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Steeleville Village Board hears safety tax presentation

Posted March 06, 2017 10:00 pm

Pete Spitler Editor@heraldtrib.com

With the April 4 consolidated election approaching, the county commissioners have pledged to reach out to the local municipalities to distribute information on the proposed public safety tax.

That happened Monday, as Commissioner Marc Kiehna spoke to the Steeleville Village Board about the referendum.

"Marc Kiehna ended up coming to the meeting and speaking about the safety tax proposal," said Steeleville Mayor Bob Sutton. "I do know all about it and the distribution of the funds, which, quite honestly, we had some input into that."

Steeleville TIF administrator and assistant fire chief Mike Armstrong met with the commissioners on Feb. 24 and proposed an alteration to the distribution formula.

"During the meetings over there, we had suggested some things to them concerning how it would be distributed," said Sutton, referring to a series of meetings the commissioners held at the Randolph County Courthouse to gather input from municipal, police, fire and union officials. "They are to do it in a resolution (today) and that will be where this comes out, which is in resolution form."

Under Armstrong's suggestion, for the first $2 million in sales tax revenue, the county would receive 75 percent of it and the municipalities get 25 percent. Once $2 million has been met, the percentages would flip, resulting in a greater distribution to the local agencies for any additional funds.

"With the way they are talking about the distribution, I think we can definitely support it," Sutton said. "I think it can definitely help our bottom line as far as police and fire."

Chester, Sparta and Red Bud would benefit the most under the proposal, which is currently basing distribution of the roughly $1.1 million in sales tax revenue on the 2010 population census. Chester could bring in $119,150 in the first distribution, a number that increases to $276,389.91 once the percentages flip.

Steeleville would be the fourth-highest at $51,878 for the first $500,000, a number that balloons to $120,313.38 for the remaining $659,580 of the funds.

Sutton was asked what the village board's thoughts were on the proposal.

"There's no recommendation that came out of the board," he said. "I personally support it and the county commissioners can't come out and support it because it is their referendum."

Overall, Sutton said he feels the referendum can aid the village's police and fire agencies with maintaining, and possibly improving, levels of public safety.

"We want to help protect our citizens as much as we can and we've been able to do it," he said. "This got started a long time ago and we just want to protect our citizens as much as possible."

In other news, the board approved a motion to increase grave opening fees and change the size of foundations at Paradise Cemetery.

"We reduced the size the foundations have to be," Sutton said. "We went back to an original size because of the pin markers to mark where the gravesites are.

"When we went side-to-side to mark a gravesite, we were losing the pins."

The board approved grave opening fees to be increased to $350 (from $250), and mausoleum fees were increased to $900 (from $600).

Sutton noted the motion was to help reduce some of the congestion of cemetery documents.

"We had two or three different documents and what we did is to condense everything to make sure we had one document to give all the monument makers," Sutton said. "We reviewed everything at the cemetery as far as monuments and grave openings.

"It's just that review you have to do once in awhile."

ROUNDUP

<ul>

<li>Sutton said work on the new firehouse remains ahead of schedule and most of the upstairs flooring has been installed. He did not have an exact date when the project would be completed.</li>

<li> Sutton noted he has not heard anything new from the Illinois Department of Transportation on the resurfacing project for West Broadway Street from Locust Street to just east of the Steeleville T. The project is supposed to be let out for bid this month.</li>

<li> The board approved a $300 donation to the Steeleville Chamber of Commerce's annual dinner.</li>

<li> The board will be working on "freshening up" the village hall entrance, with new ceilings and paint in the hallways and replacements of floor tile.</li>

<li> First National Bank of Steeleville will have a shred day on April 29 that will be paper-only, no clamps or paper clips allowed.</li>

<li> The community-wide yard sale has been scheduled for May 6.</li>

<li> The board tabled a motion to purchase a lawn mower. That motion is anticipated to be discussed at the board's April meeting.</li>

</ul>

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