New aldermen get feet wet, appointments of Alford, Brink approved, electrical aggregation to continue

QUINCY — With a new mayor and two new aldermen getting used to sitting in on their first meeting of the Quincy City Council on Monday night, it was understandable that City Clerk Laura Oakman had to get used to new names in new positions as well.

She forgot to ask Mike Adkins, the new 3^rd Ward alderman, for his vote on one matter, and she asked for a vote from long-time alderman Mike Rein, who has been replaced in the 5^th Ward by Laura McReynolds. (No, she did not mistakenly refer to new Mayor Linda Moore as “Mayor Troup” during the meeting.)

“Welcome. I’m so happy to be sitting next to you, and things will go really smooth from now on,” Oakman said to Moore. She then turned to Adkins and sheepishly said, “I didn’t mean to skip you on purpose.”

Other than those minor bobbles, Moore’s first meeting as the new mayor went smoothly.

Adkins said he prepared for his first night as an alderman by sitting in the crowd at previous City Council meetings for the past six months.

“I really don’t get nervous on anything,” he said. “I worked at S.J. Smith for almost 20 years and in the corporate office for the last 15 years, and I used to have to give presentations in front of people. Being up here doesn’t bother me.

“I’ve got a lot to learn. I’m just soaking it up from some of the ones who have been here a while.”

McReynolds said she also has been attending recent City Council meetings to get up to speed on the city budget.

“I have been learning a lot, and I wanted to start with my feet on the ground solidly with some information instead of just coming in blindly,” she said.

Returning aldermen made sure to welcome the new faces and wish Moore well on her new role.

“You’re the 60th mayor of the City of Quincy, and we are very proud of you,” Greg Fletcher (R-1) said. “The community is excited. We will constantly do our best to work with you, to pray for you and make this a happy place and move this city forward. I can tell you, from the bottom of my heart, I’m very encouraged to see you sit there.”

“Welcome Mike. Welcome Laura. Welcome Madam Mayor, Dr. Linda K. Moore,” Jake Reed (R-6) said. “Hope you don’t regret it.”

The new aldermen and Moore were sworn in during a ceremony on Sunday in Washington Park.

Aldermen also voted to approve resolutions appointing Bruce Alford as interim corporation counsel and Dan Brink as director of operations. While Alford’s vote was unanimous, Glen Ebbing (R-5) cast the lone no vote against Brink, a Republican who lost in the mayoral primary in February to Mike Troup.

“(My vote) wasn’t against Dan Brink. It was against the unity of the Republican Party,” Ebbing said after the meeting. “It’s a poor portrayal of us trying to be a unified party when we have a Republican working for the opposite party. If I voted for (Brink’s appointment), that makes me a hypocrite.”

Moore was elected as an independent, the first in city history.

Aldermen also voted to table indefinitely an ordinance tabling the municipal electrical aggregation program, with only Jake Reed (R-6) voting against it. 

Quincy voters elected in April to have the city continue to operate the program, with 4,003 votes in favor (61 percent) and 2,490 votes against (38 percent). The program, which will enroll all electric customers unless they specifically remove themselves from participation, was suspended by aldermen in October 2024.

Moore said she recently has talked with SIMEC President Reg Ankrom, who previously helped the city coordinate the aggregation program.

“He’s actually out there now looking for rates for us,” she said. “I’ve asked him to actually make two presentations over the next few months. One would be on what’s happening in the aggregation market and educating our new aldermen, and one would be just kind of reviewing our existing contracts and our existing ordinance.”

In other action, aldermen: 

• Heard proclamations from Moore declaring 2025 as the year of the Adams County Bicentennial and the week of May 4-10 as Professional Municipal Clerk’s Week.
• Approved a request by Fireworks Authority Inc. to hold firework displays on May 30, June 6, June 20 and July 11 at QU Stadium, 1800 Sycamore, and on July 3 at Quincy Country Club, 2410 State.
• Approved a request by Adams County Ambulance to land the Air Medical Helicopter in the Prairie Crossing complex on May 18 for the annual EMS public display. 
• Approved a request by St. Peter Church to conduct a raffle and have the bond requirement waived from June 1 through Aug. 24.
• Approved an invoice for $13,687.96 from Lexipol LLC, which provides the Quincy Fire Department with a web-based policy management platform utilized for personnel to review and record the review of departmental policies, for an annual service renewal.
• Approved an invoice for $7,559.17 from First Arriving, an electronic web-based platform that provides the fire department with real-time dispatch information in various locations throughout each fire station, to renew the annual subscription.
• Approved a resolution authorizing the city to enter into a reciprocal agreement on exchange of financial information that is obtained pursuant to the Illinois Retailers’ Occupation Tax Act, the Service Occupation Tax Act, the Use Tax Act and the Service Use Tax Act with the Illinois Department of Revenue.
• Approved a three-year agreement beginning June 1 with BidNet Direct of Dallas for $9,270.70 to provide online bid management services to the City of Quincy and the city’s purchasing department.
• Approved of a short-term loan of up to $600,000, as needed, from the General Fund to the Quincy Transit Lines to pay operating expenses. Quincy Transit Lines Director Marty Stegeman says he’s asked for the loan every year for 14 years because of a delay in payments from the state every new fiscal year. “We have never failed to pay that back,” he told aldermen. “We only draw it down as needed for expenses.”
• Approved an invoice for $12,585 from Rees Construction Co. for the emergency repair of a watermain on 12^th Street on Dec. 2 because the Illinois Veterans Home was about to run out of water.
• Approved a quote for $34,200 from Hydro-Kinetics of St. Louis, MO for the purchase of wall pumps at the wastewater treatment plant. Director of Public Works Jeffrey Conte explained that the pumps return a nitrate-rich stream to the beginning of the treatment plant to get better removal of carbon and nitrogen.
• Approved invoices totaling $122,849.20 from LCL Farms, Inc., of Keokuk, Iowa, for the hauling and land application of lime sludge and dewatered biosolids.
• Approved a quote for $34,653 from GA Rich and Sons, Inc., of Deer Creek for the replacement of wet weather screw pump bearings. Conte said the work will require a crane lifting up a screw that is 10 foot in diameter by about 45 foot long “to get the bearing in there.”
• Approved a proposal from Mississippi Lime Company of Kansas City to furnish and deliver pebble lime to the wastewater treatment plant at the cost of $376.80 per ton — a 9 percent increase in cost from last year.
• Approved an invoice for $14,924.57 from CentralSquare of Lake Mary, Fla., for annual software subscription renewal fees.
• Approved invoices totaling $24,000.12 from Hawkins, Inc. of Roseville, Minn., to buy liquid polymer used in the dewatering of biosolids at the wastewater treatment plant.
• Approval an annual software services contract from CentralSquare Technologies, Inc., for $80,787.36 for the city’s enterprise-wide financial and utility billing system.
• Approved a quote from SecureData Technologies, Inc. for $25,799 for the annual maintenance contract renewal for the CheckPoint firewall appliances, which serve as the primary firewall solution for Internet and VPN connectivity for the city.
• Approved a quote from SHI International Corp. for $26,475.84 for the annual maintenance contract renewal for the Barracuda Networks email security and archiving services.
• Approval an annual renewal with Smartsheet Inc. for $15,750 for a software service contract.
• Approved a change to the zoning at 3011 Maine and at 3101 Maine from R1A (single family residential) to C1A (commercial).