Village Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everybody. I'd like to call this meeting to order. This is the Village Board of Arlington Heights for the evening of June 15th, 2026. In calling this meeting to order, our first order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance, so please join the board. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, everyone. Next is roll call. Maggie, if you could please.

Trustee Santa Maria? Here. Trustee Schwingbeck?

Here.

Trustee Bertucci?

Here.

Trustee Zick?

Here.

Trustee Dunnington? Here. Trustee Manganiello?

Here.

Trustee LeBeds? Here. Trustee Gilbert? Here. President Tenaglia?

Here. Thank you, Maggie. Item four is approval of minutes, and we do have one set of minutes from June 1st, which is, is there anyone on the board that needs to make any corrections or changes, additions? Anyone in the audience that has any questions or comments on the meeting minutes? Seeing none Is there a motion to approve I move approval of the minutes of June 1st 2026 second Motion made by trustee in the bed seconded by trustee Zik All those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed seeing none motion carries I Okay, next item is the approval of accounts payable and for that I'll call on Trustee Bertucci.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll move approval of the warrant register for the check date June 15th, 2026 in the amount of $3,313,660.31. Second.

Motion to approve made by Trustee Bertucci, seconded by Trustee Schwingbeck. Are there any questions or comments from anyone on the board? Are there any questions or comments from anyone in the audience? Seeing none, this is a roll call vote. Maggie, please.

Trustee Bertucci?

Yes.

Trustee Schwingbeck? Yes. Trustee Gilbert? Yes. Trustee LeBetz? Yes. Trustee Manganiello? Aye. Trustee Dunnington? Yes. Trustee Santa Maria? Yes. Trustee Zick?

Yes.

Trustee President Tenaglia?

Yes. Great, thank you. All right, so now we're on to recognitions and communications and it's a special night indeed. We have a sea of red and blue in our audience today because it's been, known that the St. Vider hockey team has become state champions this year. And they are here to celebrate and we're gonna help them celebrate. Is there a coach or coaches in the room? Would you please come up to the podium and introduce yourself?

So start by telling us who you are. My name is Chris Benz. I've been an assistant coach at St. Viter for the past 10 years.

10 years. And next? My name is John Sclafini. I am a hockey director and assistant coach on varsity. Wonderful. And?

Steve Fantias. Been there six years. Very good. So, gentlemen, on achieving this goal, when's the last time St. Viter's has had a state champion hockey team?

This is the first.

Never before. First time.

Five attempts.

Five close calls? All the way to finals? Yeah. Wow. Fabulous. All right. Is there anything you'd like to say before what I'm going to do is I'm going to come up there and then we're going to pull up all the players and introduce them by name. But is there anything you want to tell about the season on your own off the bat? Is there a team captain here tonight? Raise your hand. All right. So you start thinking because I'm going to ask you to give a little speech too, all right? All right. You got a couple minutes to plan. Go ahead. The floor is yours. Tell us about your season.

Oh, it was a... Do you want to step a little closer to the microphone? It was a season that we knew from the beginning that was going to be special. The players behind me had put in work for four years, and the culmination of their work ethic, their brotherhood, their passion, all came to... came to fruition this year and it was truly special. They were not only state champions, they won the league for the first time in the history. They won the coach's trophy for the first time in history. We went to nationals and finished third. So they were, it was pretty special and I was just glad to be a part of it.

That's pretty impressive. That's great. Let's give them a hand for that. Is there anything else you want to share quick? Go ahead.

Real fast, our head coach, Ted Benz, is not here tonight, so we want to recognize him. Okay, very good. If it wasn't for him, none of us would be here.

Are you sure? Because it sounds like you guys handled it pretty well. All right, I'm going to come out there.

Gentlemen, if you three come out up here with me.

What we want to do is if you could call up each of the players by name and they can line up here because what we'll do is we'll give them a chance to speak as well at the end by their captain. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Does he behave okay? He's not going to use any bad language or anything, right? Not tonight? Okay. So who wants to do the introductions?

I will go from the front. Calder Turpin, goaltender. Adam Popiel, defenseman. Jake Pukala, defenseman. Wong, defenseman. Jason Steffen, center. Chris Sclafini, goaltender. Matt or Bob? Matt Ciccone, forward. Colton Newhouse, forward. Sammy Prieto, forward. Ethan Lee, forward. Mike Ciccone, defenseman. Albert Prezuara, forward. VP of the state championship, no big deal. Finn Hogan, defenseman, and assistant captain. Tommy Speck, defenseman, assistant captain. Connor Sibitroth, SHL player of the year, forward. And captain, assistant captain. Pepe Leboy, forward, captain. And last but not least, Ryan Loftus, our fearless leader and captain, forward.

Let's get those banners out. I see you guys can stretch them out because we're going to get a few pictures. And maybe what we could do is have some of the boys on a knee.

Come over this way, guys.

In the middle here. Can you guys come around a little bit?

Yes, everyone can get together a little bit. We'll be able to take some great pictures. Okay, get in a little bit more.

That'd be great.

All right, if everyone can look forward. One, two, and three. One, two, and three. And one, two, and... All right, thank you. Very good, thank you.

All right, well, before I hand over the mic to the young men here, we all know, and they all know, none of this happens without the moms and dads at home. Hockey is a brutal sport. It's a time commitment that goes beyond most other sports, and getting them to and from and to all the places that need to be, only happens with that kind of commitment from a family. So while I like to say it takes a village to make these kinds of excellent things happen, it really starts at home. So you all need to make sure you thank your moms and dads, because none of it happens without them. Now, who's the captain? Right there. All right, you get to say a few words.

Yeah, this is a pretty special group. We looked forward to those practices and not a lot of people looked forward to. We showed up, we worked our butts off, and there was never really a doubt in our group. We kind of knew what it took to win games that we won. We looked at each other when we needed each other, and we just kept working, put our heads down, and got what we got done. That's what makes this group special.

Our hockey director Jason Hogan in the back. I just want to recognize and we also have the president of st.. Viter Mr.. Ryan ILO in the back as well Gentlemen thank you for taking the time to visit us here today.

I wish you all is everybody going on somewhere else next year Are any of you returning? Okay, which one are you doing? Are you returning? So the hands up are all returning? So we'll expect to see you again here next year, right? The rest of you will do something else somewhere else, right? Fabulous. Well, congratulations to all of you, man. Ryan? Congratulations, Ryan. Congratulations.

All right, man, thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, for sure. Wasn't it last week? Yeah. Last meeting?

Yeah. in this town.

It's amazing. Two weeks ago we did this with another group.

Yeah. Another champion.

I will take a second while they file out.

Yeah, let's do it.

Okay, thank you everyone. Next in recognitions and communications, today's a pretty special day. Today goes beyond everything that we all know and love in Arlington Heights and in the United States in celebration for something that is so unusual and so fabulous. the birth of our country 250 years ago on the 4th of July. Now, I think we do have one more meeting before this 4th of July.

Not a full board meeting.

It's not a full board meeting?

No, just the Committee of the Whole.

Okay. So tonight, what we're going to do is I'm going to read a proclamation, and then we'll make a couple of comments afterwards, but this is an important milestone for all of us here. So I'd start by saying, in recognition of the 250th anniversary of the United States of America, whereas on July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, affirming the principles of liberty, self-government, and equality that would become the foundation of the United States of America, and whereas The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a historic milestone that invites all Americans to reflect on our nation's founding ideals, celebrate its achievements, and renew their commitment to civic engagement and public service. And whereas for two and a half centuries, generations of Americans have worked to preserve and strengthen our democracy through service, sacrifice, innovation, and participation in their communities. And whereas Arlington Heights has long reflected these enduring values through its tradition of civic involvement, volunteerism, public service, and dedication to building a welcoming and vibrant community for all residents. Whereas the semi-quincentennial of the United States provides an opportunity to honor the contributions of those who came before us, recognize the responsibilities we share today, and inspire future generations to continue to work of strengthening our nation and local communities. And whereas throughout 2026, communities across the country will commemorate America's 250th anniversary, THROUGH EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, CULTURAL EVENTS, HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS, AND CELEBRATIONS THAT HIGHLIGHT THE NATION'S PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. SO NOW THEREFORE, I, JAMES J. TINAWI, MAYOR OF THE VILLAGE OF ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, in Illinois along with the Arlington Heights Village Board of Trustees proclaim that 2026 is America 250 year as as America 250 year in the village of Arlington Heights and encourage all residents businesses schools civic organizations and community groups to join in the commemorating this historic anniversary reflecting on the principles that unite us, honoring those who have contributed to our nation's history, and celebrating the enduring spirit of freedom, democracy, and opportunity that has shaped the United States for 250 years. So that is our proclamation tonight. And with that, there will be a wonderful celebration coming up. at what we look forward to every year of Frontier Days, which will be their 50th year, if I'm not mistaken. And I would be remiss if I didn't say tonight that that is an organization that would really welcome some new involvement in our community. There are a lot of folks who have been doing it for 40 and 50 years. And anyone who's listening at home, anyone here in this room, We can all help out and get involved at Frontier Days to keep celebrating days like this at special events like Frontier Days. So I think staff had some more comments on this they'd like to make, but go ahead.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. We wanted to introduce some of the items that we've been doing in celebration of America's 250th. So, before the first four Thursdays of Sounds of Summer concerts, we've been doing something special where we've organized and collaborated with some of the community big sponsors and coordinators And we've done something special before each concert has started. So on June 4th, you saw that we had a Boy Scout troop, 32, posted the colors and led the Pledge of Allegiance. And then we had Hersey High School Quartet sing the National Anthem. Last Thursday, it was a rain out, unfortunately, but we did have collaboration with Arlington Heights Community Concert Band, and they were going to do some performances for us. But we have coming up next, which is this Thursday, June 18th, we have the Arlington's Quartet, and they're going to perform about 10 minutes of patriotic songs, including Armed Forces Medley, America the Beautiful, and National Anthem. And then on June 25th concert, prior to that, we're going to have the Metropolis Theater Students of Performing Arts, SOPA, they're going to perform about 10 minutes of patriotic songs. So we're very, very Excited to be able to collaborate with some of our community partners, and then I'm very excited to announce also mayor Thank you for talking about frontier days This we wanted to promote them a little bit of a shout out that this is some of the headliners they have it's five days of celebration and at Rec Park, and it is their 50th anniversary. And then I'm excited to announce that we're gonna be celebrating America's 250th by hosting a drone show. So this is gonna be on Thursday, July 2nd, and it's gonna be taking place over the municipal campus. And the best viewing is gonna be at Rec Park. So this is gonna be for those that are attending Frontier Days Festival. Those are gonna be best seats along Northwest Highway and Rec Park. And it's gonna be launched from our municipal campus, choreographed to music as well. So we're very excited to celebrate the 250th and bringing a drone show to the Heights.

Excellent, Diana. This is the first time we've had this, correct?

First time we have it, yes, that's correct. So we're excited to, it took a little bit of research, talked to a bunch of municipalities as to what they do. And finally, just finished picking the slides. The show itself is about 10 to 12 minutes, and that is pretty standard. So, we're going to have about 400 drones. We're excited about that. And just to give you a little bit of a sneak peek, so you can see the red rectangular there, that is municipal campus. So, we do have a security perimeter in place that the drones will not fly over. So, they will hover over this campus, and they will be focused really at Rec Park, which you can see the ball field there. So, if you look here, you'll see a little bit of a sneak peek. That's what it looks like, the view will look like from the main ball field, about 500, 800 feet out. And then this is from the American Legion. So, if you're at somewhere right in the soccer fields, looking at Village Hall. That's about almost 1,500 feet, and you'll be able to see, that's what the drone will look like. So, we're very excited to be able to produce this show for the community and for those attending Rec Park and the festival.

Great. Anything else, Manager Ricklaus, on this? No, that covers it for this evening. Okay. I know that Trustee Manganiello wanted to add additional information for the Frontier Days group.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. For the last few years, I've had the great fortune to be a volunteer with that Frontier Days group. And I was here a while before I realized that it isn't 100% volunteer-run festival. No paid staff, no one but volunteers. And in fact, some of those folks have been there the entire 50 years. It's really great that the 250th anniversary of our country aligns with the 50th celebration of the Frontier Days Festival. And a few other things about this. It is an all-volunteer festival event. Those volunteers also put on our Fourth of July parade, which is among, if not the largest and best attended Fourth of July parades in the state of Illinois. And so certainly be out for that. We will all be there. If you can make a couple of hours during the course of the five days of the festival, we need help with everything you can imagine. If you want to pour beer, you get a shift drink. If you work in a food hall, you get a meal. But there are all kinds of things that need doing. It's a great community event. And I will be with some of the other volunteers at our remaining two Sounds of Summer events. events for the next couple of weeks trying to recruit volunteers we look forward to getting more of you getting more involved and i'm going to drop a quick challenge for my fellow board members to join me in volunteering for a shift or two i know a couple of you are already planning to do that so thank you so much for the time and i'm really looking forward to the festival thank you thank you anybody else okay uh seeing none

TRUSTEE LEBEDZ HAD ANOTHER COMMENT WE WANTED TO MAKE ON A SEPARATE SUBJECT.

COMPLETELY SEPARATE SUBJECT, UNFORTUNATELY NOT AS HAPPY A SUBJECT AS THE AMERICA 250, BUT A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO I SPOKE PRETTY PASSIONATELY ABOUT MY CONCERNS OF PEOPLE WHO ARE RIDING E-BIKES AND E-SCOOTERS AND DISOBEYING THE ORDINANCE THAT WE HAVE, RIDING RECKLESSLY, In fact, even to me, trying to make me move aside because some kid on a scooter, an e-scooter, thought I wasn't moving fast enough where he wanted to go. And I was on foot. I was a pedestrian. It continues. I think it's really only getting worse. I'm just so afraid that we will have a very serious injury or, God forbid, a death, another one. We've had one already in this village, and we don't need anything else like that. We have an ordinance on e-bikes. I would refer people to our village... Website to find the details But it does say that it does have it restrictions on who can ride and I can tell you that I don't think it's the 12 year olds who are who and who are The middle schoolers who are among some of the more reckless ones that I see on the streets doing wheelies Riding at high speeds and so on so I just want to remind people that And I want to remind parents, too, who I'm sure are the ones who buy these vehicles for their children, how important it is to be careful to wear helmets and other safety equipment if you are actually eligible To ride one, there's a new state law, I believe it's waiting signature by the governor, that will standardize restrictions on e-bikes and e-scooters throughout the state of Illinois, which I think is going to be really important because you go from border to border where things change. But I don't want to see anything happening. I also want to remind everybody that no vehicles are allowed in the alfresco zone, no pedal bicycles, no e-bikes, no e-scooters, but yes, You know, mobility vehicles, of course, for people who are in wheelchairs, mobile wheelchairs and so on, those are absolutely allowed. But otherwise, they're not allowed in the alfresco zone, and I see still too many of those. So please, I urge everyone to be very careful with this.

