out the form electronically. “There will be somebody there to help them if they have problems,” Sapp said. “There are approximately nine questions that need to be answered.” Sapp said the packets should arrive around April 1 and she hopes to get as many turned in before the deadline as possible. “Anyone who doesn’t turn one in, a recruiter will go out and visit

the home and try to gain the necessary information,” Sapp said, adding that she thought people would have a few weeks before the door-to-door canvas begins. The village is also sending a letter out with the upcoming water bills, reminding residents of how important it is to get an accurate count of the number of people living in Bluffs. Sapp also updated the board on the upcoming Farmer’s Market. “The Bluffs Farmer’s Market starts in June,” Sapp said. “This year we are going to try to have entertainment. We have already spoken to Robert Sampson and are trying to get a line dancing group to perform one week.” In 2021 the village of Bluffs will celebrate its sequential or its 150th birthday. The Bluffs Picnic Committee is busy planning the 2020 event, but will also have a big part in the anniversary celebration. “We are looking for a lot of (See, CENSUS, A3)

Election day is next Tuesday By BETH ZUMWALT Scott County Times Voters in Scott County should be thinking about their choices as the election is just days away – March 17. While primaries frequently have low voter turnouts, Scott County has a three-way race for state’s attorney on the Republican ballot and no candidate on the Democratic ballot, meaning the winner of the primary is mostly like in winner-take-all situation. The winner will be uncontested on the November ballot unless an independent joins the race or the Democrats appoint a candidate. Richard K. Crews, Bethany Doolin and John Paul Coonrod are all vying for the office after the current state’s attorney Mike Hill, indicated he was not running. There is also a race for one seat on the county board of commissioners, incumbent Robert Schafer is being challenged by Charles Pine. Other choices Republican voters will have are two GOP candidates for the United States President – Donald J. Trump and

Roque “Rocky” DeLa Fuente. There are four candidates for U.S. Senator, Mack C. Curran Jr., Tom Tarter, Casey Chlebek Peggy Hubbard and Robert Marshall. The winner will face Richard J. Durbin in November Durbin is the incumbent who is running uncontested on the Democratic ballot. Darin L. Lahood is running for the U.S. Congressiona Representative. He is the incumbent. Delegates to the Republican Convention area also on the ballot as is C.D. Davidsmeyer for state representative. Locally, Staci Evans is uncontested at for Scott County Circuit Clerk. When the ballots were printed there were 13 Democratic candidates for president. That number has dwindled to two, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. The Democrats have no other candidates except for delegates to the National Democratic Convention. Polls will be open this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for early voting and from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. the day of the election.