A Weekly Note from Mayor Gary L. Graham
“Traditional Values, Progressive Thinking”
I continued to be amazed at the sense of community and the caring that our residents exhibit towards each other. A perfect example of this phenomenon is the number of people who volunteered to assist others immediately after the ice storm came through our City almost two weeks ago.
By mid-morning on the day after the storm, City leaders were aware that approximately 80% of the households in our City were without power and that it could be as long as 3-5 days before power was restored. With temperatures expected to remain below the freezing mark, we made the decision to establish a shelter for those residents who could not make alternate living arrangements. A call was placed to the Citizens Emergency Response Team (CERT) who is headed up by Robert Gage and Dale Yonker. Within a little over an hour, approximately 20 members of CERT were assembled and ready to help in any way they could. They were a tremendous asset as we set up and manned the shelter. We could not have provided this service to our residents without CERT’s help.
In the days following the storm, the CERT group as well as many other residents volunteered to assist those who were elderly, disabled, or experiencing other age or health-related hardships to get storm debris to the curb for pick-up. Military families who had a spouse that was TDY also qualified for assistance. The response to our call for help was tremendous. At times, the volunteers outnumbered the requests for assistance. Six members of the 433rd Airvac group, who were temporarily assigned to Scott Air Force Base, were also a tremendous help during the clean-up.
My sincere thanks to not only the groups mentioned above, but to all citizens who assisted their family, neighbors and others during this storm event.
In the aftermath of the storm, some residents inquired as to why we were not providing city-wide pick-up of storm debris. The cost to do so would run an estimated $300,000 per storm event. Excluding salaries, benefits, and fixed costs, the remaining discretionary budget for the entire year in the Streets Division is around $500,000. While we would like to provide this service for our residents, there is just no way we can afford it, especially when the winter storm season has just begun.
If the residents of O’Fallon wish to have storm debris pick-up services provided by the City, one mechanism to fund a program of this nature would be a small monthly fee collected from each household. The collected fees would then be placed in an account that would be used specifically for storm debris pick-up. The City would never impose such fees on residents without citizen approval through a referendum.
If you have other ideas on this issue, I encourage you to contact me at 624-4500.
The strong working relationship between City Hall and the residents we serve is yet another example of why O’Fallon is such a great community in which to live.
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