Thanks, Trustee LeBetz. Great reminder. Any follow-up on that? Yes, thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Trustee LeBetz. You know, as Trustee LeBetz indicated, there was a bill, Senate Bill 3484, that passed both chambers. This this spring it's awaiting the governor's signature some elements of that bill would take effect as soon as July 1st other elements would not take effect until January 1st there are some provisions of the bill that that either go further or conflict with the village's ordinance. We will have a reconciliation of our ordinance when and if that bill is signed. There are some elements of the bill that are stricter than the village's ordinance, and in that case, that will become what's enacted on. In other cases, our ordinance is stricter than the state law, which that can remain in effect. And so, you know, we can be stricter than state law in some cases, but we can't be more lenient. And so, we'll be working on reconciling that once we see what actually gets signed. But I can tell you, I spoke with Chief Pecora today, earlier this morning about this, and they have issued, I think, I believe 22 or 23 tickets to folks on e-bikes, including a number of youths. This is something we're taking seriously. Fines can go up to $500, or $750, plus the impoundment of an e-bike. And so we really urge parents to, to be very thoughtful about what they're giving their young people in their house because these things can be fatal not just for the individual but also for others and the new state laws really reflect that. Some of these vehicles will simply be registered and licensed essentially as motorcycles under the new state law and so if you are contemplating Buying your child this great summer gift look into the law first because you may not be eligible to write it And we don't want to put our police officers in a situation where they have to pull somebody over for something That's an illegal vehicle Thank you.

I appreciate that and there's still nothing wrong with a regular pedal bike Well said everyone anybody else communications, okay, I Then I think we'll move on to citizens to be heard. And I do have two blue cards here. These are for items that are not on our agenda tonight. And if anyone else wants to speak on an item not on the agenda, there are some blue cards in the back. You can pick one up and fill it out and hand it to our village clerk. So the first one is Devin Gray.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, trustees. Also, thank you very much for the insight onto Frontier Days. I was able to use the extra moment I had back there and sign up during these few minutes. Takes no more than a moment. So hopefully see you guys all there in your red shirts. Yeah, my name is Devin Gray. I'm a resident here in Arlington Heights, raising my family here. I'm also a small business owner here in town. In addition to that, I work a job that I'm very grateful to say it gives me the opportunity to communicate with people all across the country on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis. Sometimes over Zoom calls, sometimes in person, sometimes just hanging out in airport lounges where I just love to be. In the last couple weeks, as I introduced myself, hi, I'm Devin. I'm from Arlington Heights. More people than ever recognize where I'm from. For better or for worse, Arlington Heights is in the national news more than we've probably ever been. Even over the last three, four years, while we've had sort of this question mark hanging over us, people haven't known about us in the way that they do now. I'm very grateful that in most cases when people are seeing these national stories about Arlington Heights, they are typically accompanied by comments from our mayor. And those comments are usually such that we're talking about ourselves being still open for business, friendly to small business, and friendly to large business as well. And I would say that my experience for the most part has been that. In the years that I've grown up in this town and lived here and have raised my family here, I've experienced that. Today, I feel like we have an opportunity to continue to demonstrate that in the national spotlight. We have neighboring villages like Barrington Hills and Glen Ellen who are also in the national spotlight right now. But they're facing expensive, resource-heavy litigation. They're fighting lawsuits, I guess, where people are challenging their ordinances that have banned short-term rentals. They haven't received any favorable rulings in either village's case. These cases are still going on. And they're putting their towns in the national spotlight. But in Arlington Heights, we have a chance to be different. We have a chance to say, no, we are open to business. We're not like those folks. We want big businesses to come here that could fundamentally impact the economy. We also want small businesses to come here, and we want those businesses to thrive. We have a chance to support short-term rentals. In about 15 days, we're due to shut them down for good. But we have a chance to support them. And we have a chance to show that we're a village that doesn't take the easy way out. We don't just say yes or no. We do the hard things. We bring together business owners, neighbors, and village leaders. Sometimes we force task force. We organize task force. and we do the hard thing to make smart decisions. I'd encourage us to take this opportunity to show the state of Illinois, show the NFL, and show everybody who's listening that Arlington Heights is open for business, and we support the businesses that are here. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Devin. Next is Norbert, Norbert Piotrowski.

Hi. I have returned. You remember me from previous meetings. This may be my last sentence to be heard here. My name is Norbert Pietrowski, and I live at 211 North Dwyer Avenue in Arlington Heights, Illinois. And I thank the mayor, the board of trustees, and Arlington Heights staff for the opportunity to speak tonight on the Chicago Bears' move to Arlington Heights. And a copy of this goes to about 65 people, the key people in this project is involved with this Springfield and here and surrounding mayors and everything. I started following this project closely in December 2025 when I spoke to the board saying it was a bad idea. I called for a re-evaluation because due diligence was not followed. There was no transparency of the real risks to Arlington Heights. I was afraid the board would get the state funding and ram this project through, signing off on the project before the people knew the true facts of these mega stadiums across the U.S., They did not want to do a referendum because the citizens could see the dangers and possibly reject it. The board has the bear's fever and financial logic is overshadowed by emotions. I feared that a majority of five on the nine-member board would become the worst boondoggle project in Arlington Heights' 139-year history. I used ChatGPT AI app to find out that 80% to 90% of these NFL megastadiums fail across the US in the last 40 years. because cities and states regret that years later, similar AI apps like Gemini, Copilot, Claude yield similar results. The Daily Herald published my letter about this, which I sent to them, and one week later, the newspaper ran a front-page article on the lack of transparency with the mayors of Rolling Meadows, Palatine, and Schaumburg complaining about the lack of transparency about the stadium since they are across the street from the stadium they were not at the table then things happened real fast the next day the mayor responded he would include all affected and with full transparency i have found that talking at village arlington high village board meetings goes nowhere the front page of the daily herald gets an instant response The Bears' $85 million infrastructure bill got shot down by the Illinois General Assembly. It crashed and burned. The NFL is worth $250 billion and the Bears are worth $8 billion. Illinois does not bail out billionaires. The fact is that the Bears' business model is broken. It relies on heavy public financial support or they can't make it. There are 30 NFL stadiums in the US and only three operate on private funds. So 90% of NFL stadiums are publicly funded and only 10% are privately funded. The NFL gets cities and states to fund their mega stadiums under the threat of leaving, losing bragging rights, status, and using football fever emotions. That has mostly worked so far. Now cities and states are getting wise to these deals where the teams get all the profit and the taxpayers get screwed. Illinois told the Bears to pound sand, we understand the deal. The NFL teams need big money for $100 million contracts with top players or they don't succeed. So the taxpayers foot the bill. norbert i have to ask you to wrap up please we're way past three minutes without their failed business model the teams fail the bears are looking at hammond indiana that real estate is a swamp filled in with contaminated slag huge oil tanks on two sides com ed high voltage transmission towers one half and the BP Whiting Refinery smokestacks three miles away. When the wind drifts toward the stadium, the Bears will issue free COVID-19 masks to save your lungs. A 12-year-old kid would say that this is a bad place for the Bears. The best place for the Bears is Chicago's Soldier Field, where they have played for 100 years. The fans want them in Chicago. Quit battling all the problems for the last four years with a dumb move out of Chicago or out of state. Thanks for the time.

Thank you, Norbert.

And that's the wonderful thing about the United States and Arlington Heights in specific. We have a freedom of speech. Doesn't mean that everything that's said is accurate and correct. And I would argue that some of the things that were just said are not accurate and not correct. But we're not going to debate that tonight. People can judge that for themselves. But thank you for sharing your thoughts, Norbert. I think that's it, unless someone else wants to speak under citizens to be heard for an item that's not on the agenda. And I don't see any hands, so we're gonna move on to the consent agenda. And the consent agenda is a list from A to I of items that will be voted on with one vote. Are there any trustees on the board here that would like an item removed to be discussed and voted on separately? Seeing none, is there anybody in the audience that would like a trustee to remove an item from this consent agenda? Seeing none, is there anyone on the board that wishes to vote no or pass on any of the items? Is there anyone who is willing to make a motion for approval?

I move approval of the consent agenda.

Motion made by Trustee LeBetz, is there a second? Second. Second by Trustee Zik.

No.

Trustee Manganiello. Okay, motion made by Trustee LaBette, second by Trustee Manganiello. Any further discussion from anyone, audience or otherwise? Maggie, if you could call the roll, please.

Trustee LaBette? Yes. Trustee Manganiello? Aye. Trustee Schwengbeck?

Yes.

Trustee Santa Maria? Yes. Trustee Bertucci? Yes. Trustee Gilbert?

Yes.

Trustee Zick?

Yes.

Trustee Dunnington? Yes. President Tenaglia?

Yes. And motion carries and all items are passed from A to I. And then we move on to the last section, which is new business. And we do have a couple of exciting appointments here tonight. The first is Mr. Nick Kautz, who will be sworn in here for the Building Code Review Board. And for that, I will call on Trustee Bertucci.

Thank you, Mayor. I will move, as I did earlier this evening, to concur in the Mayor's appointment of Nick Kautz for appointment to the Building Code Review Board with a term ending April 30th, 2027. Second.

Motion made by Trustee Bertucci, seconded by Trustee Schwingbeck. Is there any further comment or questions from anyone on the board, anyone in the audience? Seeing none, we're going to read Nick his oath, and he's going to recite it back.

This is one of the harder things you have to do. Oh, we have to go first.

Yes, of course. All right.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? None. Motion carries. All right, Nick, are you ready?

Yes.

All right, so if you would, raise your right hand. Repeat after me. I, Nick Kautz. I, Nick Kautz. Having been appointed to the Building Code Review Board. Having been appointed to the Building Code Review Board. In the Village of Arlington Heights. In the Village of Arlington Heights. In the County of Cook. In the County of Cook. Do solemnly swear and affirm. Do solemnly swear and affirm. That I will support the Constitution of the United States. That I will support the Constitution of the United States. And the Constitution of the State of Illinois. And the Constitution of the State of Illinois. And that I will faithfully discharge the duties. And I will faithfully discharge the duties. Of the office according to the best of my ability. Of the office according to the best of my abilities. Congratulations. Thank you. If you would, so there's a pin, just like all of us here, that you can wear. And then if you take this over to our clerk and sign from her. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Congratulations. Thank you.

And while Nick's doing that, we'll call up the next item, which is Tyler Bennett. Tyler, step up, please. Tyler is a young man who we interviewed earlier. And for this, I would call on Trustee LeBeds.

Thank you. I move now, as I did earlier, to concur in the mayor's appointment of Tyler Bennett for appointment to the Youth Commission with a term ending April 30th, 2027. Second.

Motion made by Trustee LeBetz, seconded by Trustee Santamaria. Any questions or comments from anyone on the board? Anyone in the audience? Mom, Dad, any questions, comments? Okay. We'll go ahead with the vote then. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. None opposed. Motion carries. All right. Tyler, you ready? Yes, sir. This will be the hardest thing you've got to do. Right hand, repeat after me. Aye. Tyler Bennett.

Aye. Tyler Bennett.

Having been appointed to the Youth Commission in the Village of Arlington Heights.

Having been appointed to the Youth Commission in Arlington Heights. Aye.

In the county of Cook. In the county of Cook. Do solemnly swear and affirm.

Do solemnly swear and affirm.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the state of Illinois.

And the Constitution of the state of Illinois.

And that I will faithfully discharge the duties.

And that I will faithfully discharge the duties.

Of the office according to the best of my ability.

Of the office according to the best of my abilities.

I know you will. Come on up here. Congratulations. a civic pin like all of us wear. You can wear that when you go to your meetings. Take this over to see Maggie and sign that in front of her and you're all set to go. Congratulations.

Congratulations.

I feel so sorry for that kid. He just got nothing going on for him. If you had a minute, if you ever have a minute to talk with Tyler, he will tell you about lots of wonderful things. Great young man. Way to go, Mom and Dad. Item C is 6 South Vale, the Metropolis Ballroom for a sign variation. Is the petitioner here? Come on up. Hi. Hi. Introduce yourself, please.

Good evening. Didi Manetti, owner of Metropolis Ballroom of Arlington Heights.

Very good. Staff, want to do a presentation, or will we have the petitioner first?

The petitioner is certainly welcome to introduce what they're proposing, and then staff will follow up with a presentation.

So, DeeDee, share with us why you're here, just a high-level, you know, project. What are you after tonight?

Yes, this project started to, our goal is to improve the street appearance of Metropolis Ballroom because we're on the second floor. We have a different business first floor, like Hey Nanny or Our Mom. And we've been mistaken as the second floor of Hainani or Almonds constantly. A lot of people even, people living across street in condo buildings don't know we exist. Even if that we have special events in our facility every week, every weekend we bring in a lot of people from different areas of Illinois and we bring in a lot of business for the restaurants and bars in Arlington Heights downtown. So what we're proposing is to have a couple signs. The signs that will be like a flag sign, because we're on the second floor, is difficult for us. The flag signs, we occupy probably, outside of the veranda area, we occupy probably about 13 windows. It's a corner lot. So we're proposing to have two signs on each side of the street It's more like a flag sign on the side of the wall just to show our local Metropolis Ballroom and what we do. On top of that, I think it's included as also is a retractable awning with our Metropolis Ballroom sign on it. That will complete all around the entire property. So when people will come from the street level, they will know, oh, it's Metropolis Ballroom on the second floor. and they occupy this much of space. That's our purpose for the society.

Very good. Anything else for the moment?

Not much. All we're asking is, I think, We've gone through the design committee twice. We put a lot of thought into it. And we've changed quite a few times according to the design committee's suggestions. And we feel this is something that is final for us, that we have to do it. This is a minimum we have to do in order to improve our business. We really ask the committee, the board, to allow us to go forward with this project.

Very good. Okay, thanks, Dede. Staff?

