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2019/03/18 - Mayor's Column: The Future is Bright in O'Fallon

“An Open Door to O’Fallon”
A Weekly Note from Mayor Herb Roach
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The lights shine a little brighter in O’Fallon. After last week, this saying takes on a new meaning.

The City of O’Fallon recently performed lighting upgrades on all eligible city buildings and recreation areas. Using Ameren Illinois’ Energy Efficiency Small Business Program Incentives, the City of O’Fallon was able to replace thousands of older lights with brand new LED fixtures. Working with Ameren Illinois and their approved contractor, Jarvis Electric, the City was able to install these new LED bulbs for free!

Ameren Illinois has estimated that we will be saving nearly $70,000 per year on lighting costs. Not to mention we won’t have to spend valuable time and energy replacing those aging light fixtures as they go out one-by-one over the next few years! The life expectancy of LED lights are much longer than those of their predecessors.

The program serves all small businesses and public facilities who are Ameren Illinois electric customers. To see if your small business is eligible for the Ameren Illinois Small Business Incentives, please contact the Ameren Illinois SBDI customer service center at 866-800-0747 or fill out an online request form at www.amerenillinoissavings.com/smallbusiness.

On a different note, over the next few weeks, Community Park will be undergoing $180,000 worth of updates as part of the O'Fallon Community Park Enhancement Project.

With everything that’s usually going on at the Family Sports Park, it may seem that the other parks in O’Fallon don’t get the same level of treatment. However, that is not true. Every year, we work to improve each park in O’Fallon so that everyone can enjoy all of O’Fallon’s parks.

Every year, O’Fallon’s parks receive extensive upgrades to address ADA compliance and improve aging infrastructure. The upcoming improvements to Community Park were made possible with matching grants from the Metro East Parks and Recreation District as well as St. Clair County Grants Commission. The updates will include:

  • New bleachers installed on Blazier Baseball Field
  • The tennis courts will be resurfaced
  • New tennis court fencing
  • Dugouts will be installed on fields #4 and #5
  • New ballfield fencing will be installed on fields #3 and #4
  • An ADA pathway will be installed connecting Blazier Baseball Field to the restrooms
  • A second batting cage will be installed near field #6

I hope that you get a chance to visit Community Park after these improvements are made.

As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open!