Macomb Transit Director CallaBria Putrino told aldermen Tuesday that she has received a request from Wesley United Methodist Church to provide a bus for summer camp field trips.
She said the church would pay the city transportation department $50 per hour. Putrino said there would be 28 trips, including five outside the county.
The transit director also submitted a quarterly report at the City Council Committee of the Whole meeting covering activities from January through March. Putrino said her department would provide shuttle service to the Macomb Municipal Airport on the Sunday of Heritage Days. Bus service will also be provided to patrons of the Macomb Park District's Movies in the Park. Putrino said cumulative ridership totaled 67,000 from January through March, and $2,000 was collected in fares for point-to-point van services.
Pete Hannen has retired as assistant transit director after 27 years of service. Other city department heads gave quarterly reports covering the period from February through April. Finance Director Melissa Worley said 16,573 bills were sent for city services, with the top customers being the city of Colchester, NTN Bower and Western Illinois University. Worley said her office wrote 1,200 checks totaling $5.9 million, with the top service providers being Maurer-Stutz Engineering, Visu Sewer, Waste Management, Ameren and West Central FS. The City of Macomb currently employs 116 full time employees and 50 part-timers.
Community Development Director Cesar Suarez said his department issued 258 construction permits for a total cost of $4.5 million. Staff examined 24 site plans and conducted 904 building inspections. There were 502 code enforcement citations, with the most frequent being 122 cases of accumulated refuse and 231 cases of tall grass.
City Attorney Lisa Scalf reported 168 court cases were pursued and $35,505 in fines collected, along with $2,098 in liens for tall grass fines and $3,642 in liens for overdue water bills.
Scalf said 193 Freedom of Information Act requests were handled, 115 of the requests involved the Macomb Police Department.
Police Operations Commander Troy Shoudel reported 3,881 calls for service during the quarter. Officers made 159 arrests, including a narcotics /firearms arrest Feb. 7 and copper wire thefts April 20. Shoudel said that 225 hours were spent on body camera review, and that K-9 Jax had five deployments resulting in four arrests.
There were 41 vehicles impounded and $25,620 in fines collected. Bryce Herrick was promoted to sergeant and two officers, Emerson Toosley and Taylor Lester, graduated from the police training institute April 23. Shoudel noted that 12 Macomb police officers received recognition for volunteering to take the power test for physical training.
Fire Chief Dan Meyer reported that 456 calls for service were received during the quarter and 183 inspections were conducted. Firefighters performed 129 lift assists and installed 27 smoke alarms. Training activity during the quarter totaled 1,573 hours. Meyer said the department has appointed two risk prevention officers who are working with senior citizens, with one of the projects aimed at assessing home conditions with an eye toward preventing falls.
Public Works Director Alice Ohrtmann said the sewer plant treated 274.5 million gallons of water during the quarter and the water plant pumped out 158.5 million gallons.
She said street crews performed 550 hours of snow removal, 835 hours of street repairs and 261 hours of storm sewer maintenance. Ohrtmann said Oakwood Cemetery performed eight interments, four burials and four cremations.
Marketing and Downtown Development Director Savannah Ballard said there were 643 events on the communitywide calendar during the quarter.
Results from the newly-established business registry have been posted to the city website. She said there were 418,562 City of Macomb Facebook views and 42,870 Downtown Development Facebook views. Ballard said the business occupancy rate downtown is at 90 percent.
Grant writer Jessica Biddenstadt reported that nine grant applications were sent during the quarter. Grants received included $1.2 million for drainage and stormwater retention, $17,000 for gravesite restoration at Oakwood Cemetery, $12,130 for the installation of an Abraham Lincoln statue on the lawn of the McDonough County Courthouse and $1,500 from the National Rifle Association for police gun range training equipment.
Biddenstadt added that she is working on an application to federal and state emergency management agencies for a Macomb City Hall generator and work to update building fire codes, and on a Tracey Foundation grant for employee wellness.
