Published: January 14, 2009 09:24 am      

A Reader's View: A sensible solution to water contract issue

Editor:

Last Friday’s Mt. Vernon Register-News story about George Gifford’s contention that an illegal contract exists between the Rend Lake Conservancy District and the City of Mt. Vernon compels me to write another letter to the editor.

As the mayor of the Village of Belle Rive with some experience in the matter, I can tell you the supposed contract between the district and the city is not legal. It is not illegal because a contract does not exist.

It does not exist because under Illinois law, and under the bylaws of most, if not all local governmental units, a simple board action requires a majority vote of the board in the form of a motion, a resolution or an ordinance.

Despite all the verbiage by the manager of the district, the simple fact is the board did not vote to approve the contract. Since it does not exist, I also ask that the conservancy district board to remove any language that gives Mt. Vernon exclusive right to sell water to any other municipality of the county.

As Mr. Gifford and Mr. Dees have said, “It is not in the public interest for the conservancy district to give Mt. Vernon a new long-term exclusive right to sell water to other municipalities. What may have happened 40 years ago does not make it right today. If Mt. Vernon and any other community want to enter into a contract that mutually benefits each other that is a different matter altogether.”

When the original contract expired in 2006, it would have made just as much sense for RLCD to run a pipeline to Ina and give that village the exclusive right to sell Rend Lake water to all other areas of Jefferson County, including Mt. Vernon. Although the city would have to run its own water line to Ina, the conservancy district could save much money, which they could then use to build more pipelines into Williamson County.

Finally, I want to set the record straight about Moores Prairie’s failure to get water. Belle Rive had intended to serve the 75 families of that township who have not been able to get potable water. We recognized their plight and wanted to help. With these thoughts in mind, we ran a water line south from our community with the expectation that we serve that area and also hook into the RLCD main water line running from their water plant through Whittington and Ewing to McLeansboro in the same way Dahlgren had done earlier. In fact, our village spend several hundred thousand dollars on the project before Mt. Vernon stopped it by invoking the unfair and heavy-handed restrictive language of their contract with RLCD. The 75 families were then left high and dry.

Now, I want to make a suggestion for a compromise much like the mayor of Bluford made in another letter to your newspaper. If the district insists that a valid contract exists between them and Mt. Vernon, Belle Rive would agree to continue to buy water from the city but at the same rate we would pay RLCD if we were allowed to purchase directly from the district. Since Mt. Vernon, because of the volume of water it purchases, can buy water from the district at a much cheaper rate than Belle Rive, the city can still make a profit equal to the difference between the two amounts. The way I figure, Mt. Vernon would make about $15,000 annually and the village could save about the same amount at the present rates charged.

Also part of the compromise, allow the village to hook into the Ewing-McLeansboro line with a meter owned, controlled and read by Mt. Vernon to assure the city that they were getting their cut in the revenue. In this way, all the citizens of Moores Prairie could be served and Mt. Vernon can make more money by selling more water to our community than it otherwise would sell.

This approach is a winning situation for all parties and should be considered. I know there are reasonable people in leadership positions in the city of Mt. Vernon. If the leaders of the city believe that this is a sensible solution to the problem, I call upon them to accept the compromise.

Don Wilkey

Mayor of Belle Rive

Letter approved by the Village of Trustees, Belle Rive