May 2024 County Board Report
Phil Henning, County Board Member District 19
Animal Services. Director Ashely Jett reported a 92.2% save rate for March (last reporting period). They did 58 intakes, 14 adoptions and put 19 animals into their adoption center. They responded to 84 calls in the field, held vaccination clinics and microchipping. She noted a Great Dane was up for adoption (this is from the March report) and was in a room by itself at it cannot fit into a kennel. When asked, she noted they have 49 kennels on the animal control side, 10 in the adoption center, 8 in the quarantine center and 9 kennels for bite cases. She is working to hiring another Warden to assist Eddie. 37 puppies came in which are up for adoption.
Emergency Readiness, Mr. Herb Simmons. Mr. Simmons reported the replacement siren program is nearing completion. They are in the southeast corner of the county at this point. He noted an old siren in Smithton did not work and was replaced with a new one.
Economic Development, Mr. Rick Stubblefield. The county received a feasibility study grant to determine if a pipeline from the Kaskaskia River in Fayetteville to Mid-America and then Scott is feasible vs truck transportation of aviation fuel. Gonzalez Companies will conduct the study. The new Tyson plant (processes frozen foods only) is fully operational. Mr. Stubblefield attended the Association of Military Communities meeting in Washington, DC which works to improve military family’s quality of life.
County Board Meeting April 29
Public Comment. Mr. Doug Gaines, O’Fallon expressed concern about the activities of “Welcome America” and is concerned about harboring “illegal aliens and foreign interference” with our nation. He believes this organization is a threat to our nation and that taxpayer’s dollars should not be used for illegal immigration and that we should put St Clair County Citizen’s first.
Kimberly Huth, Military Affairs Director expressed she is a 24-year Air Force veteran (now retired) and served with many who were killed in combat and she and her colleagues in April were visiting in the month of April. She spoke about Air Force Master Sgt Tom Crowell from O’Fallon who was killed in combat on November 1, 2007.
Public Defender’s Office. The office is handling 1568 felony cases, with 1,449 “full time represents” (i.e assisting defendants in cases), and 119 part time represents. They closed 78 cases in April. One new murder case was appointed in April and 50 are the total case count for murders. As reported before, the Office represents juvenile abuse cases and so far, there have been 256 cases.
Environment Committee. The Board approved a zoning special use permit for an automobile repair shop in a SR-3 Single Family zone, in Caseyville Township at 7955 North Illinois Street.
The Board also approved a Special Use permit to build a 7,438-kW solar farm on 49.38 acres in an agricultural zone at 2321 Park Road in Belleville. The applicant was Helms Farmland Trust. When completed the solar farm will deliver 5Kw of renewable energy daily under ideal conditions.
The Board approved contracts for conducting inspections on new construction for the following municipalities- Village of Caseyville, Village of East Carondelet, Village of Freeburg, Village of St Libory, Village of St Libory, Village of New Athens, Village of Marissa, Village of Fayetteville and the Village of Smithton. St Clair County will now conduct these inspections.
Management Information. Three contracts were approved, one with Sidwell for Professional Services for the ArcGIS (Geographic Information Systems) Pro and Parce Fabric Migration in the amount of $66, 792.10. Approval of a Contract with NV5 to upgrade Arc GIS in our AWS Environment, provide Cloud Managed Services and Offer pay as you go support for the next three years for $79, 150 and finally approval of a contract for HR for onboarding and talent acquisition for the next three years in the amount of $143,633.50.
Property and Recreation Committee. We approved Special Park Grants for: St Clair Township, Chenot Park, $500,000 for improvement and features for Chenot Park and $500,000 to St Clair County for livestock facility renovations at the fairgrounds.
Judiciary Committee. The County Jail average inmate population is 392 (the jail maximum is 418). But some detentions are temporary as intake bookings and then release of some cases. The average stay population includes those awaiting trial on a hold or remand order from a judge; Federal prisoners, prisoners awaiting transfer to IDOC and some serving a sentence under one year.
The juvenile facility did not exceed the IDOC rate of 38 for the month.
Lt Col Knapp, Sheriff’s Department, reported that through May 24, they had 574 “intakes” or bookings at the jail, with some released prior to trial under the SAFE-T Act. Patrol issued 146 citations, 66 warnings and made 49 arrests and conducted 1000 business checks as well as courthouse and park checks.
Finance Committee. As reported by Andrew Lapinot, County Treasurer, we have a total of $265,882,531 of “par value” in approved investments.
Fairgrounds: This is a summary of the activities of the fairground upgrades reported in the Belleville News Democrat (In case you do not get the newspaper).
- All land acquisitions have been completed. None were through imminent domai. This includes two houses and lots and the Auffenberg property on South Illinois next to Denny’s restaurant.
- $500,000 grant approved to renovate the livestock barn.
- Design for a new parking lot including a new rotary to ease traffic flow.
- New bathrooms and adding showers in case we need to house temporary stays due to a natural disaster in the main exposition building.
- Designing a new racetrack which will be set back some from the existing location and submitting grant requests.
- Upgrading the classic billboard on South Belt West
- Adding an entrance and new signing on the S Illinois/Rte 159 side
- Plans remain for rooftop solar panels and putting new HVAC systems at ground level
- Existing shows and such on weekends will remain
- Goal of a county fair for late summer/fall of 2025