Dollar General back on table in Edinburg

November 14, 2023 111

EDINBURG — The Village of Edinburg held a regular meeting on Monday, November 13, 2023 in the village hall.

Around four years ago in August of 2019, the village first spoke about Dollar General being interested in building a store in Edinburg. The topic finally came back to the table. While no representative from Dollar General was present at the meeting, Mayor David Luttrell did his best to explain what he knew.

Dollar General was interested in building a store at the northeastern corner of Route 29 where it met Campbell Street. This was the location that was being discussed back in 2019. The corporation was asking the village to provide them water and split the costs of getting the service line out to the proposed store. Village Engineer Ben Spreen assured the village that with just a service line, there would be no need to do an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency survey at the location.

The board wanted to make sure they could annex the store into the village proper so the community would benefit from the sales tax money such a store might generate. The board spent time going back and forth on what annexation would require before deciding that they wanted the exact plot map of where Dollar General wanted to build before proceeding any further. That way, the village would know all the properties that might be involved in an annexation agreement.

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Spreen told the board that the raw water project was moving along nicely. If everything went smoothly, he tentatively said that construction on the new raw line might be able to begin in May of next year. Unfortunately, due to supplies having a longer order time, Spreen also put the time of completion for the project towards October 2025. He also reminded the village that the raw water project and the SNAWS emergency interconnect are two serape projects.

In order to pay for these projects, the village has to increase the water rates. Since they did not do a rate increase in May this year, the board decided to combine the annual rate increase with the increase to pay for the water projects. After crunching the numbers, the board approved the $4.40 rate increase.

Mike Lebshier, water and gas superintendent, told the board that he wanted them to be aware that there were some things at the gas plant that would need fixing soon. Many of the systems there were antiquated. With the water project finally moving forward, Lebshier felt it was time to start thinking about the gas plant.

Also approved at the meeting:
– Minutes from the October meeting

– Compensation of Katy Carter and the Village of Riverton to the Village of Edinburg in the amount of $6,750.14 with $2,000 to be reimbursed if the state pays Edinburg back

– October ($73,907.14) and November ($33,096.88) bills

– Ameren ordinance accepting the new $6,000 fee

– Paid leave for workers, remote meetings attendance for board trustees, and village building codes

– Truth in Taxation in the amount of $95,609.23

– Donna White and Joe Patterson added to the Zoning Board

– The next regular meeting of the Edinburg Board of Trustees will be held on Monday, December 11.