By: Diane Benjamin
Normal has two water problems:
- The first is spending over $5 million to run water lines on top of Bloomington’s out West College
- The second is brown water or worse at various locations around the Town.
Chris Koos keeps trying to claim discolored water doesn’t exist. Just hit play to hear him say HIS water is brown after hydrant flushing last month:
If flushing hydrants makes his water brown then the water lines have rust in them. Likely his water is always a little off color or flushing the lines wouldn’t turn it brown. Hear Stan Nord at 3:52:45 talking about maintenance of existing lines followed by Koos claiming he doesn’t have rusty water again last night.
Instead of doing maintenance where it is needed, Normal is building new in hopes west side development occurs.
Pam Reece stated again she knows of no development. Kevin McCarthy claimed the Council does know of some but the papers aren’t signed yet. (3:54:00) Which is it?
One thing was clear: The current board with the exception of Stan have no interest in working with Bloomington in order to save money. That means two fancy libraries, two east side fire stations, duplicate water lines, etc. Listen to McCarthy at 3:54:30 say he was elected to represent Normal, he thinks separate is fine. He also thinks that is what the citizens of Normal expect.
Do you want to pay for their war?
https://blnnews.com/2021/02/16/normal-publicly-announces-the-war-with-bloomington/
The Council also has no interest in replacing ancient water mains until they are forced to, like the Ruston and Grove area. Those lines are only being replaced because Marc Tiritilli got involved when the citizens couldn’t get anyone’s attention. Chris Koos claims only 4 houses are affected, he obviously hasn’t talked to the area residents. How many years do problems have to exist before he cares?
3:49:30 Stan states he is always in favor of doing what is best for the entire area, not spending at the expense of Bloomington.
3:52:40 Listen a minute before this to Pam Reece talking about the total budget and running water out West College will have to come back to the Council for final approval. (After the election!) Stan Nord then claims budgeting this expense means other projects aren’t in the budget and therefore won’t be done.
If you have problems with water quality in Normal either the Town is not aware of them or you are being ignored.
Just hit play to hear Koos say he doesn’t have rusty water, the faces of other Council members are priceless. Keep the Zoom meetings Council, this is too much fun.
The budget was approved 6-1. No surprise.
I spent two seconds and tried real hard to think of something nice I could say about Koos because he deserved and i got a _____________. I would have spent more time but I knew the result would be the same.
So childish that Normal and Bloomington can’t play together in the same sandbox. It’s fiscally irresponsible and it removes the ability for a community of this small size to compete for employers, investors and quality of life. Very short sighted. King Chris and King Terri have been waging an expensive skirmish that neither will survive, and some of their constituents won’t either. Heck of a legacy. In the absence of active public voices and voters, it will only get worse. How does one get a stunned and tazed public involved when government actively suppresses them? Cultural expectations have been set. Tax hike anyone?