The South Beloit City Council banned the sale of drug paraphernalia Monday. The ban specifically mentions 10 types of pipes commonly used for pot and other drugs.
Officials define drug paraphernalia as “all equipment, products and materials of any kind” intended to grow, prepare or introduce a controlled substance into the body.
The City Council specifically banned the sale of water pipes, carburetion tubes and devices, smoking and carburetion masks, miniature cocaine spoons and vials, carburetor pipes, electric pipes, air-driven pipes, chillums, bongs and chillers.
Police Department Supervisor Scott Andrews warned the council Monday that officials will need to continuously update the list to keep up with new devices.
You can read the new ordinance below.
Hallelujah! Beer bongs, Harley pipes, red necks, bigotry and fraternities are still legal! We’re saved!
Yeah, because bongs are South Beloit’s biggest problem right now. How about focusing on the REAL problems?
I totally agree Milton, the highest priority in this citizens mind is offering a sales tax referendum to the city residents in order to secure financing ( predominantly from the interstate) to replace our obsolete waste water treatment plant before we fined again by the Illinois EPA once again. I believe the $50,ooo we’ve already lost could have been better spent. That fine wasn’t the fault of our current council, but the next one will be if they don’t start moving on this fairly soon. The best time to take action was way back when Pam Clifton had lined up a grant to help pay for it all. Unfortunately, the referendum wasn’t presented to the public properly; thanks to our past mayor and his pet newspaper, The BDN. I fear that with this last election we may have jumped from the frying pan into the fire, since it’s the intent of our new council to dramatically raise the spending limits that our department heads (and our council) may enjoy without public oversight.This move shall help disguise frivolous expenditures, such as new unnecessary computers and office furniture and used suburbans. Better get ready for some new taxes and fees , that have nothing to do with the WWTP.
Mr Tinder,
The waste water treatment plant is not the problem, its the pipes. If the pipes were fixed, then the ground water would not get into the plant, thus reducing the amount of water to be treated. The problem wasn’t the presentation of the referendum, it was the target of the money. If they would have presented it to fix the pipes, and if that did not reduce the amount of water going into the treatment plant enough, then another referendum could have been called to fix the plant. I voted against the referendum as it was. If it would have been to fix the pipes only, I would have voted for it.
I also see where they spent a lot of money on computers for city council members for city business. I have no problem with the reason for giving the council members a computer, but I object to the cost. They could have gotten good laptops for a close to 75% less money than they paid. Did they send out a request for bids? I doubt it. Nothing was said until they already purchased the laptops.
We needed new blood in the city council, because the old city council was full of members that thought they were above the board. The fact that they tried to keep the mishandling of a prisoner quiet until “the statue of limitation was over” showed how arrogant they were. When rights are trampled, you don’t try to hide the fact until someone can no longer sue you.
However, I see this new city council doing things like our federal government. Wasting time on frivolous things, and not tackle the big problems facing our city. They want to limit the amount of smoke shops in the city? Wait, they are selling a legal product, paying taxes to the city on those sales, paying property taxes on the property that they occupy, but yet, they want to get rid of some of them. The market will limit the amount of places to buy cigarettes. If there are too many places, some will go under because they do not have enough sales. I find it funny that the government wants to limit them.
Curt,
I totally agree that our pipes have needed attention and are in fact a major part of the problem. There are however a couple things that you should know that you might not be currently aware of:
1) Even after the pipes are repaired, it’s estimated that the amount of groundwater flowing through the pipes won’t diminish significantly, because people will still be using the pipes to remove the water from their basements.
2) Even if we purchase and install every possible upgrade available for our current waste water treatment facility, it will still be obsolete within a decade.
3) we need to enhance our current capability in order to be able absorb any future economic growth.
My source of information was Ed Vanderbosch, ( our recently retired waste water plant superintendent). Our new Super; Jeff Reininger also concurs with that observation. I’m unclear as to whether there is still any grant money available for this project, but either way I view it as this cities weakest link and it’s not something we can afford to ignore much longer.
As far as smoke shops go, the same amount of tobacco will be sold whether two shops sell it or four. This appears that the council is depriving the city of tax revenue for no other reason then to give a friend in business a monopoly on profits by driving out the competition. The city has no business interfering in the free market. This behavior is an embarrassment, and just might get us sued.
Bill,
People pump water into the system now, by repairing the leaks, the capacity problem will be a non issue for short term future. Reducing the water will put less stress on the plant, thus giving it a longer life. But I am not ignoring the fact that yes, money will have to be put into the plant to update machinery/capacity. But if we take some steps now, rather than waiting for the all to nothing approach, it will help out. At least you can enjoy not worrying about having city water/sewer. I live in the small part of South Beloit where city water/sewer was never put into the ground. Its an option that I don’t have available to me.
I was hoping that a turnover in city council members/mayor would push forward rational thinking about the city. But a full turnover like we had, there are going to be what I call newbie pain. There will be thing things that slip through the cracks while this council/mayor get their feet wet and try to unravel what the previous administration/council has not done/screwed up/put off for later etc. Personally I think that we will see a lot of underhanded things come to light for the next year or two. But I will give this new council a little latitude while they unravel the mess. They might do things I don’t agree with, but if they overstep their boundaries, that will not be good.
Time will tell.