The City of Carmi made a little over $7,850 Tuesday night after opening bids for what the municipality deemed surplus equipment. They also authorized spending well in excess of that at the last March meeting of 2026.
The city authorized the sale of a 1970 Ford 850 fire truck to Ben Arnold. He was the only bidder at $3,050. Donnie Paynter won the bid for a 1972 International Loadster at $1,000. Adam Sexton will be the proud owner of a 1984 Chevy van with a $3,001 winning bid. And Troy Weber will take possession of a 1986 Ford pickup thanks to his winning bid of $800.
The Carmi Kiwanis Club and the City of Carmi agreed to a 100-year lease back in the 1950s regarding the Girl Scout cabin. The log cabin, located near Eckerle Park, has fallen into disrepair and is no longer used by the Girl Scouts as per it’s initial intentioned and documented purpose. The Carmi Kiwanis Club, as per the lease, formally requested to break the lease and turn the rights back over to the city. Tuesday night, the council agreed to terminate that lease and take possession.
The budget for January 1, 2026 to December 31, 2026 was approved and then shortly thereafter, it became apparent not everybody read it well. A few agenda items later, a possible capital outlay purchase for the Carmi swimming pool was discussed with a presentation of potentially buying a dual slide for use at the recreation area. Alderman Jack Bradshaw who is on the parks committee was unaware of details including that $60,000 had been placed in the just passed budget for the purchase.
Bradshaw: Well since I’m over this department, how did this come about? Where did this come from?
Mayor Bill Stendeback: Well it came from last year. We had talked about it and we decided to put it in the budget with no guarantee that it was going to be talked about. But we just decided, we’ve got so much going on right now and this thing has to have a 9-week lead which…I doubt it could even be here by Memorial Day at this point. We just didn’t have time to bring it up.
Discussion ensued and ultimately Jeremy Courson made a motion authorizing up to $57,200 (the price of one of the two slide options presented at the meeting) to be spent even though there are still many discussions to be had regarding placement and potential issues.
The city also passed an ordinance regarding a new offering, 40 amp surge Generlink purchase and installation. Through the legislation, Carmi Light and Water would purchase the piece of equipment on behalf of a resident and then install it on their electric meter. From that point, during a power outage, the resident would be able to connect their generator directly into the meter to power their home. Customers would be responsible for the $1,026 purchase price plus a $50 installation fee.
Beyond that, the city also awarded a bid for a Jessup Street/Main Street Storm Sewer project to be paid through a DCEO Energy Transition grant. O’Daniel won the bid submitting a cost of $69,890. The city is hoping to get the work completed over the summer.
The city also accepted a quote from Clarke Mosquito Control amounting to just shy of $16,000.
After updates from Mayor Stendeback which included news that the city will begin posting financial information on its website to encourage transparency and a reminder that water meter replacement is ongoing, regular attendee Richard Cook once again took aim at city leaders and the budget billing issues. Cook attempted to paint Mayor Stendeback into a corner that the root cause was human error and yet there would be no accountability. The mayor rebutted that there is accountability moving forward and that checks and balances that were not in place prior are now being utilized, but refused to point fingers at any individual(s) who were to blame.
Stendeback: I’m not going to say that. I think it’s been a collective thing that we’re fixing.
Cook: Is there going to be any accountability for this? If I caused $200,000 to be temporarily missing at my employer, I’d probably be fired.
Stendeback: You might be, yeah. But, we’re not going to point fingers at somebody because we’d probably have to get rid of a lot of people including some that aren’t here anymore. The big thing here is we are fixing…
Cook: No accountability.
Stendeback: There is accountability now. That’s what we’re doing now is getting…
Cook: Yeah, you’re going after the citizens.
Stendeback: Who owe the bills…the citizens who owe the bills.
Cook: Yes, and the employees who made the decisions to lead the city to be missing $200,000, nothing’s being done.
Stendeback: I guess my point is shouldn’t the citizens have taken a little responsibility?
Cook: Shouldn’t the city take some of the responsibility?
Stendeback: I’m not saying they shouldn’t have. Should’ve had more than a few eyes on it. But that ship’s sailed. We can’t go back…what we’re doing is trying to go back and fix what was broken.
Council adjourned with no executive session at 6:22pm.