City Council - Regular Meeting

Yeah, we might be.

Okay.

Just to see what you're doing.

Make sure you're here. Oh, yeah. I can see it around town already. Oh, you've got the bus? Nice. It's orange.

The van?

Which color? Orange. Orange one? Because there's a blue one. And then the woman that's got the old microbus from the farmer's market with flowers, she's got one, a new one.

Does she too?

And hers is blue. Is it blue? Yeah. Yeah. I think we have to go on a field trip.

It's only a six-day trip.

We could probably hit every bar in town.

We need to drive it out and go drive through the parking lot. And wave at them and smile. Okay.

All right, we will call to order the regular meeting of the Batavia City Council for Monday, June 1st, 2026. And I would ask that you all please rise for a brief invocation to be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Tonight, as Batavia begins to enjoy the summer season and the tremendous success that we are having over on River Street for the farmer's market every Saturday morning and now thousands of people from out of town who are coming to that event, we're ever thankful for the many good things that are happening in our town. And we take great pride in seeing the progress that Batavia continues to make. much of which has been generated and supported and pushed forward by members of the city council, both former and all those on today. So we're ever thankful for the goodness of support and leadership that we enjoy in this town. And we just ask that as we meet tonight, that the city council makes their decisions with the continued wisdom and good sense for Batavia that they have done now for a number of years. We ask for all these blessings. Amen. Amen.

Lay, would you lead us in the pledge? Absolutely. 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.

Mr. City Clerk, please call the roll.

Barraza. Absent. Lancey.

Here.

Beck? Here. Millay?

Here.

Malone?

Here.

Wolf?

Here.

Solfa? Here. Barron? Here. Lehman?

Here.

Lohman absent. Pieper?

Here.

Barenbach? Here. Anderson absent. White absent. Four absent, 10 present, Your Honor.

So we have the necessary quorum to conduct business. Okay, moving to item number four, which is a reminder from the chair that if you're going to speak to the city council tonight, IF YOU'RE IN THE AUDIENCE, WOULD YOU PLEASE COME FORWARD AND USE THE PODIUM AND MAKE SURE THE MICROPHONE IS ON BECAUSE ALL THIS MEETING IS RECORDED ON BATV. AND IF WE CAN'T HEAR YOU, YOU'RE NOT GETTING OUT TO ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE WHO MAY BE WATCHING ON TV. SO JUST AS A REMINDER. OKAY. MOVING TO ITEM NUMBER 5, MATTERS FROM THE PUBLIC FOR ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA. DO WE HAVE ANYBODY TONIGHT THAT WISHES TO ADDRESS THE CITY COUNCIL?

MR. CHANSET, YOU COME FORWARD.

