State of the City Of Minonk

The Council meeting on Feb. 7th sent me over the edge. In that meeting we had a citizen that has lived here for most of her life come to the meeting to voice her opinion on the junk in her neighborhood and in our town. She wanted to know if there were any city ordinances that have been broken so tickets could be issued. I believe she was given the answer from our City Administrator and Mayor that it is hard to enforce some ordinances and that it will be looked into along with the ordinance being reviewed again for possible changes. I was very displeased with this answer. I felt as if she had gotten a brush off by our City Officials. I am guilty as well since I did not speak up like I should have. I had to take some time to think about that meeting and what was said. I also like to try to deal with things as much as I can without making it public. However, no more will I do that. I have taken that approach the past 2 years and it has gotten me nowhere as an Alderman to help the community out. So this has lead me to write this editorial.

I think everyone in the community feels the same way and there should be more done to clean up our town. This is one of the major problems in Minonk along with vandalism which is well documented on this website. I am one of those people that have a problem with the junk and vandalism and, believe it or not, I have been working towards fixing these problems for well over a year.

Here is my opinion on this whole situation. Last spring the Public Safety Board that I sit on met 2 or 3 times to put some teeth into our City Nuisance/Junk Ordinance to take care of all the junk, garbage and general eye soars collecting around town. This was done because our Police Department and City Administrator felt it needed to be updated so we could be stricter and have a solid case for issuing the tickets. After about a month or so it was finally passed by the council. The next few months proved to be some what promising with ordinance violations being enforced. However, I feel there are a couple cases that were issued tickets and then nothing else was done and these cases are the same as they were last year.

As for the vandalism that occurs in town. Last summer and spring we had a lot of vandalism done. Why is that? For one, a very small group of kids have no respect for other's property. Two, the kids have no respect and/or are not afraid of our Police Department. They know either they will never get caught or if caught they get a slap on the wrist. That brings me to last weekend. I went for a drive about 8:30 on Saturday evening. I drove past the City Park and found that there were picnic tables turned over on their sides and saw that there were vehicle tracks in Suttons Park where someone had been driving in the grass. I have also heard of kids driving their vehicles up over the curb and into the grass by the basketball courts at City Park. I was also surprised to find out that there was a window busted out at Dollar General early on Saturday morning. I guess the question I have is, where our officers are and when is this being done? We usually have 2 cars on duty on the weekend to help prevent this kind of stuff. So if we are spending the money to do this why is it still happening. Now I realize that our Police Department can not catch everyone and be everywhere all time. And I am sure they do catch some things. However this stuff happens all the time.

Now I could go on and on about some other issues and concerns that I have and I know this sounds like I am on the Police Department only. However I think a majority of the people in town can agree that the City and the Police Department needs to do a better job enforcing ordinances and preventing vandalism. I also realize some people that are currently in the administration feel like I am trying to micro manage the Police Department. That, however, is far from the truth. I have my own job that gives me plenty of headaches and worries. I am, however, doing the job of an Alderman in executive sessions and privately to our administration in voicing the concerns that the community brings to me. That is why the community elects individuals to be on city council. Unfortunately I am talked down too and ignored when I raise these concerns or given excuses on why things are done the way they are.

No matter how you take this editorial, I just want the community to know I am trying to watch out for the best interest of the tax payer's money and the best interest of our town. I personally feel we as a city are going in the wrong direction and if we want our schools to get better and our town to grow then something needs to change. All I ask from the community is to come to City Council Meetings and voice your concerns to the Mayor, City Administrator and the rest of the Council. Let them hear it directly from you what things you see going on within our town. After all, the community should have the say on what is going on with your money and your town. If the administration doesn't want to listen to its Aldermen, then they better listen to the community.