Mayor’s Row……by Ned Mitchell 5-9-5Franklin County State’s Attorney Tom Dinn scored a big hit with law abiding citizens by trying Randy Katich of West Frankfort and getting a two count conviction on aggravated, drug related child endangerment. As we all remember a five year old child lost his life in a tragic fire at a house occupied by Katich. While this law has been on the books for only a short time, Dinn wasted no time in bringing Katich to justice. I’ll have to admit I thought the case was questionable, yet a young child died here and a lot of testimony described drug activity in the house. If the people in the house are not doing drugs, the child would still be alive is the way I see it and apparently the jury thought the same way. Folks, it’s a bitter pill to have to swallow, but we have to start getting tougher on people in the drug business. The message that should be sent here is the maximum penalty handed down by the court. This case deserves no mercy from the court and this is no time for leniency. Tom Dinn deserves a huge pat on the back for having the courage to be the first state’s attorney in the State of Illinois to try a case like this and convince the jury that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. It’s a start in Franklin County and one that I am happy about. Lets put some more away!
Action by the Sesser City Council at last week’s meeting guarantees that we will have a new garbage collection service come July 1. Bids were accepted from two companies, Midwest Waste and Bulldog Waste. We have bad news here and good news on this subject. First the bad news, rates are going up, second the good news, the portion of your property tax that was used in part to pay for garbage collection will be taken off. This means that while your monthly rate for trash pick up is now going to be $6.50, on the other end your property tax will decrease slightly to help make up for this. We signed a five year contract that will see rates increase a quarter every year in July. The present contractor did not bid on the project and sometime during late June they will pick up their green containers from your home. Not to worry though, new containers will be furnished by Bulldog Waste and will be delivered in time to each home. Some of the highlights to the new service I thought are that Bulldog Waste uses two men per truck, one driving and the other loading from the back. They will pick up and dump your container, no mechanical arm here. I understood the reasoning behind the mechanical arm, it eliminated an employee on each truck, but on a windy day trash would blow all over town. If you are handicapped, Bulldog Waste will come to your door and pick up your trash and if you have appliances throughout the year, simply call them ahead of time and they will pick them up at no charge. We look forward to working with Bulldog Waste in making Sesser a cleaner place to live. Other items such as two town wide clean ups per year, main street, park, city & township buildings, homecoming events, and cemetery will be provided for by Bulldog Waste at no cost to the city.
The Sesser City Council also took the bold step of passing a resolution calling for the election of Rend Lake Conservancy District board members. The vote was unanimous and this resolution will now be forwarded to other communities in the area to see if they want to join in and will also be sent to State Senator Gary Forby, State Representative John Bradley and of course to Governor Blajegovich. While we have all sat around and talked about the subject, we here in Sesser are taking action and encourage other cities and villages to do the same. You too can voice your opinion to the elected officials who serve us. They do appreciate hearing from you and if enough people voice their opinions, they do take notice. In my travels throughout the area I find very few people who think the board should be appointed by only five people. There is no accountability, obviously, as Glenn Poshard told us in a public meeting that $10 million dollars could not be accounted for over the past few years. We’re still waiting to hear where that money was spent and Poshard was very clear that he was not saying the money was missing, they just did not know where it went. Did I just say that? The board could still provide accountability as a group or individually by leveling with the taxpayers about the Kevin Davis settlement and where the $10 million dollars was spent. Based on what the city council has heard publicly and privately from Sesser citizens, an elected board is desired. If that is not the right course of action, we need to hear that from you too!
Last week’s column sure lit up a few people, some of who by talking to them appeared to be lit up already! Folks, I’m not advocating closing down all the taverns and clubs and I recognize your right to drink if you want to. Nobody is challenging that, drink all you want, when you want, just don’t drive if you become impaired. That’s a pretty simple concept now isn’t it? When you drink and how much you drink is your business. When you drink too much and get in your vehicle and get on a public street it becomes everybody’s business and the police have a job to do to make sure to the best of their ability that everyone arrives to their destination in one piece.
That brings me to another case. Last week four young men in the prime of their lives were killed in an accident just south of us involving alcohol and high speed. Three young men were out for an afternoon joy ride and one unfortunate young man coming from the other direction who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Do you know what the end result of this accident was? I counted 83 close family members as survivors of the four young men. Some of them were married, some had children, all had mothers, fathers, grandparents, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews. Can you imagine 83 lives being tragically altered from here on out? Wow! Can anybody see what is happening here? Think before you drink and drive, the life you save may be your own! If only those who were drinking and driving could go back and rethink their decision and replay this event I am sure there would be a different choice made. Unfortunately, we can’t go back and replay events like this. All 83 family survivors have to pick up the pieces and try to go on and that my friends will be very difficult, especially for the children of the deceased.
The Sesser-Valier Thespians will be performing their annual spring play on May 20th and 21st at the historic Sesser Opera House. This year they will be performing Beauty and the Beast. The performance will start promptly at 7:30 pm and tickets may be reserved by calling the school at 625-5101, extension 100.
I visited with Ilah Winn at Franklin Skilled care this week and found out later that Lois Fred is also there. Lois would appreciate a call, card or visit too. Lou (Tucker) Paxton also was visited by phone this week. She lives in South Carolina and made an inquiry about Maple Hill Cemetery. She is the daughter of Freda Tucker, one of the most famous pie bakers in these parts several years ago. It was good to visit with Lou and keep up with her boys that I grew up with.
If you have questions or comments give us a call or drop us a line at 625-3611 (city hall) 626-5322 (business) 625-5788 (home) or email to nedmitchell@verizon.net
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