All right. As the petitioner indicated, they're here this evening for consideration of sign variations. The requested action, I did want to clarify for the board that, as the petitioner indicated, they did go before the design commission to receive approval for retractable awnings to place on the second floor terrace. as well as a replacement of the first floor canopy, the fabric awning that they have that is now in black. They sought approval to change that to blue to match their branding. Those requests are solely under the jurisdiction of the Design Commission, and the Design Commission did approve those requests. So while we reflect them here in this presentation because they're in the design commission report that you received in your packet, those two requests are not the subject of what the board is considering this evening. The only thing that falls under your purview this evening is the variation for the signage. So what they're requesting from the board this evening is the variation from Chapter 30 to allow wall-mounted banner signs. Their request was initially for six of these signs, three on each side of the building. They're 11 and a quarter square feet. And normally these wall-mounted banner signs are not permitted in the downtown district. They do exist, similar signs exist for the Metropolis Theater. They also received a variation to obtain those banner signs. So this is a location, although I suspect you're all very familiar, where Metropolis Ballroom is located on Vail Street. But you can see that, as she indicated, they do have frontage on both Campbell and Vail. This is one of the images that they provided as part of their design commission package, illustrating what those six banners that they're initially requesting would look like on the side of the building. And then this is just a close-up so that you can see specifically what the banner design is. The Design Commission, again, their recommendation touched on all of the different requests, but the only request that you're considering this evening is related to the wall-mounted banners. The petitioner's request was for six banners. Staff recommended that the Design Commission only consider four banners. We just felt that it was visually too busy to have six banners and that four would be sufficient. The design commission did concur with that recommendation. So they recommended approval of the sign variation, but reducing the request from six to four banners. So the motion that is before the board this evening would be to direct staff and the village attorney to prepare final documents, granting the requested sign variation relief, which would be the four banners as set forth in the agenda materials for tonight's meeting.

Thank you, Ms. Rodman. Appreciate that information. Let's go right to the village board here for questions. Or maybe I should go to DeeDee first. Are there any additional comments or questions on what staff just mentioned?

No.

And you've reviewed everything that the design commission proposed and you concur with that?

Yes.

Okay, and just to be clear, the awnings that are proposed for up on the veranda are approved by the design commission, correct? Correct. And what else was approved by the design commission?

They also approved replacement of the canopy material, the first floor canopy that is in front of their entrance, replacement to a blue color.

And so the only reason they're here tonight is because they need a variation for the other signs, which are more like these flag signs.

Those vertical banner signs require the variation, correct.

And what they asked for were six, and what the design commission had agreed to with staff was four.

They recommended four, which would be removal of the two middle banners on each side of the building.

That's what I was going to ask. So the middle one would go away in each of these, in this photograph?

Correct.

On each side of the street. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Questions from the board? Trustee Schwingbeck.

Thank you, Mayor. I just have a quick one, because when I originally looked at this and saw the six, are you okay with, if we approve this, are you okay with just four?

We would prefer six, but if it has to be four, we have no problem with it. The reason for six is to be able to cover, because it's a pretty large property, and a total of 13 windows, to be able to cover it properly. And also, we also put out what we do, like weddings, special events, brunch events. and things that will give us enough sign to actually show what we do. But if four, we are okay with four. We prefer six.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Anyone else on this side? Trustee Santa Maria?

DIRECTOR ODDMAN, SO WE AS A BOARD COULD SAY WE WOULD WANT THE SIX VERSUS THE FOUR.

IS THAT ACCURATE? CORRECT. YOU ARE WELCOME TO PICK ANY NUMBER OF BANNERS THAT YOU THINK ARE APPROPRIATE.

Before we go on to other questions from the rest of the board, is the petitioner thinking that from time to time these sign designs might change to some degree? Not necessarily the logo, because that's your logo, but the information that's shared, whether it's seasonal or something else. Are you thinking there might be some movement there?

No. We will keep it consistent. That's why we need a certain number of signs so we can put what we do, you know, enough to put on there so people can have idea, oh, they can do corporate events too, they can do weddings, they have a Mother's Day and Easter brunch as well. So we do not have to change that because of season, because of, you know, if it's a brunch season, we would change the different things. So it will be staying consistent.

Right. Could you go back to the other slide, the photograph? And you guys own all the way from the parking garage on the left side of this photograph to the corner, around the corner, and all the way to the theater building, correct? Yes. The entire second floor.

Yes.

Okay. Other questions? Trustee Bertucci.

So I can't help but notice that this picture is during late fall, winter, early spring, where there is no foliage or no leaves on the trees. And to Trustee Santa Maria's point, I'm just wondering once we have the trees full of leaves, that it may not look as over-signed possibly, and maybe we should give some consideration. Now, certainly I'm good with four, but if there's enough momentum on the board to consider six, I'm just thinking that there might be a case for that. So that would be my thoughts. Okay. Trustee Donington.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm in support of the four signs. I wanted to ask if there's any requirement that they need to be replaced at a certain time so that they stay looking fresh and new.

We don't have a specified timeframe in which signs need to be replaced, but if they were to deteriorate, eventually we could work with them on replacement or take them through a code enforcement action. Thank you.

This direction, Chelsea Levitz.

Thank you. I'm in support of the four signs. Sometimes if there's too many signs, then people just sort of start to ignore what they are. So I don't want to be, I understand the predicament and how you want to advertise that way. but at the same time, you also don't want it to sort of fade into the background so nobody pays attention to it either. So that's why I'm in support of the four signs. I was once involved in a project with a, another taxing body in this town that had to have signs and that was the sign consultant wisely pointed out that after a while people don't read them. So that's where I'm in support. But can I make a comment on any of the other parts or questions? I know that there were not, well, I've been to a number of breakfast meetings in the ballroom, and I was just wondering if that's the kind of time would the awnings come out to provide some. It gets pretty bright in there when the sun's coming up. I was just curious if that would be a sunshade for that. I know you have shades on the interior, but I'm just curious.

The awning currently can only cover not even one-third of the veranda. The proposed retractable awning will be able to, with a press of a button, with a remote, it can retract and also can extend, project to the entire width of the veranda. So it will provide very nice coverage for inside of the ballroom as well.

that'll be nice because then a lot then you won't have shades that sort of blur the view of harmony park and so on so so that's that's the purpose of it too yeah i think that'll be very nice so i just had to make that comment thanks trustee zick thank you mayor um

I actually got to spend some time up there watching a certain band a couple Thursdays ago and enjoyed it up there. But I can see where you want more people to come up there. For the awnings, did you say there's going to be your logo on the awnings also?

Yes. Not the awning itself. It's just on the lip of it. Right now, historically, we always had signs on the lip of the onion. If you go back to when we had black ones, when we had lighter blue ones, I think this is the third generation already that currently we have. We always had one there. So that's our thought as well, to put one on as well. That was because we have no signage on this side of the building. And with Hainani sign being that high up, where people think that's second floor of Hainani all the time. So, you know, that will provide us some identity having a little sign up there too.

Okay, so I'm sorry. So there is wording on the awning that's up there already, but you're going to have more wording? No, same amount. It's going to be the same amount? Yeah.

So if I could clarify what they're proposing, and I do have some images of the awning, but you can't see the signage on the awning. What they're proposing is that the retractable awning will come out, and then it will have a piece of fabric that will hang down maybe 8 to 10 inches straight down, and there will be lettering, I believe it's 8-inch lettering on that fabric, correct? Yes. So that would be the extent of the signage. The signage will not be on the large inclined portion of the awning. It will just be on that straight drop down, like we see with some of the other businesses in the downtown. Is that?

No, no, no, it doesn't. I'm just asking those questions because I understand what you're trying to do. And I think somebody in the design commission said with all the signs on here, it made it look collegiate or something to that effect. And I do understand that, but I also understand that you're trying to get out of the shadow of some of the other businesses that are over there. And that's where I was just thinking, if those awnings did have some type of logo when they were opened up, Could that show the name or identify you even more than just having the eight-inch letters that are down there? I'm for the four. I think that makes the most sense. But I'm just trying to think ways to help her. How does she get the name out even more?

The code does not currently allow that, so that would be another sign variation if they wanted to put the logo on the main portion of the awning.

Okay.

All right, thank you. Other hands? I saw Trustee Gilbert a minute ago, but we'll come back to Trustee Magenaro.

Thank you. Thank you for everything that you do. I'm in favor of the six. I know that you've probably put a lot of work into this. This is your business. I personally don't see any harm in the additional two banners. I know that you're in a very important part of downtown Arlington, and you've thought about this way longer than anybody up here has, I know, and this is a plan, and I'd like to be able to see you see it through. So I would be in favor of the six banners, and I wish you all the best and the most success in the world.

Thank you.

Thank you. Trustee Maganier.

And I'll do my best to be brief. I really appreciate the plight that you have and the lack of the ease with which people think that the upstairs isn't you and want to help with that. And I am struggling because I, because of the fact that we cannot consider the awnings. I do have concern about them. that I'm left with a choice about voting for the ordinance as a whole and I'm very much struggling with that because I don't favor where we are with the awnings. do have concerns about more than four signs. I think Trustee Lebed's points are very well taken. I think there's a point at which signs become noise and it is at least half the year it's in the condition we see in the picture here. And I believe that four signs is sufficient. And that's all, thank you.

Trustee Manginero, if I could make a point of clarification. So while the ordinance is not before you this evening, the ordinance that will come before the board will only speak to the banner signs. So the awnings will not be included in that ordinance because they are under the purview of the design commission. So you won't see the awnings or any other related requests in the ordinance. It will simply be the banner signs, just to clarify.

Anyone else? Is there anyone in the audience that would like to be recognized for this particular item? Seeing none. I have one or two questions. Ms. Rodman, do we have any images or photographs of the Metropolis Theater? Kind of a front-on photograph that shows the banners that I can see one peeking out here. And, of course, the big marquee that's out there. DO WE KNOW HOW MANY BANNERS ARE ON THAT FACADE, VERTICAL BANNERS?

I DON'T KNOW OFF HAND. I DON'T HAVE AN IMAGE IN THIS PRESENTATION OF METROPOLIS. AND UNFORTUNATELY, I CAN'T GET ONLINE AND LOOK WITH THE PRESENTATION LOADED HERE.

If I had to guess, I think there's one or two at least on each side of the marquee totaling four, and then plus the big marquee, that's all lit up with the video boards. Does anybody else agree with that up here? Is it different?

I went in the area and just saw the two metropolises. One on each side? One on each side, yeah.

It's just one on each side? Okay.

And the marquee.

And then the marquee. And I don't know how long of a facade that is there. running east and west. Maybe it's similar to that facade that is also this project here on Campbell Street. Maybe it's a similar length. I guess where I'm at is if someone made a motion that wanted to offer them the six signs, I'd be in favor of that. If not that, I'm definitely in favor of the four signs. So I'll leave my comments there. And whoever wants to make a motion, please raise your hand. Trustee Levitz.

Thank you. I would move to direct staff and the village attorney to prepare final documents granting the requested sign variation relief for four 11 and a quarter square foot wall mounted banners. All is set forth in the agenda materials for tonight's board meeting.

Second. Motion made by Trustee Labad, seconded by Trustee Schwingbeck. Any further discussion? Yes, Mayor, I'd like to propose an amendment to the motion to amend it to be six banners instead of the four. Okay, so there's a motion made to amend the original motion. Is there a second for that?

Second.

Okay, motion made by Trustee Gilbert, seconded by Trustee Santa Maria. So we can discuss that now, correct? Right. It's appropriate to discuss the amendment to the main motion to determine whether it will be

adopted into the main motion. Right.

And do the original motion makers need to weigh in on whether... No one needs to weigh in on it. They certainly can. You can entertain discussion at your discretion, Mayor. Gotcha. Okay. Let's go ahead and discuss the number five and six here. Sounds like there are a couple of trustees on this side and at least one on this side. Where are we at?

Does someone want to speak out on supporting this? WELL, I CERTAINLY SECONDED THE MOTION, SO I WOULD SUPPORT SIX. IF NOT, YOU KNOW, OBVIOUSLY IF NOT SIX, THEN I WILL VOTE YES ON THE FOUR, BUT I WILL SUPPORT THE SIX. OKAY.

AND TRUSTEE SANTERIA?

I AGREE. I WOULD VOTE ON THE SIX, OBVIOUSLY THE FOUR AS WELL, BUT I JUST FEEL LIKE WITH WHERE THE PETITIONER IS LOCATED AND THE WORK THAT SHE'S DONE TO THINK ABOUT WHAT HER BUSINESS NEEDS TO SUCCEED FROM AN IDENTITY AND BRANDING STANDPOINT, I THINK THE BEST WE CAN DO IS SUPPORT HER.

Okay. Anyone else wants to discuss this? I'll piggyback on that. I think it's a great sentiment. We talk about how we can help businesses and what we can do, and here we have a business owner that's come to us with a way that she thinks that this will help her business. So I think we should put some wind in those sails.

Yeah. And I would agree with that. I think there are a number of wonderful businesses in our community. This is a top shelf, one of the most wonderful businesses that we have for several reasons. And they've been how many years so far? Ten?

Oh, more than that.

I know, it's about 20, right?

Yeah, 14 years.

Yeah, it's been a long time. You guys have worked so hard. So let's go ahead and take a vote, a roll call vote on this motion.

Right, so this is a motion to amend the main motion to change the number of approved banners to six. Right, so it's just the amendment.

Just voting on whether this becomes the main motion. There'll be another vote for the whole motion. Correct. This is just for five and six. Go ahead.

Trustee Gilbert.

Yes.

Trustee Bertucci.

Yes.

Trustee Zick.

No.

Trustee Schwingbeck.

No.

Trustee Santa Maria. Yes. Trustee Manganiello.

No.

Trustee Dunnington. No. Trustee Lebeds. No. President Tenaglia.

Yes. Okay. My numbers are five against and four in favor. Is that?

That's correct.

That's what you have to? Okay. So the motion will stay as it was originally stated by Trustee LeBeds and seconded by Trustee Schwingbeck. Schwingbeck. Very good. Is there any further discussion on that before we make a vote on that? Seeing none, roll call vote again.

Yes. Trustee Schwingbeck? Yes. Trustee Dunnington? Yes. Trustee Santa Maria? Yes. Trustee Gilbert? Yes. Trustee Manganiello? Aye. Trustee Zick?

Yes.

Trustee Bertucci?

Yes.

President Tenaglia?

Yes. All right. You are approved for the four. Thank you very much. Okay.

Thank you.

Good luck to you. And we expect to have that final ordinance at your July 6th meeting. The final ordinance as written will be before us on July 6th. That's the intent. Very good. All right. Thank you. We're going to move on to item D, which is 1900 East Thomas Street, John Hersey High School, for a sign variation there. Is the petitioner here? Representative? Come on up. Introduce yourself, please, and maybe give us a quick explanation of why you're here.

Good evening. Uh, my name is I am director of operation for a township high school district of 14. Okay.