How's this for progress? I'm not using my cane tonight. This came from a flag raising. It was really beautiful. I'm really glad that it happened tonight. I'm here one last time for two reasons. One, to ask that this council and Your Honor should consider on July 1st to please keep the Unity Pride flag up on the pole. And I'll make a very brief statement in support of that. And then number two, while this is Pride Month, as I had acknowledged in my previous speeches, I come here with a little bit of shame about having put a bad chapter in my life behind me and being a good road with a lot of positive things in front of me, I do come here with a sense of pride. And I look forward to some good things that are coming. And again, from one historian is another. I know I'll be the very last one on the list, but I know that you keep a list of names of people who've done historical things in this town. And I hope that maybe 20, 30, 40 years from now, when you've run out of names, streets you might consider a chance at not court or on street not parkway but court so i i will think my grandchildren might laugh at in light of uh the struggles i've had over the last couple of years tonight is is very bittersweet uh well i'm deeply sorry for the embarrassment that i might have brought to friends, family, and to the city of Batavia, a city I've loved and served for decades. I watched my life sort of spin out of control for a bit there, and the resulting depression that threatened my very mental health. It was like an unavoidable accident, and my mind was clouded by my attempt to navigate some very dangerous waters, avoiding temptation to peer pressure, and wanting to help marginalized people around while fighting the stigmatization that faces gay subculture and threatens populations that are at risk for addiction. But if you know me and you know my true nature, you know why I say that I wouldn't change a single action that I took over the last couple of years. While I may be ashamed for the drama, I do come here with a sense of pride and I am still standing and I hang my head as high as I can tonight as I'm watching the city raise the flag in the town that I grew up in once again. I have a unique bond with that flag. I was one of the people who stood before this body as part of this body and lobbied so hard to ensure that we would raise it annually. And I did this because marginalized people in Batavia do still need the community's help. There are people suffering from addiction, from mental health disorders, that the LGBTQIA community feel like they are voiceless. They still need advocates to articulate a simple sentence, which is love is love. And if you don't love me for who I am, then that's your problem and not mine. Because again, as I've said before, the radical idea is not saying I love you, nor is supporting your neighbors when they're in trouble. What is radical is forgetting about our neighbors who belong to and exist because of the diversity that is already here. I see these people, I've been one of these people, and I care about them. And those who choose to ignore them are showing their true colors. when in reality we should be recognizing the entire rainbow. When taken as a whole, these colors are beautiful. They paint a truer picture of the world around us that science and God have blessed us to be part of. And so I ask those of us that are assembled here today, do we truly see all these colors, and do we support the ideals that they stand for that were raised upon this flag tonight? I previously asked that we don't take it down, and tonight I'm officially asking you, Your Honor, please, please leave that flag up beyond June 30th. Here's an opportunity to treat the community's diversity, not as a 30-day calendar event. Leave it up as a permanent reminder that Batavia sees, honors, and protects those most vulnerable neighbors every single day of the year. Let it stand as a symbol that no matter how hard a resident falls, no matter how much they are struggling with mental illness or addiction, that they are still part of this neighborhood and they are still worth fighting for. I'm going to continue fighting for my neighbors who others choose to ignore because it's too much work. It's too uncomfortable to ask somebody in a situation of pain, hey, what can I do for you? I ask that this council and this city do the same. You are the leaders we've elected, and we watch with great pride the progress that you promote to make us feel like we belong. I know what it feels like to be ashamed, but I also know when it's time to be proud, and tonight we've got so much to be proud of. We hand off this baton, leaving shame and doubt behind us, and we pursue the righteous ideals of love, respect, forgiveness, and unity. All that said, and in closing, I'll point out that I am not wearing anything rainbow tonight. I'm wearing gray. And I'm wearing it on purpose. Because all the colors that we see of the rainbow together, when all seen at once, we see white. And black is what we see when there is no light and no colors to see at all. But you mix the black, the white, we see gray. And that's the color we see at sundown or at sunset. And those are the moments before things feel the darkest. We always have heard that it's always darkest before the sun rises. So, well, five years ago, large corporations, even here in Batavia, like Target and Walmart, were flush with rainbow merchandise. Even they've abandoned the LGBTQIA cause. And columnists like Batavia's very own Gerald Urban Trout noticed that there are so many grassroots efforts now afoot to support local queer movements that it's nearly exhausting to keep track of all of them, let alone attend them to ensure they all get the support that they need. Well, the reason for this is the LGBTQIA community is afraid that even their own municipalities are on the verge of turning their backs on us as well someday. So perhaps you'll understand why we need you to keep this flag up all year round. It's because we're afraid, and rightfully so, that we are the ones just one election away from being erased again. So in closing, Your Honor, please keep the flag up on July 1st. It is the softest, most effortless thing that you can do to say to the most vulnerable people that you represent, that it is not the sundown on equality, but rather the beginning of a brand new day in a place where many people who need your protection would like to call home. And while I didn't anticipate any applause because everybody has gone to the party right now at Sturdy Shelter, this feels like what it feels like at budget time when all the hard work has to be done. And while I don't want to keep doing the work, I'm counting on this body to finish what I can't finish. Thank you.

Thank you. Do we have anybody else in the audience that wishes to address us? Okay. Moving to item six, items to be removed, added, or changed on the agenda. Do we have some?

We do, Your Honor. We'd like to add the Batavia Active Transportation Advisory Commission's quarterly update.

Where do we want to put that? At 6A?

