Danville Council: New Bike Trails Passed; Firefighter Overtime Rules Disputed

Above: Property owner Brock Atwood (left) and Drew Landis from the Vermilion County Trail Alliance (right), discuss possible trespassing issues after new bike trails are built by the Alliance on an agreement with the city.

New bike trails and overtime for firefighters dominated much of the time at Tuesday evening’s Danville City Council meeting.  The city’s proposed agreement with the Vermilion County Trail Alliance, to allow for the organization to build new bike trails on city property starting from the west side of Harrison Park, was passed.  City Engineer Sam Cole explains the area.

AUDIO: Like the west side of Harrison Park, west of the river.  Then there’s a gap in between, and then there’s land that was donated to the city by the Wright family several years back.  But generally everything is west of Lake Vermilion, and west of the Vermilion River.

But property owner Broc Atwood, who lives near Harrison Park, stated that with so many trespassers now coming on to his property without bike trails there, building the trails could bring more trouble.

AUDIO: There’s no trails right now, and I have to deal with trespassers all the time.  So now, from what they said, you know they’re expecting 500-plus bikes.  So now you’re introducing 500 more people, so now I’m going to have tons of trespassers on to my property.  You know they leave trash, they steal things.

But Drew Landis from the Trail Alliance says having the trails will put city property back in use, and the users will help police it by having more people watching things.  He believes five to seven miles of trails can be done by the end of this year

AUDIO: We already have a Facebook page, we’re going to have a website.  We’re going to have multiple ways for people to contact us that there’s a problem.  This is part of our responsibility in this agreement is to you know police the situation, let the city know when we have problems.

Danville Firefighters Union VP Lester Potts, Jr addresses overtime issues during Tuesday night’s Danville City Council meeting.  Potts and Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr had different takes on the issue.

Meanwhile, Danville Firefighters Union VP Lester Potts, Jr said a recent issue about how much overtime is being spent could be resolved, if the city and Mayor Williams would allow flexibility that was agreed to a couple years ago, involving probationary firefighters being able to go to shift, while completing a final phase of training.

AUDIO: The contract wants them to have the other training.  We wrote a memorandum of understanding with the city, that covered three years ago, that allowed them to do that other portion actually on shift and not on a 40 hour week.  And so we tried to enter into that memorandum of understanding again, but we’ve been advised by the mayor that that’s no longer good.

But Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr; sees if differently; and says the city is in arbitration with the Danville Firefighters Union over this very issue.

AUDIO: Because minimum manning is 12, that means we have to call back people just to show up and fill in for someone else to the tune of over half-a-million dollars a year.  And if they would agree to change minimum manning, we could have reduced overtime by over $400,000 last year.

Finally, County Board member Jerry Hawker spoke about damage to a house he owns on Harmon, saying that trespassers had taken over a nearby abandoned house, and were constantly robbing his tenant.  Hawker claimed not enough was being done.  Mayor Williams questioned whether or not Hawker had communicated with the mayor’s office on the problem as much as he stated.