The City of Danville’s plans for the spending of $24.7 million in COVID relief money have been adjusted. During Tuesday night’s City Council meeting it was announced that the money being allocated for fire trucks has been increased from $800,000 to 2.2 million, which will allow for the purchase of one regular fire truck and one ladder truck. Fire Chief Don McMasters says this will really help him get back on track when it comes to replacing trucks when they need to be. But he also cautioned that if this plan is approved, the new fire engines will not show up right away.
Danville Fire Chief Don McMasters says department’s current ladder truck is 20 years old, with a backup that is 23 years old. He says purchasing a new ladder truck and regular truck will get him back on schedule when it comes to replacing fire trucks when they need to be replaced.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: The build time for a truck is anywhere from 18 to 24 months right now. So in reality it’s going to be almost two years before they show up, before we get them.
As predicted by Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr, city administration is doing this by moving over infrastructure money planned for bridge repair, believing it can be replaced by other sources of federal funds.
Meanwhile, former Danville Public Works Director Doug Ahrens was critical of the $13 million dollar plan for the renovation of Garfield Park and the Garfield Pool; wondering if there’s a plan to pay for upkeep after the whole thing is built.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: There’s been no indication of what the annual ongoing operational costs will be. This is obviously going to be more expensive than the previous pool. And citizens deserve to know, as well as the Council should know before they vote on something, what’s it going to cost to operate it after it’s built. The initial start up is just one function of the cost.
Mayor Williams believes everything will be fine.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: Actually the pool has more than paid for itself the last several years of operation. What the pool has not done a good job of paying for is long term maintenance of that facility. And we believe that with revenues from the casino and other revenues that we have, that we’ll be more than able to offset that cost. This is about an issue of quality of life. We want to be sure that everyone has access to the types of recreational opportunities that the pool and park will provide.
Mayor Williams also emphasized that a goal of opening the pool Memorial Day of 2024 is very realistic, due to the time it will take to get approval from the Illinois Department of Public Health.
The City Council still plans to vote on the ARPA spending plan at the May 17th meeting.
