Our streets are suffering from lack of an ongoing maintenance and street program (plan). In fact, our city has not had a short-term or long-term plan for our streets for many years. Also, under our streets lay critical infrastructure including water lines and sewer mains which have surpassed their useful life expectancy. As many of you have experienced a loss of water due to a water main break, leaving you with no water and causing extreme frustration in your households.

My Plan – Along with the Motor Fuel Tax (MFT) that is received by the city from the state for street maintenance, my plan is to budget additional money from the city’s general fund to start a long-term street improvement program. This will include doing a complete survey of our city streets to identify those most needing improvements and developing a database of priority repairs and improvements. Improvements will include milling streets, leveling out streets, permanently restoring streets with previous repairs/holes from sewer/water line replacements and oil and chipping. My plan is also to maintain a consistent oil and chip program so that our streets do not continue to deteriorate. My long-term plan is to start a street asphalt program and asphalt high traffic/high priority streets. The streets around the square, East Main and Blackburn College would be a priority for asphalting. Asphalt, though a more expensive option, is ideal for streets with high volumes of traffic and lasts much longer than streets with oil and chip. It is also more aesthetically pleasing and reduces dust and noise from traffic.

We are all aware of the age of our water lines and the constant issues they cause when there is a water main break. Frankly, the cost to replace them all would outpace our current city budget and current funds. My plan would recommend that we use funds that currently sit in the 1% sales tax fund to replace water lines that suffer frequent water main breaks. This sales tax was approved by taxpayers to repair/upgrade our water system, but no major upgrades to our water system were ever completed using any of these funds.

Many of our sidewalks are unusable and unsafe due to their poor condition. Currently there is a 50/50 program in the city to replace sidewalks and gutters. But this results in the property owner having to pay for half the costs of replacement. Many homeowners don’t feel this should be their responsibility or simply don’t have the funds to cover this cost.

Currently the city allocates money in our budget for sidewalk replacement, which has been reduced the last several years because property owners’ requests for sidewalk replacement in the 50/50 program has dwindled because either the property owner does not have the funds to cover replacement or don’t feel this is their responsibility.

My Plan – I would recommend that we restore previous levels of funding for sidewalk replacement. By restoring to previous levels, we could have an aggressive sidewalk replacement program that ensures residents have safe sidewalks to use, and enhances residential property.

Conduct a survey and identify sidewalks/curbs in need of replacement and prioritize them based off need/usage.

Replace these sidewalks/curbs with city covering the cost of replacement.

If a resident requests a sidewalk to be replaced that is not on the replacement program, then we will revert to the 50/50 program with the city paying half and the property owner paying half, as long as sufficient monies remain available.

Every resident of Carlinville should have safe clean drinking water. The costs to produce, treat and maintain a clean water supply has risen dramatically over the years. Clean water is a very valuable commodity. Our current system and water treatment plant is outdated and past its useful life. Costs to rehab our lake, which is our main water source, and build another water treatment plant in Carlinville are cost prohibitive. So, the city council conducted several public meetings to hear your concerns about our water. Then, in two city council meetings, the council voted to join a not-for-profit water company that would provide water to not only Carlinville, but many other cities and jurisdictions. A contract has been signed with the not for profit, Alluvial Water to provide Carlinville water. This is a binding contract with no out clause. At this time, the city has paid off its monetary commitment to Alluvial, for this project.

My Plan – Because the city council voted to enter into a contract with Alluvial, we are obligated to purchase water from Alluvial. My concerns are that this project has stalled for various reasons over the last couple years and is drastically behind schedule. Currently no actual construction of the plant or water lines has begun. Project completion is estimated for 5 years. Also, the project is not fully funded due to project modifications and due to the dramatic increase in cost to complete this project. With this in mind, and because of the frangibility of this current project, I would call for development of a backup plan in case there are delays or Alluvial is not able to move forward with this project. I have identified several options that I would present to the council for consideration. A lot of time, energy, planning and money has been invested in the Alluvial project, but I believe we should have an alternate plan to provide water, if Alluvial is not able to complete this development.

The City of Carlinville’s current method of having elected officials trying to manage the daily operations of city government are burdensome, ineffective, archaic and do not allow elected officials to concentrate on their core responsibilities. These responsibilities include policy development, strategic planning, reviewing, and approving bills, attending committee and council meetings and communicating with constituents. In addition, elected officials are expected to keep up to date on changes in state law, municipal law and statutes that affect city government.

My Plan – My recommendation would include changing the structure of our city government to a City Manager/Aldermanic form of government, which would allow the appointment of a dedicated City Manager. There are many benefits to this change. First, by appointing a City Manager, you will have an experienced and trained manager that will coordinate all daily operations within city government. This will increase collaboration efforts and ensure better management of all city functions. All departments will report to one person, streamlining all previous uncoordinated and inefficient processes. This person can also focus on collaboration with state and federal elected officials to identify opportunities for Carlinville. These opportunities can include finding grants and funding for projects, elimination or revisions of laws that are burdensome, better collaboration with our city, county and state partners, and finally keeping our elected officials abreast of all changes in state and federal law that could affect our city. A City Manager would also provide regular training to our elected and appointed officials that we currently do not consistently receive. This could be beneficial to our elected and appointed officials to ensure we do not violate any laws and limit financial penalties.

