Joe McMenamin for Ward 7Retired 12 year alderman on Springfield City Council 2011-2023
Dan Petrella
The State Journal Register
A St. Louis-based development company remains hopeful about its plan to purchase and renovate an apartment complex on Springfield’s west side despite failing to secure financing for the project from the Illinois Housing Development Authority the first time around.
Bywater Development Group last year sought the city’s support for its proposal to rehabilitate the Pine Woods Apartments, 1665 Seven Pines Road
Tim Landis
The State Journal Register
The Hy-Vee supermarket is on schedule to open on MacArthur Boulevard mid-spring. Much of the work at the former Kmart site moved indoors before the snow and bitter cold that hit the region in the past week, said Ruth Comer, spokeswoman for the Iowa-based chain.
She said a store director likely would be named soon,
Lauren Leone-Cross
State Journal Register
Bloomington’s longtime city attorney, Todd Greenburg, made his case at Monday’s city council committee of the whole meeting to be Springfield’s next corporation counsel. Aldermen are expected to vote on Mayor Mike Houston’s appointment during their Jan. 7 meeting. If appointed, Greenburg would start on the job Jan. 15.
Greenburg, a Danville native and 1977 graduate of Sangamon State University (now the University of Illinois Springfield), touted his nearly 30 years
Tim Landis
A study in the works at the Illinois Department of Transportation would take a look at changes needed to improve traffic flow for vehicles and pedestrians on the stretch between Wabash and South Grand avenues, including more and better sidewalks, road improvements, signal upgrades, intersection realignment, curbing and improved drainage.
“We want people to be able to walk from the neighborhoods to Hy-Vee or to Baskin-Robbins,
Dan Petrella
After years of wrangling, the Illinois General Assembly this month passed legislation aimed at fixing the state’s public pension systems, the worst funded in the nation, by reducing benefits for retirees. Blocks away from the Capitol at Springfield city hall, there is no sweeping plan in place to address the capital city’s own underfunded pension plans for retired police officers and firefighters, both of which have seen their unfunded liabilities balloon over the past 25 years during four mayoral administrations.
In the fiscal year that ended in 1988, the city’s police pensions were 74.9 percent funded and firefighter pensions were 91.5 percent funded, according to actuarial reports prepared for the city. Those funding levels fell last fiscal year to 54 percent for police and 45.6 percent for firefighters.
Dan Petrella
Springfield Mayor Mike Houston has filed an ordinance to settle a lawsuit over the destruction of police internal affairs records for a little more than $100,000. Calvin Christian III sued in May after the city destroyed documents he had requested under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.
Under the proposed settlement, which the city council is scheduled to vote on Tuesday
Dan Petrella
The State Journal-Register
A consultant’s report distributed to Springfield aldermen last week by email supports Mayor Mike Houston’s plan to solicit proposals from private companies to manage historic Oak Ridge Cemetery. Meanwhile, aldermen are questioning why they weren’t told sooner that a consultant had been hired. The report from Albany, N.Y.-based L.F. Sloane Consulting Group says “the principal issue is that expenses significantly exceed revenues.”
The Springfield City Council on Tuesday approved a new $15 million line of credit for the city’s water and power utility. Alderman voted 9-0 to allow City Water, Light and Power to establish a five-year revolving line of credit to replace its current borrowing ability that expires in September 2014. The utility has tapped the line of credit three times since it was established in 2009 to borrow a total of $11.9 million and still owes the bank $2.2 million.
Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin
Bruce Rushton
Springfield Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin has long warned that the city is headed toward financial disaster thanks to unsustainable pension obligations.
He’s usually been a voice in the wilderness, the only “no” vote on collective bargaining agreements that contain raises McMenamin says will exacerbate an already untenable pension situation. Last month he held a press conference to blast the city’s police pension board for calculating retirement benefits based on temporary pay hikes, despite a state order to stop. No other aldermen attended.
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 