ALBION— A similar situation to one that occurred a year ago this month in Xenia has just occurred in Albion: there’s been a mass walkout of volunteer firefighters.
However, the reasoning behind this one is a little less honorable than what was going on in Xenia, where the fire department left in protest of the egregious expenditures and irresponsibility of one board of trustees member.
In Albion, it appears it’s utter pissiness over their fire chief, Kent Nale, either not securing the proper contract for the building of a new fire station in town…or not bothering to get the contract at all.
The construction, as we reported in the current edition, is well over budget (last check had it at more than $60,000, and without the first brick being set). There was a special board meeting held tonight to address this specific issue. Apparently it’s been addressed, and apparently, it’s not to the satisfaction of the firefighters, who have had themselves a little good ol boys club in Albion for far too long…and who have been operating outside the guidelines of many restrictions, most of them having to do with Illinois’ Open Meetings Act.
We’ve learned that there may in fact have been an OMA violation tonight—prior to the special meeting. It appears that a “meeting before the meeting” was held amongst the firefighters, who at that meeting determined they were going to resign. Former mayor Ryan Hallam was at the meeting tonight and spoke out about the contract for the new building, which he claimed he’d signed prior to his resignation back in February, using as his “liaison” former alderman Bret Berger.
There’s just a couple of problems with all this, though: Berger had already advised the council that he had nothing to do with Hallam signing the contract…and Hallam signed the contract without bringing it before the council for approval.
In light of this, it would appear that Hallam could be in very hot water. We’ll examine that prospect in the upcoming print version.
Two things caused us some amusement tonight. One was the presence of the Edgar County Watchdogs, John Kraft and Kirk Allen, who have been watching the Albion debacle unfold in our pages as we sell quite a few papers up in Edgar County, covering the Watchdogs’ uncovering of corruption. Because the Watchdogs have experience with belligerent boards and councils whose mottoes are “well that’s just the way we’ve always done it,” they were right at home in Albion and offered their expertise to the council during and after the meeting. During the meeting, it was noted by the Watchdogs that if ever there was a cause for an emergency meeting, a city without a volunteer fire department was it. So they suggested the council call an emergency meeting…and they did, for immediately after the posted meeting. There, it was determined (with the help of the Watchdogs) that there needed to be yet another meeting, this one scheduled for Wednesday evening, at which time the city would 1–appoint a fire chief (yes, Kent Nale resigned, too); 2–hire an attorney to look at the contract issue and 3–take immediate action to secure the current fire department building…making for a busy week, what with the election and all.
The other thing that caused us some amusement was the fact that Kraft noted at some point during heated discussion that he was recording everything with his audio recorder. Albion resident Jane Harris, evidently a goodolboysfireman supporter, had a fit from the back of the room, shrieking that Kraft “couldn’t do that, that’s illegal!!” to which Kraft turned around and informed her in his brusque way that he sure as hell COULD record a public meeting, and everything that went on in it. Some people still believe that public meetings should be private affairs, evidently…but in Albion, despite the fact that two newspapers and an adjacent county’s radio station covers council meetings there, it took Disclosure and the Watchdogs to get the citizenry off its ass and realize that it’s THEIR tax money that’s being spent, and apparently, there’s a reason why property taxes in Albion are so godawful high.
Jade will have a newsblast in the morning; we anticipated that she might do one tonight but the emergency meeting kept her late. And of course look for complete coverage in the upcoming print version, on stands at these fine vendors including Bruce Lee in Albion and Liquor Barn in Grayville, and of course you can always read the paper right here from the comfort of your computer if you enroll in the online membership and get the e-Edition.