Mayor’s Row………..by Ned Mitchell
Crime does not pay in Sesser! While the short term benefits of carting off someone else’s property and selling it at the local pawn shop might be attractive the long term result is not good. We will hunt you down, arrest you, build a case on your crime and put you in front of a jury to decide your future. Just ask the now convicted residential burglar James Graham how that works. It took over two years to get all the motions out of the way and for the trial to begin but once the evidence was all in it did not take jurors long to return a verdict of guilty as charged. Sesser police did an outstanding job of investigating this crime and putting the evidence together. State’s Attorney Tom Dinn gave the green light to his assistant Wayne Morris and the fight was on. Attorney Morris just put on a stellar performance in the courtroom. Now the sentence is up to the judge and we are watching the outcome of this case. This is not the defendant’s first rodeo and this conviction makes him eligible for extended time in the joint. Of course the actual punishment is up to the judge at this point. But, the bottom line is, as it has been said here many times, don’t come to Sesser and pull this kind of nonsense because it will not fly here. Crime does not pay in Sesser! We owe State’s Attorney Dinn and his entire staff a huge thank you for their efforts
If you were out and about over the weekend you undoubtedly noticed several young people sweeping main street with brooms, cutting weeds in alleys, painting bleachers in the park and cleaning up a couple of abandoned lots. Sesser Chief Rob Barrett assigned various chores for Saturday and the youngsters did a great job. It all started when one group of these individuals made the mistake of being out after curfew. They made a more serious mistake when the police tried to stop them and they ran. Once they were caught and their parents brought in, they all decided to work two Saturdays helping clean up the town instead of going to jail. They are really good kids and come from good families. They just made a mistake and hopefully a little community service will remind them to not behave in this manner in the future. It saves the parents the costs of going to court and keeps the kids from having a criminal history in their background. Sometimes this program works and sometimes it doesn’t. We believe in giving the violators the benefit of the doubt though and hope that we don’t have to go down this road again with these youngsters.
Sesser is continuing the tradition of having great places to eat. Bruno’s is thinking about expanding their days of operation to seven days a week. The Opry House Café’ is in full swing with live music three or four nights during the week. And the VFW has their fantastic fish fry every Friday night. There has been some talk about the VFW not being open but they are there every Friday night and the public is invited to attend and have a great meal as well as help the veterans keep their club operation running. Of course the Subway is a great place to have a sandwich or salad, Casey’s has pizza and other treats, the Custard Stand attracts customers from a wide area to have a sandwich or famous ice cream and Ango’s Pizza on the east side of town is opening in the next few days. If you can’t find something good to eat over here that’s not a good thing!
Some major announcement is forthcoming from FREDCO the Franklin County economic development this Thursday evening. I am told by sources that the Rend Lake Shooting Complex has attracted a major shoot that will attract a lot of people and bring in a huge amount of tourist money. I’m not sure if this is what the joint announcement between FREDCO and the Conservancy District is all about so keep your eye on the local news media about what is happening.
The Rend Lake Conservancy District Board is to be commended for taking the bold step of reducing their real estate property tax rate. Of course there are some who do not see the need for them to be collecting property taxes in the first place. Most area towns have no trouble operating a water/sewer department in the black. That is a consumer based operation and the Conservancy District is the same. What they don’t have to do out there is maintain a full time police department with numerous officers and vehicles, or operate a library, or have a cemetery as large as ours, or maintain miles and miles of streets and alleys. On top of all that the taxpayers of the Sesser Fire Protection district provide free fire protection and first responder service to the Conservancy District. If all we had to do was operate a water/sewer department there would be no need for any of us to collect a property tax. So I applaud their decision to cut taxes but we are comparing apples to oranges when we compare what local cities have to do versus what the Conservancy District does. Hopefully someday all the recreational functions out there will be self supporting and not a property tax issue.
I had a person recently show me a property tax bill from 1993 and then this year’s bill on the same property. The house was assessed as being worth about $46,000.00 in 1993 and taxes were a little over $1,000.00. This year the same house is assessed at being worth about $75,000.00 and the tax bill is over $2,000.00. The house has not doubled in value but the taxes have doubled in eleven years. Of course every unit of government has increased costs as do all of us. It costs more to do about anything now than it did in 1993. This person’s point was not so much the cost of their taxes but the question of where will this all end. Is the property tax rate in Franklin County detrimental to growth? I don’t know the answer to that question but one thing for certain is that every property owner should be on the books and paying their fair share of the bill. We don’t have that in Franklin County just yet and it will be interesting to see how the county board goes about correcting this huge problem.
Speaking of county board there six seats on the Franklin County Board that will be up for election next year. Petitions will be available at County Clerk Dave Dobill’s office sometime in November I believe and based on what I am hearing there will be several candidates in the running for these positions. Also up for election will be the sheriff and it looks as if a primary is brewing there. I have not heard if incumbent Sheriff Bill Wilson is running again or not. Although it is not official, word on the street says treasurer Juva Wynn will not run for re-election. West side resident John Gulley has announced that he will seek the treasurer’s spot and I hear there are others possibly interested. This could be a busy time for Franklin County democrats as petitions have to be filed by December. Stay tuned as it could get interesting!
Birthday wishes got out to Tom Hamilton who recently celebrated his 80th birthday. And get this, Grace Phillips will soon hit the 100 year mark. Grace is a fantastic lady and former co worker of mine. I have always had the utmost respect for Grace as she is one fine person and an inspiration to all of us who know her. Take a few minutes and drop them a card or make a quick phone call to wish them happy birthday.
Make plans to attend the annual Ocktoberfest to be held at city park this coming October 8th. There are many activities to participate in and we are looking for VOLUNTEERS to help make this event successful. Give us a call at 625-3611, 625-5322, or 625-5788 if you would like to get involved in this project or any others. You can email me at nedmitchell@verizon.net or www.sesser.org Hope to hear from you!
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