And I am Mike Sauer. I'm one of the architects for the district from Arkon associates.

that we're coming today, I'm coming today as a representative of the owner for District 214, asking the board for a consideration of the installation of the new scoreboard at John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights. The project itself, it's the biggest project that currently we're doing three schools, John Hersey, Buffalo Grove High School in Buffalo Grove, and also Prospect High School in Mont Prospect. All three high schools, we have a replacement of the track field, And also in Hersey, we are asking for approval to put in new scoreboard as well as in Prospect Heights. We start that process three years ago. We replaced already very similar scoreboard on a Wheeling High School. And we did something very similar when we did Buffalo Grove, the phase one and phase two. We replaced that on a stadium. As far as the enhancement and replacement, it's not only the replacement scoreboard itself. That's tied very closely to the curriculum, to the CTE. The idea of those scoreboards, since they will be video boards, they will be running with our curriculum and they will be led by the students. What that means, we would like to have clubs and the students to be very highly involved of designing and running those scoreboards. As far as the scoreboard itself, we know that it's video boards. It will be bigger whether we currently have it on John Hersey High School. Because of that, we have very strict rules what we propose that those scoreboards will be running. Most of them will be during the varsity games, football, soccer, lacrosse, all of the games during the varsity.

Also, we will be very strictly running the scoreboard only on the hours when the village approve and known the past those hours That sums it up very well Just along those same lines that the the scoreboard itself is purely that it's just a scoreboard for the high schools use for any events and games that they have and they will be turned on only for that maybe 30 minutes ahead of that game and It'll be turned off probably between 15 and 30 minutes after the game, depending on the time of night. If it's something that goes later and needs to be off at 10, it'll be off at 10.

Also, I would like to add that that scoreboard will not have any voice, that we will be using existing speakers through the stadium. On the scoreboard itself, we will have a video board when we will present the businesses. We like very much present mostly the sponsors and the clubs that they do provide equipment for our teams as well as they sponsor our teams. Through that sponsoring, we are trying to accomplish and improve more of our facilities that the money that they will come through that sponsoring through the video boards will go through the athletics and PE and improvement of the facility outside as well inside.

Very good. And I'm not sure if I read it in the packet or not, but how old is the board that's currently there at Hersey? Do we know? Mm-hmm.

At least 20 plus years old.

Sorry about that.

About 20 plus years old. I know they replaced some of the components, but right now it's very old, the same as the structure.

Yeah, okay. All right, you guys can make yourself comfortable. We'll let Ms. Rodman do a quick presentation with the staff's report.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. So as the petitioner mentioned, they're here before you this evening to request a sign variation to allow a scoreboard for John Hersey High School. This is a variation from Chapter 30, again, our sign code, which would allow a 528.3 square foot scoreboard that is 31 feet 2 inches tall, where we normally don't allow scoreboards anywhere in the village. They would also, as she mentioned, like to be able to provide sponsorship information on that scoreboard, and we do not currently allow off-premise sponsor advertisements, off-site signage essentially, so they're also requesting a variation from that component of the sign code. This is the location of the scoreboard as you can see it is located at the northwest edge of their field. They are replacing the scoreboard in the exact same location that the current scoreboard is in. This is just another site plan where you can see it in relation to the track. And then these are the two scoreboards side by side. So you can see the existing scoreboard on the left is about 400 square feet. It has a clearance from the ground of six feet, and the overall height of the scoreboard is 22 feet. And then they will be replacing it with this new video scoreboard, which again is about 528 square feet. It does have a higher clearance of 10 feet, and according to the manufacturer, that is what they recommend for safety reasons primarily, just to provide more clearance for athletes. And then the overall height is quite a bit taller, about 30% taller than the current scoreboard at 31 feet. Again, slightly taller to accommodate that additional ground clearance, but also because of the branding that they're including at the top of the scoreboard with their Hersey Huskies. This is a picture in the front and back of the current scoreboard. The dimensions are depicted. It's a little hard to read in this image. And then this is the proposed new scoreboard. So you can see the video component is the primary component of the scoreboard. And then there are electronic components at the base of the board as well. As the petitioner mentioned, they are only proposing to use the video component of the scoreboard for varsity athletics. So that would be football, soccer, lacrosse, track, those. sports, and then for JV games and freshman games, they would not be using the video screen, but they would still use the lower portion of the scoreboard. The design commission did consider these variations and did unanimously recommend approval of the variations. There are a number of conditions that they did place on their recommendation for approval. Those conditions relate to what I just mentioned in terms of when the scoreboard is used, only being used for varsity athletics. that the scoreboard needs to be turned off at the conclusion of each sporting event, but certainly no later than 10 p.m., and it needs to be off when there is no varsity or other sporting event currently going on. The off-premise sponsorship advertisements may only be displayed during sponsored events. And then they need to follow the existing regulations in the sign code related to auto dimming. And then as they indicated, there will be no sound emitted from the scoreboard. So that is a recommended condition. And then lastly, they recommended that the back of the scoreboard be enclosed with a smooth finish just for aesthetic purposes. So thus the motion that is before the board this evening is to direct staff and the village attorney to prepare final documents granting the requested sign relief as set forth in the agenda materials in your packet this evening.

Very good. Thanks, Ms. Rodman. Could you go back one page to the conditions? Nope, the conditions. Would you mind coming back up? I think it behooves us all in the room here, you've read all six of these conditions, and do you, as a petitioner, agree to all of them?

Yes.

Okay, very good. I'll hang tight for a minute. Questions from the board, from anyone? We'll start on this side this time. Trustee Levesque, you're up.

I guess I'll start. I do have a few questions, thank you. It does look very nice. I understand, oops, I lost my page here on my iPad. I somewhat understand what's going on here. I don't fully understand the educational process component relationship. There was some mention of sideline interviews and other things. What is it that, other than programming the scores, it changes and so on, what is it that students will be doing and what kind of classes is it going to be associated with?

I will have to say that it will be very difficult for me if we will have classes. I don't know the curriculum side so well, but I know we have clubs. And as far as changing the score, it's a very small portion. Most of the students are doing that right now. but a lot of the prepping itself because it's a video board that the student will have a lot the clubs will have a lot more opportunity like they prepare the spotlights right now that we they we play them on a school we have them on a like school channel i think it will be kind of the same component that we will have the students that they can work through the media center which each school has it and prepare what we will be advertising, you know, doing different spotlights. Besides of the advertising, since it's the scoreboard, it's the video board, they will have opportunity to spotlight the students. And I think that's the, it's very new, but I envision that's how they will use and then they will grow. If it will be for curriculum, in my standpoint, I cannot answer that.

Okay, I understand. I was hoping someone would be here with you that would be able to do that. So I can see certainly having a spotlight on a student athlete or something like that. There was some mention of replays. And so there must be somebody videotaping. I'm long gone from the high school experience, I just have to say. So that's why I'm trying to get my head around this.

I think it's mostly for the clubs. I don't know if IHSA will allow us to do the VAR kind of like we have now in World Cup or some different discipline. That's not what they will be using. It's mostly the experience that's through the clubs that they will be able to work around in the future if they would like to have a media pathway in a college that they can prep them for that.

Okay, thank you. Oh, go ahead. There are a lot of cameras filming the game itself, from a game film to different locations that they're working with, and that's where it kind of gets into the students' activity as well. And so that's where they might get into something that, if there is a score, if they can go ahead and show the replay of that score. Of course, everybody's cheering, so it just kind of helps boost all that and bring it together.

Okay, I don't remember if this I saw this at this from prospect, but I do remember watching on YouTube, one of the high schools having a playoff game. And it was also to the students who were the it was the color person and the play by play person and so on. And so I guess that would be somewhat similar.

Right, that's kind of all of the potential part and parcel of the CTE program. So it's programming what slides, when would they change things out. You know, they're not looking to do a big flicking scoreboard. They're just what images are you putting up, when do you put them up, end of the first quarter, beginning of the third, working all those things out into kind of a master programming for that event.

Okay. So then when it's not a varsity game, for example, will that – video screen be blank?

Yes.

Okay. And it'll just be the scores below. And then I have one last question and possibly maybe Ms. Rodman. I spent many years as a Hersey band parent and I do remember at least a couple games going past 10 p.m. Would that be a problem with the way it's written? I can remember one distinctly where it was a late start because of weather and they had to wait for the all clear. So it went past 10. What would happen?

I think we can easily, if that will be one of the condition, of course we will be shutting down the portion of the video board and the scoreboards can be still on. Okay. We do respect and understand that we have neighbors around.

Okay, so the scoreboard part will still be in place, so to speak. Okay, that's good. I was worried about that part of it, because I wouldn't want it to all go dark, and suddenly the score is making this up 31 to 32, and there's a chance, and you don't want to miss anything. Okay, thank you. Those are my questions, thank you.

Thanks, Trustee Lubetz. Trustee Gilbert. Thank you for bringing this. I think that this scoreboard is long overdue. The only thing I'd like to see is freshmen and JV being allowed to use it as well. That might be an argument for or a discussion for a different day, but you may all be shocked here, but I'd like to make a motion on this. Can we have that slide, please, so I can see what I'm supposed to be motioning?

THERE YOU GO.

I'D LIKE TO MAKE A MOTION I'D LIKE TO MAKE A MOTION TO DIRECT STAFF AND THE VILLAGE TO DIRECT STAFF AND THE VILLAGE ATTORNEY TO PREPARE FINAL ATTORNEY TO PREPARE FINAL DOCUMENTS GRANTING THE REQUESTED DOCUMENTS GRANTING THE REQUESTED SIGNED VARIATION RELIEF. SIGNED VARIATION RELIEF.

ALL IS SET FORTH IN THE AGENDA ALL IS SET FORTH IN THE AGENDA MATERIALS FOR TONIGHT'S BOARD MATERIALS FOR TONIGHT'S BOARD MEETING. MEETING. SECOND. SECOND.

MOTION MADE BY TRUSTEE MOTION MADE BY TRUSTEE GILBERT SECONDED BY TRUSTEE GILBERT SECONDED BY TRUSTEE SANTA MARIA. SANTA MARIA. CONTINUED introduction of more and more professional sports elements into residential neighborhoods with this kind of project. I also note that the actual scoreboard space, because the dimensions were pretty clear to me as I went through the packet, is smaller on the proposed scoreboard than it is on the existing scoreboard. So when you talk about those lower level games, there will actually be less to watch. I have concerns about the educational values. So maybe you can answer exactly how many students are involved in the programming? What percentage of the student body does it benefit?

I don't think so. We can provide that definitely. If you would like to know that, we can provide for Ms. Rodman that answer.

And the materials in the packet talk about wanting people to be job ready when they exit high school and that this is something that supports that. Can you explain exactly what professional positions in sports broadcasting people would be qualified for going through this program?

I think it would be mostly for our multimedia programs and also be able to, you know, for our students to give hands-on opportunity to see how they can prepare spotlights and work closely with the different type of the video, put them together. LIKE I SAID, THIS IS VERY NEW PROGRAM. IT'S ON THE BEGINNING BECAUSE WE DIDN'T HAVE FULL OPPORTUNITY TO ROLL THIS OUT SINCE WE DON'T HAVE ALL OF THIS VIDEO BOARDS THROUGH THE DISTRICT, BUT I KNOW THAT THAT'S KIND OF BEHIND THAT PATCHWAY TO START TO EXPLORE THAT. AND THEN I THINK MY LAST COMMENT ABOUT IT, I TIE A VERY CLOSE LINE TO THE

item that we approved a couple of weeks ago at Centennial Park where we had elements at their fields that were, if you will, grandfathered in, and forgive me, Director Rodman, if I'm not using the right terminology, they were looking to get variances for things that were out of code that were exactly the same as before. For me, this is a different situation. This is changing the impact. It seems to be really when I read between the lines in the packet, it seems like it's all about advertising. And I am really not in favor of increasing commercialization of our amateur athletics. So I will leave it there.

I do respect that. If I can add a comment, I think we will be mostly advertising through the sports fields. It will be not advertising something that we will do, I don't know, the store or some, like most of the advertisement will then benefit the students. I do agree. We will not be putting, it will be very careful review what it's put for advertising over there.

Anyone else? Trustee Zik? Yeah, thank you, Mayor. A couple things here. One, did we, and I understand where Trustee Magonaro is going about, you've got to be careful about when we do things in neighborhoods and we add more lights and more things and sounds and things like that. But as you're saying, this isn't going to be, there's not going to be no audio attached to all this. BUT IF I MISS THIS IN THE PACKET, I APOLOGIZE, BUT HAVE WE ACTUALLY TALKED TO THE NEIGHBORS TO GET AN IDEA OF WHAT THEY FEEL ABOUT HAVING THIS NEW, HAVING THIS BIGGER SCOREBOARD?

WE DID ASK THE SCHOOL TO SPEAK TO THE NEIGHBORS AND I BELIEVE THEY DID.

Yeah.

Brothers, yeah.

Yeah. We sent the letters. We did receive the direction from the village to all of the neighbors with all of the addresses. And yes, we did inform them.

Okay. And was there any feedback, any...

We did receive one letter, correct?

I think it was just the one that's in the package.

That's one that's included in the package. And we didn't, I didn't directly receive anything or the district or the superintendent. We didn't have any complaints or approach us with any issues.

there were no public in attendance at the design commission meeting although as the petitioner indicated they were required to send out notice to adjacent property owners there was one letter that was received after the design commission meeting by staff and we did indicate to that resident that we would provide it to the village board and that was in your packet this evening that's the only feedback that staff received okay

So now talking about the advertising, and I know what you're saying, but I'm just curious, are there going to be any set rules on what type of advertising, or is this just going to be somebody kind of deciding, hey, you know, this is okay, or this is whatever, or are there set rules already for it?

We will have, and we will follow the recommendation from the village, and we will have internal rules, because we need to apply that through all of the villages that District 14 have the high schools, and definitely, I'm not sure if we have right now, I can provide, I know the Board of Education, when that was proposed to them, because we have the two different type of the advertising that was proposed to our board for approval. One was that we will be having the advertising on the scoreboards, on the video boards, and the other one new aspect for our high schools was that we will be advertising on banners. And I know, and we can provide what the board approved and what was the rules set over there.

All right, thank you.

Mayor, can I jump in? Just because my direct comments would go with Trustee Zick's questions.

Yep, I'm gonna turn your direction right now.

So fun little plot twist. If you read the packet, the number one impacted residents of all of this is actually mine. and I'm very much in favor of this, and so are all of my neighbors besides the one that we got in. We are in huge support of what Hersey does. They are phenomenal neighbors. The lights are always off at 10. If the game goes overtime, we understand and we know that. I literally brought home my infant child during a Friday Night Lights football game, and his nursery faced Hersey. So my kids have been born and raised growing up with it, and you have always been top-notch neighbors, ensuring that lights are off, the volume is down, and everyone is out by 10 p.m., and that is something that our whole neighborhood feels as well. And so to directly answer Trustee Zick's questions how the neighbors feel for my group chat today, very much in support. So I wanted to throw that in there.

Anything else, Trustee Zik? No. Okay, so we're going back this way. Since you have the floor, was there anything else you wanted to share?

No, just really wanted to show my support.

Gotcha. Okay. Anyone else on this side for anything?

