Grayville leaders only took about 20 minutes to work through open session Monday night. Paired with a 10 minute executive session and most were on their way home by 7:40pm. Treasurer Sharon Walden assures the community that even though cash available for operation was in the negative, the city is in solid shape. The cash on hand showed negative $2,704 and change.
We have had a lot of expenditures over the last couple weeks plus we have a lot in the next two weeks. This is all of our expenditures until the next meeting. We had a lift station that was $9,919, a sewer that was $10,000, bond interest payments of $22,000, plow and salt spreaders of $18,000 and our annual ITRON service agreement of $15,000. So a lot of thousands there. We’re still in fine shape. We get our sales tax tomorrow and this coming Monday. Also in our e-pay account, we have $68,822.58.
With the council’s blessing, they agreed to transfer $65,000 from that e-pay account to the general fund.
Also Monday night, council signed off on first readings of ordinances for the 2025-2026 tax levy and abating the levy for the 2024 bond issue. Council opened bids for insurance coverage. They received two bids and went with Illinois Municipal League’s Risk Management Agency at a cost of $69,594.55. Council approved uniform employee payroll procedures, explained as a streamlining of the process. Finally, the group approved a bid from Guisewhite to demo property at 214 West North Street. That will cost the city $8,855.
In his police report for October, Chief Mason Siegel gave a big thanks to the GCAA for their efforts at the Boo Bash.
Halloween in Grayville was a great success this year. It was a fun and safe night for everyone. I’d like to extend a special thank you to the GCAA and Commissioner Ford for hosting the annual event. I’d like to point out that all the money raised through the ‘Baby Boo’ contest was generously donated to the Hometown Heroes program. We’ve also received several other generous donations throughout the season, which I’ll be recognizing in a future meeting. Thank you for your generosity and for helping make Christmas wishes come true for local children.