Residents of Carlinville should have a consistent and reliable source of information about what their city council is doing to make Carlinville a better place to live, work and visit. Currently, what is discussed, voted on and approved by various committees and council meetings may or may not be reported and passed on to the residents of Carlinville, so that they can keep informed about decisions made by their elected officials. Currently there is not a dedicated person whose responsibility it is to coordinate all public information on behalf of the city and ensure that all residents are well informed, using various media platforms.

My Plan – First and foremost, I plan to appoint a Public Information Officer, whose job it will be to ensure that the residents of Carlinville are well informed about actions taken by their elected and appointed officials. The duties of a Public Information Officer could be assigned internally to minimize costs. In addition, I will pursue installing a video/audio system that will allow meetings at city hall to be broadcast so that residents can watch proceedings from the comfort of their homes on various media platforms. In addition, I will improve communications amongst all elected and appointed officials by ensuring that all officials get the same information on a consistent basis and giving them the opportunity to give their input. This will enhance relations and ensure we are well informed and making decision that are best for the city.

Public safety has always been a concern for every resident. While we are lucky to have statistics that show a low proportion of crime in our city, we must remain vigilant on all efforts to keep our residents and city safe. We are lucky to have officers who are community minded and want to do everything they can to serve their community.

My Plan – First and foremost, I fully support our men and women who protect this community. I will continue to support additional programs, resources and training that gives our law enforcement all the tools they need to keep our residents safe and help propel Carlinville as a beacon for being a safe community and encouraging future residents to move to our charming community. Initiatives including community outreach, neighborhood programs and partnering with law enforcement resources are areas I would continue to pursue.

Our square/downtown/business district has suffered from lack of a development/business plan. In addition, our downtown looks worn and neglected. Why is our downtown so important when there are businesses all over the city? Because this is one of the first things visitors and tourists see when they come through and stop in our city and is the heart of our community. What they see could leave a lasting negative impression if improvements are not made. Our downtown should have retail/businesses that harmonize with our historic square and attract shoppers and tourists that contribute to our economy.

The sidewalks around the square and down each street exiting the square are cracked, uneven and hazardous. In addition, we have grass/weeds growing up in all the cracks as well as litter all over. Our square lacks any coordinated streetscape that will leave a positive impression on not only residents but visitors.

Currently we do not have any business plans or identified business districts that we can use to recruit and build new enterprises. Without a plan or established sites for new business, we are unprepared to grow our city and will stay stagnate.

As for the rest of our community, I continue to see a deterioration because of unkept property, which include overgrown vegetation, junk in yards, trash, and abandoned houses. Because we have not been aggressive with enforcement, this encourages others to not maintain their property and slowly our city will become an eyesore.

My Plan – First and foremost, because our square is the heart of our community, my first priority for businesses would focus on this area. I will recommend that we create a historic district for our square. This could provide protections for our historic buildings and identify potential funding to enhance this area. This will include enhanced signage and streetscape to beautify our square. I will use money from our sidewalk program, TIF district funds and grants to upgrade our sidewalks to make them safer and provide improvements to the square. I will also use TIF funds to enhance and support current businesses and recruit new businesses. I will also develop a plan targeted at business recruitment to have the right mix of business and retail for this area that encourages tourism and enhances our economy.

I would also recommend that the Standard Edition (Sears) neighborhood be designated a historic district. This is a huge untapped site that receives a lot of inquiries from visitors because of its history, and we are losing the historical significance of this area because of lack of a plan which would include identification of grants and funding which could be used to improve this neighborhood.

I would also recommend the identification and development of a business park for expansion of the business and commercial community. We currently do not have any planning in this area, and we have had so many missed opportunities. This would need to be effectively promoted and consistent and deliberant recruitment would need to occur. This would be the responsibility of the Economic Development Administrator.

I will work with all our community groups and partners to effectively market and promote all community activities/events and encourage the development of other events in which we could promote enhanced tourism opportunities. I also believe the city webpage needs to be the go-to place for all information with links to other organizations.

I would also recommend the appointment and hiring of a Code Enforcement Officer. We continue to receive numerous complaints about everything from unkept property to trash in people’s property. There would need to be a consistent and constant process in place to identify concerns and unsafe property before they become health and safety concerns. This has to be done because we want to ensure that we have a community that looks inviting and is well managed.

Semi truck traffic continues to cause extreme deterioration and damage to our city streets. Truck drivers have also expressed a need for a bypass around Carlinville to avoid traffic and have roads that are built for these kinds of trucks, which are wide and continue sufficient turning ability. This would eliminate excessive traffic around our square and city streets.

My Plan – I have identified several routes that would accomplish this by detouring around Carlinville. Myself and other appointed officials would work with our county and state partners to include elected state officials to appropriate funding for this project. I expect this project to be fully funded by state funds.