Mayor’s Row…..by Ned Mitchell
A great big hoorah goes out to the Rend Lake Conservancy District Board who last week agreed to put up 350 acres for industrial development. The deal was joint ventured by Rend Lake and FREDCO, the economic development agency serving all of Franklin County. The announcement was made public last Thursday evening and is a welcome bit of good news for us in this county. For as long as I have been mayor, and that is approaching almost three decades, we have been questioning why the Conservancy District would not entertain that idea. Until now we were told the Conservancy District was only interested in recreational concepts. Despite the district being formed many years ago as both recreational and industrial, the latter concept was basically ignored by the folks at Rend Lake. We can only assume that with the new board in place this idea has progressed rapidly to this point. The idea of having industry that will provide jobs to this area and at the same time be environmentally friendly is one that should easily be sold to interested companies. To me the selling point will be location, location, location! What could be better than to have industry located within the confines of the Conservancy District?
Another plus to this venture is the availability of land to move the Benton airport if that becomes a reality. Many years ago most folks generally thought we had lost our minds in Sesser, and me specifically, when we proposed building a new airport that actually would have been only three miles from the new proposed site. Benton was looking then at having to move their airport for future growth but backed out on the idea. Now Benton is pushed for the space to develop economically and is entertaining the idea of again moving the airport. This would be a great fit if we can join industry, recreation, and a new airport in the same area. Frank Shelton, a Sesser businessman at the time and pilot was keen on this idea, but we just could not get the concept going. It’s amazing how sometimes when you hang around long enough even your crazy ideas come back. Maybe we weren’t so off base after all with that idea!
The Sesser-Valier Ministerial Alliance completed a fall crusade in the Sesser City Park. Area ministers took turns with sermons for the crowds and area churches provided special music each evening. The event was well attended and a free will offering was taken each night. Proceeds of the offering will be used to get the food pantry up and running. I am told the offerings totaled about $2,200.00 over the four night event so area folks contributed heavily to this worthy cause. The food pantry should be up and running sometime in October and we are thankful the area churches and ministers have taken the lead on this project. We have always had great success raising money for food and toys at Christmas time but there is a growing need throughout the year for food these days. This pantry will help meet that need in a tremendous way and will serve as an outreach ministry for area churches. They are to be commended for putting this idea into action.
Far be it from me to set the record straight on a situation. I am known as a man of few words and usually don’t speak my mind, just kidding of course, but we do have a vicious rumor circulating in Sesser that I am today going to put to rest.
The rumor and a complete lie that is circulating on Main Street is that the Sesser Police stalked an 80 year old resident, waited for him to come out of a tavern, followed him to within three blocks of his house, yanked him out of his car, broke his arm and took him to jail. So for all you folks who have not bothered to check the facts and thus have made babbling idiots out of yourselves, here are the facts.
A young husband and wife and their three children are out for a drive on a Saturday evening. One of the children has a learners permit to drive with adult supervision. This young driver was being taught by the parents how to drive and getting in some practice. Along comes another vehicle that practically hits the young driver’s car head on and forces them completely off the road. Needless to say it scared the wits out of the young driver and everybody else in the car. The parents call the police to report the incident fearing that someone is going to be killed or seriously injured by this driver. Sesser police take the call and locate the vehicle going North of Sesser just over Maple Hill Cemetery on Route 148. Lights and siren are activated but the driver refuses to pull over. Another off duty Sesser police officer joins in the pursuit, which by the way was only 25 to 30 miles per hour. Finally the two police cars get the driver hemmed in at Waltonville and get them stopped, but not before they had ran three more drivers off the road by being in the wrong lane of traffic. Once the driver is stopped the officers begin to quiz the driver about where they are going. The driver says they have just left Zeigler and are going to Sesser. Never mind this person has driven right through Sesser and is not aware of that fact at all. The driver was asked to get out of the car and at that point it is clear they are impaired due to alcohol. The driver was arrested and the car towed. The story gets better though. This same driver not more than 6 months ago was the subject of several calls from drivers between Sesser and Christopher that had been ran off the road. We were able to stop the driver in Sesser and the police gave the driver a ride home on the promise that this would never happen again. Now, how many times do you warn a driver? I’m not going to name the driver in this incident at this point but the rumor mongers know who I am talking about and its time we get the facts out to the public. We don’t care how much you have to drink, that’s your business, but when you get behind the wheel of your vehicle impaired to the point that you run other drivers off the road we have a job to do and you can bet your last dollar we’re going to do that job. We try to work with folks in Sesser and promote safety at the same time but when push comes to shove we will take safety every time. Driving with too much to drink can be deadly. It has been deadly in Sesser for far too many young people. I’ve had to sell too many cemetery plots to victims of alcohol related accidents. It is only fair that you take responsibility and don’t drive drunk. Hopefully this will put the rumor to rest. All I ask is that folks get their facts straight before shooting off the mouth. If we have done something wrong, we’ll fess up and try to do better next time, but we were clearly doing what had to be done in this instance and would do the same thing again if need be.
In sick bay this week, Louise Nowland is home recuperating after having a pace maker implanted in Mt. Vernon last week. Larry Spann is home from the hospital. Ruth (Sulser) Babiak is in a St. Louis hospital having heart surgery. A card sent to these folks would greatly be appreciated.
I’ve been amused by the hearings for Chief Justice Roberts before the United States Senate. Roberts has been beyond reproach as democrats have tried in vain to trip him up. It’s amazing how dumb some of these supposedly intelligent Senators really are. I know, they are fellow democrats of mine, but I figured out a long time ago that the democratic party lost the presidential election. When you lose the presidential election you also lose the right to nominate Supreme Court Justices. That’s a no brainer. Some folks don’t understand there is more to the presidential office than just having it. If you lose it you lose the power to appoint federal judges to lifetime jobs. So while the democrats wring their hands, they also are going to end up with two more than likely very conservative Supreme Court Justices. We might as well get used to it and move on to something better. We’re whipping a dead horse on these hearings and looking incredibly out of touch with mainstream America.
If you need us, give us a call at 625-3611, 625-5322, or 625-5788 email to nedmitchell@verizon.net or www.sesser.org or just drop in city hall at your convenience. | |
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