If we want to do that now?

Yeah, well, we're going to make a motion to do it before we...

You guys want to do it now and get out? All right. Yeah, we have to go right now.

Yeah, you need to make a motion to amend the agenda.

I make a motion we amend the agenda to include 6A for the Batavia Active Transportation Advisory Commission's quarterly update.

Second.

Motion and second. Call the roll, I guess.

We're going to start with Barron.

Aye.

Lehman.

Aye.

Pieper. Aye. Fehrenbach.

Aye.

Barraza. Aye. Lancy.

Aye.

Beck. Aye. Millay. Aye. Malone.

Aye.

Wolff. Aye. Salfa. Aye. Eleven yes, no no, three absent.

Okay, now I'd like to invite the Active Transportation Committee up for their report.

Good evening, City Council, Mr. Mayor. As some of you may remember, my name is John O'Toole. I am a commissioner on the commission. This is our quarterly update, which will actually include the past two quarters as we unfortunately missed the previous one. But before I continue, I would like to say thank you to the City Council and you, Mr. Mayor, for your continued support for the safety of pedestrian, cyclist, and alternate transportation users throughout Batavia. Also, I'd like to extend a special recognition to our now former police liaison, Officer Jamie Goshi. She was a key member of our commission and instrumental to our recent successes. I just again want to say thank her for the time she spent and the care and effort that she dedicated to this work. Her absence is already being felt, but we wish her good luck for her next chapter at the City of Batavia Police Department. And with that, I would also like to thank the liaisons that we work with at both the city and the county. And call out to them as Caroline, Gretchen, Caitlin, and Tim. So again, thank you for spending your time to discuss bike and pedestrian safety. So as far as our update, the most visible initiative we have been involved with this year was the e-bike mobility ordinance, which passed last March, which was really great. The topics of e-bikes and e-scooters has been the number one concern among community members that I have spoken with at the community outreaches that we do. And speaking with some of the other commissioners, it seems like it's also their number one discussion point as well. So Chief Blowers really led the effort with this ordinance, and it was a privilege for us to work with him to help get this passed. You know, the approach that the ordinance takes with the emphasis on education rather than outright prohibition is not only going to be beneficial to Batavia, but I'm really hoping that's going to be an example that other communities in the area can use to implement similar regulations. And then Lori Botterman. Lori? Okay, she did a fantastic job creating the flyers. So we had these nice little flyers. We handed those out this past Saturday at the farmer's market. And, you know, it's very clear. It shows what's allowed, what's not allowed. You've got the age, speeds, and everything. It made discussing the ordinance with the general public very, very simple. And also, whoever planned to have the city's booth next to the cheese booth, excellent idea. We had traffic the entire time, so. But other things throughout the year, commissioners have continued our community outreach through booths, both at the farmer's market, as I mentioned, but also we had a May 6 bike and roll to school day event. And we were at the Easter egg hunt, which were very nice events. We also had the privilege of working with Susan Renard with the Unity of Fox Valley Church for their first and I hope at least annual Cycle Safe Saturday. These events have proven crucial for the commission as they allow us not only to share what we do, And what you know the city is doing to improve pedestrian safety, but also allows them to discuss Issues that they may be seeing I know just at the farmers market We invited several them to join us on our next Commission meeting this coming Monday So there seems to be quite a bit of interest for people to actually coming to the Commission meetings now, which is exciting to see So looking ahead, we just started beginning our discussions on the Randall Road pedestrian overpass. We understand this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to significantly improve the pedestrian safety and mobility in Batavia. You know, we appreciate the scale and impact that this project will, you know, and plans to include in-depth conversations on the subject in our upcoming, at least several meetings. I'm sure this is gonna be discussed throughout the year. Once we can get a formalized plan, we can kind of give our recommendations for the overpass or now it sounds like it might be even an underpass. And finally, as announced in January of this year, Batavia once again achieved the bronze-level bicycle-friendly community designation from the League of American Bicyclists. So that's an achievement we share with only 443 other communities across the country. Again, this data shows our dedication to cycle safety and accessibility as an alternate means of transportation. Our next goal is though, the commission is currently looking for projects initiatives to go even beyond that with the hopes of advancing Batavia to the silver level designation by our next renewal in 2029. Thank you for your time. And I look forward to our continued work with the city.

