It’s no secret that Springfield is hung up on race. Now at the center of the most recent racial episode, Mike Williams talks about his noose and offers ideas on how to make things better.
After four days off, Mike Williams was relaxed and feeling pretty good when he showed up for his shift at the City Water, Light and Power water treatment plant at 2 p.m. on Sunday, July 26. As with the start of every workday, the 46-year old assistant water works operator entered the main control room shared by about eight employees, was briefed by the person he was relieving from duty, checked in with the senior operator, made his daily rounds and collected water samples. When he got back to his station, he remembered that time sheets were due that day and he spun around in his chair to grab the form out of his mailbox.
That’s when he saw it. Williams noticed a twoto three-foot-long piece of cord fashioned into a noose, which he describes as a small replica akin to a souvenir, hanging from the material safety data sheets binder which contains information about chemicals used at the plant.
“If I was to wiggle it, I could put it around my neck,” Williams says. “It could definitely be used to kill yourself – or kill someone.”
A call to a colleague Williams knew was at work during the time he was on vacation confirmed that the rope had been hanging there for a couple of days. “Nobody thought this might be offensive?,” Williams asked his friend. “That’s a racist statement to me.” CWLP general manager Tod Renfrow, water division manager Tom Skelly and, at Williams’ behest, Ward 2 Ald. Gail Simpson all showed up on the scene, as did Springfield police. In a recent interview with Illinois Times, Williams declined to confirm the identities of the two individuals involved, referring to them as “the noose maker” and “the noose hanger.”
However, IT confirmed independently that the individual who allegedly fashioned the noose was Kevin Conway and the person who allegedly displayed it was Gregory Selinger.
According to the redacted police report, Selinger indicated that he “hung the rope on the wire rack just to get it out of the way” and that he has “no issues or problems” with Williams and that “they all get along.”
Conway told police that after grabbing it from a drawer that he “winded the rope up while just toying with it and then tied it into what he calls a sportsman knot,” similar to one he uses to tie fishing hooks.
Conway added: “There was no racial intent; there is no intent to intimidate or offend anybody and this just got out of hand.” But clearly there is something in the water at CWLP and it seems like some people have had one glass too many. Up until that point, Williams’ was the latest in
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