Mayor’s Row…….by Ned Mitchell

The year was 1620 and a group of English called Pilgrims landed in America in search of freedom to worship as they pleased. A total of 102 men, women, and children left England on a ship called the Mayflower. One died on the voyage. In March of 1621 the Pilgrims met up with a tribe of Native Americans called Wampanoag. The Wampanoag shared their knowledge of hunting, fishing, and farming that enabled the 52 remaining Pilgrims to live off the land. Forty nine Pilgrims had died during the terrible winter for which they were unprepared to face.

After planting, hunting, and fishing all spring and summer with the Wampanoag and after their first harvest, Plymouth Governor William Bradford declared a three day feast to give thanks to God for their success. The Pilgrims provided wild turkey, geese, and duck and the Wampanoag brought five deer, lobster, clams, oysters and fish. Together they provided cucumbers, carrots, cabbage, turnips, radishes, onions, beets, corn and wild fruit. This was the first official Thanksgiving in America.

Since 1621 we have celebrated Thanksgiving in America and we in Sesser hope you have a great day of thanks. No matter what our individual circumstances are, all of us have something to be thankful for. I am thankful for many things today and will express that in my own way and I hope that you stop and take the time to express your thanks in your own way. After Thanksgiving on Thursday the Christmas rush will be officially on despite the fact that some started decorating by at least Labor Day so relax and enjoy this day set aside for giving thanks!

Our food pantry that is being operated by the Sesser-Valier Ministerial Alliance is now located in the city council chambers of the city hall. I am not sure when the first dispersal of food will be but you can contact the minister of any church in Sesser or Valier and get that information. Area residents in need of food can park in front of city hall and come to the front door on the West end of the building and be served. As I understand it food will be distributed one day a month in pre packaged containers. The same variety of food will be given to all in need and will be boxed so all you have to do is come and pick up your box. This is a great venture and one that we have needed for many years in our area. I am THANKFUL that our ministerial alliance has taken this project on for the benefit of those in need. It is not tied to any one particular church or group but is being operated for everyone. Donations are being accepted to keep this program up and running for years to come and its success depends on how we who have plenty support those in times of need. I hope you will join us in doing our part!

Some disturbing news was released last week concerning the shrinking of paychecks in Illinois in the past few years. Illinois lost more income than any other state in the nation except Michigan. Now there is a fact that will have the reformer/unreformer governor’s staff scrambling. Maybe they can go back and blame it on former President Jimmy Carter. They seem to be adept at the blame game instead of offering solutions to turn this problem around.

I thought I would just give this problem the Sesser test. You see we have a small manufacturing plant in Sesser that makes a certain type of food additive. I know all towns have their industry, but this one is special. You see, this is the only factory in America making this product. It is one of only three in the entire world. I’ve talked about this plant before. We have tried for a long time to get the State of Illinois interested in helping this operation expand. We’ve look for grants and low interest loans. We finally were successful in getting Illinois to offer the owner a low interest loan to expand his business. Great I thought, until the owner discovered he could actually borrow the same amount of money from his bank at a half point lower rate. You’ve got to admit this is a new innovative idea from Illinois to offer loan packages at a higher rate than a private lender will make. I guess Illinois is trying to become the pay day lender of industry. But, alas, it gets worse. The owner of the Sesser plant can’t seem to get any help from the State of Illinois and he has decided that he will just have to make it on his own. Okay, lets go with it. That is all well and good until he discovers the State of Illinois has offered to provide financial help to one of his competitors in Germany to come to Illinois and build a plant. Now there is some real economic development! We already have the only plant in the United States located right here in Sesser providing jobs to our community and our reformer/unreformer governor and his band of jolly men go across the ocean and try to lure him a competitor and offer to pay to get the job done. This is just one more reason I hope that some democrat jumps in the upcoming primary in March and takes steps to get this state back on track. With leadership decisions like this Illinois will continue to decline and our problems will grow. So to the reformer/unreformer governor, your administration has failed the Sesser test in this case. We will examine more state issues in the future and give them the Sesser test too, it will be fun! Remember, if it won’t fly in Sesser it probably won’t fly anywhere else either.

The SIU Board of Trustees shocked everyone recently by naming Glenn Poshard as their new president. What a hoot this board is! I have two major problems with this. First they wasted nearly $100,000 dollars on a national search when you could tell by the make up of the board that Poshard was their guy. There was no way he was not going to get the job so why not just skip the search, save the money and do it? Secondly the entire search was done in secret. The problem with this is that tax payer money is used to fund SIU so in my opinion their business should be out in the public. Out of 40 applicants we have knowledge of only one. Poshard has served southern Illinois for years and it has worked out well for all of us. He has given his time and talents and we have paid him well and set up a generous lifetime pension so there is no shortage there. I am amused by some folks though in their comments. One northern Illinois academic expert calls this “academic inbreeding” in that an institution of higher learning hires one of their own graduates to lead the same institution. Others say it is best to hire one of your own graduates because that person will know the lay of the land better than any outsider. This all remains to be seen but I do wish President Poshard all the best in this huge task.

Moving on down the higher education ladder I was saddened by Rend Lake College board member Courtney Cox’s decision to resign. Courtney is, simply put, a person of the highest caliber in every respect. I could write several columns on him and his contributions to our area. He is the best! Courtney has been replaced by Brian Drew who also hails from Benton and is also an attorney. Brian will do well in this position I am sure. I have served as a precinct committeeman with Brian and know his family and his wife’s family well so I am confident we are in good hands once again. I just hated to see Courtney go but am happy a person of Brian’s caliber stepped up and took the job which by the way pays absolutely nothing. Our best wishes to both gentlemen.

Sesser residents are busy doing last minute projects to prepare for the upcoming winter. We encourage you to rake your leaves and dispose of them. Don’t rake them to the ditch and leave them, they will cause flooding next spring. You can burn leaves in Sesser as long as it is before 6:00 pm. Retired school teacher Kent Hodge is very busy doing some last minute outdoor projects so if you have time drive by and inspect Kent’s work. I have to admit, on my drive by inspection, he looks pretty talented!

If you need us, give us a call at 625-3611, 625-5322, or 625-5788 or write to nedmitchell@verizon.net or visit our web page at www.sesser.org  or come by for a visit!
 

A Business Images Website