Pinckneyville Votes to Liquidate TUMS
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ The City Council placed on file for public inspection a contract with Millner and Associates, an auction firm from Union, Mo., to liquidate the TUMS building and contents.
Mayor Joe Holder said the building will be offered for sale first, allowing the purchaser to have first pick of the equipment inside, as well. The city can place a minimum bid price on the building and set some stipulations on the appearance and use of the building before selling it.
"That building has cost us close to half a million dollars," Finance Commissioner Auggie Kellerman said. "The sooner we unload it, the better off the city will be."
Commissioner Dave Stone added that the time has come to try a new approach with the TUMS building. Every industry in the area that could possibly use the building has seen it, but none of them have been willing to make a commitment.
Millner and Associates will inventory the contents of the building and put together a catalog for the auction. Bidders may participate in person or through a simultaneous online auction.
The liquidation firm has 30,000 clients in more than 100 countries.
Millner charges a 13 percent buyer's premium as opposed to the 10 percent charged by Schneider and Associates, the other firm to bid the project. However, Schneider and Associates charges up-front fees of $62,000 to $75,000 to produce the catalog. Scheider and Associates also does not guarantee the proceeds of the sale. Buyers would pay the city directly.
Millner and Associates will accept payment from buyers, over see the removal of the equipment and then cut a check to the city.
The auction is expected to take place in June.
In other business, the council:
Asked Mayor Holder to continue seeking alternate bids for health insurance coverage. The city is currently partially self-insured and, based on the figures for the first 10 months of the fiscal year, expects to pay almost $630,000 for health care costs this year. The current contract with BAS ends June 1. Administrative fees for BAS are expected to increase eight percent. Holder said he has been dealing with Ben Crowder who will put together a proposal for the city based on the same coverage at different premium and deductible levels. The Mayor said Crowder should be able to offer a presentation at the next meeting. He hopes the city will save about $100,000 per year, but will not have concrete figures until Crowder is able to complete a survey of the employees. The goal is mainly to stabilize payments for health care. Costs fluctuate from a few thousand a month to nearly $100,000. "Lurching from one crisis to the next is not working," Holder said. Regular monthly payments would be much easier to anticipate.
Passed the 2009-10 budget. The only changes were to include the budgets for the library and the airport. The library anticipates a deficit of $7,084, based on revenue of $55,700 and expenses of $62,784. The airport budget anticipates revenues and expenses of $20,052.
Awarded 2009 motor fuel tax program bids. Illini Asphalt had the lowest bids for bituminous materials at a total cost of $35,700 and sal coat aggregate at a total cost of $19,777. Barr Trucking was the low bidder on CA-06 surface material at a cost of $6,480. Beelman Ready Mix was the low bidder on concrete at $22,500. Street Commissioner Sam Fulk said that the bids came in below the engineering estimates.
Passed two resolutions guaranteeing loans to the Perry County Agricutural Society, as they do each year prior to the Perry County Fair. The first was for $40,000 for rehabilitation work from First National Bank in Pinckneyville. The second was for $42,000 for operating funds for the fair from Murphy Wall State Bank. The Ag Society receives reimbursement from the State then pays off the loans each year.