CLINTON—A resolution necessary to seek bids for the Jericho-Hillcrest road construction crashed when two City Council commissioners and Mayor Ed Wollet voted against placing it on file.

Commissioners Jerry Milton and John Wise also voted against the resolution. Voting for the resolution was accounts and finances Commissioner Tom Edmunds and streets and pubic improvements Bryan Hickman, who brought forth the project.

Wollet and Milton both said discussion at the last Council meeting put the figure at about $400,000, but at Monday’s meeting, the figure had risen to $410,000.

The vote effectively killed the project, apparently for the rest of the year, said Hickman, clearly unhappy after the Council meeting. “It’ll have to come back next year,” Hickman said. “To me cost is a pretty lame excuse,” he said. “I would suggest the people on Jericho wouldn’t think it should be. Quality of service should be the issue.”

Hickman lives at 71 Hillcrest Drive, and some have questioned the need for road improvements there when there are other streets in the city that need repair and reconstruction.

“We need it,” said Milton, but said “we should put our money on some other roads that need repair.”

The money comes from the state in the form of motor-fuel tax. Even if spent, the fund still would have $200,000 in reserves.

Asked if the cost wouldn’t just continue to rise, Milton noted, sometimes costs do go down, notably oil.

Wollet also said he objected because the potential exists for the cost to rise yet another $20,500 of an Illinois Department of Transportation rule included in the documentation that provides a 5 percent cushion.

The council did approve the emergency repair, with materials not to exceed $4,000, the collapse of some 300 feet of drainage tile at a storm sewer at Cedarside.



Reappointments

The Council approved several reappointments, including:

Carolyn Peters and Betty Ann “B.A” Nelson to the Dr. John Warner Hospital board of directors, and made a new appointment of Julie North, a transportation director at Illinois State University, and who recently returned to Clinton. She has lots of experience at the hospital, having spent much of her growing up years accompanying her mother who worked there.

Also reappointed to the Zoning Board of Appeals were Mike Mannix and Phil Vincent.



In unfinished business, the Council



• approved a bid for $3,275 for asbestos removal at the Roque Club building at West Main and Illini Drive in preparation to raze the building;



• a bid for $4,428 to Triple K Konstruction and to Roger Nesteby for $4,935 for a water plant door;



• a request for reimbursement to Jeff Hammer, for façade improvement at 220 N. Center St. The city to pay half of $38,395;



• a request for reimbursement to Moss & Moss, 122 Warner Court, the city to pay half of $84,955.



In new business, the council placed on file



• An engineering agreement for $31,500 for engineering advance work for repair/reconstruction of Washington Street Between Madison and Alexander, with Farnsworth Group.