Software Snafu Costs Pinckneyville $130,000

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville Mayor Joe Holder Monday announced that the city under-billed six industrial customers for non-gas charges because a multiplier was not transferred into the new billing software that was installed in the fall of 2007.

According to BHMG Engineers, the approximate total of the unbilled charges is $129,962.

The six industrial customers include the Pinckneyville Correctional Center ($95,160), Cooper Industries ($18,326), Perry County Sheriff ($6,269), Consolidated Grain and Barge ($5,998), Pinckneyville Community High School ($2,640) and Pinckneyville Community Hospital ($1,569).

Holder brought up the issue for discussion. No action was taken.

In a separate issue, the city discovered the prison had been under-billed by $650,000 due to an April 10, 2008 bookkeeping error that was not corrected for the following 15 months.

Pinckneyville is working with the state to receive payment for that underbilling.

In other business, the council:

discussed financing for the $339,995 fire truck which the council agreed to purchase from Macs Fire and Safety in May. Mayor Holder had received loan proposals from five different financial institutions. First National Bank in Pinckneyville offered rates of 3.95 percent for five years, 4.45 percent for seven years and 4.85 percent for 10 years. Murphy-Wall State Bank and T rust Company offered rates of 3.9 percent for five years, 4.4 percent for seven years and 5.3 percent for 10 years. Firstbankers.net offered rates of 3.51 percent for five years, 4 percent for seven years and 4.5 percent for 10 years. USDA Rural Development would finance the purchase at 4.5 percent for up to 15 years. California First National Bank would finance the purchase for five years at an interest rate between 2.72 and 2.9 percent, depending upon the billing cycle.

approved the TIF audit for the year ending April 30, 2010. The TIF fund had total expenses of $462,473. The largest of which was a $263,027 payment to the Perry County Treasurer for redevelopment-property assembly costs. The TUMS building was sold in December 2009. The remaining $199,446 in expenses included $64,427 in TIF rebates and a lot of upkeep on the former TUMS building. In the current fiscal year, the city paid half of the property tax costs directly to the purchaser for the 2009 payable 2010 taxes. However, the tax bill was not paid.

accepted the resignation of David Peradotto from the Sewer Plant. The board authorized Commissioner David Stone to bid the job to fill the vacancy left by Peradotto as a non-supervisory position at a salary of $22 per hour.

passed a resolution to amend a 2010 resolution committing $45,000 in revolving loan funds to Loos Excavating for the purchase of equipment. The amendment changes the term of the loan from 15 months to 10 years.