CITY BEAT: HORN, KUHLE RUNNING FOR CITY COUNCIL RE-ELECTION, McDANIEL IS NOT
Editor Paul Osborne
Three Decatur City Council seats are up for election in the spring. As reported on decaturtribune.com last week, Councilman Chuck Kuhle told me that he will seek re-election to a second four-year term. Councilman David Horn announced earlier that he is running for another term. The third councilman whose seat is up for election is Patrick McDaniel, who told me a few weeks ago, and I reported in this column, that he will not seek re-election after serving 10 years. on the council.
That means there will be, for sure, at least one new member of the city council with McDaniel not seeking re-election. McDaniel is also the liquor commissioner and mayor pro tem, so those two positions will be filled by someone(s) different next year. Of course, the two incumbents have to win their re-election bids for there to be only one new face on the council following next spring’s election. Normally, it is difficult to beat an incumbent unless he or she has been extremely unpopular.
Chuck Kuhle, who ran very strong in his last campaign, responded to my question last week about whether he was going to run for re-election, with the following statement: “I will seek a second term on the Decatur City Council in April 2021. Having over 3 years of experience as a Decatur City Councilman will give the City of Decatur the option of re-electing an experienced councilman for a city undergoing challenging times.
“My voice of reason to past and present issues is needed now on the city council more than ever before. As we all know, our city and our country are going through unprecedented times.
“My status as a life-time resident will help ensure that our city eventually returns to the way of life which made Decatur our chosen place to live to begin with.”
• THE LOCAL LIQUOR control commissioner announced six (6) Class A and two (2) Class B alcoholic liquor licenses are available to be issued to qualified candidates through a Liquor License Lottery. That seemed like a lot of licenses available at one time, so I contacted Liquor Commissioner Patrick McDaniel to ask if the number of licenses available had a connection to the present state of the economy or were they from businesses that had been closed permanenly because of violations.
His reply: “It’s a combination of both. Some businesses decided not to stay open. Two Circle Ks closed.”
The procedure for alcoholic liquor license applicants has been issued by the local liquor control commissioner and is currently on file in the office of the City Clerk, third floor, One Gary K. Anderson Plaza, Decatur, Illinois. Applications will be accepted in the City Clerk’s Office through Monday October 12, 2020. For additional information, contact the City Clerk’s office at (217) 424-2708.
• CENSUS needs better results from the Decatur community. With the deadline to complete the 2020 Census looming, State Senator Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) was joined by Governor JB Pritzker and local leaders at the Decatur Public Library last week for a press conference to encourage residents of Macon County to complete the 2020 census. Details and quotes from that press conference can be found on page 14 of the print edition of the Tribune.
Seven municipalities in Macon County have a response rate of 64% or higher. Considering the huge amount of money for local communities that will result from the Census, the importance of it doesn’t seem to faze a lot of people. Decatur is next to last in the county when it comes to people who have filled out the Census with 66.2% By comparison, Forsyth has 83.8% and Mt. Zion has 81.4%, Filling out the Census is extremely important to our community and the simple questions are not invasive.
I filled out my Census form online a long time ago. It took me about 10 minutes. The most personal question I was asked: Do you own your home or are you renting? You can complete the Census for your household and help your community at www.my2020census.gov.
Time is running out and our community loses money for every person who doesn’t fill out the simple form. Step up and help Decatur improve.
