Mary Hansen
The State Journal-Register
Springfield residents will have the opportunity to ask questions and hear updates about the city’s water resources at a public meeting Wednesday. Mayor Jim Langfelder and City Water, Light and Power officials plan to briefly discuss utility and city initiatives and respond to questions from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Lake Beach House on Long Bay Drive.
The update will include comments on a backup water supply for Springfield, shoreline-stabilization efforts and watershed-protection programs for Lake Springfield, according to the mayor and utility officials. But the majority of the time they say they hope to leave open for questions from residents.
Similar to the ward meetings he hosted in the fall, Langfelder said the city plans to record the questions and answers and publish them on the city’s website.
That’s good news for members of the Sangamon Valley Group of the Sierra Club and the Springfield NAACP branch who have been lobbying for a public process to ask questions and offer feedback on the municipally owned utility.
“I know a lot of people have concerns about having their sewers fixed. And the Sierra Club continues to be concerned about coal-ash ponds,” said Elizabeth Scrafford, an organizer with the club. “It’s going to need planning to figure out what to do with that.”
Additional topics for the meeting could include President Donald Trump’s proposed rollback of environmental regulations and how that might affect CWLP power plants, maintenance of Lake Springfield and the city’s annexation of land around the lake.
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 