Auditor Makes 4 Recommendations For the City of Pinckneyville
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Harold Emling of Emling and Hoffman offered four recommendations as part of the city's annual audit for the year ending April 30, 2010 at Monday's meeting of the Pinckneyville City Council.
Emling said that the various reconciliations are done by Fran Thomas, Rick Reese and Pat Kattenbraker. He would like to see the three of them get together on a monthly basis to compare their work and catch potential errors.
The other three recommendations were to pay all bills from the Accounts Payable account, to receive board approval before opening any bank accounts and to put together a policy on outstanding checks.
Finance Commissioner Augie Kellerman asked if the checks could be printed with a notice that they become void after 90 days. Reese said that the checks are printed at City Hall and that would depend upon the computer system.
Mayor Joe Holder asked Kellerman, Reese and Thomas to work on that together.
Emling said the financial outlook for the city was much improved from previous years. Pinckneyville had total assets of $20 million and liabilities of just over $6 million.
He added that the amount the prison was underbilled from the audited fiscal year was $572,000. Additional underbilling took place in the fiscal year that ended April 30, 2009. Those funds will not be recorded until they are received.
In other business, the board:
passed an ordinance approving a right-of-way license agreement with Delta Communications, LLC for the installation of fiber optic cable as part of a regional program bringing high-speed internet to southern Illinois. David Farthing of Brown & Roberts Engineering spoke to the council on behalf of Clearwave Communications, which received a Federal/State Grant for $45 million to install 740 miles of fiber optic cable between East St. Louis and Cairo. Along the way, cable will be run to 230 anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals, libraries and law enforcement centers in 23 counties. Farthing said the institutions will have the option of receiving high-speed internet service at a discount rate from Clearwave once the project is completed in February 2013. Clearwave does not provide residential service. Residential Providers may purchase use of the cable from Clearwave to provide service to their customers in the future. The City Council asked Farthing to find out why the Murphy Wall Rend Lake Campus and St. Bruno Catholic School were not listed as anchor institutions. Mayor Holder also asked what the pipe will be buried in and what the thickness of the material will be.
placed on file for public inspection an agreement with H.M.&G Inc. to complete plans and a permit application to upgrade the West Lake Road water main. A proposed development in the area brought to light the inadequacies of the current water lines. The Illinois EPA requires water lines to be no smaller than four inches. Anything under four inches is considered a service line and should serve only one dwelling. Brian Buccheit of H.M.&G said the homes in the area are sharing one-, two- and three-inch lines.
approved a contract with Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management for insurance. Changing from Illinois Municipal League Risk Management to Gallagher will save $15,185.
agreed to provide $500 for a new banner for the fourth annual automotive swap meet to be held Feb. 13 in Pinckneyville. The banner will be purchased with Hotel/Motel tax funds.