The fireworks show scheduled for Saturday, July 4th in Carmi are on their way to being bigger and better. Carmi Chamber Executive Director Megan Newman appeared before the City Council Tuesday to request a donation. Newman says the base cost of the fireworks show is $15,000 but the more money raised, the more product and better show the contractor can provide. She says she’s already secured $7,500 in pledges and donations. The city added it’s typical $10,000 donation surpassing the benchmark and there’s still time to grow both the display and festivities surrounding the nation’s 250th birthday.
We really would love if other civic organizations would want to host events that day. Years ago, before CoViD, the Lions Club did the car show out there and the fair board is open to whatever. They do have the Kiwanis stage there now so we could do music if somebody wanted to do that. The Chamber would do whatever we can to support, but as far as to man a huge event, we don’t have the people. Food trucks, anything throughout the day. I had spoken to Heath Rush, he’s already committed somewhere else. There are several other food trucks that might be willing to set up. We’re not looking to set up a carnival or anything because the fair is like two weeks later.
You can coordinate with Newman if you have a donation or are interested in providing ideas or assistance with events to make the day bigger and better by calling 618-382-7606 or finding the Carmi Chamber of Commerce page on Facebook.
The rest of Tuesday night’s council meeting moved swiftly. It took in all just 18 minutes to move through the eleven agenda items prior to adjourning. Nancy J. Winter was reappointed to the Police Pension Board for a two year term beginning in May. Council added Kayci Large to the city’s purchasing account for pool supplies. The city is setting up a purchasing account with Amazon in the hopes of saving money on some supplies. The city agreed to pay about $65,000 to Brown and Roberts for engineering work, most of that for work at the airport and just under $13,000 for work related to the new water meters currently being installed throughout the municipality. Council also agreed to a pay estimate from Wiggs Excavating amounting to the tune of $261,775.53 for those water meters. That bill is paid through an IEPA loan the city acquired.
With no closed session, council adjourned at 5:48pm. Leaders will reconvene on April 21st at 5:30pm.