Mayor’s Row…….by Ned Mitchell
Well, well, well, now we have all the documents relating to real estate taxes not being paid, missing from the supervisor of assessments office. Interesting indeed! Franklin County is fast becoming a land of opportunity for some and a land of disadvantage for others, depending on who you know it seems. Consider this. If you don’t pay your final installment on your real estate tax bill by August 31st of this year you will be assessed a 1.5% penalty per month for every month or portion of month that the tax is due and owing. If you go beyond the deadline when the last possible date rolls around, just before the tax sale, your name will be published in the newspaper as a delinquent tax payer. That has been the system for years in Franklin County and I assume other counties in Illinois. So how is it fair that now we have some 130 parcels of land that have not been correctly assessed and taxes not paid, yet those people are not being charged a penalty and thus far their names have not been made public? It seems to me that if it is fair to publish the list of current delinquent tax payers, it would also be fair to publish the names of those who have escaped the tax man for as long as 10 years in some cases. Could it be that someone took the documents to keep the public from finding out just who these individuals are?
In my almost 30 years as Mayor of Sesser I have known about a lapse in security at city hall two times. In both instances offices were entered without force, meaning either a person had a key or was very good at picking a lock. Also in both instances the only items taken were personnel files pertaining to a single individual employee. It’s pretty obvious to me who took the missing files, but hey, if that individual feels good about taking their time sheets and other documents, so be it. It appears there must have been something to hide, or that person would not have entered the secure office of a city office holder. We could have pursued the matter with a police investigation and called suspects in for questioning, maybe even presented a case before the grand jury, but we decided not to. Those who commit such acts are not nearly as swift as they think they are and like I said before, if they can live with themselves, then so can we. In our cases and those at Franklin County it looks suspicious, like someone has something to hide. Why else would paper documents turn up missing? We learned a valuable lesson in Sesser. While we had some of the documents in duplicate, others we did not. Now it is our policy to copy everything 10 times so every alderman and elected official has a copy of what is going on. In the future if some derelict decides to snatch a file or two, they have got their work cut out for them to get all of the copies rounded up. Such sayings as “whatever goes around comes around” and “every dog has his day” or “it’s a long road that does not take a bend” come to mind. For whatever reason the files turned up missing in Benton and Sesser, rest assured at least in Sesser we know why the files were taken and obviously the person taking the files had something to either gain or hide or both. We picked up and went on and I suspect folks at the county will do the same. Still, I am disappointed that it happened in Sesser at city hall and I am sure there is disappointment at Franklin County as well.
Kudos to the Franklin County board who did take action Tuesday night in their monthly meeting to go after delinquent tax payers for the last two years and to adopt a permit ordinance requiring building permits in unincorporated areas. These are two positive developments that will go a long way to correct existing unfairness. There is much more to be done and board members have told me they will address the Board of Review issues within the next 30 days. I do think the board members have heard from the public and are doing the right thing. Your opinions do matter if you make them known to those who represent you locally and this is a good example of exactly that.
I’m beginning to sound like a broken record holding the reformer/unreformer governor’s feet to the fire about ignoring the plight of Franklin County residents who went to the polls and supported him in a big way. Now Senator Dick Durbin makes a tour through southern Illinois last week and hands out millions of dollars in Marion County, millions of dollars in Jefferson County, stops in Franklin County but apparently does not have enough money to buy lunch, then we hear that millions of dollars are being dropped again in Williamson County. In Franklin County we heard about methamphetamine and its addictive nature. If I hear one more politician blabbing about meth, I’m going to scream. Quit pandering to the voters, we all know about meth and we all know what it does, we deal with it daily. This is one of those subjects that politicians love to get on because nobody can argue with that. It is safe to talk about, we’re all against meth. We know we need to stay after it and we will, but one thing that might possibly help get people away from such habits is for us to have a decent paying job with benefits for them to work at. Benton has tried for several years now to add an interchange to I-57 that would run into the Benton Industrial Park. Folks we were passed over again. I know we should be getting used to it by now, but for goodness sake, we deserve better. We consistently deliver the vote for every democrat who gets on the ballot in this county, and we consistently get snubbed when economic goodies are being handed out. We need to level the playing field on economic development along the I-57 corridor and it is time we speak up. You do know the squeaky wheel does get the grease!
Don’t forget the Billy Grammer “Gotta Travel On” tribute coming up August 27th at Valente’s Terrace in downtown Sesser. Dinner tickets are sold out but there are a limited amount of concert tickets available. Initially we thought we would be able to handle the crowd but the dinner tickets sold out so fast that we decided to open up the outdoor pavilion at Valente’s for a small concert after the dinner. You will need to bring a lawn chair for this part of the evening. We look forward to seeing you there as we honor one of our own who at one time lived and played in Sesser as a child. This idea was the brainchild of Sesser music store owner Frank Beskidniak who recruited me to help. Unfortunately Frank passed away a couple years ago and I dropped the ball. In mentioning my ability to drop the ball one day, Jack Valente said he would try to put the event together. Jack and Nancy have done an outstanding job on this event and if you attend you will be pleasantly surprised. I am privy to some of what is happening and it promises to be a fun filled evening. You won’t be disappointed.
Alderman Carroll Kelly is home in Sesser after suffering a broken pelvis from a fall on his property. He has some therapy ahead to say the least but he is doing much better now. He would appreciate a card sent to his house in Sesser as he recovers.
Local author Linda Settle continues to do an outstanding job in her newspaper publications on local residents. She has recently profiled Billy Grammer and former residents Joe and Mila Coveglia. It’s as though I can go back in time and relate to how they grew up in our area. If you have a chance read these articles that have been published in the Benton Evening News recently. We even had a Charlie Cox rain, a gentle all night long rain, as Linda described it in a previous article, over the weekend.
If you need to talk to us, give us a call at 625-3611, 625-5322, or 625-5788, email us at nedmitchell@verizon.net or www.sesser.org . We are always interested in your thoughts, ideas, and comments about life in Sesser and ways that we can improve what we do on a daily basis. We do all live here together and appreciate your help!
| |
|