Not after that.

Not after that? Okay. All right. Very good. Well, did we have a motion here on this yet already? Yes. We did. Trustee Gilbert and who else?

Trustee Santa Maria.

Trustee Santa Maria, right. Any further discussion from anyone up here, anyone from the audience that would like to address the board on this particular item? All right, seeing none, this is a roll call vote.

Trustee Gilbert? Yes. Trustee Santa Maria? Yes. Trustee Schwingbeck?

Yes.

Trustee Manganiello? Nay. Trustee Dunnington? Yes. Trustee LeBetz? Yes. Trustee Bertucci? Yes. Trustee Zik?

Yes.

President Tenaglia?

Yes. Okay, you are approved. When do you think this is going to end? get underway, is it for next season after the, or sometime this year?

I think it will be for the next season. We are planning to start the work as soon as we will finish the track and field that hopefully on fall.

This fall? Yes, this fall.

All right, very good. But they will be able to use on the spring.

All right, well congratulations, good job.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. All right, we have two more items to go. And this first one, this item E, is an ordinance granting a land use variation for the operation of a secondhand store at 935 East Rand Road. Is the petitioner here? Come on up. Introduce yourself, please.

Hello. My name's Amanda Moeller. I'm the executive director and founder of Greener Good. We are a creative reuse organization, one of only five in the entire state. We are, our main focus is to save creative supplies from the landfill. So we take in donations and then have what we call an alternative thrift shop. So it does operate as most thrift shops do. However, our second component of our efforts also includes doing creative workshops. So a third of our space is for people to take creative classes and for kids to have camps and just a community gathering space. And we also support teachers and other nonprofits in providing low cost and free supplies. The community's been amazingly supportive. And so we've been in Arlington Heights for the past two years. We're a seven-year-old organization. Things were going so well that somebody decided to put a little idea in my head that maybe we could move to Thrift Store Row on Rand Road. And we look into that and thought it would be a great fit. So we have moved there and are hoping that this variance can go through. We actually will produce less waste than most other thrift stores would because our focus is to not have any, if at all possible. It's not possible, but it's as little as we can. And so we also get supplies that we don't necessarily take in our thrift store or can't use, don't make sense. And we distribute those out to the community and mostly through other nonprofits. So our request is that we can operate as a secondhand store in this space, which is right next to the Habitat for Humanity Restore.

Okay. Very good. Thank you for your presentation. Staff, is there a presentation?

Yes, so Greener Good is here, as she indicated, for a request for a land use variation at 935 East Rand Road. This is a district that is zoned B1, and secondhand stores are not permitted in the B1 district. But the comp plan does designate it as commercial use. So she is seeking that land use variation to be allowed to operate in the B1 district. The existing store, her location currently is just under 5,000 square feet. They typically operate with three employees and three volunteers and have indicated they won't have more than eight people on site at a time. You can see the proposed hours of operation, and they have stated that donations are accepted only during their hours of operation, so they will not be dropped off and left behind the store or outside the store, which is sometimes a concern with some of these uses. I did want to indicate, as the petitioner did, that this is a very similar use to other uses in the B1 district. So the village has previously granted three land use variations for the B1 district right in the same area for the Salvation Army, Lucille's, and the Habitat for Humanity Restore. So this use is very consistent with what we already see in that district. We did do a parking analysis and they did a parking survey as part of their land use variation request and as you can see that the shopping center already has a surplus of parking so can easily accommodate their use. the plan commission did consider their request and unanimously recommended approval of the land use variation which is two conditions one that it cannot be transferred to a different user and then the second one is our standard uh condition related to complying with federal state and local codes This is an item that we are bringing forward to the board this evening for both discussion and action. As the petitioner indicated, they have already been in the space for a few months and they're anxious to be able to operate their full business. So we are requesting that the board approve this this evening so that they can move forward and get their full business license. So the motion this evening is a motion to adopt an ordinance granting a land use variation for operation of a secondhand store in 935 East Rand Road as set forth in the agenda material for tonight's board meeting.

Very good. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Rodman. Do you agree with the two conditions that were on the other page? Absolutely. All right. Questions from the board? Trustee Bertucci, I know you are a nearby neighbor. So why don't you go and tell us how you feel?

Welcome to the neighborhood, Amanda. Thank you. So first of all, thank you for your patience. I know there was some going back and forth and making sure the timing wasn't exactly what you wanted. So thank you for your patience. And staff, thank you for helping to accommodate. So I'm glad we were able to do all this. I mean, I know that they are already and I know they will be a great neighbor. They belong there. So mayor, if you don't mind, I'll just jump right into a motion to adopt an ordinance granting a land use variation for operation of a secondhand store at 935 East Rand Road as set forth in the agenda materials for tonight's board meeting.

Second. Okay, motion made by Trustee Bertucci. Motions seconded by several, but who was the loudest? Trustee Zik. All right, further questions or comments from the board? Trustee Dunnington.

Thank you. Thank you for your business here in Arlington Heights and expanding it. I know that a lot of people enjoy shopping at your store. My questions are more for staff. First, I'm wondering, is this another instance where a lease was signed when a landlord should not have accepted this type of business?

So I can answer that the zoning the use was not allowed under the zoning district. I can't speak to the conversations the petitioner had with the landlord and specifically when she signed the lease and what that understanding was but she could probably answer that.

Yeah, so this was an unfortunate situation where we, as a small business, don't really understand where things went wrong. So quite frankly, this was something I was hoping we could get through and then I would like to discuss further. But this was not something that we were told by the landlord. There's a management company, and... There was specifically in the lease to not work with a broker, which we were fine with because that helped us save money. We found them on our own. We contacted them on our own. And then we had a real estate lawyer that we spent money on because we didn't have the broker. And that's, I mean... There's some more to it but I think that's for discussion afterwards.

Okay. Well, I'm wondering what we can do to prevent that situation because it's happened over and over to businesses where they sign a lease but then they don't, it's the wrong zoning and then it's really hurting that business because there's this delay in getting it approved. And it's something that we're running into again and again. And so what can we do to prevent that so that the brokers or the landlords, I guess, are not putting businesses in this situation?

One of the projects in the business plan is doing an update to the village's zoning code. And this is something, as you mentioned, Trustee Dunton, that certainly this isn't the first instance of this. We are talking about it with legal to look at what feasible options there will be to deter this type of thing. I don't know that we're, just to be totally candid, we're ever going to be able to prevent it completely because it's a difficult provision to enforce, but trying to find some ways to encourage people to do the right thing and deter landlords from not disclosing I think is something that we're working on and want to make sure we're using all available authority to encourage to ensure that great businesses can come into town as quickly, as easily as possible.

May I speak to just a quick suggestion that I've just a checklist, honestly, for small businesses. We don't have anybody behind us. It's us. It's the person who's leading it. Most of us don't have that skill set. So having a checklist of what it means to have a small business in Arlington Heights. I've seen it at other villages. I love this place. I'm an 18-year resident. I've spoken with other owners and that is also something that they'd like to see happen.

When did you become aware? When did you first become aware that this was not going to go easy for you?

It was, I think we had... We were renewing our business license and I had called that we were doing that. They changed our address and I was told you would have a fire and safety check again. I definitely knew that based on my previous other two locations. that was that and then I think it was seven weeks later it was two weeks before we were gonna open we found out that it was gonna be a zoning issue I'll just tell you that there was a lot of I will say assumptions and misunderstandings and there's some wording that I think could be improved in, that would make it more clear. Even our lawyer said that. So granted, I don't know if they were trying to get away with saying, hey, I didn't know. So we felt really stuck in all of this and not to blame the village by any means, but as somebody whose career was on efficiencies and writing academic catalogs with certain language, I think we can maybe work with some businesses to improve it.

Well, clearly we all feel it and we understand it. And I'm sure staff feels the same way.

They were very supportive and understanding. I do have to say that.

Nobody wanted this to happen. Absolutely. I could tell. I suspect you're going to get an awful lot of support here when the vote finally happens here. But I do think it's good that staff's taking a look at this and seeing if there are things that can be done up to and including, you know, an owner who knows what their zoning is. They're the owner of the land. They're the owner of the building. Maybe there could be some consequences for that owner, whether it's fines or whether it's, you know, whatever consequences. But as opposed to, you know, a person who's trying to get a lease from them, they're the ones that know their land and they're building better than anybody.

I agree, Mayor. And there's always things we can improve on, always things we can communicate better, always things that we need to learn. And this is a situation that I think we're all looking for ways to, you know, not repeat. And so, no, we hear the feedback and we're trying to learn from this one to make sure we're optimized for the next situation. Sounds good.

Thank you. All right.

I have one more question.

Yes, Trustee Donahue.

Thank you. I do agree with what you said. My other question is when we do look at our zoning, are we going to be looking at whether or not secondhand stores can just be in the B1 district and so that it would automatically be approved?

We are looking at a number of our zoning districts and the uses. We have quite a long list of amendments, so they'll actually be broken into phases so that we bring some forward at a time. But yes, we are looking at the current use characteristics in each of our zoning districts to see what uses should be made outright permitted uses, what maybe belong in other districts, and taking kind of a comprehensive approach to it. Okay, thank you.

Okay, other questions? Trustee Schwingbeck. Thank you, Mayor.

I don't know what your circumstances were, but maybe to piggyback on what Trustee Dunnington said. So when you sign a lease and then you find out you have an issue, and as you said, we've had four or five of these now over the last couple of years. what would happen if we didn't approve? And this goes, I guess, to staff. We didn't approve the business to move in there. Then what are the legal issues with somebody who just signed a lease? Because I've never signed a business here in town, but we don't approve it. And we say, no, you can't open that type of business. What would happen to you?

Trustee Schwingbeck, I think it would depend. First, that would not be a village issue. That would depend on the terms of the lease between the owner and tenant, and each situation might be different in that circumstance.

Yeah, I mean, that, I guess, is our concern because the four or five that have come up, we've ended up approving, but I just don't think our landlords out there understand all they're concerned about is getting a tenant to fill their space. So I think there has to be some consequences from the village.

If I could. Yes, please. Yeah, I was going to say, again, the vast majority of our landlords, we don't have this problem. I mean, we obviously handle a large volume of issues, and you can probably count on one hand the number of times this has happened. I'm not minimizing the issue, but I'm saying I think that most of our landlords work with us, look at these types of things. We did have at least one instance where, to answer your question directly, where a business... and or landlord knowingly violated it and despite being told you can't do this, continue to operate. And we did issue them citations and we did close down the business because they were just, they knew they weren't supposed to be there, they didn't care, they kept going and we found ways to cite them until they closed because it just was not the right place for them. And it wasn't something that anyone on the board was, it was a very obvious decision. difference between what was allowed and what they were doing, and it had a negative impact on the surrounding neighbors. Okay, thank you. Anyone else?

And on this side? Trustee Mangano?

Thank you. Just quickly, Attorney Passman and maybe Director Rodman, it's a different take on Trustee Schwingbeck's question, is can we create costs for the landlord in situations like this? BECAUSE THE BUSINESS IS CERTAINLY INCURRING COSTS.

I THINK WE COULD JUMP DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE HERE. I THINK IN AN EFFORT NOT TO DO THAT, GIVEN THAT I KNOW THERE'S MORE ON THE AGENDA, THERE'S PROBABLY SOME OPTIONS THAT WE CAN EXPLORE WORKING WITH STAFF AND THEN OF COURSE IN DIALOGUE WITH THE BOARD ON A BETTER EDUCATE landlords and I mean landlords in theory are easier to reach because you know where they are you don't know where the tenants coming from I mean fundamentally all parties are presumed to have knowledge of the law so at a certain point there's only so much we can do with respect to both parties to that transaction but I imagine there are efforts that we could undertake to improve education maybe require certain steps related to the whole commercial leasing process and see if there might be some tools there that can be wielded to minimize this type of scenario further.

If I could, Trustee Manganiello, I do want to stress our zoning code in general is due for a pretty hefty review. And I would suggest if we take each problem that comes up as a one-off, we will never get to the entire code. And I would strongly recommend that we look at it comprehensively. And with this being definitely a component that's going to be looked at because it is a big project and we want to make sure we're looking at the whole system versus fixing something in the system and then changing how that interacts again with it later perhaps.

So if I could, this petitioner has gone through a pretty tumultuous period of weeks and months.

Months, yeah.

Months. Staff had to spend an awful lot of time holding hands on this. And then this board is spending time here deliberating on it. And it's just one of maybe four or five that we've had to do this for. Take all that into consideration as staff is going through this. The only one who's not spending time, energy, fear is the landlord who signed this thing. All the rest of us are working to try and help this petitioner out. So I think what you're hearing from... most if not all of us here is that the consequences for these things ought to come back to that landlord somehow some way to maybe avoid some of these in the future it's never going to make it perfect i get it and you guys are going to do all you can but the whole point is there's only one person or one entity in this game that's not really feeling the heat. The rest of us all are together. For the right reasons, we get it. We want you to succeed. And as you heard from your direct neighbor, your great neighbor, we're glad to have you there. So before we go any further, is there anything else pertinent? Otherwise, I'd like to get this vote done.

Just one comment. I would say I did like the petitioner's idea as well of trying to look at communication tools for small businesses and those types of things. I think that's a really good suggestion as well.

And where to find that, right? Where to find it, right? Because you're typically not going to learn that until it's too late, right? All right. The motion was made by Trustee Bertucci, seconded by Trustee Zik, if I'm not mistaken. This is a roll call vote. Although, wait, before I do that, was there anyone in the audience that wanted to weigh in on this? I did not offer that before. I don't see any hands, so we'll go ahead.

Trustee Bertucci?

Yes.

Trustee Zick?

Yes.

Trustee Santa Maria? Yes. Trustee Schwingbeck?

Yes.

Trustee Dunnington? Yes. Trustee Manganiello? Aye. Trustee LeBeds? Yes. Trustee Gilbert? Yes. President Tenaglia?

Yes. Congratulations. You're finally there.

Thank you very much. Then I hope we're opening on Wednesday. And you're all invited. We were going to send you a communication to come to our seventh birthday celebration this month. I'll send you out info. Thank you.

There you go. Good luck to you. I believe we're on to item F next. Last but not least, and I think this is back in staff's hands. So Ms. McCullough, I think you are up.

Deputy Manager McCullough has got this one.

