Pinckneyville Approves Veterans Memorial

Commissioner David Stone was authorized to spend up to $6,000 to create a veterans' memorial in the City Park.

Stone said the memorial will be designed by Tyler Wildermuth of Troop #348 in Steeleville. Wildermuth, who attends Pinckneyville High School, wants to become an Eagle Scout and hopes to use the memorial as his community service project.

Young men leave the Boy Scouts when they turn 18 and Wildermuth will be 18 on Dec. 20, putting a rush on the project. He said the design work for the memorial would count towards his Eagle Scout project as long as it's completed by Dec. 20. The actual completion of the memorial can come after that.

Wildermuth would recruit volunteers to complete the parts of the project that don't require a contractor.

Stone said the memorial would include a stone monument, flag pole and flag, lighting, pavers, landscaping and a fence. He is considering placing it near the airplane in the park.

The memorial would honor all veterans killed in action, probably beginning with World War I. Stone said he would involve the American Legion to get the names of the soldiers.

Commissioner Kevin Hicks said an American Legion member had expressed displeasure with the plaque honoring a veteran who was killed in Vietnam which was placed on the pavilion in the park. Hicks said the Legion member said the only memorial the city needs is the one at the Courthouse which honors all veterans.

Both Mayor August Kellerman and Commissioner Leonard Heisner said that is not the opinion of the American Legion as a whole.

Stone said he thought the plaque might be removed once the new memorial goes up in the park.

In other business, the council:

•accepted the audit for the fiscal year ending April 30, 2012. Harold Emling of Emling and Hoffman gave the audit the standard clean opinion. Recommendations included quicker reconciliation of bank statements and investigating checks which have been outstanding for a year. Emling also mentioned that bank accounts must be approved by the council before they are used. He said his office is working with the city to correct any issues. The audit found the city had $16 million in net assets and "a lot of debt," but was paying the principle and interest on time for all loans and bonds.

•heard from Mayor Kellerman that Select Energy Partners reports that over 94 percent of eligible residential and commercial customers are participating in electric aggregation. The average savings, for all customers including commercial was estimated at 12 percent. The bulk of the customers are residential and their savings is expected to be 20 percent.

•proclaimed Oct. 7 - 13 "Fire Prevention Week" in Pinckneyville. The theme for this year is "Have Two Ways Out."