Thank you. Does anybody in the council have any questions or anything you would like to ask? We'll keep up the great work and.

It's nice talking to you on Saturday, by the way.

If you know of other people like to get into that subject, I should suggest that they start coming to your meetings and see if they'll be adaptable to be.

That's the plan. We get them in, we lure them in and then trap them.

All right, well, thank you. All right, got anything else?

uh nope just the consent agenda next are we ready for that yeah let's go to that then all right so your honor the consent agenda reads as follow accept and place on file the march 2026 financial report approval city council minutes may 18th 2026 ordinance 2026-23 amending the official zoning map at 117 south prairie street PAYROLL FUND TOTALS FOR 5-22-2026 IN THE AMOUNT OF $1,180,778.71. APPROVAL OF APPLICATION FOR THE ANNUAL FIREWORKS DISPLAY. ORDINANCE 2026-22 VARIANCE FOR PRINCIPAL STRUCTURE SETBACK AT 213 EVERGREEN DRIVE. The accounts payable total for the June 1st council meeting in the amount of $1,416,636.90. Your Honor, I move we approve the consent agenda as read. Second.

Motion and second for the approval of the consent agenda as read. Any further discussion? Clerk, call the roll.

Barron? Aye. Lehman?

Aye.

Pieper? Aye. Berenbach?

Aye.

Barraza?

Aye.

Lancey?

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

I want to start out by welcoming the new members that have joined the chamber this month. We have Advocate Wealth Management, Apex Exteriors, Audi Exchange St. Charles, the Windmill Weekly, that's an exciting one that came out of the BHS incubator program and are launching a successful business. We're going to help them with that. And also Loaves and Fishes Community Services. We're always excited to welcome new members because each one brings something different to our chamber community, and all of them help make our local community stronger. That also says something important about the strength of the chamber. We're not only seeing businesses in Batavia engage with us, but also businesses outside of Batavia. They want to serve our community, build relationships here, and have a meaningful presence in Batavia. That's a good sign for our local economy and for the value the chamber provides. June is a very busy month for the Chamber. We're offering opportunities for not-for-profit leaders, business owners, senior service providers, women in business, young professionals, and anyone who wants to make stronger connections in the community. This week alone, we have the Chamber Not-for-Profit Forum, an AI business workshop at the Batavia Public Library provided by Waubonsee Community College. We have the first Senior Services Business Forum hosted at the Homestead. We have, we also have later this month, sorry, the Coffee and Commerce, the Batavia Women in Business Networking Breakfast, a Fox Valley Rising Professional Event, a Multi-Chamber Financial Webinar, and for more bang for your buck, our Tri-City Networking Event. And then finally, our Out to Lunch at Sidecar Supper Club in Bear Garden. That's a drop-in. We're also celebrating two ribbon cuttings this month. Clever Fox Counseling, 28 South Water Street. That ribbon cutting will be on Thursday and June 18th at 4 p.m. And Space Shop Self Storage behind Tesla. We're hosting that ribbon cutting at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 23rd. So join us for both of those. Of course, we are hosting our annual golf outing in June. It will be Monday, June 22nd at Bliss Creek. It's always one of our favorite Batavia Chamber events of the year, bringing together businesses, sponsors, volunteers, and golfers for a great day of connection, visibility, and maybe even a hole-in-one. Who knows? We could keep our fingers crossed. All these details for all these events are available on our Chamber website, bataviachamber.org. I also wanted to give a quick update on the Tri-Cities Canned Struction project that we unveiled at INSPIRE. This is a collaborative project of the Batavia, Geneva, and St. Charles Chambers. As I mentioned at INSPIRE, this large-scale community competition will bring together businesses, schools, and organizations, civic organizations, architects, engineers, designers, and community teams to build creative structures made entirely out of canned goods. After the event, all of the canned food will be donated to our local food pantry. Each participating team gets to pick their partner food pantry. Of course, we're partnering with the Batavia Interfaith Food Pantry. We're excited to announce that the theme for the inaugural Tri-Cities Canned Structure Project is Harmony Against Hunger. Teams will design their structures around music using inspiration from songs, bands, instruments, album covers, or musical concepts. It's going to be fun to see the creativity that comes out of this theme. And more importantly, it supports a very meaningful cause. We cannot wait to see what the community builds together. For more information, please see the Tri-City Construction Facebook page. That's up and running. The website's still under construction and will be available soon. I also want to mention the Batavia flag sales are picking up now that summer is here. We still have people asking where to buy them, so please help us share the news that they're available at the chamber office, 106 West Wilson Street. They can be ordered online and picked up on your way out in town, and they make wonderful Father's Day gifts. Are there any questions that you have for me before I introduce my guests this evening? Questions? Okay. Tonight I'm excited to introduce Laura Matter, owner of Reading Matters, located at 717 Main Street. Reading Matters has been a member of our Chamber since 2019. Laura's business is professional tutoring services for emerging and struggling readers, as well as English language learners. Laura is a credentialed reading specialist who provides focus and effective interventions to help students build confidence, strengthen their literacy skills, and become more successful readers. She doesn't let them have the summer off.

