By Bruce A. Fasol
On the television game show ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’ players could use what was termed a life-line.
That allowed unsure contestants to call a friend for advice. Tuesday night the Zeigler City Council used their own expert telephone call and came away with some money. The council approved ordinances dealing with electric aggregation. They will join with other communities in participating in a pool that will purchase electricity for the city-owned properties.
Zeigler has some 23 different electric accounts. A question arose regarding Ameren and the services that they provide to the city at no charge. That is referred to as a franchise agreement. City officials wanted to know if this would be lost, when the city transferred their account over to Select Energy. At that point of the meeting, Mayor Dennis Mitchell reached for the cell phone in his shirt pocket and called Nick Hill, the representative of Select Energy for an answer.
Hill reassured Zeigler officials that their continued payments for such an agreement would continue in the form of a monetary payment in lieu of service and rate considerations. That amount, according to Mayor Mitchell, was $4,200. The council decided to accept the recommendation of Select Energy – as the city broker for kilowatt hour electric purchase – and awarded their contract to AEM. This company is actually an AMEREN subsidiary. Savings to the city is estimated at $3,208 per year. All the ordinances approved Tuesday are subject to review by the city attorney Rebecca Whittington.
Mayor Mitchell reported to the Council that he has had talks with a land developer that the city is working with to bring a third party to Zeigler. The land in question is at the north edge of the city. It is the former high school football field that is used as a walking path now. Developers are considering a counter offer from the city for the sale of the 2.1 acres. While nothing has been announced formally, city officials have openly said that Dollar General Stores is looking to build on that site. However, Mayor Mitchell seemed frustrated at the pace of the negotiations with the counter offer having been made at the first of the calendar year.
Two matters from the agenda were tabled: the police department contract negotiations, and the tax anticipation warrant. A tax anticipation warrant is sought by governmental taxing bodies as a short term loan. The money is borrowed until the county reimburses tax monies owed. The borrowed money is used to meet daily expenses, many times being payroll and benefit payments.
The council set June 20th as a citywide clean up day, with details to follow.
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