Quincy hiring three new employees for Central Services

Quincy Mayor Mike Troup said on Muddy River News This Week that he wanted the city to hire three employees to help with the workload at Central Services, which is the city’s street department.

At Monday night’s Quincy City Council meeting, aldermen approved spending $335,000 for those three new employees to work on city streets. Deteriorating street conditions were a major issue in the mayoral campaign.

Aldermen had to vote to amend the budget because the positions weren’t included when the budget was approved last month. This money is coming from an unexpected increase in revenues collected by the city.

The Finance Committee met before the Council meeting and the committee discussed the move and the fact that sales tax and home rule sales tax revenues were running ahead of their previous estimates.

Also, the city is expecting an additional $900,000 from the motor fuel tax fund for Rebuild Illinois capital plan projects. Troup said he wanted the positions filled as soon as possible.

So as the street crews works on asphalt and concrete, they will also have a new piece of equipment. Aldermen approves a $37,000 lease for the summer for a hot-patch truck. Central Services Director Kevin McClean said this method should be more effective and road patches should last longer than the cold-patch method used by the city for years.

In another meeting before the regular City Council meeting, The city’s Barge Dock Committee approved a recommendation for a renewal of Richard McNay’s lease to use the dock. Dock fees produce about $200,000 annually for the city.