Okay, so here we are this evening talking again about creating, possibly creating a social district program. And so the staff is looking at this as an enhancement and a casual sip and stroll to, and an amenity to our already successful downtown Arlington Alfresco. So we're looking at this as an enhancement to the dinner hour, potentially between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. only. And this will encourage people to spend more time, relax a little bit in our downtown and support our businesses. The program will require businesses to sell responsibly and for people to drink responsibly, just as they have to right now. So, I have heard from some of the businesses in the downtown that they are struggling. They're seeing the pressures of the economy as well as the competition. We know that there are a lot of surrounding municipalities that are trying to build out a fresco zones like we did a few years back. And so this is adding to the pressure. And just today a neighboring community reached out to me inquiring about our proposed social district program because they're interested in perhaps exploring and adding one. So, here we are. Let's go ahead and get started. So, the purpose of the presentation, this is going to be a follow-up to some of the items that were raised by you all at the last meeting. I'm going to review survey results from downtown liquor license holders. I'll talk about some of the feedback that I obtained from some of our departments. And then we'll get to discussion of a pilot program concept. So, again, what is a social district? It's an open consumption area that would allow patrons to purchase alcoholic beverages from participating licensed establishments and consume those beverages within our alfresco boundaries. And so, this was presented May 18th. This is the follow-up. And I talked about some of the parameters that we were asked to address. in addition to some of the costs and impacts and operational issues. So, previously I did a lot of research from Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, and Indiana communities that have similar programs. A lot of the programs are very, very similar. They may carve out a couple things that's unique to them. but they're all around the United States pretty much. So the common program goals state that they want to support local businesses, they want to increase pedestrian activity, they want to encourage outdoor dining and shopping, and enhance tourism and downtown vibrancy. So, staff did do a survey of our downtown liquor license holders. Out of 15, there are 13 that would be eligible to participate in the district. We had, out of those 13, eight responded. Six out of eight, or 75%, were familiar with the social district prior to the village considering it. And then 75 support establishing a social district in our downtown. One was neutral, and we had one that was opposed. So, 75% believe a social district would significantly or moderately impact their business positively. One believes there will be no impact. One believes that there will be a moderately negative impact. 75% said that they would participate. Two may participate, but are undecided. And so we asked about what metrics should be used to evaluate the success of this type of a program if we go ahead. They said business sales and customer feedback, event attendance, visitor counts, and public safety statistics. So we asked about the benefits of a social district program. We gave them a lot of options. Majority said the benefit will be increased foot traffic. And then the rest, it was kind of a tie for those three or six areas, increased sales at restaurants, increased alcohol sales, enhanced downtown atmosphere, increased special event attendance, attracting visitors outside the village, and improved competitiveness with neighboring communities. And then we have 8% that said increased retail sales. We also asked, what are your concerns? And 23% said litter and waste. 14% said public intoxication, public safety and enforcement challenges. And then we had quite a few that looked at the impact of downtown atmosphere, underage drinking, liability concerns, cup control and prevent BYOB. So, we asked about if this was going to be a success, how would you measure that? What are some operational elements? 23% said security, police presence, 18% clearly marked boundaries, 14% litter management, requiring wristbands, marketing and promotion, and 9% said designated cups. So we asked about a social district and days and times. We gave them a couple of options, and 38% said weekends only, Thursday through Sunday from noon to 9 p.m. is what they would prefer. And then 25% said seasonal, every day during summer months. So we looked at this further and we said if this was going to be a success, you do want to have a framework where business participation is voluntary and provides a good customer experience. So what does that mean? That means businesses can determine whether customers carrying social district beverages may enter their establishment. And you can see an example here. It's really nicely done where it designates these are stickers or, you know, in the business window or door where beverages are sold here. beverages are welcome here, or they're not permitted here. And that gives clear indication to a patron. We looked at additional operational impacts, so integrated services department, my department, we looked at if this was going to happen, we would have to look at amending the liquor code to allow open alcohol containers on designated village streets and public places. We'd have to amend the Liquor Code to also allow some establishments to carry out alcoholic beverages during designated time frames. We would have to revise the existing Alfresco agreements to allow carry out of alcoholic beverages. And then my department will maintain the program, will coordinate everything and do the oversight. We would develop FAQs, labels, wristbands, and sign designs. I spoke with the police chief and he mentioned for enforcement priorities that he would be looking at maintaining a police presence during the established time frame of this event or closely mirroring the permitted hours. They especially would like to monitor the program to determine if operational adjustments are needed for public safety, preventing underage drinking, prevent alcohol from leaving social district boundaries. And a question was asked about volunteers, and the chief indicated that volunteers can support and assist police officers in achieving compliance, but they cannot replace or act with enforcement authority. We also internally discussed that it's significantly more difficult to get volunteers, people to work corners, Frontier Days is definitely struggling as well. So we necessarily couldn't rely on a volunteer or staffing from restaurants to participate. So existing police staffing right now during Thursday Sounds of Summer concerts are from 6 to 9 p.m. You'll see their presence. And then Fridays and Saturdays during Alfresco throughout the whole season, they are there from 6.30 to 9 p.m. The chief also mentioned that he did speak with a few of the municipalities, Cary, Crystal Lake, and Rockford, and none of the police departments assigned personnel to the function to that district. They rely on patrol units, you know, to go by there periodically, and then also to respond and handle complaints generated from within the dedicated zone. I got the same response from Michigan, as well, as they don't have a dedicated police presence. From Public Works and Engineering, I spoke to the director, and, you know, they would be putting up and creating the signage and the pavement markers. They would be monitoring refuse recycling receptacles, monitoring cleaning schedules, and evaluate for additional potential seating, benches, things like that. So, here we are with what we're proposing, is a 2026 pilot program, so approximately August through Harmony Fest weekend, which ends October 2nd and 3rd. Operating hours, we're suggesting Thursday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., This will be entirely contained within the existing Alfresco boundary, and then it's voluntary participation by eligible downtown liquor license holders. So, as part of this framework, we are going to indicate that establishments, if they want to participate, there's a couple things they have to do. So they're going to have to enter into a formal agreement with the village. They're going to have to use designated social district cups. The maximum size is 16 ounces. They're going to have to apply a village designated or a village designed social district label to the cup. This will help identify the establishment, the date of service. And then it will allow police enforcement to see that there's a special cup. We're suggesting that the village indicate that they should apply a wristband. We were kind of on the fence on this, but given some of the feedback that we received from the survey results, we think that that could be a good idea, at least during the pilot program phase. And then the businesses are going to have to follow all liquor license laws, including verifying the age of patrons, beverage selling and handling requirements, and follow social district regulations. So, you know, just a search of what's out there. There's a bunch of different types of wristbands that could be required. This is just a sample of what's out there. So, for social districts and cups and labels. So, some of the trustees mentioned, you all mentioned about, you know, having some eco-friendly options and some concerns about the plastic. And so, we do recognize the sustainability goal. We also recognize that, you know, the downtown environment has operational issues, realities where that makes it difficult. So, I did speak with our director of health and human services. They recommended that in the future that we evaluate recyclable PET plastic cups. So these are the disposable clear plastic cups that are widely used in the food and beverage industry. And that this could potentially be a practical option for the village. However, the outstanding question is whether if we put a district label on that, would that affect the ability for the cup to be recyclable? So that is still something we're researching. And even if it can be recycled, the outcome depends on proper disposal. So those are having the additional containers, collection containers, and so forth. Environmental health noted that contamination levels in public recycling areas can be significant. They see it now. Items such as trash, food waste, non-recyclable materials, improperly disposed cups can cause the entire recycling containers to be diverted to trash. And so, while public spaces are challenging because we can't control every user behavior, We do believe that we need to focus on the education component, and it is one of the things that the Health and Human Services Department is looking at for our downtown area and the community as a whole, is increasing our sustainability efforts. And I do know one trustee asked about a reusable cup program, and I just wanted to provide some quick information on that. So this is where there's reusable cups. They are branded. After a person finishes their drinks, they're supposed to place them in a dedicated marked collection bin strategically in a specific area. And then janitorial staff collects the cups from the bins. They partner with an outside agency that utilizes what they call a local wash hub. to clean and sanitize and prep the cups like for the next game. So, this is something that would be a big endeavor to undertake to determine who could do such a program, but it is something that we can certainly explore in the future. So, I wanted to give you some information about that. So, when you're looking at boundary signage examples, the business feedback was, you know, what is the boundaries? What's permitted, what's not? You can see on the left side that there's some great examples that say, hey, welcome to the downtown district, drink responsibly, and hey, now you're leaving, so please properly dispose of your cup. And so, I took a picture there of an example of where we would put some of those markings and signage and pavement markings. So this one's the pavement sign. So this is a really nice sign that's saying you're leaving the area. Please dispose of your cup. So these could be placed on the pavement. And then just to kind of follow up with some of the budget considerations, I know that the board asked about having this cost neutral, that this isn't something that they wanted to see. It is an added cost to the taxpayers. And so we do see some of the things that are initial investment that needs to take place is signage production and installation. And because there are signs that are regulatory in nature, we do have to produce them. We would put them up. during the season, then we would take them down afterwards. We were looking at creating the branded labels, and then there's costs for cups and wristbands. Some of the initial municipalities during the pilot program did do a couple quantities for those participating businesses, but this is certainly something where we can direct the participating restaurants to go to a website to create a cup, to buy a cup on their own, some wristbands, and potentially even labels. So that is something that can be done. And then we would need to explore whether we need additional staffing and enforcement support. And the chief said that he believes he can cover it this year. And then at budget time, we'll review that for next year if this program is successful. So, we took a stab at drafting a label and designing it in-house, and so this is something that we would think that is attractive and that these would be the labels that would be placed on the cups. Indicates who sold it, the establishment that sold it, as well as the date of service. If we're looking for direction from the board as to whether there is consensus to create a social district pilot program this season, and if a positive recommendation is made, staff recommends that the Village Board direct us to create the appropriate ordinances for final review and approval at an upcoming Village Board meeting and allow staff to implement logistics to begin the pilot program. I'll turn it over back to you.

Thank you, Mayor. I was just going to say that, you know, obviously Deputy Manager McCullough and the team did a lot of research on this. But this is, you could spend days and days on this working out every little detail on this. And I think the analogy is when we established Arlington Alfresco. There was a lot of details. We set out the broad parameters and staff worked out a lot of this stuff very much on the fly, working sometimes with individual business owners, working out solving problems between departments. We think if we were to do a pilot program like this, we likely would have to do that. There would be some probably small unforeseen challenges that we would just need to work through and get through it. And I think what we're looking for today is an understanding that if we move forward with this this is a pilot program this is going to be not every issue is going to be solved 100% it's that to gauge can this be workable can we get started with this and then with the full understanding that there would be a full review detailed analysis with data and After the fact for the village to determine if they wanted to continue something like this on a permanent basis I just want to make sure that that distinction is clear that some of the issues identified We most likely wouldn't be able to work all of them out for a pilot program.

I Feel like you're looking over my shoulder at my notes Randy. I'm trying those are a lot of things. I was just gonna say I recall when alfresco zone was first created and prior to that how strenuous and difficult it was for any restaurant to have outdoor seating period it had to be behind fences caged in with gates and it was very very tight tightly controlled and then things lifted when the the idea was floated for the alfresco zone and then staff and this board moved really quickly to try and get that first chance at it to make it happen and every year it's been tweaked and embellished and changed a little bit each year and I suspect what you just said and what I'm thinking is that's where we are here with this. It may very well be a really great idea that gets embraced and improved every year. You never know where it's going to go. But I think your point is for now we're looking for some leniency, some guidelines, some 30,000-foot level perspective on this and give staff the ability to tweak, fine-tune, and adjust as we go or not. Really, that's what tonight is all about. Are we at a point where we can, as a group, embrace this idea and allow staff to attempt to make something happen So that was my opening volley on this before we hand it off. I did have two small thoughts that I wanted to share, and that is the 9 p.m. thought. What will we do? There are times, like at Harmony Fest, where it'll go to 11 o'clock as opposed to 9 p.m. So is it going to be our position that that will stop at 9 anyway, or at least outside of the parameters carry in the parking somewhat? Or are we going to just change it for those two nights, Friday night and Saturday night?

So we're suggesting that the last sale take place at 9 p.m., right? You can be in the outdoor areas until 11 p.m. sitting in the business patios. I see. So last sale is 9. It was properly sold. It's okay. You can walk and stroll in the downtown, and that's what it's intended for. But for Harmony Fest, it wouldn't apply during Harmony Fest because actually we have our last sale at 1030 and during Harmony Fest, last call is 1030. Okay.

That makes sense. Understood. And then I think what our goal ought to be when it's all said and done and we have some good foundational structure set up here that this is not something that costs us as residents an awful lot of money to achieve. Whether it's staffing, whether it's materials like cups and wristbands and labels and so on, the beneficiaries of this are those folks who are there enjoying this and the restaurants that are making the sales to FACILITATE THIS. SO WHILE WE MIGHT BE HELPING AND HOLDING HANDS HERE IN THE BEGINNING ON THIS FIRST YEAR, I THINK THE GOAL OUGHT TO BE TO TRY AND REALLY DIVERT THAT COST TO THOSE BUSINESSES OR THE COST OF PURCHASING THOSE DRINKS. SO LIKE WE HAVE WITH THE ALFRESCO ZONE COMPLETELY, THERE WAS FINANCES IN PLAY TO MAKE THAT HAPPEN. AND WE FOUND A WAY TO RECAPTURE THOSE COSTS. SO THOSE ARE MY INITIAL THOUGHTS. LET'S HAND IT OVER TO THE BOARD. I THINK WHAT I'M GOING TO DO IS CALL ON TRUSTEE SCHWINGBECK RIGHT OFF THE BAT. HE'S DONE A LOT OF RESEARCH. HE'S REALLY GOT THE MOST RESEARCH ON THIS FROM HIS TRAVELING ADVENTURES. SO GO AHEAD. MR. MAYOR. THANK YOU. I DON'T KNOW. DEPUTY MANAGER MCCOOLAH, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

HANG ON A SECOND. LARRY'S HERE IN THE BACK.

Yeah, we'll get there.

