By:  Diane Benjamin

Tearing down the old Village Hall was approved at the June meeting:

The minutes don’t say anything about other bids.

See the Matt Park bid here – note it doesn’t mention asbestos:   Park bid

There was another bid that did mention asbestos.  See that bid here:  JK Owen bid

The Owen bid is only $4,540.  Besides mentioning asbestos – which is required by law – the only difference is Owen wasn’t planning on spreading grass seed.  The Park bid charges $1,600 for that service.

The bid the Village awarded the work to was $9,310.00 higher.

Isn’t Mr. Park the Village Clerk’s cousin?  The minutes don’t reflect the much lower bid even being considered.

Did Matt Park Excavating check for asbestos before hauling the debris to the dump?  His bid doesn’t say he did.  I bet the IL EPA will be interested.

On more thing:

Residents of Stanford have been charged $5 a month for a potential sewage plant.  The balance is supposedly up to $125,384.84, except the bank account statement only shows $121,656.04.  That means $3,728.80 is missing – $1,282.50 was taken out of the fund in April.  See the statement and spreadsheet here:    Village of Stanford Sewer Fund

In 2015 I found $4,674.63 missing:    https://blnnews.com/2015/08/15/stanford-games-with-your-money/

The bank statement then also showed deposits of $19,182.38 when the monthly amount collected is less than $4000.  Obviously somebody was scrambling to replace “borrowed” money because of my FOIA.

This fund will NEVER collect enough money to build the plant, especially when the Village keeps “borrowing” from it.  The missing money needs to be immediately replaced and then all money returned to the taxpayers.  It doesn’t make sense to keep taking your money for something that will never happen.  It also doesn’t make sense to leave the money in an account where it can be “borrowed” at will.

Local elections are next April, petitions will be available at the end of this month.

It sure looks like new people without an agenda or relatives who profit from Village business need to run for the Village Board!

It also looks like citizens need to start asking questions – show up at Board meetings!  The next meeting is September 20th.    https://www.stanford-il.org/departments.html

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