Mayor’s Row……………….by Ned Mitchell
Are we hard to get along with over here in Sesser or what? The casual observer asked how we could have young children out sweeping the streets, washing the squad cars, and picking up trash in the cemetery. I’ll have to admit the youngsters looked a bit out of place. I mean here they were doing manual labor instead of sitting in front of the computer or Game Boy. Its not that our kids don’t do those types of things, it’s just that this group got caught shoplifting tobacco products from a local convenience store. Thank goodness we still have some parents who give a hoot about their kids and what they are doing when not at home. Once these youngsters were caught and the parents notified a sit down meeting took place between all involved. Police Chief Rob Barrett suggested that a plan could be formulated whereby each person would work 40 hours of community service instead of going through the court system and having a criminal record. The court system is way too busy anyhow and they have serious criminals to deal with. Taking a bunch of kids to court on their first offense serves no purpose. The parents and the youngsters all agreed and so for the past few weekends we have had a group of young people helping to make Sesser a much better place to look at. Chief Barrett has taken the time each Saturday to keep check on the youngsters and show them how to do things that need to be done. Not only have these kids been working hard they are hopefully learning a valuable lesson in life. So the answer to the observation is no, we’re not hard to get along with. We just have a different way of looking at things involving juvenile crime. Our goal is to see all of our young people have a quality life and to understand that if you do make a mistake we will help you straighten that issue out and make things right. We could not do this without the support of the parents involved and we appreciate their cooperation.
Sesser has had the toughest curfew around for several years now. If you are under age 16 you cannot be out unsupervised after 7:00 during the school year and 9:00 pm during the summer months. That was brought about by an unruly bunch of kids who terrorized residents in Sesser. We first met with these kids and their parents at least twice to try and find a solution but soon found that would not work. Our only alternative was to set up a curfew such as the one we now have. I know some parents are not happy with it and we understand that concern. Most of our kids are great as are most of our adults. However, every barrel of apples will have one or two bad ones and if they are not dealt with you will soon have a whole lot of rotten apples. Our job at city hall is not to baby sit your kids! One of our jobs is to insure that our citizens who want to walk for exercise of the evenings can do so without feeling threatened. We also work hard to keep vandalism down at the city park and in the neighborhoods. The simple solution is to keep those who are bent on this type of activity off the streets after 7:00 pm. Of course that punishes the good kids also but like I said, refer back to the barrel of apples. Now here is the kicker-despite some howls of protest from about 6 parents, this curfew has worked very well. We no longer have roving groups of youngsters on our streets and if we do we round them up, take them to city hall and call their parents to come and get them.
Now that you know what we are doing to kids you might ask what are you doing for kids? That’s a good question. At last month’s city council meeting we voted to buy about 22 acres of property on the east side of Sesser at a cost of about $41,000.00. This property will be used to build a new baseball complex for the kids. Sesser-Valier and the surrounding rural area has a great group of kids who like to play baseball and softball in the summer. This year there are 280 kids signed up to play. We don’t have enough fields to schedule them to play on and so for a couple of years now we have been looking to buy some ground where we could build 4 baseball diamonds. That will allow us to have all the games and practices scheduled in one location. We needed property that kids could easily ride their bikes to without getting on the highway. We needed property that had access to city sewer and water. We found all of those things at the site of the former baseball fields that were leased from Zeigler Coal a few years ago. These fields will be constructed with the help of an engineer so when we are done they will drain properly. There will also be picnic areas, eventually a walking trail, maybe soccer fields and a basketball court as well as a modern concession stand and restrooms. This is a huge venture for us to take but one that we are willing to pitch in and do because we do care about our kids. We consider this an investment in Sesser’s future and we are indebted to those parents who have worked so hard to bring this about.
We had a dedicated group of VOLUNTEERS at Maple Hill Cemetery on Saturday to give it a good cleaning too. No, these were not kids who were caught doing something wrong, they were adults and young people with family and friends buried at Maple Hill. The event was sponsored by our local Modern Woodmen Camp 8850 and was the result of Frankie Wheatley’s desire to do something for the area to help show respect and honor to those who are buried at Maple Hill. The group systematically went though the cemetery block by block and removed old flowers, sticks, trash, and other unsightly items. Driving through the cemetery Saturday evening revealed a very neat looking cemetery. We hope to keep it that way and ask those who pay respect to their loved ones to help us keep Maple Hill Cemetery looking the way it does right now. If we all pitch in and do the little things the end result will be fantastic. We hope to have new trees planted along the highway this week. Also keep in mind the fence project at the on the north side of the cemetery. Modern Woodmen Camp 8850 is having a trivia night on June 2. You can donate money to the fence whether you play trivia or not. We hope to raise $2,500.00 on trivia night as Modern Woodmen will match that amount. We appreciate your help!
Once again Sesser will take the lead in bringing top notch entertainment to our historic Opera House. On June 20th at 7:30 pm we will host the Chicago Chamber Orchestra performing a special concert featuring Bach and Mozart. This concert will feature some of the finest musicians from all over the United States and also some of international fame. Following that performance on June 29th we will host the live opera performance Don Giovianni. This performance will also begin at 7:30 pm. Area residents will be treated to music that could only be found in Boston or New York so it is a chance in a lifetime to see and hear this type of entertainment. While tickets for this same entertainment would be $75.00 in New York, in Sesser it is $6 bucks and only $3 if you are a senior citizen. Since the Opera House only seats 360 people we are expecting a full house both nights. Mark your calendars for these events. We want to sell as many tickets to Sesser area residents first and then make them available to our neighbors who will also be eager to see these shows. We’ll let you know as soon as we have tickets available.
The City Council meets in regular session this Thursday night at 7:00 pm at city hall. If you want to see your city at work, pay us a visit. The meetings are usually not long and we try to have them organized. We begin each meeting with prayer from one of our ministers from the local ministerial alliance followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. You are invited. If you cannot attend and have a suggestion give us a call at 625-3611 or 625-5322 or write nedmitchell@verizon.net or www.sesser.org | |
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