New President and Trustee for Atwood Village Board
Scott Harris was sworn in as the new Atwood Village President at the Monday, July 13 meeting.
David Ard was nominated by Scott Harris to fill the trustee vacancy on the Atwood Village Board left by Harris’ resignation. He was sworn in at the Monday, July 13 meeting.
By Doris Elmore
Scott Harris was sworn in as the new Atwood Village President at the regular meeting of the board on Monday, July 13. The meeting began with Harris resigning his current position as a trustee. His resignation was accepted. Trustee Diane Eagan made a motion to nominate Harris as the new president, motion was accepted and Harris was sworn in.
President Harris nominated David Ard to filling the vacancy on the board left by his resignation. This was accepted and Ard was sworn in as the new trustee.
Expenditures accepted totaled $47,342.26 with $36,875 included for the Main Street loan payment.
During the President’s Report, Harris stated by thanking everyone for their diligent work and patience as the board begins the process of moving forward. New items they were working on was an employee and board google calendar. Village Clerk Amanda Barbee is the admin of the calendar.
There will also be a new village email address: [email protected] instead of using personal emails going forward. They are also going to be placing a lot of village documents on OneDrive for reference and to keep better track going forward. Harris gave a review on the grant updates being worked on.
Sewer plant project updates were as follows:
1. Farnsworth is currently working on a cost for a catwalk
2. Work is also being done on a price to correct the issue with wasting to the south sludge pits
3. A plan on the Dollar General sidewalk preliminary design was presented later in the meeting.
4. The proposed costs and final costs of the sewer plant project were explained.
Harris announced Braniff came out to check the south siren after it was reported a malfunction during the last storm in June. The south siren worked fine when tested and they found nothing wrong with it. They are assuming it was a glitch. It worked fine during the July monthly test.
A revised list for the 2026/2027 committees was available.
Two water yokes were repaired and replaced at the Water & Sewer plant. Work is being done on electrical issues at the water plant.
The Atwood Police Department June report was given as follows:
1. Police department was awarded the Organized Retail Crime Grant for $7,500 with the money intended for Flock cameras if approved by the board.
2. The department has submitted a grant application for the Firehouse Subs Grant with the money intended for new mobile radios in the vehicles if the grant is awarded and approved by the board.
3. The new GETAC body camera system is online and the installation of the dash cameras into the vehicle has begun.
4. Chief Joe Duncan said there was an excellent investigation by Sgt. Rodmaker, and Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Homman led to the arrest of a dangerous child sex offender.
5. Sgt. Rodmaker assisted Arthur Police Department with the take down of a suspect who pulled a handgun on someone at the Arthur fireworks. On the same night, Sgt. Rodmaker assisted Arthur Police Department with the capture of a suspect who had broken into and burglarized the Arthur Police Department’s Chief’s home.
June Enforcement Stats: 236 total shift activity entries
26 total traffic stops producing: 9 village ordinance traffic citations; 6 state traffic citations; 6 state traffic citations; 25 written warnings. Five (5) total rime/offense reports were generated with 3 total arrests.
K9 Activity:
21 K9 training exercises
1 K9 deployment. This deployment yielded the seizure of drug paraphernalia, weapons ammunition and weapons parts from a suspect who was prohibited from possessing firearms.
A list was presented as who has contributed to the Park Project Contributions with a total of $17,630 as of July 13. Several donations were in memory of Former Village President Bill Fleming who recently passed away.
Andy Hanfland of Farnsworth Engineering gave a report on the additional work at the sewer plant.
The sinkhole on East Forest Ave is a bigger job than expected and is 13 ft. deep. It will cost $5,000 to have it fixed. The board agreed to this motion.
The board approved for oiling and chipping at 231 N. Illinois at a cost of $2,000.
Hanfland presented copies of his design for the sidewalk or trail to Dollar General. A lengthy discussion was held. Trustee Allen Kilber was dissatisfied with the design and had several questions. It was decided to have a special board meeting on Thursday, July 16 to discuss Hanfland’s design.
The next meeting of the board will be at 6 p.m. on Monday, August 10.
