Author: joeward7

Brenden Moore
The State Journal-Register

ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology will soon go live on Springfield’s east side after the city council voted Tuesday to approve a three-year service agreement with the Newark, Ca.-based company.

The 7-3 vote came after the company agreed to provide the gunshot detection service for $643,750, a significantly-reduced rate from the original $838,750 price tag. Under the revised agreement, the city will pay $75,000 in the first year and $284,375 in both years

Brenden Moore
The State Journal-Register

The Springfield City Council voted Tuesday to appropriate more than $600,000 from the city’s fund balance to cover runaway fire department overtime costs.

Springfield Fire Chief Allan Reyne told council members that the overtime, which was accrued during the fiscal year that ended Feb. 28, mostly came as a result of higher-than-

Brenden Moore
The State Journal-Register

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, many believed ShotSpotter to be a slam dunk. But, passage of the agreement, which is up for debate at Tuesday’s Springfield City Council meeting, is less certain as council members weigh the merits of SpotSpotter technology with its cost.

Under the proposed three-year agreement, which was discussed by council members in committee last week, the city would pay ShotSpotter, Inc. $838,750 to use the technology — $286,250 this year and $276,250 each of the next two years.

The hefty price tag has some aldermen thinking twice about the investment. Though

Brenden Moore
The State Journal-Register

Keenly aware of the potential coronavirus-induced budget crunch facing the city, members of the Springfield City Council debated Tuesday whether the police department should move forward with its implementation of “ShotSpotter” technology.

Council members, discussing the measure at their Committee of the Whole meeting, weighed the merits of the gunshot detection technology with its cost — $838,750 over the course of a three-year agreement with ShotSpotter, Inc., which is the sole company that provides this service.

The technology — a series of acoustic sensors — would be able to pinpoint the origin of gunfire within a 25 meter radius and

Brenden Moore
The State Journal-Register

When members of the Springfield City Council debated Mayor Jim Langfelder’s $130.1 million fiscal year 2021 budget proposal in February, Ward 10 Ald. Ralph Hanauer was sure to remind his colleagues that the city’s healthy fund balance “can go very quick.”

Though the city was on relatively stable financial footing, Hanauer had recalled just a few years prior going through the budget line-by-line with Ward 9 Ald. Jim Donelan in an effort to bring it into balance.

“I don’t want us to look at this budget as being flush with money,” Hanauer said, pointing to growing pension costs and

Bruce Rushton
The Illinois Times

The pandemic and resultant shutdown of bars, restaurants and other businesses will cost the city of Springfield’s $130 million corporate fund between $6 million and $16 million, city budget director William McCarty figures. Or maybe something else entirely.

“It’s throwing darts,” says McCarty, who has produced estimates of budget hits predicated on the state’s stay-at-home order lasting as long as into mid-summer. The truth, he says, is that no one knows.

“I could come up with 20 or 30 scenarios,” he said. “The problem is,

Bruce Rushton
The Illinois Times

A City Water, Light and Power supervisor was suspended for three days last month for his role in the failure of a generator last November that has resulted in a repair bill estimated at $6 million.

Files obtained by Illinois Times under the state Freedom of Information Act show that Robert Archer, CWLP supervisor of generation, was punished for failing to recognize falling voltage

Steven Spearie
The State Journal-Register

Mayor Jim Langfelder hoped the start of bell ringing across the city Sunday to show thanks to health care workers and first responders would promote unity at a fractured time.

Bells from churches and carillons and from porches pealed for one minute at 7 p.m. Sunday. The practice will continue at the same time nightly until social distancing, put into practice as a precaution from spreading the coronavirus, is lifted.

Amy O’Connell said she has general anxiety for family

Bruce Rushton
The Illinois Times

Scofflaws who violate social distancing rules may be fined up to $500 under an emergency directive issued by Mayor Jim Langfelder. Langfelder telegraphed the move at Tuesday’s city council meeting, when he said that the corporation counsel’s office was working on a measure that would be announced today.

Under the measure, police can pursue criminal charges such as reckless conduct or issue tickets with fines not exceeding $500 to people who gather in groups of more than ten, in defiance of a statewide order, or who violate social distancing protocols that call for people to maintain at least six feet between each other. Families who reside at the same residence are exempt.

In an interview, Langfelder said that he expects to issue another

Brenden Moore
The State Journal-Register

Tuesday’s Springfield City Council was unlike any other previously held. Not only was there no audience, but the vast majority of city council members were not physically present in the chamber. Such is the new reality amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

But, unlike Chicago and other cities that have canceled council meetings, the business of Springfield went on without a hitch as the council held their first