Village of Cutler Finds a Way...

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Melvin Carrothers has been the village clerk of Cutler for the past 40 years and says he is proud of his community and proud of what the village board has been able to do in recent years.

"Sometimes we feel like we are left out," says Carrothers, whose interest in the the work of the village board was an extension of a town improvement association he was part of decades ago.

"We have two of the most beautiful welcome signs in the state of Illinois that were completed in 2009," he said. The signs were largely gifted at a cost of $12,000 each.

"We have put a new roof on the community center, have new doors and have painted everything," he said.

"We have two new 100 KV emergency generators and the library has two new computers," he added.

Carrothers said the village board constructed a new street called "Railroad Street" at a cost of $300,000.

Carrothers, now 73, was an electrician in the coal mines for many years.

"I told myself that I need to be involved in the community and that is why we got the town improvement association going," he said.

Carrothers said the town tried to support its own police department, but has since entered into an agreement with the sheriff's department which "is working out great."

He said work began in 1939 and continued into 1940 to install the first deep wells in the community.

"It took over 200 people to get the first water into Cutler," he said. Since that time the village has been able to dramatically improve water service to the community.

For decades, the Village of Cutler was surrounded by the mining operations of Arch of Illinois, Amax Coal Co. and Consolidation Coal Co. It was the center of mining activity in the county.

"Still is," said Carrothers with the growth of Knight Hawk Coal Co. in the area. A new ArchCoal operation is promised in northern Perry County sometime in 2012.

Carrothers is asking townspeople and the board to stay the course in continuing the work for the betterment of the town as 2011 begins.