Wood’s Morrison City Council Notes

May 29, 2012 the Morrison City Council met. All aldermen except Ron Kallemeyn were in attendance. All City Officials were present except City Administrator Wise.

Public Comment: Nick Alverado stated he thought the taverns should be able to be open on Sundays—be fair to those businesses, since other establishments in the city are allowed to serve alcohol on Sunday like the bowling alley and golf course.

Public Comment: Dianne Martin, representing Da-Bar - She agreed with Nick Alverado that the bars should be allowed to be open on Sunday. She runs a bar in Rochelle and only pays $800 for a liquor license and can be open on Sunday. In Morrison, without being open on Sundays, she pays almost double that amount.

Gary Tresenriter stated that the well drilling lost circulation again - how much extra will we be paying for all the issues we have encountered? The well house is coming along fine.

A representative from Fehr-Graham said they would like to seek a community grant for infrastructure need-inflow/infiltrating. The city would have to meet 8 points of criteria to qualify: 51% of residents need to meet low to moderate income status; 75% response of all residents of Morrison is needed. (more information to come)

Bills payable of $342,815.11 were paid. Mayor Drey stated the $91.48 to Menards that was billed to Legal Service was for supplies used to board up 705 W. Morris.

Ordinance #12-21 Authorizing Aggregation of Electrical Load and Adopting An Electric Aggregation Plan of Operation and Governance was approved. Be sure to watch your mail, so that if you want to opt out in writing….you can do so in a small window of time.

Ordinance #12-15 Sunday Liquor Sales-Taverns –The decision to be open/not open on Sundays is being held off with more discussion on fees is needed if taverns are allowed to be open on Sundays.

I have gotten calls from many people - more residents in favor of taverns being open than not. Some people in town want Morrison’s main street to be quiet, a family time, buy your beer somewhere else and go home to drink with your family. We do have KJs open on Sunday morning for breakfast only and they gather quite a church crowd. The pharmacy is open part of the day, I think till 1pm and the TrueValue Hardware Store is open till 3pm. These are all Main Street businesses. The bars will have to pay extra for liquor sales on Sundays if this ordinance passes. The fees are very high. A lady from Da-Bar was at the meeting and said they have to pay $1,500 in Morrison and they run a bar in Rochelle and the liquor license is only $800, quite a difference. If they can be open it would only be from noon until 10 pm as far as I know. Some people have nowhere else to go or family to be with, so going to the bar is their social life. Not all of them drink alcohol, they just don’t want to be alone. There are quite a few people who drive to Lyndon, Albany, etc., stop in and have a pop or a sandwich, a visit and go home. Some of them would just as soon stay in town, but there is nowhere to be. Some of them are the same people that don’t want the bars open in Morrison on Sunday, but go to other towns anyway. I guess we have to look at all the people, everyone has a different story. We have to be objective and listen to the residents and tavern owners and be fair. Call Your Alderman, City Hall, Mayor Drey, and Let Us Know Your Opinion.

Quote of the week - “Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.” 
― Eckhart Tolle

The next Morrison City Council Meeting is June 11, 2012 at 7:00 pm at the Whiteside County Board room. Bids for the sale of 101/103 will be opened at that meeting. Everyone is welcome. See you there!

A Morrison Taxpayer,
Marti Wood

Getting the ‘Facts’ Straight

No one can be 100% correct on all the many controversial issues that come along. I respectfully submit that [Publisher Tom] Kocal was led astray on the Terry Ingram vs. IL Dept. of Agriculture confrontation.

I believe I can speak with some degree of experience and past authority on found some 11 hives in the Ingram apiary that had already died with the disease indicates the presence of the inspection the subject. I served as an IL apiary inspector for 10 years, following the 50 years of record service by my father, William. We once operated 500 colonies of honeybees in Illinois. In retirement, I still maintain 75 hives.

If one reads the IL Apiary Inspection Act of 1935 it is easy to understand why it was enacted and the just manner it is implemented. I would like to make it clear that I also have been quite critical of unjust, unnecessary intrusion of big brother government in our personal lives. However, any citizen should understand the need for a governmental agency to help prevent the spread of an infectious, possibly deadly disease, whether it be among people, animals, or honeybees. Any and all livestock owners, as well as beekeepers, have a social obligation to keep their operations free of diseases that could spread to unsuspecting neighbors.

American foulbrood (AFB) is a serious, deadly bacterial disease among honeybees which was the primary impetus for establishing the apiary inspection division. Over these past years it has greatly helped to protect and promote beekeeping and honey production in our state. Rare is the beekeeper who does not see the value in the annual inspector visit to his apiary. A colony that is infected with AFB normally dies out within a year. The fact the inspector found some 11 hives in the Ingram apiary that had already died with the disease indicates the presence of the infection over quite a long period of time. Mr. Ingram’s insistence that the herbicide Round-Up was somehow responsible for his dying hives has no basis in any factual evidence. As a beekeeper for some 50 years and as an instructor of beekeeping classes, Mr. Ingram should be ashamed for not being able to recognize AFB and control it in his own apiary.

While AFB does not kill the adults in the colony, the bacterial spores do vegetate in and kill the larvae of the unborn when fed contaminated honey by the nurse worker bees. A colony infected in spring can be dead in fall. The honey stores that remain, which are not protected now, can and will be gathered by foraging workers from healthy hives in the same apiary or by bees from a neighboring beekeeper within a 2-3 mile radius. No one has the right to maintain a public nuisance, one which diminish or destroy a neighbor’s property.