We'll get to the audience as well. Well, thank you very much for all your hard work. I have been doing three, four years of reconnaissance work on this program. So, I mean, this is something that I'm very passionate about, but I definitely think it'll help our businesses downtown. I can tell you that in the two towns that I'm very familiar with, St. Joe, Michigan, and Saugatuck, Michigan, As you pointed out, they don't do a lot of this. I mean, there's signs, as you know. I know you've talked to those folks. They put the onus of the cups and the signage on the businesses. They don't really have a police presence out there. I know we're a much bigger town. But what this really is... if we're going to do this pilot program from August until that last weekend when Alfresco is in place, is not Harmony Fest 2. I mean, this is really my vision was always to support the restaurants. I'll give you an example. We were up at one of the establishments that was in one of your pictures a minute ago. We went in there, which we do every weekend, to support one of the wineries there, and my wife and I grabbed a drink. I think Trustee Bertucci mentioned this last time we were discussing it. I was a little bit quicker in my consumption, and my wife still had a half a glass of wine, and we wanted to walk around the town, and she was able to put it in one of those to-go cups, and we could leave the establishment and go into some other businesses. We've waited in town for dinner reservations and many of the restaurants up in St. Joe, Michigan do not take reservations. So you may wait 45 minutes or an hour during the summer months because it is a big tourist area and to be able to grab a drink and Walk around town and support other businesses while you're waiting for either a pager buzzer to go off or your cell phone you can support the establishments that have liquor license and and not just stand out in front of their place, but walk around and support some of the other businesses and I do like the idea of the pilot program going during al fresco from 5 to 9 and that can all be controlled through the businesses you just like like any liquor ordinances, you cut it off at nine o'clock and they can't serve in those to-go cups. So I certainly like the Thursday to Saturday. At some point in time, if this really works out well, those towns that I'm familiar with in the other state, they go year round and they carry it out through the entire hours of operation. And I'm certainly not at that point yet because we have a whole different village and residents than they do over there. But I do like the five to nine and, again, putting the responsibility to purchase the necessary cup stickers. I can tell you that it's been so profitable for a couple of the businesses over in St. Joe that rather than taking the cups, and putting the labels on them, which was time consuming to them, they went out and printed their own cups with the label already built into it so that they didn't have to waste time peeling stickers and putting them on the cups. And they did that mainly to speed it up because they were serving quite a bit of quantity of these to-go cups. So I just think it's going to, one, help our businesses that have liquor license. It'll help some of our other businesses as people walk around and really just enhance the entire alfresco zone. I know you talked about having police presence there, which I have no issues with whatsoever, but I can tell you in the other couple of towns say they don't do that as you pointed out people see the the sign they discard it and if for some reason the police are patrolling the area which they do a lot there because of of parking they don't have parking garages like we do so you have to pay to park so they're constantly scanning our downtown there which last time you talked about this, their social district was a lot larger than the one we're patrolling. So they always have an officer patrolling the area and if they see somebody with one of these cups, it's in violation of the liquor codes and people get in trouble. So I really like this idea. It's something that I've been thinking about now for about four years and I'm really happy that staff could find the time to put this together because I think it would be a real positive for our community.

Why don't you, can you flip the page for the motion?

Sure.

Diana? And I think would be appropriate if you're interested.

Yeah, I would, let's see here, I would move that that we direct staff to create the appropriate ordinances for final review and approval at an upcoming village board meeting and allow staff to implement logistics to begin a pilot program for our social district.

Second. Okay, motion made by Trustee Schwingbeck, second by Trustee Bertucci. We're gonna continue on with discussion. Anyone else over on this side, Trustee Bertucci?

Yeah, without necessarily repeating everything that trustee Schwingbeck said because I agree with with all of that The only thing I would add is it you know as we watch the pilot program And I'm good with the parameters of the pilot program It would be interesting because we get a lot of Regardless of the weather during the holidays we get a lot of walking traffic You know in the downtown And, you know, whether it's a hot toddy or whatever, and people, you know, there's a little bit of retail down there that actually gets their activity during the holidays. And we might want to consider expanding it into the holidays at some point. But I'm totally in support of this. And as Tom had mentioned, I did my research in Saugatuck, so.

ANYONE ELSE ON THIS SIDE? TRUSTEE DUNNINGTON. TRUSTEE DUNNINGTON. THANK YOU, MAYOR. THANK YOU, MAYOR.

I AM ALSO IN SUPPORT OF THIS. I AM ALSO IN SUPPORT OF THIS. I THINK IT'S A GREAT WAY FOR US I THINK IT'S A GREAT WAY FOR US TO SUPPORT OUR BUSINESSES AND TO SUPPORT OUR BUSINESSES AND TRY SOMETHING NEW, SEE HOW IT TRY SOMETHING NEW, SEE HOW IT WORKS AND EVALUATE IT WHEN WE'RE WORKS AND EVALUATE IT WHEN WE'RE FINISHED, SEE HOW WE CAN IMPROVE IT FINISHED, SEE HOW WE CAN IMPROVE IT OR WHAT CHANGES NEED TO BE MADE. I appreciate that you looked into the reusable cups. That would be my biggest wish for the program. And I know that was also one of the biggest concerns for the businesses as well about the plastic and litter and trash. And so I know that this is just a pilot, but I would want us to more thoroughly research how we can do a program so that we're using reusable cups rather than plastic cups. And so I would be okay if that is our only option for this pilot program, but then going in the future, I wouldn't want to see the continued use of plastic cups.

Thanks. Trustee Santa Maria.

Thank you, Mary. I totally agree. I think of the pilot as an information-gathering time period, and hopefully we'll know if it's successful or not, but I do think for this to be long-term, we have to consider our sustainability plan and what we consider important to us.

Very good. Trustee Levesque, of course.

I really appreciate all the work that Ms. McCullough and staff has done on this, as well as the work that some of my fellow trustees have done in terms of researching this. But I remain opposed to doing the project, to doing the pilot. I think it's not going to be a pilot. It's going to be ongoing. It'll just... be adjusted in some way or another. That's kind of how these things seem to end up going. I have a lot of concerns, some of which I voiced last time we talked about this. Signs are great, but we all know people don't read the signs that say no riding bicycles or e-scooters or anything like that during the alfresco zone. And I don't see anything different with these signs being read more than any other sign that we have. As I said earlier this evening, the more signs there are, sometimes the less they're read. So that's a concern on my part. I am concerned, we talk about the sip and stroll, yada yada. But not everybody wants to stand and drink. And we don't have a lot of places to sit. So even if we had this pilot program or anything ongoing, there's very few places available outside of the restaurants where people can sit. There's not a lot of benches. You could sit around the fountain. Some of the benches that I'm aware of are actually outside of the zone at the corner of Daunton and Campbell. and technically they're outside of the zone, so technically people wouldn't be able to sit there. Although, I mean, I've sat there eating my barbecue with a soft drink during Harmony Fest because they're useful seats, and they're only like a love seat, a person and a half can sit on those, or a couple of really small people sitting. So that's among my concerns. To talk about revenue neutral for taxpayers, but if there's costs that are incurred by the businesses, my concern is that it's going to increase the price of the drinks. And I already hear complaints from people that say, well, it costs too much to get to get a cocktail or a glass of wine or something like that at some of the restaurants. So that's another thing that I would be of concern. It may not matter to a lot of people, but it's just something else that I would think about. So those are some of the reasons that I have for not supporting the pilot program. But I do appreciate all the work that's been done, and I'm not trying to make life difficult for the businesses, but I just don't think this is the right thing.

Trustee Gilbert. Thank you. I'm in favor of this. I think this will be good. I truly do think the sustainability aspect is important. And I probably misunderstood from the first go around because we talked about or Ms. McCool had talked about washing the cups and all that sort of stuff. My understanding was it would be a cup that people would potentially purchase and then bring back and take it home and wash it themselves. You know, so something that it would be a one time purchase. And every time you came to Alfresco, you'd be able to just use your cup as a mode to take the beverage out of the establishment. And so in that vein for the pilot program, perhaps that is something that we could do is people can just bring their own cup with them. And if they want to leave an establishment, They can just be poured into their own cup, and they can take it on their way. I don't know, just an idea, yeah.

Yes, I do have something with that. So before that practice was not permitted, and then state law did allow that, but businesses have the right to decide to allow use of consumers-owned containers to be brought into each establishment. So they can choose no, because if it's not sanitized correctly, There would be concerns about contamination and things like that. So there's a couple of things we have to look into with the reusable cup program.

Totally get that. And I think that would be a situation where you probably wouldn't be able to bring it into another place, but you could certainly probably take it to the park and sit with it. Right?

Yeah.

So if that was your one to go.

Yes.

Somebody might not allow it to bring. Just ideas. I know we're just white boarding here. This is a pilot program. We're going to see, throw it against the wall, see what sticks. I would like to capture as much as the alfresco as we can. So, you know, within reason, if we can try to put together some sort of parameters that get this plane off the ground quickly. I would hate to see this get bogged down in something like the stickers are on back order or something to that effect. I also don't necessarily see an issue with somebody walking out of a bar or restaurant with an aluminum can. I think that also would cut down on waste and would essentially be providing the same vehicle for a beverage on its way out the door.

There's aluminum cups as well.

Well, sure, but like just to say if somebody, if I bought a Miller Lite in a can, I don't necessarily see the need to pour it into a cup, create more waste, and walk out with it. I think the aluminum can there would cut down on that and promote that sustainability while we're in this pilot program until we can figure something else out.

Thank you.

Yeah. Trustee Megan Harrell.

Thank you. I'm going to start by saying I think that the, My enthusiasm for this was probably overstated in the minutes of the last meeting. What I said was that a starting point for me to consider being in favor of it is evidence that it is going to generate more revenue for the village than it costs us. I'm a little disappointed that with as great as the other municipalities that you've spoken to, Deputy Manager Mikula, seem to say this is that there isn't a percentage by which they say that their food and or liquor sales have gone up or their overall revenues have gone up as a result of it. Because I'm quite sure that if it is that positive for us, Director Gallagher would have those numbers. And so I am not convinced that it's the boon that some are making it out to be. I really share a lot of Trustee LaBelle's concerns about this. If we are to go forward with it, I think that a wristband has to be a requirement. We have to make sure that people are getting carded, that it's visible that they've been carded, and that like at Frontier Days, just to name one example, there's a rotation of those wristbands to assure they're not being counterfeited day to day. I don't see the idea of a disposable cup even for a pilot as being acceptable. I think we need to look at sustainability from the start. And I'm closer to what Trustee Gilbert just said. I have been to an awful lot of places where you get a beverage and you buy a souvenir cup and it's reusable and it's often still recyclable because it's ultimately made of plastic and there's enough cost associated with buying it in the first place that you want to reuse it. Those are fairly, in my understanding, available commercial items that could quickly be branded and branded for our, I hesitate to use the word social district. I think we should be a little bit more, it's an open container zone. I don't like euphemisms for something like this. But I realize we do need to brand it and I think it should say Arlington Heights, let's call it social district for lack of a better marketing term coming to my mind at this moment. and that we need to again consider sustainability from the get-go. Thank you.

Trustee Zik. Thank you Mayor. You know this is one of those things where I'm like if we do it great, if we don't do it great. I'm not plussed either side. But if we were gonna do this, well, actually, let me start back. During your presentation, you mentioned six out of eight businesses were for it. And one said that they would probably be negatively impact, or possibly be negatively impact by doing this. Can you give a little bit more clarification on that?

Yes, let me look for my notes in that. Hold on one second here. So one business said that, They think it's a good idea for Sounds of Summer, but not necessarily the other days. That the competition for to-go drinks will drive alcohol prices down and result in less revenue for the businesses, that business. It will encourage people to take their drinks to go rather than come into the restaurant and sit down and get food.

Was that the two, because you said six out of the eight were four.

It was one. Yeah, one was more on the neutral side of that, yeah.

Okay. Okay. You know, I guess a little bit devil's advocate here. If we were going to do this, the issues that I have Going to kind of what trust of the beds is saying, well, one is clearly enforcement of this. You know, Trustee Schoenbeck, you said, you know, some of the places you've seen, they really haven't increased their presence there. I'm just concerned about, you know, how this is going to be really enforced. How are we going to be at 9 o'clock, you know, say, hey, stop? And what's going to happen? What is that going to look like when we do try to enforce this, when we do try to stop this? I've got a concern with that. I do have a concern, you know, you mentioned it in here with underage drinking. You know, the first time I see somebody, you know, that's, you know, Clearly underage drinking because of this program, you know, maybe it's got a sticker on the cup or something like that It's gonna really irritate me, you know as I see that I'm gonna be gonna be really concerned about that So I am I am concerned about enforcement and also the other drinks going out of the alfresco zone What does that look like? The other one has to do with environmental and yeah, I agree with everybody said, you know I mean all these plastic cups, you know, and how does you know, what what is that doing to the environment? but just about the mess. For some reason, I keep envisioning in my head here, garbage cans just overflowing with these plastic cups. You know, this isn't like Disney World, you know, where they've got the chutes, you know, where it automatically goes away. They're just going to be piled right there. What happens with that? And then, you know, we're talking about having stickers, you know, being put on the cups. I never thought in, I spent 37 years in the adhesive and adhesive tape industry. I never thought that experience would correlate to something here on the board. But I know it's going to happen with those stickers. They're not going to be put on right. You're going to put on a cup that's wet. You're going to do something. They're going to fall off. And we are going to see stickers on the ground. So those are the type of things that I'm really... keep playing in my head, you know, how do we handle those particular situations? Now, I understand this is, and I understand Trustee Manganiello's, you know, about the finances part of it. I was kind of sitting there going, okay, I was hoping there was going to be some kind of numbers here so we could at least kind of look at this, you know, what's the cost of the stickers, what's the cost of the cups, how many do we think, you know, we're going to... going to potentially be used, you know, all those type of numbers. But I get it's a trial program, and trust you, you probably are right, that if we do a trial program on this, it's staying, and we're just going to revise it as we go along. I get that. But, you know, what does that look like? But that's, again, that's what a trial is supposed to be about, to really trial. And we, nine of us, have to hold ourselves to that, to what we're going to be doing if this winds up not being good. And then just lastly, oh, two things. The wristband, I agree with Trustee Maganaro again on that. I think that's something that could help the whole potential underage part of it. You know, you clearly see this. As far as the reusable, every time I think about it, I hear about this. I'm thinking back to my college days when we had growlers at the bars. I don't know if every college used the same terminology, these reusable cups, and they were not clean. So, I can see that just not being the best environmental cleanliness, you know, type of thing. So, for me, it would probably have to be some type of disposable cup that we do this on. That's it for now.

That's it? That's it. I agree that wristbands are going to be something that I would recommend that we follow through on for all those obvious reasons. I agree that at some point we need to figure out how to make it not wasteful on the plastic cups. I'm open to having this pilot program happen knowing that those are what the end zone is going to look like, but for the For the time being, just like with Alfresco, as I said earlier, sometimes you've got to run just a little bit and then perfect how you walk. And right now, if we want to get this going for any amount of time this year, it's going to take a little bit of creativity and a little bit of... A little bit of running and then a little bit of pacing and a little bit of rethinking, I believe. And I'm pretty confident that our staff will do their very best to making this the most favorable situation that we can count on. So I'm in favor of moving forward with it. Are there others that want to speak, Trustee Bertucci?

Yeah, I just want a couple comments on some of the things that were said. One, I feel as if I've talked to some of the restaurant owners, and I feel very comfortable that if we give them a designated time to stop, that they'll stop. I mean, none of these restaurant owners want to jeopardize their liquor license. That's the last thing in the world that they would want to do. So I'm confident that we'll be okay there. I'll defer also if Tom wants to say anything, but I am not seeing overflowing garbage of cups in the other towns that I've been to that have this in their districts. So I haven't seen that. And... And as we know we're you know we're not a college town, so this is not going to just be you know rowdy young Late teens early 20s kind of a thing going on well. We have a 21 anyway, so I Think this is going to be more on the side of responsible adults doing some of the things that Tom has mentioned or others on this board have mentioned. So just observations that I've had.

