Business was not as usual at the February town hall meeting in the Village of East Galesburg after tensions between residents and board members instigated a call to the Knox County Sheriff's Department.
East Galesburg Village Trustee Debra Cassens told Local 4 News why she ended up calling the police on her fellow attendees.
"We had a resident that decided he wanted to discuss things with you about the media and about stuff like that," she said to Local 4 News. "He... I don't know if you want to say... attacked... verbally... another resident about things that you may not wanna say to another person."
Cassens' call was in response to a slew of verbal attacks from the husband of Connie Miyler, an East Galesburg board member and former mayor, and another town resident. Miyler's husband reportedly approached the Local 4 News crew with his vocalizations.
Cassens told Local 4 News that the sheriff had been called multiple times when Miyler was mayor. She also said that the yelling at the town meetings has grown tiresome in her 20-plus years as a city employee.
"This is ridiculous," said Cassens to Local 4 News. "It's terrible for adults to act like this."
Residents are made more worried about the issue by the town's lack of a local police force. One anonymous East Galesburg resident complained to Local 4 News that it takes the Knox County Sheriff's Office at least 10 to 15 minutes to respond.
"That's quite disturbing if there would be a 911 call," said the resident to Local 4 News.
The board didn't make much progress on its agenda topics, including finance and bids to cut down trees at a park, among all of the friction. The next Village of East Galesburg town hall meeting will be held on March 16, where the board will continue the discussion of introducing a local police force.
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