Published: October 26, 2007 10:23 am      

DHA receives $11,000 refund check

DANVILLE — Many residents received refund checks of about $100 from AmerenIP due to high electricity rates, but the Danville Housing Authority received a check much higher than that.

DHA officials announced on Thursday it received an $11,000 AmerenIP refund check due to the utility company charging too much.

Also Thursday, the DHA board of commissioners:

-- Learned the authority received a Public Housing Assessment System score of 77 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The score decreased from 82 last year.

The authority lost five points in the “physical area,” which was reported as “substandard” largely due to exposed wires on light poles, even though they don’t work.

The other evaluation sections, including management and residential, stayed the same.

-- Approved a $51,438 contract with Owens Excavating & Trucking of Danville to remove 17 concrete bases and 85 bases with light poles at Fair Oaks.

DHA Executive Director Greg Hilleary said this is a result of the HUD inspector deeming them as safety hazards.

“There are exposed wires underneath plates on the poles and some of the plates were missing. They’re dead wires — not plugged in for years,” he said. “They should have been taken down years ago.”

There still needs to be about 100 more of the old lights taken down.

“This just seems like the right thing to do to get this project started,” Hilleary said.

The authority has an agreement with AmerenIP for other street lights.

“We’ll see where the money is to get the rest done,” Hilleary said.

-- Elected board officers to remain the same. Board chairman is Mike Puhr, vice chairman is Rick Strebing and Hilleary is secretary-treasurer for the next year.

-- Approved a new contract with General Electric to purchase stoves and refrigerators for one year, with options for two addi-tional years not to exceed $50,000 per year.