The existence of the disease in Ingram’s colonies was unquestionable, having even been verified by the premier USDA lab in Beltsville, MD. Mr. Ingram was not convinced of the findings by the inspector on the initial inspection which took place on Oct. 23, 2011. But even this lab analysis failed to gain his cooperation. A second order to destroy the diseased hives, by the burning of remaining bees and comb containing diseased brood and honey, was again ignored. Continuing to defy the IL Dept. of Ag nearly 4 months, Mr. Ingram should not have been surprised to see that the dept. had to finally carry out the abatement itself, with a county deputy as well. Whether Ingram was home at the time is of no consequence. It probably was just as well.

My only suggestion to the inspection division would be that the Ingram apiary should have been immediately inspected after he inadvertently showed a diseased comb from one of his hives to the local inspector at a July beekeepers meeting. Also, it appears his apiary had not received an inspection the previous year or perhaps for several years. If only Mr. Ingram had cooperated with deputy inspector Kivikko on the initial visit and trusted her skilled and qualified analysis, he could have saved himself and the department a lot of needless hassle.

John Wallanches
Hanover, IL

Publisher’s Note: I respectfully disagree with Mr. Wallanches on a number of counts. I suggest that he, and any interested readers, re-read the story. that is at www.pacc-news.com along with listening to the hearing with the Dept. of Ag. The “comb” that Mr Wallanche refers to was a “frame” and not from Mr. Ingram’s apiary. Mr. Ingram questioned why the bees would not touch it, and requested that the frame be tested for chemicals.

Mr. Wallanches’s defense of the IL Dept. of Agriculture is expected. But him saying he has been “quite critical of unjust, unnecessary intrusion of big brother government in our personal lives” is nothing but words. If all of his accounts above are facts, so be it. He also seems to know a bit more about the wherabouts of the “evidence.” Ingram’s bees were NOT abated on the property as Mr. Wallanches suggests.

My only suggestion to the inspection division would be to give everyone due process, and hold the hearing FIRST, where evidence may be produced. They could have saved themselves and Mr. Ingram a lot of needless hassle.

Economic Solutions

As citizens of Illinois, we are currently facing several major economically based problems. These include an out of control state budget, proposed hikes in minimum wage and a rising cost of living, and underfunded pension and unemployment programs. I offer a few possible suggestions.

Budgets: In the short term the best approach is to prioritize spending. But in the long term each expenditure should have its own tax rate and/or with separate revenue sources. This insures that funding for each item can be raised or lowered without affecting other items in the general budget.

Minimum Wages: The minimum wage that a business is expected to pay its employees should be prorated by how much the company makes. This helps insure that Labor, Capital, and Management share both the success and responsibility of the venture.

Pensions and Unemployment: An alternative to the rising cost, instability, and insecurity of pensions and unemployment benefits might be in requiring accumulating severance accounts for each employee. The employer would regularly contribute funds into the account until termination, which would be available to the worker once employment has ceased.

Sincerely,
Wayne Heft
Savanna, IL

Capitol Report

By Jim Sacia, State Representative, 89th District

A group from Freeport recently met with me in my Springfield office to advocate for their pensions. One of the gentlemen commented, “You don’t seem near as unfriendly in person as you do in your column”. Yes, it took me back. I have little doubt that I do come across as a conservative but I do try to remain as non partisan and objective as I can and certainly friendly. No matter, people see us through their eyes and I understand perceptions differ.

Our own President, Barack Obama, with whom I worked when he was an Illinois State Senator, is perceived by many to be very different than he is. I marvel when channel surfing between MSNBC and Fox News that perceptions can be so totally different. The phrase “Spin Doctors” comes to mind when I can see a point of view so bastardized. And yes, I’m far more likely to believe Fox News.

We all have an obligation to be informed. The media has an obligation to be factual. Seldom do both occur.

Case in point on May 6th I watched President Obama state “Corporations aren’t people, people are people”. Did he mean the small business like mine is not made up of people? If he did, my employees would be offended.

I can’t think of any corporation in this country that didn’t start as a one or two person dream. (That is the American way, right?) Ford Motor Company and the innovative Henry Ford, Ray Kroc and his famous 15¢ hamburger way back when grew to McDonald’s Corporation. And of course, there is Sam Walton who back in the 1950’s with a used station wagon bought excess products from stores and grew it to Wal-Mart.

Who can forget John Deere who perfected a plow and grew his corporation to one of the largest farm equipment manufacturers in the world? Yes, I could go on. I never lose sight of the fact that each of them became great by hiring good people and capitalizing on their work and skills.

Whatever your perception is, corporations are people, so I disagree with my President if he thinks differently.

I, like you, watch the Wall Street protestors who feel that they have been mistreated. They need to adjust their perception.

Rather than sending your resume from your computer, start knocking on doors. You might find that Corporate America is a pretty good place. We all need to pull together and in the same direction. Those who wish to create class warfare and redistribute the wealth are making a huge mistake.

As always, you can reach me, Sally or Barb at 815-232-0774 or e-mail us at jimsacia@aeroinc.net. You can also visit my website at www.jimsacia.com. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you.