Do you want to come up, Laura?

Tell us more. You're welcome.

Hello. Thank you so much for allowing me to come talk to everybody today. As Margaret said, Yes, I have been in business now for seven years. Thank you to the city council for your support, for allowing businesses to share what they do in the town. Thank you to my past clients and all the teachers in town, all the parents who support their children. So I want to just start by saying she already covered a lot, so that's great. I can just relax about some of those details. But yes, I'm located on Main Street, and it's very convenient. So I love being in that area just down from the high school. I work on my own. So I am a reading specialist, and I see children either after school or if they are homeschooled, maybe earlier in the day. And also during the summer, then I see them all day long from morning till afternoon. I try to make use of their time as efficiently as possible. She already mentioned I've been in business over seven years, which was kind of shocking to me when I looked at the math there. So that's fabulous. I'm really excited. It's always been my passion to be a reading specialist. I was going to just tell you a little bit of history about myself. First day of kindergarten. Just kidding. But for real, first day of kindergarten, I came home, I said, I love school, Mom. I love everything about it. Mrs. Cloran over at J.B. Nelson was my teacher, and it was fabulous. That love of school and reading continued. I decided I wanted to be a teacher. wavered here and there, and then I realized, no, why are you even thinking about anything else? Your passion is teaching. So I always knew I wanted to be a reading specialist, and I was able to open my own business here in Batavia after returning from a long hiatus where I was out in California working as a teacher and also as a reading specialist in a California State University Monterey Bay reading center. So I That led me to travel a little bit, and I started reading matters actually overseas for a while, and then when I came back to put some roots down again here in Batavia, I was welcomed, and I'm so grateful that I did. So thank you to everybody. Thank you especially to my grandmother and my mother who fostered that love of reading. So if you have a young child at your house or if you have grandchildren around, know that your actions do make a big impact into their life. And thank you so much to my father for encouraging me to start my own business. an entrepreneur so that was really lovely to see and thank you for my husband for his support who's in the audience tonight so I'm just grateful for everything if you're interested in like some nuts and bolts side of my business I work with all ages K through 12 I work with all abilities I always meet and have a free initial consultation I never turn anybody away I always like to see if there's a good fit between the student myself but I I work with many different children, many different learning styles. And I have experience now, and I can honestly say I love a little bit of a challenge. So I love getting that child who maybe doesn't love reading or maybe the child who walks in the door and just maybe hasn't had the best experience with reading. So those opportunities I find the most rewarding. But I work with children who just maybe need a little extra help, or maybe their parents just want to send them and they want to keep them reading over the summer. So it's a large range of students who I work with. So I work on appointment only, and they usually come to me one, two, or three times a week. Let's see, what else? I already covered that. So I'm at 717 Main. If you're interested in more information, you can go to my website, readingmattersschool.com. You can contact me on there. My email is on there. And I really just want to say thank you for allowing me to speak to you tonight. Are there any questions?

