Author: Theresa Rose

Winfield Avenue from Palm Avenue to Lincoln Street will be closed Thursday from 7 am to 8 pm for road patching.

Crews will be smoking Sewers in the area South of the Hospital Jackson to Saunders Park this morning, September 14^th. They will then be working the area North of Washington St. to W. Saunders and Marion St. to White St. Remember if you see smoke or smell it let the crew know outside so they can help you determine where it’s getting in at. The smoke is not toxic if it gets in your house and will usually dissipate in 15 to 30 minutes. By opening a few windows and maybe running a fan it will clear up much quicker. Please remember if you get smoke in your house it will also be letting sewer gases into your house.

The Mount Pleasant School met in regular session Monday night.  A top item on the agenda was a decision on the HVAC upgrade project. The conceptual estimated budget was $1,684,930 for the entire project that involved HVAC upgrades for the High School, gym, locker rooms and vocational areas as well as the Middle School gym. However, this estimate was significantly lower than the Design and Development estimated budget of $3, 541,757. Most of the difference had to do with the discovery that the line sets are too long to use regular air conditioners at the High School. This means the chilled water option would have to be used increases the cost by about $1, 000,000. The labor and equipment estimated costs were $550,000 more than the engineer thought. Because the School Site committee felt it was important not to use more than money than the allotted federal Covid funding the recommendation was made to prioritize what parts of the project were most important to fund….move forward with the High School work and leave out the Middle School plans at an estimated cost of $2,184,000 or cool the Middle School gym only at a cost of $1,670,000. The recommendation to the full board was the High School option. However, even tho other members of the board agreed with the logic for option 1, there was still concern about having enough government funds to continue to financially support learning loss recovery efforts for two more years at about one million dollars per year.  It was decided the necessary money could be carved out of the HVAC funds that in turn could be supplemented with dollars from the penny sales tax fund and/or the physical plant and equipment levy.

-courtesy of Bitrus Gwamna

The Mount Pleasant Childcare Center director, Cairece Alan and another member of her staff were guests at Monday’s meeting of the Mount Pleasant Evening Rotary club held at the Masonic lodge.  During the meeting, Alan was presented with a check for $500 in addition to food items  collected by evening Rotarians following a request for this aid by the Daycare center. Presenting the checks and gifts, on behalf of the club, the governor of Rotary district 6000 Steve Wieneke commended the partnership between the two Rotary Clubs in Mount Pleasant and the Childcare Center, noting that the two clubs assembled a variety of equipment purchased with Rotary donated funds, as well as, trimming bushes, planting grass, and cleaning up the area. Alan thanked the club for its kind donations, and presented a painting and a “thank you” card to the Mount Pleasant Evening Rotary Club from the children of the daycare center. Wieneke was at the meeting to dialogue with members on strategies for growing the club and increasing their visibility within the city of Mount Pleasant and beyond.  While commending evening Rotarians for the various projects executed by the club, he encouraged the club to partner with other service organizations on projects that would significantly impact the lives of the community especially the youth.  Wieneke also advised the Evening Rotary President Bitrus Gwamna and his board to develop effective strategies for communicating with club members, and take advantage of the Rotary Leadership Institute to be held next month in Mount Pleasant in order to enhance the quality of club activities.

Mount Pleasant Police investigated a single vehicle crash September 10 at about 12:15 in the morning.  Officers were dispatched to the intersection of East Madison Street and Harrison Street.  Timothy King of Mount Pleasant was turning north from Madison onto Harrison. His vehicle hit the curb causing the passenger side front wheel, suspension and axle to break.  The vehicle continued through a yard and came to rest back in the street.  The driver was not injured but was arrested for OWI and cited for Failure to Provide Proof of Insurance.  He was also cited for an improper turn at an intersection.