The Tax and Finance Committee voted to forward amendments to the county’s firework ordinances to the full County Board with no recommendation. According to Committee member, David Campbell, the amendments would allow firework vendors to set up permanent structures in the county.
The proposed amendments require individual vendors to consult with local fire districts to see if their structures comply with health and safety requirements.
The committee also discussed the construction of new flagpoles that would be located behind the Illinois State Police Memorial on the downtown Effingham Square. The flagpoles were originally planned to the be part of the ISP memorial, but were dropped after the project came to a temporary halt in the state legislature. The project is a joint effort between local citizens, the Sunrise Rotary, and the City of Effingham. Bonnie Mellendorf, the Effingham County resident heading the project said the two flagpoles had already been purchased and were in storage.
The committee expressed concerns about the new flagpoles matching those already on the square, as well maintenance and upkeep, and decided to take no action on allowing the flagpoles to be built until they could look further into the issue. They emphasized that if the flagpoles were built they would not be responsible for maintaining them. Kathy Shroeder told the committee that she would discuss taking over maintenance with the Sunrise Rotary.