St. Clair County Clerk Thomas Holbrook (left) and County Board Chairman Mark Kern formally commemorate the 225th anniversary of the county’s founding last week during at the Old Cahokia Courthouse. Photo courtesy of Julie Hauser.

St. Clair County marks 225^th anniversary

Commemorating the 225th anniversary of the founding of St. Clair County, Ill., the St. Clair County Board met by candlelight April 27 at the Old Cahokia Courthouse State Historic Site in Cahokia. The Old Cahokia Courthouse was the county’s first administrative and judicial center, back in the 19th century when the area was still part of the Northwest Territory.

County Clerk Thomas Holbrook presented St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern with a ceremonial replica of the 1790 resolution that officially named St. Clair County after General Arthur St. Clair, who served as governor of the Northwest Territory from 1788 to 1802.

The board adopted a ceremonial resolution, rescinding a 1793 ordinance that required all farmers who grew and sowed grain to kill at least 100 blackbirds.

In addition to the regular full meeting of the county board and monthly board committee meetings, the event featured light refreshments, period fiddle music and the chance for guests to view the historic artifacts on display in the Cahokia Courthouse building and tour the surrounding grounds.

“At 225-years-old, St. Clair County is the oldest county in the state of Illinois,” noted Board Chairman Kern. “In the 19th century, the county was an immense territory. With its boundaries stretching all the way to Canada, St. Clair County encompassed an area that now represents 200 counties scattered across the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. And with the Cahokia Courthouse having served as our original county seat, both St. Clair County and the Village of Cahokia hold a very significant place in the history of our nation.”

Fairview Heights boasts five-year,$28M capital improvements plan

Fairview Heights is investing in a five-year, $28 million capital improvements programs to help ensure the city remains the “the Shopping Hub of Southern Illinois” amid a downturn in brick ‘n mortal construction and increasing competition from Internet commerce.

The move is part of a “strategic budgeting” program designed to ensure Fairview Heights maintains its unique status as a “tax free” city, city officials say. The city funds its operations largely through sales and other “user-type” taxes paid by shoppers at St. Clair Square and surrounding residential developments.

The Lincoln Trail Streetscape, a $1.3 million transformation of the city’s main commercial intersection promises to be among the most high profile of the public work projects. Refurbishing of Ruby Lane, the city’s major arterial north of I-64 is also planned.

However, engineering for a new business and industrial park, which planners hope will help to expand the town’s economic base, is also including in the package, as well as some $785,000 for rebuilding of secondary and residential streets, in many cases to control storm water problems.

Several of the public works projects are already underway. Funding was approved under a record $32 million budget for the city’s new fiscal year, which began May 1.

IDOT seeks public on Metro-East infrastructure

The Illinois Department of Transportation’s (IDOT) “Illinois Infrastructure Listing Tour” came to Metro-East this week with a pair of public meetings, May 5, in Collinsville and the Alton area.

Centered around IDOT’s “Illinois Transportation Hub” theme, the statewide series of meetings are intended to help establish priorities for future investment in the state transportation system, emphasizing quality of life and economic growth.

Metro East residents unable to attend this week’s meetings at the Gateway Convention Center and Lewis and Clark Community College can still offer input online. In addition to the public meetings, IDOT is gathering public comment through a survey on the agency’s website.

IDOT and the Illinois Capital Development Board plan to use the input in formulating a comprehensive public works proposal that will be submitted to Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Illinois General Assembly this spring.

In all, IDOT plans to gather input through a series of 32 meetings across the state, April 27-May 22.

“Transportation is the asset that distinguishes Illinois from the rest of the country. Our roads, transit systems, railroads, airports and waterways make Illinois the transportation hub of North America and provide us with a global economic advantage,” Acting Illinois Transportation Secretary Randy Blankenhorn asserts on the IDOT website.

However, the state transportation system itself is at a “crossroads,” Blankenhorn contends.

“Over the next six years, 40 percent of Illinois highways and one in seven bridges will be in unacceptable condition. The transit network’s bus and rail system will not be adequately overhauled, leading to less reliable and underutilized service. School and other key state construction projects will continue to lag behind and fall into disrepair” Blankenhorn reports.

The ongoing meeting series “lays the groundwork for a realistic, sustainable plan for bringing our infrastructure into the 21st century,” according to the IDOT website.

The complete meeting schedule and online comment form can be accessed on the IDOT website http://www.idot.illinois.gov/about-idot/stay-connected/events/Infrastructure-Investment.

Commission moves toward joint evidence storage facility

The Metro East Police District Commission has begun preliminary planning for a combined police facility to serve East St. Louis, Alorton, Brooklyn and Washington Park.

The building will be designed to provide evidence and record storage capacity as well as workspace for officers from the four departments, according to Calvin Dye, commission chair.

The commission is considering three location, all in East St. Louis: the former East St. Louis police station on Collinsville Avenue, the now-vacant Clark School on State Street, and a site near the Melvin Price Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse.

The commission hopes to secure state funding for the new facility. EWR Architects of Fairview Heights is preparing cost estimates which are expected to be ready this month.

The commission was created in 2012 under legislation sponsored by Sen. James Clayborne Jr. (D-East St. Louis) and Rep. Eddie Lee Jackson Sr. (D-East St. Louis) in respond to high crime rates in the region and corruption in the four police departments.

While several efforts have been mounted to address law enforcement problems in the four towns over the years, none have been considered successful; largely, the commission believes, because they involved partial takeovers of the departments and had little support from local officials.

The district, led by 17-person commission that includes local officials as well as prominent Metor-East law enforcement figures, is different is several respect, supporters say. The commission has broad power granted under state law to provide training, establish policy, oversee the handling of evidence and perform other functions. The commission also has power to use municipal funds to hire officers or for other purposes.

Last year, the commission developed and distributed a 400-plus page policy-and-procedures manual to officers – reportedly, the first that some officers in the cities had ever received.