Slight adjustments made in re-districted city ward map presented to aldermen

QUINCY — Aldermen got their first look at a proposed re-districted city ward map at Monday’s City Council meeting.

Anyone else getting their first glance at the map would have to look long and hard to find the changes.

Only two sections of the current map were adjusted to create the proposed map. One is bordered by 14th Street to 24th Street, and from Broadway to Oak. That section is moved from the 4th Ward to the 2nd Ward. The other is bordered by Wilmar Drive to 24th Street, and from Harrison to Cherry Lane. That section is moved from the 5th Ward to the 4th Ward.

The 1st, 3rd, 6th and 7th Wards were unaffected.

The Ad-Hoc Aldermanic Committee on Re-Districting City Wards met last Thursday in the City Council chambers. Mayor Mike Troup had appointed Eric Entrup, R-1, and Jack Holtschlag, D-7, to the committee. Also part of the meeting were Jeff Mays, director of administrative services, Adams County Clerk Ryan Niekamp and Kevin Hicks, GIS manager for Adams County.

The committee first looked at 2020 Census figures, which showed Quincy’s population had dropped from 40,633 in 2010 to 39,463. The target number for equalized population in each ward was established at 5,638 (dividing the population by seven wards).

Based on that target population, the 2nd Ward was 860 people short of the target number. The 5th Ward had 732 people above the target number. The committee agreed, with guidance from Adams County, the wards should be no more than five percent more or less than the target number.

The committee recommended moving Precinct 30 with 636 residents (on the city’s southeast portion, including Good Samaritan Home) from Ward 5 into Ward 4. It also recommended moving parts of Precinct 20 and Precinct 16 along Broadway with 656 residents from Ward 4 into Ward 2.

The proposed map will be voted on by aldermen in two weeks.

Mays was thrilled with how the process worked. He held a copy of a story from the Springfield State Journal-Register with the headline, “Democrats accuse GOP of gerrymandering proposed district map for Sangamon County Board.”

“This is the process that people can go through,” Mays said as he waved the Springfield printouts. “It’s a very political process. It’s a very ‘screw you’ kind of process. I survived one of those processes when I was in the legislature. That’s just the height of partisanship.

“So when the mayor appointed Eric and Jack to be the co-chairs (of the ad-hoc committee), he sent a signal. That’s not what what we’re going to do here. We wanted to cause as little disruption as we can. I like the idea of compact and contiguous sensible lines.”

“Most of the wards were untouched,” Troup said. “They did split a couple of precincts, which isn’t ideal, but Niekamp didn’t think was a big deal.”

In other action, aldermen:

• Referred to the Plan Commission an amendment of a special permit for planned development to allow for construction of additional living units at 2040 Cherry. It also sent to the Plan Commission a request by Quincy Holdings LLC to consider of a subdivision (dividing one lot into two) for property at 3200 Broadway (the former ShopKo building).
• Approved Troup’s appointments of Tim Schieferdecker and Chuck Scholz to the Lincoln-Douglas Interpretive Center Advisory Board, each for a three-year term; Jason Shimp to the Quincy Preservation Commission for a three-year term; and alderman Ben Uzelac to the Washington Theatre Redevelopment Commission for a three-year term.
• Approved paying $8,950 to Derhake Brothers Excavating and Plumbing to repair a collapsed sewer inlet at 16th and College.
• Approved the low bid of $15,071 from Luby Shoring Services of Fenton, Mo., for an aluminum trench box that will allow city employees to safely make repairs and replace sewer manholes up to eight feet in depth.
• Heard Kathleen Helsabeck with the Quincy Public Library give updates on apps now available at the library, such as Kanopy, Freegal, Flipster, Libby and Hoopla, and an update on what needs to happen for a mobile library to be realized.
• Tabled for one week the approval of an agreement with Crawford, Murphy and Tilly, Inc., of Springfield to provide engineering and planning services for the second phase of construction of an engineering project at Quincy Regional Airport for a cost not to exceed $565,450. Mike Rein, R-5, questioned a sentence in the proposed contract about the firm’s claim about not being a qualified contractor, and airport director Sandra Shore said she would need to check with her legal team. 
• Approved paying Crawford, Murphy and Tilly $15,430 for payment of an industrial pretreatment program limits review.
• Learned 20 trees are still available for $50 apiece as part of the city’s annual tree planting program.
• Approved paying $19,378 to Klingner and Associates for the Water Supply Improvement Project Phase 2 that includes the rehabilitation of filters 1-6, replacement of the filter backwash fill system and structural repairs to the water treatment plant building.
• Heard a first presentation of an ordinance calling for the addition of the Midtown Business District to the Quincy Adams Brown County Enterprise Zone, and an ordinance granting a special use permit for a dance studio and language school at 2435 Maine in the former Madison School building.
• Approved a lease for terminal building office space to Hyannis Air Service Inc., doing business as Cape Air, for a four-year term starting Dec. 1 at Quincy Regional Airport.
• Approved paying $77,454 for upgrades and modifications to the SCADA system to allow for the integration of the new aeration system at the wastewater treatment plant and the new South Quincy Lift.
• Approved the low bid of $128,428 from Rees Construction for the installation of reinforced concrete pipe culverts and flared end sections, construction of riprap berms, replacement of chain link fencing, surface restoration and other ancillary work items at Quincy Regional Airport.
• Heard a report from Richard Elsenpeter and Mark Philpot about the work being done by two groups, Tri-State Veterans Support and Together with Tri-State Veterans.
• Heard a report from Deb Davis, who told the story of a family from Tennessee and their struggles to find safe housing in Quincy and their difficulty to find assistance from either the city or the state to file complaints.