Author: joeward7

Mary Hansen
The State Journal-Register

Discussion of an engineering contract to redesign Springfield’s proposed second lake turned to questions about what information is available from an ongoing environmental study on a backup water supply. City Water, Light and Power is completing the study so it can obtain a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin questioned utility officials about when the council could review documents that outline the need for Hunter Lake and provide an analysis of the alternatives.

“There’s a lot of division of opinion about this, so we want

The State Journal-Register
Don Hanrahan

At the April 11 Committee of the Whole meeting of the Springfield City Council, CWLP’s consultant, Bill Elzinga of Amec Foster Wheeler, updated the council on Hunter Lake studies. The upshot is this: The city spent over $500,000 for Amec’s Phase 1 and 2 scoping and alternatives studies, only to learn that the design for Hunter Lake is “fundamentally flawed.”

Opponents of this project have been explaining that to the city for years — for free!

Now, we are told, they need to

Tim Landis
The State Journal-Register

***

RULER FOODS, a discount brand of the Kroger Co., still had as of last month an option to purchase the former Esquire Theatre property at MacArthur Boulevard and South Grand Avenue, according to Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin.

It has been nearly two years since the company initially expressed an interest in the site. Free Press Coffee House has begun filing renovation permits for the former service station-convenience store on the corner. Free Press already is open on Toronto Road.

***

The State Journal-Register

Mary Hansen
The State Journal-Register

Springfield residents will have the opportunity to ask questions and hear updates about the city’s water resources at a public meeting Wednesday. Mayor Jim Langfelder and City Water, Light and Power officials plan to briefly discuss utility and city initiatives and respond to questions from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Lake Beach House on Long Bay Drive.

The update will include comments on a backup water supply for Springfield, shoreline-stabilization efforts and watershed-protection programs for Lake Springfield, according to

Mary Hansen
The State Journal-Register

City Water, Light and Power is downsizing plans for a second lake. Past designs put Hunter Lake’s capacity at about 21 million gallons per day, while an updated design is likely to be around 12 million gallons, CWLP’s water division manager Ted Meckes said Tuesday.

The reduced size provides room to build sediment basins and implement other strategies to prevent soil erosion and fertilizer runoff from seeping into the lake.

The updated design is part of an environmental study that the city needs to

Mary Hansen
The State Journal-Register

After passing a spending plan for the fiscal year that began March 1 that didn’t include money for new equipment, the Springfield City Council will consider using funds set aside for street and sidewalk maintenance to pay for public works vehicles. The plan is to funnel $500,000 a year for the next 10 years from maintenance funds to purchase equipment for the city’s tree-removal, snow-plowing and street-repair efforts.

The council will also weigh a proposal allowing aldermen to use money from the infrastructure fund for

Mary Hansen
The State Journal-Register

The city of Springfield is taking applications for an accountant, records managers and engineers, according to the human resources’ website. But which additional positions the city fills in the coming months is uncertain as aldermen float ideas about wage and hiring freezes in light of a continuing bleak fiscal outlook.

Mayor Jim Langfelder said last week that he is not in favor of a halt in hiring and that the timing of a freeze is troublesome given the expected number

Mary Hansen
The State Journal-Register

Preliminary plans are in the works for a natural-gas power plant in Pawnee that could affect City Water, Light and Power, Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder informed the city council Tuesday night.

Aldermen may have to weigh in on the project as the company seeking to build the plant, EmberClear Corp., is looking for the city and Sangamon County to expand their joint enterprise zone, according to the mayor. The zone offers tax breaks for companies that promise to retain or expand jobs in the area.

Competition with a natural-gas plant in wholesale electricity

Mary Hansen
The State Journal-Register

An appellate court ruled in favor of the city of Springfield Friday in a lawsuit over the elimination of a retirement perk that allows city employees to cash in unused vacation time early, boosting their retirement payments.

A group of unions representing municipal employees sued over the change, claiming losing the benefit violates the Illinois Constitution’s provision that promised retirement benefits cannot be diminished.

The Springfield City Council voted in 2015 to

Some American disasters come as bolts from the blue — the stock market crash of October 1929, Pearl Harbor, the designated hitter, 9/11. Others are predictable because they arise from arithmetic that is neither hidden nor arcane. Now comes the tsunami of pension problems that will wash over many cities and states.

Dallas has the fastest-growing economy of America’s 13 largest cities but in spite of its glistening commercial towers it represents the skull beneath the skin of American prosperity. According to its mayor, the city is “walking into the fan blades” of pension promises: The fund for retired police and firefighters is $5 billion underfunded