SOUTHERN ILLINOIS – State Representative Paul Jacobs is announcing the postponement of a scheduled June 16th meeting of local water managers and engineers. The meeting, which was meant to be an informal session to gather input from and work collaboratively with local water officials, will be rescheduled due to the recent retirement of State Senator Dale Fowler and the lack of a full contingent of Southern Illinois legislators in the 59th Senate District.
Rep. Jacobs issued the following statement regarding the meeting’s postponement.
“The meeting with water officials was scheduled to be an informal meeting with managers and engineers of water districts throughout the region to find opportunities for voluntary collaboration on grant opportunities, and to discuss the feasibility of interconnection of water services in case of an outage. The meeting was never designed to bring forth announcements, directives, or efforts for forced consolidation or privatization. Many smaller rural water departments throughout the region indeed struggle to access state and federal grant funding that could prove vital to stabilizing the existing local service structures customers rely on, and save local taxpayers from having to foot the bill through higher property taxes. I look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with my fellow legislators and local elected officials to respond to continuing infrastructure challenges, especially when it comes to the delivery of clean, safe drinking water for our shared constituents.”
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