Metro East Area News Briefs

Chronicle Media

The city of Edwardsville broke ground on the new Spray and Play Park in December 2015. The city just received a grant worth more than $133,000 from the Madison County Park and Recreation Commission to help with costs. (Photo courtesy Better Place to Play Campaign)

The city of Edwardsville broke ground on the new Spray and Play Park in December 2015. The city just received a grant worth more than $133,000 from the Madison County Park and Recreation Commission to help with costs. (Photo courtesy Better Place to Play Campaign)

E-citations come to Madison County

The Madison County Sheriff’s Department Park has officially launched its e-citation program, allowing deputies to print out traffic citations in their patrol cars and simultaneously transmit data on those citations to the circuit clerk’s office for listing on court dockets. The new citations are designed to be more legible than hand-written tickets, prevent clerical errors, and reduce the time law enforcement officers must spend along roadways taking motorist information. The e-citations are generated using the digitTICKET system developed by SaltusTechnologies of Tulsa, Okla. The $49,483 cost of the system will be raised through a $5 fee on all tickets requiring court appearances. The fee was authorized by the Illinois Legislature in 2011 for the purpose of implementing such ticketing technology.

Nearby Bond County was the first Illinois jurisdiction to use digital ticketing. The Madison County Board purchased its digital citation system, as well as printers for some of the county’s 44 sheriff’s department patrol cars in July of last year. Sheriff John Lakin and Circuit Clerk Mark on Nida formally announced the digital ticketing program March 24. Deputies in printer-equipped vehicles began issuing e-citations that day.

Officials now hope to expand the system to all law enforcement agencies in Madison County by the end of 2017.

Metro East homes remain bargain

Median home prices rose six percent in Madison and St. Clair counties over the past year, according to the real estate website, RealtyTrac. However, home ownership remains far more affordable in Metro East than in most of the nation or most of the St. Louis region, according to the website. The median home sale price is now $122,000 in Madison County and just $90,000 in St. Clair County. Across the river, homes are selling at a median price of $117,200 in the City of St. Louis, $155,406 in Jefferson County, $174,115 in St. Louis County and $189,200 in fast-growing St. Charles County. Home prices rose slower than in most of the region over the past year, with prices up eight percent in Jefferson County, 12 percent in St. Charles, and 15 percent in St. Louis city and county. However, that means Metro East residents continue to spend far less of their income on housing than most Americans. Nationwide, people now spend an average of 30.2 percent of their income on housing. In St. Clair County, the figure is just 16.9 percent and, in Madison County, 18.8 percent. On the Missouri side of the region, St. Louis County residents spend 25.7 percent; Jefferson County homeowners, 35.7 percent; and St. Charles residents, 36.2 percent. Homeowners in the City of St. Louis spend just 16.9 percent of income on housing. However, RealtyTrac   

Thirty local parks to share $1.3 million in grants

The Madison County Park and Recreation Commission has announced the awarding of more than $1.3 million in Park Enhancement Grants to 30 municipal park districts in the county.

  • Maryville — $22,555 — reimbursement for already completed restrooms in Drost Park,
  • Hamel — $1,500 — tennis courts renovation,
  • Glen Carbon — $64,790 – ADA compliance measures at Miner Park and parks department equipment purchases,
  • Edwardsville — $133,155 — Spray and Play Park construction and improvements at Edwardsville
  • Marine — $15,000 — new playground equipment at Heritage Park and Village Park.

The Madison County Park and Recreation District is funded by one-tenth of 1 percent county sales tax.

Carbon monoxide leak prompts call for school superintendent’s removal

North Mac Citizens for a Vote of No Confidence, a group of Girard, Ill. residents, is calling for the removal of North Mac School District Superintendent Marica Cullen in the wake of a September 2014 carbon monoxide leak that sent 150 students and staff members to hospitals. The incident resulted in a state law has since requiring carbon monoxide detectors in school buildings. Cullen, a former Illinois State Board of Education administrator, has been superintendent of the Girard, Ill. school district since 2012. The citizens group in February presented the North MAC School Board with a petition for Cullen’s ouster, citing several safety concerns at the school.

Mississippi River Festival returns

The Mississippi River Festival, a mainstay of St. Louis-area popular culture in the 1970s, will return to the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville campus this summer as series of indoor concerts at the university’s Meridian Ballroom. Over 12 summers (1969-80) as an outdoor concert series on the campus, festival drew more than a million music lovers for acts like the Eagles, Donna Summer and The Band (featuring a surprise guest appearance by a then-rarely performing Bob Dylan. Edwardsville-based prompter Dave Thomason is reviving the series under the name, “Mississippi River Festival Revisited.” Ozark Mountain Daredevils member Supe Granda will emcee the events.

–Metro East Area News Briefs–