CITY MANAGER GIVES DETAILS ABOUT EXPANSION ANNOUNCEMENTS IN GREENVILLE
There were a number of big announcements at Tuesday night's Greenville City Council meeting. City Manager Dave Willey explained that Nevco is considering a new site out in the industrial park, which means they would be relocating their manufacturing facility, warehouse and offices. The building on Harris Avenue would become available for other uses. The 26-acres at exit 45 off of I-70 was rezoned at the request of the Suess's to accommodate a company called Love's Travel Stop.
Love's operates nearly 200 travel stops throughout the U.S and intends on building a 9,000 sq. foot building with parking for 65-70 cars and the same for trucks. It will offer both gasoline and diesel fueling facilities, have a fast food restaurant attached, and create 40-65 full time jobs. The expected annual revenue from the travel stop is between 7 and 8 million dollars. Willey commented that it be will located in both the proposed TIF district and the Illinois Enterprise Zone. He said as a developer you can't take advantage of both of those, so it's unclear at this point which one will be more advantageous to the travel stop.
Willey also commented on new information received from Dave Rehkemper that Ford had approved the satellite location of Tri-ford to be in Greenville. The satellite operation will be a regular dealership as in Highland. And according to Willey, this is just the beginning of more things to come. He said there is still more to do as the city is continuing to search for appropriate commercial businesses and talk to industrial prospects. To help with this, the City of Greenville has hired the Buxton Company to research our market trade information on spending habits in our area. This information is then matched up to retailer's profiles on spending habits they look for in their customers.
REPRESENTATIVE STEPHENS HOSTS HEARING ON OUTAGES
What would it cost to have bulletproof or should the term be tree proof electric service? That was a big part of the discussion Wednesday night at Greenville City Hall as State Representative Ron Stephens held the first of several public meetings to hear questions and ideas from citizens recently affected by the power outages caused by the November 30th ice storm. According to one Ameren official the cost to deliver underground electrical service to every household could be as high as $50,000 a customer. Dave Barbey of Southwestern Electric pointed out that even if you have underground utilities today somewhere in the system your electric is transmitted on above ground lines.
Another question concerned the more aggressive use of tree crews to trim limbs away from power lines. It was pointed out that several consumers in Missouri actually won law suits to keep utility companies from trimming their trees. The consensus of the meeting was an expression of gratitude to the linemen who worked long hours to restore power. Stephens told the group he planned to push for tax breaks for consumers purchasing generators and he was in favor of putting transmission wires underground. In case you thought you saw a familiar face or two on TV at the meeting, it did draw a crew from a St. Louis Station.
BOND COUNTY FAIR BOARD MEETING
The annual meeting of the Bond County Fair members was held at the community building at the fairgrounds last Tuesday evening. Those in attendance were impressed by the condition of the building as it has been improved so much in the past year with new windows, new siding, a sump pump and new paint on the walls. It is currently being rented out for tumbling classes.
President Woker reported improvements on the fairgrounds during the past year including the midway road being oiled, the south restrooms being repaired, the horse arena moved to the east side of the fairgrounds and some barn roofs repaired. The Junior Comets football teams now use the fairground parking lots for practice.
There have been memorial tables installed near the pork stand in memory of Virgil Schoen and Dave Lutz who were active fair board supported for many years. A memorial plaque was presented to Gene Potthast for his fifty years of service including a seat on the board of directors and the dairy department superintendent.
2006 was a successful year for the Bond County Fair and loans are being paid off ahead of schedule. To purchase land on the east side of the fairgrounds, the board borrowed $37,886 to which $20,000 has been repaid. $21,900 was spent to improve the community building, of which $16,000 was borrowed and $4,000 has already been repaid. The fair board has a nice balance on hand at the end of the year with all bills current. Craig Woker, Jerry McCray, Jerry Nelson, David Freeman and Randy Ostrom were re-elected to the board of directors.
FIVE REQUESTS FOR ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS
The Zoning Board of Appeals met Tuesday, December 12 and heard five requests. A request by David Jackson was granted for a variance in order for him to place a shed with 5 feet of the side property line located in Section 30 of Central Township. Leon Wall requested 13 acres to be rezoned in order to establish a business to sell automobiles, motorcycles, RV's and furniture located in Section 7 of LaGrange Township. Wall's request was tabled, as board members wanted more information.
Three other requests for special use permits were approved and sent to the Bond County Board for final approval. The requests were from Melvin and Ellen Tedrick to place a new manufactured home on their five acres in Mulberry, Richard Zbinden to place a 1994 manufactured home as an office located in Central Township and Donna Conlee dba Giller Trucking for her to extablish a small rural business on her four acres in Shoal Creek Township. The Bond County Board will vote on these requests Tuesday, December 19 at their regular meeting.
