Pinckneyville Grills EMC for Clarity

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ "We have to face some difficult realities."

That was only one of Mayor Holder's statements made during his opening remarks for Tuesday's special meeting to discuss change in the maintenance and operation of the city's utilities. He also spoke about hard times for the city, its debt and its problems with lack of income. Despite a 20% raise in utilities the previous year, the city did not see an increase in revenue.

"The citizens of Pinckneyville are tapped out," Holder said.

Holder urged everyone in the council room to listen objectively and to help the city seize their destiny.

Todd Thomas, a representative in charge of mid-west operations for EMC, spoke to the council and to those attending in an attempt to clarify what his company offered. Thomas had attended a meeting to Pinckneyville in 2008 but had failed to sell his point.

With information that was provided by the Mayor, EMC calculated that they could save the city $35,841 in running the plant and $86,930 with pipelines and streets for a total of $122,771.

Thomas explained briefly that EMC was a company out of O'Fallon and was in charge of many waste water, bio-gas, by-product and other facilities. He also stated that EMC had won Plan of the Year out of a city in Illinois and Best Operated Plant out of a city in Missouri.

The floor was then open to the council members to ask questions. Questions that were asked included:

Commissioner Stone: "Will you supply us with people to go to gas calls? And how will the department be set up?"

Thomas: "Two employees with remain on city payroll; One and one half for gas and half for water treatment." (There are currently seven people on city payroll. The remaining positions would be moved to EMC payroll.)

Commissioner Stone: "I would hate to see our numbers cut down so low that if things pick up we will have to pull workers from other locations to operate."

Thomas: "We will identify the number of people needed to operate the plant efficiently and then hire them."

Commissioner Stone: "Will the water plant be manned 24/7?"

Thomas: "If it needs it, it will be. However, we currently don't think it needs to be. All of our plants at the moment are not manned 24/7 and are just monitored for a portion of each day."

Commissioner Beltz: "Determining when equipment in the plant needs to be replaced is up to EMC, but the cost remains up to the city. How does this process work?"

Thomas: "This can be changed, but it is in there simply so that we may keep the plant operable. If wording is an issue, it can be amended to keep the interest of both parties."

Commissioner Beltz: "There is a threshold where costs over $5,000 are up to the city. If EMC were faced with repairing a piece of equipment for $2,000 but failed to do so would the city be fully responsible for the $7,000 in a full replacement?"

Thomas: "We do not benefit from under maintenance. We aim more for efficiency."

Commissioner Beltz: "[The contact] says that we must apply for contract termination 12 months before the date we with to have it terminated. Can that be changed?"

Thomas: "Yes. Wording in the contract can be changed."

Commissioner Davis: "We recently had to instate a vegetation pick-up ordinance due to the costs for doing so getting so high. If you take over the street department, will that fee remain with the city?"

Thomas: "I was not aware of such an ordinance and will have to look it over. It was not factored in with the current contract."

Commissioner Kellerman: "The council has not been able to settle a union contract for some time. How will you be able to solve it?"

Thomas: "We will use the time before the contract starts (March 1) to sit down with the union and work out an agreement."

Questions were then passed on to the room where Russell Dunn also asked a few questions:

Dunn: "What will be the operation time of the water plant?"

Thomas: "12 hours. The plant will be monitored but unmanned for the remaining 12 hours."

Dunn: "Will the city continue to pay for the required permit from the state set by Governor Blagojevich?"

Thomas: "Yes. We cannot effect state required permits. However, we already calculated that expense and the amount to be saved by the city is still correct."

Dunn: "What will be the procedure for picking who stays and who goes?"

Thomas: "The union agreement will determine the number of people we keep. Then we will speak with each employee and get to know them better. We will follow normal hiring procedure."

After a few more questions from the council, the Mayor asked for a motion to put the contract on layover for the regular meeting on Monday, however no motion was made.

Commissioner Beltz, who had many questions and discrepancies regarding the wording of the contract, suggested that the contract be tabled until the wording is clarified then looked at again. The motion was passed.