Du Quoin ready to eliminate two water positions

A week after the Du Quoin City Council reinstated water department employee Drew Porter who was wrongly fired in July 2013, the same council Monday night is expected to eliminate both Porter's job and the job of the man who replaced him--Cody Greenwood.

It gets down to two layoffs in a water department budget that is woefully out of balance.

"We are trying to do what we can," said water commissioner Yvonne Morris, in confirming that the matter will be taken into executive session on Monday.

The newspaper understands the two men have been told of the layoffs, expected to be effective the end of the month.

She could not comment any further because of any legal and union issues that may surround the layoffs.

And, at this writing, the city has not determined how it will cover the job of reading water meters that the two men had.

Two weeks ago, Mayor Rex Duncan said it was his hope that the city could keep Greenwood on the payroll even after Porter returned to work. Duncan said Greenwood had become an asset to the city's workforce and he would hate to lose him.

The work force reduction comes two weeks after the Du Quoin City Council invoked an 18 percent water rate increase to help cover an annual $414,000 payment toward retiring the debt on the city's $7 million waste water treatment plant from years ago. There is another $1.1 million in debt on Main Street and Washington Street water line replacement projects two years ago.

And, Du Quoin is certain to be faced with a hefty cash settlement to Porter to cover the lost income during the 17 months after he was wrongfully terminated.

The questions are starting to go deeper, including the fact that Mayor John Rednour and the council put in place the revenue means to retire the bond indebtedness on the sewer plant at the time the plant was completed.

It must be said that no one has been dishonest or failed in their assessments of the city's finances. Yet, it should be said that the city's water expenses have exponentially outgrown the ability to pay for them over the last three years and the council is frantically facing the issue head-on. The city's general fund ably takes care of the city's budgeted obligations, but it can no longer be tapped to cover the water department's budget problems.