Stebbins Reveals Details of Bureau of Prisons Meeting, Focus on Preparing for Prison Opening

Michael Miller For The Prairie Advocate News

Terry Behn, owner of Behn’s Concrete and Masonry in Sabula, IA, puts the finishing touches on 1/2 of the concrete slab poured Thursday morning, April 29, for the Savanna Skateboard Park. The other half was expected to be poured Tuesday, May 4. (PA photo/Tom Kocal)

SAVANNA – Mayor Larry Stebbins reported some interesting details revealed at a recent meeting with representatives of the federal government regarding the sale of the Thomson Correctional Center, at the Savanna City Council’s April 27th, 2010 meeting.

The meeting was attended by Council members Jack Fosdick, Lois Hunsaker, Jeff Griswold, Bill Grummitt, Peg Haffey, Rosalie Hansen, Merle Long and Bill Robinson. Also in attendance were Mayor Larry Stebbins, City Clerk Paul Hartman, City Attorney Phil Jensen, Comptroller/Treasurer Sheryl Sipe, Police Chief Michael Moon, Fire Chief Shawn Picolotti, and Superintendent of Public Works John Lindeman, along with a small audience.

Stebbins said he attended a meeting with Michael Malley, the regional director Federal Bureau of Prisons, and Richard Cohn, Chief Capacity Planning and Site Selection Branch. He said that one of Malley’s staff informed him of ways that businesses could be affected by the prison’s opening, and that TCEDA and Blackhawk Area Development Corporation, and Chamber of Commerce and other economic leaders will be holding open meetings for business owners about the impact of the impending and expected opening.

Some of the statistics Stebbins shared included that 20 percent of staff at a federal prison rent housing, with the balance seeking three or more bedroom homes. He said that 58 percent want to live within thirty minutes of work. He added that a key consideration for many workers looking to relocate would be quality child care facilities. He said that Mr. Cohn said “in October the federal government will purchase the Thomson prison.” Through 2011, the federal government plans on having 595 new employees, with a total future staff of 904. Stebbins emphasized the need to promote Savanna and to this end he said that people are working on this goal.

Merle Long delivered the Building and Public Property Committee report, which was highlighted by a presentation from Dennis Astley of Jo-Carroll Energy. Astely told the Council that Jo-Carroll is requesting two easements in order to do some necessary work on the City’s electrical infrastructure, including standardizing the three different voltages currently in use by the City to one 13,800 volt standard. These easements would be at the 700 block of North Fourth Street easterly to Fifth Street and at the east end of Bowen Street starting at the Route 84 intersection and proceeding west.

Though the Council could not take immediate action on this item, the committee agreed to approve the easements, with Mayor Stebbins advising to proceed with legal preparations, including looking into what corresponding property might be owned by the railroad.

The Council heard from Hartman, who delivered the Special Events Committee meeting notes. He told the Council that the committee had decided that the parade celebrating the ten year anniversary of the closing of the Savanna Army Depot would not require insurance, nor will it require trash removal or toilet/hand washing facilities. Jensen suggested getting a “special events rider” for such events, and Stebbins instructed Sipe to contact the insurance company for details on this matter.

Warrant 12A, final bills for the year 2009-2010, in the amount of $16,284.75, was unanimously approved.

Stebbins requested Council approval of his appointment of Roger Husband to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a five year term, ending on 5/22/15. This request met with unanimous approval.

Lindeman spoke on the awarding of bids for the Fourth Street Wall project. He told the Council that five bids were received and that this project is being partially funded by the emergency repair program with Illinois Department of Transportation funds. His recommendation was that M and M Concrete of Stockton, Illinois was the most responsible bidder in the amount of $136,999.00 which was approximately $78,402.00 below the engineer’s estimate. This work would cover both the 37 foot section of wall that is failing and the remainder of the area, south of where the work ended last year.

The Council approved Ordinance #1943, which will repeal Title 1, Chapter 25, entitled Freedom of Information Act, and replace it with a new ordinance. Robinson motioned to read this by title only and approve, and the ordinance passed thusly, by a unanimous vote.

