October 22, 2001
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City council ignored constiuents


About
Town


Dave Uphoff



The public outcry over putting the new well in the city's Westside Park fell on deaf ears at last Monday night's city council meeeting. In spite of a petition signed by over 100 people and a large crowd in attendance the city council voted to keep the well in the park.

At the very beginning of the meeting when Doug Melton of Farnsworth & Wylie was giving his presentation on the well project, Mayor Spencer remarked that the decision on the well had already been made. This set the tone for the rest of the session.

I am willing to accept defeat in my efforts to keep the well out of the park. However, I feel that the Mayor Mark Spencer was rude and downright belligerent in his efforts to make sure that the well stayed in the park. When alderman Dean Barth attempted to make a motion that the vote to put the well in the park be rescinded, Mayor Spencer called him out of order. Barth had every right to make that motion. Spencer then asked Barth to make a motion that he (Spencer) was incorrect in calling Barth out of order. It seemed to me like this was an attempt on Spencer's part to obfuscate the issue. In any case, I feel that Mayor Spencer owes alderman Barth an apology for his rude behavior.

Eventually, alderman Sherry Stalter made a motion to rescind the prior vote which the council then approved. The audience breathed a sign of relief. Then to everyone's amazement she made a motion to move the well from the southwest side of the park to the northwest side of the park. Everyone on the council voted in favor of the motion except for alderman Barth.

Things fell into place too fast and there was very little discussion. It almost appeared to me that some council members and the mayor had made up their minds what was going to transpire at the meeting before they walked in the door.

I guess it is not surprising that the council remained steadfast in their conviction to put the well in the park. Once council decisions are made public it seems rare that they change their position. Eight years ago the city council and the mayor were sympathetic to the landfill issue facing Minonk. In my opinion, had they not been voted out of office they would have allowed the landfill to come to Section Six in Minonk.

I also feel that the Farnsworth Group was irresponsible in recommending the city park as a well site in the first place. Many people feel that the well would be too close to the other wells. Obviously, Farnsworth being an engineering firm did not take into account aesthetics in their recommendation.

The fallout from the well issue is great. The committee to develop a pavilion to replace the bandstand in the park is basically dissolved. At last week's meeting, most members didn't show up including aldermen Stalter and Fink. I did not show up because I have decided to withhold any funds that the original bandstand committee has accumulated until we have a better feel for the impact of the well on the Westside Park.

The other fallout is the dismay many people have with the council's decision. Many have expressed to me that it was arrogant of the council to rush this decision through without adequate discussion and without eliciting feedback from the residents. Unfortunately, most citizens will not express their opinion to their councilman. I know of only one person who advocated putting the well in the park and that person happened to live next to one of the other proposed sites. Evidently, numbers mean nothing.

So where do we go from here? A good start is to plan for the future. If there is a plan, it is not apparent to me or to the public. The city must decide what it wants to be. A retail community, a manufacturing community, a residential community, all or none of the above? Personally, I have always felt that Minonk's future lies in its potential as a place of residence for retirees and for communters to Peorial, Bloomington, Pontiac, etc.

With our new city administrator Trent Smith, hopefully we can address plans for the future. We need to keep a competent city administrator to not only help the council plan for the future but also to make sure that the plans are carried out. I recommend a plan that would encourage residential development. If people move to Minonk, retail businesses will follow.

The council needs to avoid having to react to situtations or wait for Farnsworth & Wylie to come to the council with a project. It must be proactive. Seven years ago I approached the city zoning board with development plans for some land which I own in the south edge of the city. The zoning board heard my plans and never got back to me. I decided then that if the city doesn't care about my development then why should I care. Now it will become a park instead. A city administrator should never let something like that happen. If the city had a residential plan in place, perhaps the alternative well site on West Fourth Street that would open up a cornfield for development may have looked like the ideal choice for the new well.

To reply to this editorial please send your comments to duphoff@minonktalk.com. Only letters with a valid signed name will be published in the email section.