Around Chuck-Town with Joe Astrouski/City Editor

Remember The Silence of the Lambs?

I’ve been thinking about that movie a lot over the past week. Actually, I’ve been thinking of just one scene. Near the end of the movie, Clarice Sterling (played by Jody Foster), is walking through the darkened home of serial killer Buffalo Bill. Bill, who can see Clarice through night-vision goggles, follows the oblivious FBI agent through his house. The audience’s pulse quickens: How will it end? Will Bill attack?  Will Clarice escape?

The City of Charleston is in a similar situation. Unlike Clarice, Charleston is not being followed by a creepy, poodle-owning killer but by the specter of an economic crisis.

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Independent Auditor Joyce Madigan said the city might be prepared to endure a recession.

“(The city) is in good financial shape going into the current economic uncertainty,” Madigan said. “(The city) has a good balance sheet and a lot going for (it).”

Madigan referred to increased revenue for the city’s Employee Benefit Fund and its General Fund. She also said the city’s Water and Sewer Fund is “doing well” but “still on a tight budget.”

But while the city may have cause for optimism now, the cold, clammy hands of a national recession could still be waiting ahead. City officials say national economic declines may not trickle down to local governments for over one year.

Still, hope springs eternal (or at least occasionally). The city has already prepared two construction projects, one to connect Illinois Route 130 with Interstate 57 and another to build a new water main connecting the city to its water treatment plant. The projects only needs funding. City and regional leaders hope that funding can come from a potential stimulus plan under President Obama.

In the movie, Clarice eventually hears Buffalo Bill behind her, turns and shoots, killing the killer and letting her escape unscathed. Will Charleston beat the coming recession and escape unscathed, too? Or will falling revenues and a withering economy catch up with us? The drama continues.