Next up on the agenda was Ordinance #1944, the annual budget for 2010/2011. Fosdick motioned to approve this by title and number only and the Council unanimously agreed.

Corrections on the current 2009/2010 annual budget were addressed under new business, with Ordinance #1945 being passed unanimously after a motion to waive the second reading and pass by title and number only.

After a motion by Hunsaker to read by title only, Resolution #1003 regarding the temporary road closure for the military (Savanna Army Depot ten year closing anniversary) parade passed unanimously, as was an ordinance (#1946) establishing an enterprise zone for Rock River Lumber and Grain in Morrison, Illinois.

Mayor Stebbins read aloud a proclamation for the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, establishing April 24th as GFWC Federation Day in Savanna, Illinois, and a restaurant license for the the Great River Outreach was waived by a unanimous vote of the Council.

Citizen concerns

Penny Gharst addressed the Council with many concerns, chief among them the purchase of 333 Chicago Avenue as a new City Building and Police Department for the City. Gharst said she thinks it is “ridiculous to spend this amount of money on a City office”. She went on to express her dissatisfaction with the boat ramp project, saying that putting in a ramp encourages people to go to Sabula and Bellevue to spend their money but not in Savanna. She said the Council “has to think about treating our businesses a little bit better”, complaining that Rockford takes care of the graffiti for businesses owners and doesn’t fine them, and that garbage pickup should include businesses.

After being stopped by Stebbins after her three minutes were up, Gharst inquired what recourse citizens had to remove officials from office if they were spending money irresponsibly, to which Stebbins replied, “vote in the next election”. Jensen said there was some mechanism for recall but he wasn’t sure what it was.

Jeannine Mills also spoke on the subject of 333 Chicago Avenue, echoing Gharst’s reservations. Mills said that while she was initially for the purchase, she changed her mind in light of the possible cost of such a project. Fosdick replied, saying that “right now, those are estimated costs. We don’t know what the cost is going to be until we get the bids out and we get them back. Then we can start dealing with real numbers. Right now it’s just a lot of guesswork, there’s no numbers to look at . . . if the thing comes back at two million dollars, obviously we’re going to have to take a look at a different way. If it all comes back at half the price it was estimated, then we’re doing pretty good. We don’t know what the numbers are, there’s no way of knowing till we go out for bids, we see how hungry the contractors are and then we can make a decision then on the prices we get in.”

Griswold joined the discussion, saying, “Unfortunately we will have spent like thirty to forty thousand dollars to determine what we were going to save, on the bid.”

Grummitt spoke about the high cost of prevailing wages, saying “the guy that pushes the broom gets $52.00 an hour.”

In final comments, Lindeman announced his plans to work on the sidewalks and has budgeted quite a bit of money for this work but said he wanted to be sure to “do it right this time”, trying to get rid of all the trip hazards and work on the street trees. He assured the public they would be seeing improvements on the Main street this year.

Moon commented that to his knowledge, no water, sewer or refuse money will be used on the new building. He said he had just been to Hazel Green (pop. approximately 1,000) and they are building a new city hall/police station, the cost of which is just under $800,000.00. He also said he had gone to a letter writer with issues about discrepancies between what he said and what had been put in the paper.

Sipe reiterated that while there was no question and answer session at the new building open house, individually people’s questions were answered. She said people may have missed that wording in the notices.

Griswold and Moon had a brief exchange over funding, with Griswold saying that while funds for the new building may not have come from water, streets and sewer, they did come from “somewhere”, and “those funds could have been pushed into those other funds to give us more money.” Moon replied that “$100,000.00 came from Police Protection, those funds are used for squad cars.” and Griswold asked if that meant he’d lose the squad car this year if that was in the budget. Moon said “I may have to, I may not have enough money because I put another $20,000 in the building fund . . . if I don’t have sufficient funds, I can’t buy it.”

Fosdick announced that the skateboard park is now under construction, with half of the rebar work done. Shortly thereafter, the meeting concluded.