Despite an approval of 7 to 1 at a special Red Bud City Council meeting held on April 20, at the council’s meeting last Monday night, it was made glaringly apparent that there would be yet another delay for the proposed splash pad project.
Two weeks ago, after extensive and often heated discussion, the council agreed to allow HMG Engineers Inc. to apply for the City of Red Bud for an Illinois Department of Natural Resources Open Space Land Acquisition and Development (OSLAD) grant to build a splash pad. This agreement was to be at no cost and no obligation to the city.
But in the time between that meeting and the council’s meeting this week, Mayor Tim Lowry had not signed the contract with HMG. Word that Lowry had not signed the contract had spread prior to the meeting, so there was almost a dozen people present at Monday’s meeting as well as more than 50 signed in to watch the meeting on Zoom, most wanting to know why.
So in the public comment part of the evening’s meeting, Lowry acknowledged that people were there regarding the splash pad, which was not on the meeting’s agenda, but he had prepared a statement.
Lowry stated that he had been advised to not sign the contract with HMG by City Attorney Paul Ray. “This is due to contract wording. I am working to get this resolved and I hope to have everything done by our next committee meeting or earlier. I am waiting on a response from those that I am working with.”
He continued, “I believe we can move forward and have HMG apply for the grant. We want to see it move forward.”
For more from the Red Bud City Council meeting, please see this week’s print edition.