Carlinville’s Federal Grant Application was for Regional Water “Commission”

CARLINVILLE, IL. (ECWd) –

The City of Carlinville, Illinois, filed a grant application for federal funding of a project from the Illinois Department of Agriculture back in 2016.

Its purpose was to provide a 75/25% grant ($30k fed / $10k Carlinville) for (emphasis mine) “A Preliminary Engineering Report to evaluate options to develop a viable water supply, treatment and transmission system to serve a Regional Water Commission . . . The City of Carlinville is the lead entity until a water commission can be formed. . .”

It deserves repeating again: “REGIONAL WATER COMMISSION” – words have meaning and a water “commission” is a public entity authorized by the state legislature for public bodies to form and participate in. This is not the same creature as a private water company.

As has been recently noticed, there was basically never any meaningful consideration of forming a “commission” – which would be a public body and under the authority of the city to form, but rather the emphasis on Carlinville, Fosterburg, and Jersey was and always has been a private water “company” not subject to the cumbersome regulations of a legitimate public body. This was as much as stated during a meeting last fall. It should then be no surprise that a certain local public official’s family members have since opened up their own for-profit company that will conveniently fall right into the line of work certain to be required of this new private water company.

As we have repeatedly stated, we believe the chosen path is not a path the city can participate in.

We are not against anyone getting good, reliable, safe, clean, inexpensive drinking water. What we are, and everyone should be, against, is the path chosen to get to that point – by public bodies forming a private company without the legislative authority to form it.

Carlinville submitted an application for Federal funds using a false narrative to obtain those funds – or at the least, used the proceeds and product of those funds for a purpose not stated in the application.

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