Do we have any questions?

I had to write down the phone number because I never call it, so I had to make sure I had that. 630-326-9286, but website's better with my email on there because then you'll know you can get me. I'm usually with students if I'm in the office. Okay, thank you.

I'd just like to offer the story that being in the position I'm in, I get a lot of people come to tell me about stuff that's happening in Batavia, and I think now I'm up to at least three that have come to me and said, you're is one of the greatest things that ever happened to their family because they had people, young people in their family that were having a real difficult time learning to read. And you stepped in and spun it around and now... Well, that's making my whole year.

Thank you very much.

Well, no, I'm just saying that I don't want to say names, but I mean, there's people that testify to how good you really are and what has done... such positive results in their families.

That's very kind of you to tell me. I really feel for kids who struggle to read. And reading is one of those things that it's not something we're born knowing how to do. It is a thing that needs to be taught explicitly. And a lot of times that gets missed and misunderstood. So I value all the clients who have made a priority. I know it's not easy to take time and funds away to you know, prioritize something like reading instead of other things. So thank you for sharing that. That's lovely to hear.

Didn't make it up. It's coming right to my office three different times. So I know you're doing something good.

Any other questions? Oh, yes.

Quick. I noticed that you did some reading outreach in South Africa. Where about?

So I was in Hood Sprite, which is right outside Kruger National Park. And that was a lovely experience. So I worked out of the home and also did some volunteer work in a school there and also did some volunteer work in some rural villages out there, a little bit outside of Hood Sprite, which is the bigger town that we were living in. But it was fabulous and very interesting. Actually, we were just back, and I was able to go back and visit the program that I helped start and see it's still up and running, which is fabulous. So, yeah.

Excellent. And then from there to California and then back to the Tavis.

Actually, it was kind of California and then ended up there through quite a path. And then back here.

Well, I think we're very lucky to have you. Thank you very much.

Well, thank you so much. Thank you.

Okay, great. Okay. Let's see what's the next one.

All right, moving then to the regular agenda.

Ordinance 2026-67, authorizing execution of a professional service agreement with John Lasky Lindum and architects for the exterior building condition assessment.

I'll take that, Your Honor. This agreement with JLK Architects is for 75 significant properties in our downtown. The goal of this project is to prevent demolition by neglect and assess kind of the condition of these 75 properties through a sidewalk assessment. So this is not an invasive, this is not an interior assessment, but what the experts can do ascertain from looking at the exterior shell of a building will hopefully inform us on what's going on inside and lead to some more conversations and prevent deterioration of those 75 structures. That's the phase one. Phase two will be coming after staff pursues a grant to fund the second phase and that'll cover the contributing and the landmark structures throughout our downtown. Does anybody have any questions or did I miss anything staff? IF NOT, I WILL MAKE A MOTION THAT WE APPROVE RESOLUTION 2026-67-R, AUTHORIZING EXECUTION OF A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH JOHNSON, LASKEY, KINDELIN, ARCHITECTS FOR THE EXTERIOR BUILDING CONDITIONS ASSESSMENT.

Second, any further discussion from the council?

I was just going to ask, so it looks like we budgeted 60,000 for it. Is that just for this first phase that only costs 37,700 or is that for both?

That's for both phases, but we broke it up so that we can pursue the grant to cover the second half. Awesome.

Any other questions? I guess we'll call the roll then, huh?

Beck? Aye. Malay? Aye. Malone?

Aye.

Wolff?

Aye.

Solfa? Aye. Barron? Aye. Lehman?

Aye.

Pieper? Aye. Berenbach?

Aye.

Barraza?

Aye.

Lansing? Aye. 11 yes, no, no, three absent. Motion is approved.

Okay, on the agenda, we're going to 9.2, which is resolution 2026-066-R, authorizing execution of a redevelopment agreement with Fox River Affordable Housing Corporation for 400 South River Street. Who's got this one?