Okay.

Well, before we wrap up final dialogue here, I want to make sure I offer the audience an opportunity to speak as well.

One point to Trustee Bertucci's point, when staff was putting this together, one of the things that Deputy Manager McCullough noted was when you look at how folks use our downtown, there really is a time when the crowd is older. at a time when the crowd is younger. And that break off seems to be around 9.30, 10 o'clock. And so this was very much by design trying to make sure this was geared more towards the people that maybe want to have a drink after dinner or while they're waiting for the reservation, but not something where it's kind of a party atmosphere for into the wee hours of the evening. Smart.

Okay, audience, you don't need to fill out a blue card. Just raise your hand, I'll call on you. And I saw Devin's hand go up first.

Hello, my name's Devin Gray. As I mentioned, I live here in town. I'm raising my family here in town. I am generally of the opinion that local government exists to solve problems. I WOULD LIKE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT PROBLEM IT IS THAT WE ARE SOLVING WITH THIS HERE TODAY. I CAN IDENTIFY SEVERAL PROBLEMS THAT WE'RE CREATING, BUT I'M STRUGGLING TO UNDERSTAND THE ONE THAT WE'RE SOLVING, AND I THINK TRUSTEES LEBEDZ AND MAGINERO HAVE ALREADY STARTED TO ASK THESE QUESTIONS. I suppose the suggestion is that our most successful business area in town and some of our most successful restaurants here in town need help and need more support to stay competitive. That's what was presented in the presentation here. But only six of them bothered to say that they needed that help. The majority either didn't respond or said they don't need the help. To my knowledge, we never polled the residents or neighbors or folks who live in breathe and dine in that area of town either. So I'm pretty unclear on what problem we're solving. I guess we can try and turn ourselves into a vacation community or a town like St. Joe's or Saugatuck. But with due respect, Trustee Schwingbeck, I've also heard you use St. Joe's and Saugatuck as comparisons for why we should ban short-term rentals here in town and saying that we don't want to become these towns. So respectfully, I would ask you, which is it? I'm not sure that we need to adjust our town's ordinances so that we can cater to folks who want to do heavy drinking between the hours of 5 and 9 p.m. or need to pound their drink and get their spouse out the door to get the next one. It's not really a need that I see us needing to cater to. But I do see risk. So let's talk about the risk here. Small, medium, large. Small risk. First of all, we have ordinances in this part of town that are not being managed or taken care of at all. I've got a big DTA sign that says, don't climb on this. I see kids climbing on it every day. I've got a three-year-old kid who I have to explain why those kids are climbing and why she shouldn't. I watch cops walk down the street, look at those kids, and do nothing about it. Trustee LeBetz has described several times the issue that we have with bicycles and e-bikes in that part of town. We have cops there. They don't do anything about it. The recommendation here is that we're not going to add more police presence to support this. So that's the small risk. We already have these ordinances. We've proven we can't manage them. The mid-sized risk has been described by Trustees Dunnington and Zick when we talk about the environmental impact here and the trash that's going to end up in town. But the real large impact, and this is why we can't just skate through this like we did Alfresco, there is a serious risk here. And that risk is that somebody dies from this manager rec loss. Someone dies from this because we're not saying if underage drinking happens when we open up this Dora is the term that they use up in Wisconsin. I think it's designated outside drinking area or something like that, refreshment area. When we open up this Dora, we're not saying if underage kids are going to drink. We're saying when and how much as a village we're allowing. And when we put that stamp of approval on this area and say, this is the area where everyone's allowed to drink and you can grab it and get your cups and share it with your buddy and not worry because the wristbands are done at the restaurant level, not at the community level, so we don't really know who's coming and going, we're creating a scenario, we're rubber stamping it and saying, yes, underage people, come drink here from 5 to 9.

Thank you, Devin. I saw two more hands up front here.

Hi, my name is Norb Piotrowski. I live here in Arlington Heights. I don't understand the point of all of this. I mean, people can drink all they want inside of an establishment, so they walk outside and they can drink more. And the more they drink, the more social they become, and the more happier they become. And maybe they'll buy more t-shirts over there when they're drunk. And then when they go home, they had more liquor than they expected, and they can drive home. drunk or whatever. I mean, it's just encouraging alcohol, license for alcoholics. I mean, you can drink all you want inside of a place. What's wrong with that? Why start wandering around? Oh, I'm real happy. I'm walking in the street in a fresco. I got a drink. I'm a happy person. Let's social. Let's get happy. Well, what's that all about? What's the point of the whole thing?

Thanks, Norbert. I think there was another one in the back there. Come on up. Introduce yourself.

Evening. Larry Robotes from Big Shot Piano Lounge. Thank you for having us. First time I heard about, I've never heard of this concept before, so that's news for me. I think it's, for me it's brilliant. I think it's brilliant. Not just because of the revenue side of it. We do need help. I mean, I've been watching it decline the past couple years. Post-pandemic, Alfresco has been getting a little quieter. We've had more and more communities come up creating more alfresco zones. Even next door to me in Kildare and Lake Zurich, they're starting an alfresco zone. So when I looked at what this concept is, Once again, not just the revenue. It gives us a point of differentiation. It gives us that additional edge. We were the first ones to come out to Alfresco. People are catching up. And this would give that new concept, at least in our area, for people to come out and increase the foot traffic. And I do understand, and I'm not trying to push alcohol or anything like that, but it does give us that opportunity to become special. As far as cups and wristbands, brilliant, especially when it comes to the wristbands. I'm all for that. Because not only, I mean, you know, it does say that we do check for their IDs, but it also gives that visual, not just for the police. I would direct my staff, because it does benefit to the restaurants. I'm directing my staff, myself, my managers. It gives us a quick visual to also look out in our alfresco and people walking around. Do they have wristbands? We can also help monitor any potential underage drinking. Is it going to be, you know, is it going to absolutely stop it? I can't say that, but at least also gives us, you know, that indication and that visual indication right from my staff and my managers. And as far as cost, absolutely. You know, if this benefits the restaurants, we should be paying for it. I wouldn't ask the Village for anything more. I mean, we've done so much more for the businesses downtown. Well, I'm absolutely open to incurring those additional costs and not pass it on to the consumers. Come to Big Shot, we are absolutely reasonably priced. I've held those prices for so long, did some very moderate price increases and fighting it because it is tough now because of all the increased food costs and liquor costs. But time is up, 36 seconds.

I didn't go over my time, but thank you so much for this concept and for your support. Anyone else in the audience that wants to address the board on this? I see no further hands. We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion at the board? WE HAVE A COUPLE INSTANCES NOW WHERE SMALL BUSINESSES HAVE COME TO US AND ASKED FOR HELP, RIGHT? TODAY WE HAVE LARRY, THAT THIS IS SOMETHING DIFFERENT.

WE HAD THE SIGN ORDINANCE EARLIER. WE HAD VGU'S. we all agree that businesses need help. I think we have different opinions on what that help is, but I just want to be mindful that if we keep voting no on the things that we're actually taking away like every tool that they have. And so I just want us as trustees to be mindful of like the things that we can control and help them with, we should be considerate of versus trying to take every tool that they're asking for help with. So that's just what I wanted to say.

Understood. Good point. Anyone else before we call a roll call? Trustee Dunning.

I just have one clarification question. The 9 o'clock time, that would be the last they could sell, but somebody might still be in the street at 945 with their drink?

With the last drink that they bought, yes.

Okay. Thank you.

Maggie?

Oh, I'm sorry, one more question. I'd actually like to make a motion to require wristbands at the, to amend the motion on the table to require wristbands for the pilot and should we advance beyond the pilot to implement a reusable saleable cup to reduce waste?

All right, well wait before we that you've made that clear and is it for I guess I have to ask is there a second to that motion Second okay, so we have a motion on a second to amend the motion with those two items on it Randy you had a comment Yeah, I was gonna say I mean based on the feedback That's being directed the wristbands.

You know is something that the staff is intending to to pursue is part of the pilot program I mean, I think But the idea of the pilot is that we're going to run these ideas down. And if for some reason something doesn't work and there's another idea, we will work through this. The one thing I would say is while we certainly, as we've identified, we want to come up with sustainable options for the future, the idea of the pilot is to evaluate what we do and then come back. And I guess from a staff perspective, that's all we would say is that we understand the value, we understand the sentiment, but while where the pilot program will be something probably a little bit more shorthand, we'd like to reevaluate the issue of sustainability and come back with some options for if this continues on a permanent basis, if it becomes a pilot program at all.

So, then let me refresh everyone's memory here. This motion was made to create, to have staff evaluate and then, not evaluate, but to create a social district pilot program for the 2026 Alfresco season. That is this... basically July August into September some portion of that amount of time there will be no reusable cups or sustainability in this pilot program your point is is well made that we I think many of us here would agree that if if this has gets legs and wants to go to a second season that staff will continue to research and figure out how do we lessen the impact of the plastic cup program or remove it altogether. But for the motion that was made initially, it's for this pilot program, and that will unfortunately not be able to be accommodated in this. So as we make this vote, remember that we're talking about this pilot this season only. TRUSTEE ZICK, YOU HAD YOUR HAND UP.

I DID, THANK YOU, MAYOR. I THINK WHAT WE'RE VOTING ON, TOO, IS WE'RE NOT VOTING ON, AND I AGREE WITH THE TWO GENTLEMEN, THOSE ARE VALID CONCERNS, BUT WE'RE NOT VOTING ON THIS IS A PROGRAM AND IT'S GOING OUT. WE'RE JUST VOTING ON SAYING, HEY, COME UP WITH A PLAN. I agree with the wristband part of it. The reusable cups, that's something that I'm just not quite sure how it's going to look yet. So I don't think I want to pigeonhole them into something that they have to do. And especially, Mayor, I understand where you're going. It'd be hard to do for this particular time period. So I think we have to remember this isn't the final thing though. This is just instructing them to come up with a plan and then when that plan comes to us we can pick it apart at that particular point and say which particular items we do and we don't want.

Correct. Yep. I think that's well said.

And I believe the motion did state that the moving beyond a disposable cup was should it proceed beyond pilot. Was that the understanding that?

No. IT WAS YOUR MOTION, TRUSTEE MAKING.

THAT WAS DEFINITELY THE INTENT, AND FORGIVE ME IF THAT WAS NOT CLEAR.

BUT WE CAN ALWAYS DISCUSS THAT AFTER WE DO ANY KIND OF RECONNOISANCE ON THIS PARTICULAR ITEM. I think to put that into this, well, we're going to vote on it. I mean, it's not my opinion, your opinion. We're just one, one of nine. So I just want to make it clear that we're talking about this season, this time, right now, so that we can at least determine if we want to get started on it or not this year. That's kind of where we're at. Are we going to try this pilot program this year or not? And that's where this ultimately this first motion that was made by Trustee Bertucci and or Trustee Schwingbeck and seconded by Trustee Bertucci. That's what we'll find out when that vote is taken. But we're going to vote on your amendment. Now, right? It's a motion made by Trustee Manganiello and seconded by Trustee Donington. Okay. Can you rephrase?

Yeah, rephrase the motion.

The motion's intent is to require wristbands for during the pilot and should we proceed from a forward with a permanent program require that we avoid disposable containers.

And again, I think that's what everybody's been saying all along. We all agree on wristbands. We all agree that we don't want to see wasted plastic cups. It's just that it's not going to be impacting, the cup part won't be impacting this pilot program. I agree. Wristbands, yes. Can we have discussion on that aspect of it?

Oh, I thought we were done. No, well, I agree. Well, I'm just going to say, well, I agree with it in the substantive terms. I think it's difficult to be able to try to impose something like that for a program that hasn't even started. Correct. So certainly an eye to it if the pilot works. But, you know, I have difficulty supporting something, you know, for a round two when we haven't even gotten through round one yet. That was my point. Yeah.

Right. THIS IS FOR THE AMENDMENT TO THIS IS FOR THE AMENDMENT TO THE MOTION ONLY RIGHT NOW. THE MOTION ONLY RIGHT NOW.

YES. YES. TRUSTEE MANGINERO. TRUSTEE MANGINERO. AYE. AYE. TRUSTEE DUNNINGTON. TRUSTEE DUNNINGTON. YES. YES. TRUSTEE GILBERT. TRUSTEE GILBERT. NO. NO. TRUSTEE LABEDZ. TRUSTEE LABEDZ. NO. NO. TRUSTEE ZICK. TRUSTEE ZICK. NO. TRUSTEE ZICK. NO. TRUSTEE SANTA MARIA. TRUSTEE SANTA MARIA. TRUSTEE SANTA MARIA. YES. YES. TRUSTEE BERTUCCI. TRUSTEE BERTUCCI.

NO. TRUSTEE BERTUCCI. NO. TRUSTEE SCHWINGBEK. TRUSTEE SCHWINGBEK. NO. TRUSTEE And that is basically what's on the screen right now for staff to come up with the social district pilot program for 2026. And then present that to us at another board meeting here that we can all discuss details on and vote on it in its final form. Am I correct? And do I have the motion makers correct? Okay, yes. Any further discussion on that?

Just a question, does that come back to us in the form of an ordinance?

There will have to be components of it on the liquor side that will have to be covered by an ordinance. The ordinance would not be intended to cover every possible logistical side of the management of the event, but just the liquor component of it would obviously have to be

And the next available board meeting is July 6th.

Okay. Maggie?

Trustee Schwingbeck? Yes. Trustee Bertucci? Yes. Trustee LeBetz? No. Trustee Santa Maria? Yes. Trustee Gilbert? Yes. Trustee Zick? Yes. Trustee Dunnington? Yes. Trustee Manganiello? Nay. President Tenaglia?

Yes. So I've got seven to two? Yes. Is that correct? Yes. All right. So the main motion carries. And staff, you have plenty of information from all of us here tonight for which to create. And we'll look forward to seeing those documents when you see us on July 6th, hopefully. Yeah. Right?

Is there a good chance that'll happen by July 6th? We're doing our best to make that deadline. Diana, I see the steam coming out.

She's like, oh my gosh. We'll do our best. It's going to be a lot of work, I'm sure. But if it's going to get done, it'll get done right. All right. Thank you all on that. If I'm not mistaken, that's the end of our agenda for tonight. Is there any further business from anyone that needs to be discussed? If not, is there a motion to adjourn?

I move that we adjourn.

Motion by Trustee LeBed, seconded by Trustee Dunnington. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you, everyone.