Plans for “Lighting of the Square” announced at Hawesville Council Meeting

By Jennifer Wimmer

The Hawesville City Council met on Tuesday evening, November 12th, and Mayor Rob McCormick announced the date and plans for this year’s Christmas celebration.

Lighting of the Square will be held on Friday, December 13th, at the Town Square in downtown Hawesville, and begins at 6:30 p.m. McCormick said the community is encouraged to arrive early. There will be Christmas decorated inflatables for the children, sponsored by Southwire, and local food trucks. Local vendors are encouraged to set up as well.

“I’ve talked to from Madden’s office up to the corner,” McCormick said, “and asked them if they would please light and decorate their buildings, and light them especially, because last year it was a little dark walking down Main Street on the north side of the street. They’ve all agreed they would do that for us. We’re hoping and praying for no rain and cold. If you want to, show up at 6:00 p.m., and just mill around and meet with people, because they’ll show up early. Chief Burton’s done a great job in speaking with the gentleman that does the lights, Aaron Walls (Owner of Purple Walrus Lawn Company, in Lewisport). He donated all the lights. He’s going to donate them all, and do the Christmas tree. He is going to wrap everything. He did all of the ones out there today. Southwire will have a table set up. We’ve reached out to the other plants in town, they just haven’t gotten back with us. We talked to the Chamber of Commerce about trying to get some vendors as well…We’re trying to grow a small amount this year.”

They are discussing the possibility of having Main Street blocked off, so people can walk to the Nativity Scene, and to local businesses that will be open during the event, such as Blackford Creek Bakery. People could also stop at local vendor tables that are set up along the way.

McCormick said, “We took possession of the blue house, at 265 Main Street (in downtown Hawesville). The deed has been signed over to us; we now own the house. We took bids this week. We advertised in The Clarion and accepted bids on tearing the house down. We received 3 bids, $12,000, $14,000 and $22,000. We put the bid in at the best and low, not just low. In this situation, I feel confident in the conversations Jake and I have had with the gentlemen, that we try to move forward with this at the $12K bid price, given by Greg Wettstain. We have the money available to tear the house down. One of the stipulations was that the lot had to be leveled. That’s in the bid specs.”

He opened the floor for questions and discussion, and asked for the council’s approval to move forward on this project, so it can be completed before the Christmas break. The council members all voted in favor, and the project was approved.

If some tentative arrangements cannot be made, he said it may be necessary to block the roadway and divert traffic for approximately two days during the demolition.

“This is a major milestone for the City of Hawesville to have that house down,” he added. “I hope it continues to inspire others to keep their houses up.”

Hawesville Fire Chief Shane Richards said there were 35 calls for service in October, including 19 EMS assists, 7 fire alarms, 4 vehicle accidents, 3 gas leaks, 2 structures, and a couple of field fires and vehicle fires.

“It’s been busy,” Richards said. “October is always one of our busiest months. We had our open house, and 468 people went through the station for fire prevention, on Halloween night, definitely a success that evening.”

He said several attended fire school, and the week prior to that, they did a lot of training that’s offered regionally.

“The main ones that went down to that,” he said, “we’ve brought on two new firefighters in the last month – Brandon Boone, and Richard Gabbert. Both of those were participating at fall school. They have acquired their needed hours, and are now able to make runs, so they’re coming on pretty quickly. Our Junior Program, we had another Junior, Chris Gillespie, that aged out and moved into the firefighter ranks. That puts us at 3 Juniors that have completed their program and have moved on to the fire department. Those guys come on the dept., and are ready to make runs as soon as they’re voted on; When they turn 18, the next thing they are voted on. Over the last several months, that’s added 6 people to us. So, big strides there. We are always looking for membership; That is ongoing. A couple of projects going on at the station, as of late, the boat is fully in-service, and ready to go, as is the brush truck.”

The 35 Self-Contained Breathing Apparatuses (SCBAs/air packs) that the Hancock County Fiscal Court ordered toward what each volunteer fire department in the county needs, have arrived and are in-house at the stations. The Court agreed to cover the cost for 25 of those. The City of Hawesville will pay for 4 of those ordered air packs, the City of Lewisport will pay for 4, and Hawesville Volunteer Fire Department (HVFD) will pay for two.

Richards said they are getting the training finished up on the new air packs, and getting them striped up with identifications, and they’ll go into service shortly.

“We have a couple of projects in-house,” he said. “We changed to LED light. It was done by members, out of their pockets. They did that because they wanted to. It will save on the energy bill with those 8-foot lights. All those are now LED. There are plans to move forward with the ones in the rest of the building. Probably in the course of the next year, we’ll switch over to LED completely. There is a lot of good work going on.”

There will be a Pancake Breakfast on Sunday, December 1st, at the Hawesville Volunteer Fire Department, located at 385 Main Street, in downtown Hawesville, from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Donations will be accepted. The HVFD Auxiliary and the Junior Firefighters are working together to make it a great breakfast this year, so come out and support your local volunteer firefighters!

“Your service is very important to us,” McCormick said.

Hawesville Chief of Police B.J. Burton reported, “For October, 2 arrests, a total of 12 citations, and I served 4 warrants this month, 15 traffic stops, without citations, a call to service, and one accident. This month coming up, we’re going to prepare for the Lighting of the Square. We’re getting all of that set up, and getting Main Street lit up. We’re fixing to have a second vehicle striped and in-service completely.”

In Superintendent Brian Patterson’s absence, Mayor McCormick said, “Things that are going on with the water system, we’re working on Wood Street. We had a sinkhole. It was getting ready to go in. We’re running new tile through there. The cost of that project is going to be $7,000 or less. We paid $5,300 today. That’s one of the projects we’re working on right now.”

He added that, with the council’s approval, the city will be moving forward soon with the new water meters. He said the testing of the new water meters that the city has installed in several locations has shown that the they are working very well, and are extremely accurate in catching water leaks early.

“We do eventually want to move forward with the whole system being replaced,” he said, “but I want to wait until we get all of our audits caught up before we delve into that. Because, you’re talking about several hundred thousand for the whole system. They are paying off, because it tracks water down to the 10th of a gallon. It has already been helping.”