Mayor's Row.....by Ned Mitchell

            Let's just say for hypothetical purposes that the city fathers here in Sesser start taking drastic action concerning employees.  First let me say that I believe we have the best employees of any city in Southern Illinois.  But for comparison sake, suppose the city council decides to do away with the street department, the water sewer department, and the police department.  Some cities have eliminated entire departments and contracted those services out.  We have had companies approach us here in Sesser to take over management of our water and sewer utility departments and some area cities have actually done that only to find out that it would not work.  Companies are quick to point out they can do what we do cheaper and claim to do it better.  After a while one finds out they cannot do it cheaper and for sure not better.  Companies in that business are quick to point out they can save a city money but not offering health insurance plans like cities have and pensions are almost unheard of.  I always had a problem with paying someone to run a city department when that is what we are elected to do.         

            But for arguments sake we'll just eliminate all those departments.  Wow, look at all of the money the city will save, we are told.  Service will be better because "they" know how to do it better than we do.  So here we are without a water and sewer department, no street department, and no police department.  Along comes a natural disaster, like an ice storm for instance.  All of a sudden the company we have contracted to keep the water flowing, toilets flushing, and provide emergency services finds they are swamped with calls from all the cities they are contracting with.  They cannot keep up with the calls and as a result folks who depend on city services and who pay for those services, cannot get them when they need them.

            Are you beginning to get the picture here?  Can you see a comparison being made between contracting city services and the joke of a utility system we have serving us here in Illinois?  Back when it was known as Central Illinois Public Service Company (CIPS) we at the city level started seeing the service end of this company being eliminated.  In the old days and I say that jokingly, we could always rely on CIPS workers to give us a hand to help with lights at the ball field or tennis courts or Christmas decorations.  They would give us a little help with their bucket truck when in town.  We in turn would help them dig up broken gas lines so their repairmen could fix them and get the service back on quicker than waiting on a backhoe from another town to show up.  Folks that has not been that long ago, but we did have a good working relationship with the only utility company we knew.

            Slowly over the past few years CIPS has evolved into a giant conglomerate known as AmerenCIPS and in my opinion things are not good with this utility.  They have eliminated their tree trimming crews that worked year round to make sure tree limbs that could disrupt power service were kept out of the way.  They had their own linemen crews that could replace a broken pole or damaged transformer.  They had their own company paid meter readers who not only read the meter but also looked for dangerous wires or gas leaks.  Despite the millions, yes millions, of dollars AmerenCIPS spends advertising on just about every media known to mankind about how good their service is, we all know nothing could be further from the truth.  Despite the millions, yes millions, of dollars AmerenCIPS puts in the political pockets of our leaders in Springfield we all know that service is not one of their main priorities.  If service was what this utility was all about there would be no need for them to advertise and no need for them to legally bribe our politicians.  If they are doing what they are supposed to be doing they don't have to tell us about it and they don't need to buy influence in Springfield. 

            The ice storm last week that left hundreds of thousands of residents and businesses without power for over a week was a glowing report on just how well AmerenCIPS is prepared for disaster.  Lets stop right here first though to pat the workers on the back who braved the elements and did their very best to restore power as safely and quickly as possible.  My beef is not with the workers, they put in long days in miserable weather to do their job.  My beef is with the management of AmerenCIPS.  They have systematically dismantled their service by eliminating most or all of their workers who actually keep the power on and the gas flowing.  They do this in the name of the bottom line savings and in the mean time forget all about the possibility that a person who needs that service might be without it for a week or so.  By eliminating tree trimming crews and contracting that out, they are getting by for less money.  Never mind the fact the have put some people out of work.  By eliminating all or parts of line crews they figure it is cheaper to rely on contractors for this work.  That is all well and good until a natural disaster strikes and then it becomes absolute chaos.  Of course this same company has raked in billions of dollars in profits in the past few years and their executives are millionaires several times over, so we are all supposed to be happy in the Land of Oz!

            Now to add insult to injury the state legislature has stalled on a rate freeze bill that would keep this utility from gouging the daylights out of consumers.  Refer back to that previous statement about millions, yes millions, of dollars being put into politicians pockets.  Here is where that will come in handy.  I've written a lot of words describing the situation as I see it.  Folks this concept will not pass the Sesser test.  We cannot in good conscience let all of our city workers go and gamble on the chance that we will never have a disaster.  We rely on our city workers every day to do the job they do.  They do it well and efficiently.  One retired man I know summed it all up last week in talking about politicians, pay raises and AmerenCIPS by saying "the crooked SOBS" that is what they are and he promised to never vote for another on that is in office!  He truly is a man of a few words but summed up what a lot of people think and feel right now.

            If you missed the city sponsored Traditional Christmas Concert at the Opera House last Saturday night, you missed a great evening.  The program started off with a fantastic smoked prime rib and tenderloin dinner with all the trimmings upstairs in the Woll Room.  After dinner concert goers were treated to an hour long program featuring students from Sesser-Valier Schools who performed magnificently.  Many folks commented about the meal and the music and we are happy to be a part of that.  Special thanks to teacher Bethany Sink, who did an outstanding solo of "O Holy Night" and band director Mark Mikulay who also played in the brass quintet.

            We set this whole program up for a couple of reasons.  First, music teacher Bethany Sink had made a request to the city for some financial help to allow them to buy matching shirts for all the chorus members.  After giving that request some thought I remembered how for years we have tried to get a Christmas concert going in the Opera House.  Some years we have been successful but most of the time we have not.  My thinking and my recommendation to the city council was that if the kids would put on a concert featuring traditional Christmas music we could surely sell dinner tickets for $12.00 and give the chorus $5.00 of each ticket sold. 
Together we raised $500.00 for the school chorus and those in attendance enjoyed a great meal and a true blessing in hearing the students perform.

            If you need us give us a call at 625-3611 or 625-5322 or write to us at nedmitchell@verizon.net or www.sesser.org or P. O. Box 277, Sesser, Illinois  62884.  We are always happy to hear from residents and non residents alike.