Mayor’s Row………..by Ned Mitchell April 4, 2005
Spring is in the air all over this great part of Illinois and most of us are glad to say goodbye to the dreary winter weather. Lilacs, red buds, tulips are beginning to bloom and the signs of life are abundant around us. Also coming to life are the scam artists who frequent our cities and villages. Just last week we had a couple of the tree trimming variety in Sesser ripping off senior citizens. They were from Centralia, driving an old blue truck with a ladder and a hand saw. Their idea of trimming trees was to cut off 5 or 6 limbs about the size of my wrist and charge $325.00. These two culprits had just been released from prison within the last year, one for burglary and the other was a sex offender. I cannot stress in strong enough terms that you should not let strangers into your home and you should not hire strangers who knock on your door to work for you. No matter how convincing they are, don’t do it. First of all, any person who knocks on your door and offers to sell you anything or work for you must have a city permit. Permits cost $10.00 per year and its not the idea of taking $10.00 from someone but it does make them tell us who they are and we can check out their character. There are many reputable companies around here that will do all kinds of work. If you have any doubts about someone wanting to work for you call us immediately at central dispatch and we will have a police officer there in minutes. If the people are reputable they won’t mind us coming by to visit with them. We are going to protect our senior citizens here in Sesser and shame on the person who pulls a scam here, we will hunt you down just as we did in this case and explain in no uncertain terms how life is in Sesser.
Governor Rod Blagojevich has proposed doubling the number of slot machines at the gambling boats to fund education. Sound familiar? Years ago when the lottery was formed we were told it was to fund education. Guess what? It didn’t go there, it went elsewhere. As a matter of fact in 2002 the Illinois lottery took in $1.59 billion dollars, that’s billion, and out of that only $550.00 million went to the state’s Common School Fund. Sounds like more smoke and mirrors to me from the governor and his band of east coast advisors. It seems to me that making the funding of education possible by taking advantage of someone’s vice is shaky ground to be on in the first place. Eventually these riverboat casinos are going to break everyone around and have done a good job of doing it so far in some areas. No, I’m not against the casinos necessarily, I have been there a time or two myself, its just that I don’t understand why our elected officials don’t get some backbone and solve this education problem the right way. Take it off the property tax rolls, bump the income tax a little and be done with it.
Speaking of backbone, or lack thereof, what about the Rend Lake Conservancy District special legislation? Is there anyone out there in favor of re-appointing the board members by the same mayors and county board chairmen? I am sure there are, I just have not ran into any of them. Who got us in this mess in the first place? Three mayors and two county board chairmen made everyone of these appointments and now we have legislation that basically allows them to change their mind at will and make another appointment. This is one of the more bizarre ideas to ever come out of Springfield. In my opinion, someone involved here has a lot to gain and you and I will have a lot to lose just as we have for decades at Rend Lake. This legislation is flawed from the beginning and will result in the change of two board members as a result. Pete Micheletto of Christopher and Mike Davidson of Mt. Vernon are history if this bill passes. Is this going to make the new board accountable for past indiscretions? Are they going to come forward and explain what has been swept under the rug or are we going to hear that same old song and dance about looking to the future? We have a right to know, it is our money being squandered. Let your elected officials know how you feel, I already have!
Another historic building on Sesser’s Main Street bit the dust last week. The old laundry across from city hall is gone. This building had a real history to it once serving as a car dealership in the Huie family but in recent times the roof had collapsed and it would cost too much money to keep it in repair so it had to be removed. There are some positive ideas for the property and we will consider those. Speaking of old buildings, the Shelton Feed Store building has also been torn down and if you know of anyone needing any of the old bricks, they are free, just come by and help yourself. It is one block off Main Street on North Broadway and anything left will be taken to the landfill.
Tickets are now on sale at city hall and The Print Shop for the Chicago Symphony concert coming up June 22 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $6.00 or $3.00 for seniors or students. This is a great opportunity for all of us to listen to a world class performance but tickets are limited and will be sold on a first come, first served basis. You can also order the tickets by credit card from Ticket Master. We are excited about Sesser being the only city in Franklin County to attract this concert and will have more on it later.
If you need to contact me you may do so by calling 625-3611, city hall, 625-5322, my business, 625-5788, my home or email nedmitchell@verizon.net or check out our new city web page at www.sesser.org and see what we are up to!
                                 
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