Mayor's Row....by Ned Mitchell
Mr. President, Mr. President, over here, Sir, down here, South about 200 miles or so from where you are. President Bush is scheduled to appear in Peoria this week to tell the country how the economy is booming in the United States. While I understand that is true in some parts of the country, it is definitely not that way in Southern Illinois. My theory; and I think most folks around here would agree is, if you are going to stand up in front of the American people and take credit for all that is good, then you must also visit economically depressed areas and take credit for that as well. Most politicians that I know are all to handy and taking credit for the good things going on and looking another direction to blame someone else for what is not so good. I respect President Bush and the office he holds however I think he is doing a terrible job of running this country. Not even looking at the situation in Iraq, just here at home I just see so many problems being ignored. I was on board with President Bush until the fiasco of hurricane Katrina hit this country and when I realized that we had thousands of people stranded in New Orleans in the Silverdome four days without water I began to question the President and his administration. With all of the technology and equipment available to this nation that situation quickly convinced me the President was completely out of touch.
In Illinois we have much of the same going on. Our economic development plan seems to be to pour millions of dollars in a little league baseball field in Marion and forget about the thousands of good paying factory jobs that have left us. You talk about a recipe for disaster; we have mastered it here in Southern Illinois. As I have often written and spoken about my brief stint as a State Senator, one of the few ideas I tried to get on the table in Springfield was a concept that I believe would have helped depressed areas like ours immensely. My thoughts were that when grant money or economic development concepts were being talked about that money and those plants should first go to areas that had the most problems. It made no sense to me to spend millions of dollars in some area that already had a booming economy. A good case in point is the baseball field in Marion. I know some folks get tired of hearing me harp on that subject but hear me out. What would $4 million dollars have done for economic development in Franklin County?
Locally our economic development agency FREDCO is attempting to finance a spec building on the Rend Lake Conservancy District property. They estimate building a structure that will cost about $500,000 to construct and then they hope to find a tenant. This is a tried and true method; the only problem is we have to raise the money. Would not that $4 million dollars that was given to a very wealthy trial lawyer to build a baseball field have been better spent in an economically depressed area? If we had a law on the books that money like that must first be spent in areas of high unemployment those areas would eventually catch up with those that are doing well. As it is now, we just keep getting farther behind. It is such a simple concept it amazes me that elected officials from depressed areas have not thought about it. Senators and Representatives are you listening?
Speaking of Senators and Representatives, are Senator Gary Forby and Representative John Bradley doing the AmerenCips shuffle? Since it is Super Bowl time and our beloved Chicago Bears are in the big game I thought it only fair to draw that analogy between the old Bears and their Super Bowl shuffle. As we are all aware both Bradley and Forby have recently been in the news concerning the huge rate increase that AmerenCips have dropped on us. The longer this goes, the worse it is going to get. I am sure that both Forby and Bradley are doing all that they can do to bring about some relief to us. The only problem is that their hands are so tied it is not even funny. We do give them credit for looking for a solution though.
I'm not sure that trying to buy power from some other source is the answer though. I know it is popular to hate AmerenCips and all of the corporate greed they have brought about. There are several things wrong here though. Marion Mayor Bob Butler said it best at the Friday press conference when he said the reason we are all here is that the legislature did not do their job. Leave it to Mayor Butler to tell it like it is and he is exactly right. While both Forby and Bradley are part of the legislature, they say they did do all they could to stop this rate increase. The only problem is they are vastly outnumbered, especially where Forby serves in the Senate. In the northern part of the state the rate increase was half what it is for us down here. Northern Senators are not all that concerned because they have less of an increase to deal with. The fact that some folks down here will see their bills double is of no concern of those up north.
What Bradley and Forby are facing down here are irate citizens who feel like they are being robbed just to try to stay warm. If we were to all jump ship on AmerenCips and buy power somewhere else, what happens when we have a major ice storm or other disaster that shuts our power off? If we buy power from some utility broker how quick will they be able to respond to a disaster? I know, some of you are saying they could not be any slower than Ameren and that is basically true. No matter where the power comes from, AmerenCips will still own the lines, poles, transformers, switching stations and everything needed to supply electricity. We as elected officials must make responsible decisions even when the legislature does not. We should be accustomed to that by now!
I'm willing to listen to any proposal that will do two things; first, provide reliable service and second cost less. It does no good to save money on power if we can't have it all of the time. It has to be a two fold agreement and we in Sesser are willing to look at any proposal that guarantees both. If for instance half of our communities stay with AmerenCips and half go with another company what happens when we need service? Since AmerenCips owns the lines and such are they going to take care of their customers first and take care of the others when they get the chance? I would venture to say you and I both know who will get the first service. I don't envy either Forby or Bradley as their phones are going to be ringing off the hook with complaints and that will get much worse when hot weather gets here and residents will be using electricity only for comfort. I do appreciate their efforts in looking for solutions; however they should also continue to keep the heat on their counterparts in Springfield not only in the legislature but also the Illinois Commerce Commission. Another school of thought is just maybe they will start earning that pay raise sooner rather than later. The legislature has had 10 years to solve this problem and there is no excuse from anyone serving now as to why it has come this far without a solution we can all live with. Follow the money folks, and you will see exactly why we are where we are!
It has been a bad week for us with the deaths of Sesser residents Buster Wright, Willard Dame and Lois Fred. Former resident Linda Reed, daughter of Harry and LuLu Reed, also died in Florida. Our thoughts and prayers go out to these families. We also need to keep Ruth Ann King in our thoughts and prayers as she still has serious problems from her heart surgery and remains in the hospital in St. Louis.
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, IL 62884.
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