The Village of South Jacksonville continues to seek to improve how things are done.
Three committees were publicly referenced during last night’s South Jacksonville Committee of the Whole trustees meeting, followed by a closed session regarding personnel.
There was a discussion regarding scheduling for the village celebration. Parks and Tourism committee chair Stacy Pinkerton explains when the trustees imagine it will happen.
“We’re planning on talking to Hank Pool about using Prairieland Heritage for the Village Celebration, and we’re still planning on having the pageant Friday night and then, of course, the Parade Saturday morning. We’re looking most likely to hold it on October 5th and 6th, but that needs to be officially approved at the next board meeting.”
A debate on the future of the 5K race the same time as the Celebration is still ongoing.
Village Police Chief Tim Mann offered an update during the Public Protection section regarding purchase of new vehicles. Mann explained that the department wants to get two vehicles, one bought with ISP-regulated asset seizure funds and one bought by the Village.
“We had talked in preliminary budget times about getting permission to get one SUV, but instead of two SUVs we were thinking we would get one SUV and one truck, a Ford F-150 4-wheel drive.”
According to Mann, costs for the two vehicles would be nearly the same, and the idea is to use all the money from the asset seizures fund for the department’s half of the purchase. Mann also said an advantage to a police pickup truck is being able to pull a radar trailer.
Village Fire Chief David Hickox also made a purchase request for Air-Pack Bottles. The total is slightly over $17,000 but the bid has a stipulation that would lower that number slightly.
“For every bottle we exchange, we can get a 50 dollar credit if each bottle passes hydro tests, which I think all of our bottles should pass. So there’s a chance we could get an additional 2,000 dollar credit to this purchase off the 17,000 bid at this moment. Right now we use aluminum bottles, they’re heavy, everyone is switching to this carbon fiber bottle which is a lot lighter.”
Finally, thoughts were heard regarding the necessary action to be taken regarding paving the Village Hall parking lot. Mayor Harry Jennings explains what the trustees decided.
“Part of the street repair is coming in to Village Hall. There’s an island where our pavement drop box will be. There’s gonna be some curb work around there. We were originally hoping to get away with resealing it, but part of it needs to be torn out and overlaid. So, the company that is already here gave a proposal, but that’s while they are already here. So we are going to get a few other proposals and go with whoever offers the best price.”
The next Board of Trustees meeting will be the regular ‘First Thursday of every month’ meeting which serves as the official board session and falls on August 2nd at the Village Hall.