Frequently Asked Questions
Q - How do I contact the Ladd Cemetery Association?
A - Call Paul Biccochi at 815-894-3279.
Q - What is the phone number of the Ladd Post Office?
A - 815-894-3030
Q - How do I contact the Police Department?
A - In an emergency, call 911. For non-emergencies, call the department's cell phone 815-343-0267 or the office phone 815-894-2351.
Q - What is a boil order?
A - A boil order is a notification made by the water department in accordance with state regulations advising people that are served by the village's water distribution system that the water may be contaminated with bacteria. This order advises people to boil the contaminated water prior to using it in order to make it safe for drinking. Public notification of the boil order is made to ensure that every water user on the affected system has knowledge of the contamination.
Why? - State regulations mandate boil orders to ensure high-quality water in the event water pressure drops below 20 pounds per square inch (PSI) in any part of a distribution system. In most cases, this happens when a water main is being repaired in your neighborhood. Boil orders are issued as a precaution with a customer's best interests in mind. It's possible, but unlikely, bacteria can enter the water system when pressure in the line drops below 20 PSI.
Notification - If a boil order is issued, the Village of Ladd notifies customers via the local news media and the village's website.
Careful Sampling - All boil orders last a minimum of 36 hours, as required by state law. Once the problem is fixed, water lines are flushed and samples are taken. Samples are taken from several sites within the affected area. The sites are spread out over the affected area. Samples are taken for chlorine, turbidity analysis and bacteriological analysis. If samples are acceptable, the boil order is removed.
Water Usage - During boil orders, water usage for toilet flushing, clothes washing or cleaning do not require boiling. Water used for drinking and food preparation requires boiling.
Q - What do I do when a boil order is issued?
A - Boil Order Instructions:
1. Strain the water through a cheesecloth, coffee filter, or other clean, porous material to remove as many solid particles and dirt as possible.
2. Bring the water to a rolling boil for 3 - 5 minutes.
3. Let the water cool. Pour into a container that has been boiled or sanitized with chlorine bleach.
4. To preserve the quality of the water, refrigerate the water until use.
Additional Information - Village of Ladd customers can get updates on boil orders by calling the Village Clerk's office at 815-894-2440.
Q - Where can I obtain a copy of the Village of Ladd's Water Quality Report?
A - The 2010 Water Quality Report was directly mailed to Ladd's water customers with their May 2011 utility bill. Additional copies are available in the Village Clerk's office.
Q - Where is my property line?
A - The Village does not have this information available. If you cannot locate property pins, you may consider having your property surveyed.
Q - Do you have the birth, marriage and death records of my Ladd ancestors?
A - No. If these events happened in Bureau County, the records can be found at the Courthouse in Princeton.
Q - Where can I purchase a Ladd Centennial history book?
A - All history books from the Village's 1990 Centennial celebration were sold. Occasionally a book is listed for sale on Ebay or can be found at a local estate auction.
Q - Is leaf burning allowed?
A - Leaf and other landscape waste may be burned between the hours of 8:00am and 6:00pm, Monday through Saturday. Additionally, leaves and other landscape waste may be burned on Sundays between the hours of 8:00am and 6:00pm, but only from September 15th through November 15th of each year, inclusive. The open burning of leaves is permitted on public rights of way, except on sidewalks, roadways, alleys, parking lots or other paved areas. No burning is permitted within twenty (20) feet of any structure. All fires shall be constantly attended by a competent person until each fire is extinguished.
Q - Can I choose an electric provider other than the Village of Ladd?
A - We would like to reaffirm to you that your low-cost, reliable municipal electric system will continue to provide you with a high level of value and reliability at very low cost.
As you have been hearing, customers of the investor-owned utilities have been "phased-in" to a variety of deregulation programs. These programs are being developed to help investor-owned utility customers obtain pricing that reflects "supply and demand" markets for electricity in Illinois. They do so by taking part in aggregated buying pools. These large pools are needed if an electric supplier is to achieve savings through buying in bulk. This electric power is then delivered over the transmission and distribution lines owned by the utility. The customer pays for the electricity, as well as fees for use of the wires. Conceptually, as the market changes, so will the customer's price for electricity.
The law exempts communities that operate municipal electric departments (as well as the state's rural electric cooperatives) from these so-called retail-wheeling programs primarily because as a customer of a municipally-owned and operated utility system, you are already a member of an aggregated customer pool which provides the benefits of being touted by new, third party electric providers. In addition, municipal electric utilities generally provide electric service at costs below the average charged in Illinois.
But as important, your municipal system provides a remarkably high level of system reliability. As a customer of our system, you not only receive low-cost power, but your electric dollars pay for the local utility crews that respond quickly in times of weather or other emergencies. An outage in a municipal system is usually resolved in a matter of minutes or hours - not days. And that is because we keep local crews on line to keep the lights on for our citizens.
Municipal electric systems in Illinois have been at the forefront of electricity delivery for more than 100 years. Through a continuing commitment to our citizens, we pledge to provide outstanding service to our citizens for many years to come.