I've got this as well. This redevelopment agreement authorizes us to provide up to $1 million in TIF assistance to the developer who's here if we have any questions. It's a 72 unit workforce and affordable housing agreement at 400 South River Street. IT'S TO ASSIST THEM IN THE PURCHASE OF THE LAND IN ORDER TO BUILD THIS NEW PROPERTY. WE ALSO NEGOTIATED A PAYMENT IN LIEU OF TAXES TO OFFSET SOME OF THE PROPERTY TAX LOSS THAT WE WOULD EXPERIENCE. AND THEN THERE'S ALSO A CLAWBACK PROVISION THAT WOULD HELP US IF THIS PROJECT WERE TO FALL THROUGH THAT WE CAN TAKE POSSESSION OF THE LAND, FOR EXAMPLE. IN MY NOTES FROM LAST WEEK, IT SOUNDS LIKE THEY'RE HOPING TO close in July, it'll take 14 months to construct. So very exciting to see new housing go up in our downtown. Does anybody have any questions on that one?

Any questions?

If not, I'll make a motion that we approve resolution 2026-66-R authorizing execution of a redevelopment agreement with Fox River Affordable Housing Corporation for 400 South River Street.

Second. MOTION AND SECOND FOR THE APPROVAL OF RESOLUTION 2026-066-R. ANY FURTHER COMMENTS FROM THE COUNCIL? WELL, I WOULD LIKE TO OFFER ONE JUST BECAUSE I THINK IT'S APPROPRIATE. I'VE, AS YOU ALL KNOW, I'VE BEEN THE MAYOR HERE FOREVER, IT SEEMS LIKE. AND ANOTHER PLACE WHERE THE MAYOR HAS BEEN THERE FOR A LONG TIME IS ELGIN, ILLINOIS. AND SO MAYOR CAPTAIN AND I, WHO'S THE MAYOR IN ELGIN, have become good friends. In fact, we just spent time at two different events this past week up the river at different stuff. And when these gentlemen first showed up in Batavia, I got on the phone and called my good friend, the mayor of Elgin, and said, can you give me a recommendation about these folks? Is this going to be some silly game? Are they going to stir the pot? What's going to happen? And he said to me, I will tell you that if they're just like they are in Elgin, they're totally professional. There's no nonsense and there are great people to deal with. And at the end of the day, they really help some people who truly need decent housing to live in. And that was his sentiments to me. So based on that, I didn't find anything I needed to get excited about. based on what his good recommendations have been. But I just thought now would be the moment to share that conversation with the mayor of Elgin because he's the one that really got in deep with these folks and saw what they could do and how they did it and how so many people in his town have been helped by the housing facilities that they have put together and put in place in Elgin. Any further discussion from anybody else? I know some of you got an Elgin background, but I'm not going to call. So I guess we'll call the roll.

Beck? Aye. Maloney?

Aye.

Malone?

Aye.

Wolfe?

Aye.

Zolfa?

Aye.

Barron? Aye. Lehman? Aye. Pieper? Aye. Fehrenbach? Aye. Barraza?

Aye.

Lancey? Aye. 11 yes, no, no, two, three absent.

Motion's approved. Gentlemen, welcome to Batavia. ALL RIGHT. GOING TO CITY COUNCIL

Good evening. Just getting back into the swing of things after being out for a week, but I've got lots of great news to share with you this evening. As you know, two years ago, City Council approved us being able to work with administrative consulting services. They assist us both with finding and with applying for grants and It costs the city $18,000 per year, but we certainly have reaped the benefits of that relationship. We've obtained around $10 million in external funding, and that required $4.5 million in local matches. But when you look at the fact that it was $14.5 million worth of projects that we were able to accomplish with just $4.5 million, we really have seen the benefit of that relationship. But I also take my hat off to staff, because while ACS does a great job of assisting us with applying for those grants, it still requires our staff to do a significant amount of information gathering in order to pursue those. So I also want to recognize their efforts in us being able to obtain those grants as well. This evening, prior to City Council, we had our Progress Pride flag raising, and this year we had 155 members of our community join us. It's, I think, the largest crowd that we have ever had for that, and so that was really, really wonderful to see. Also, we've updated our Parkway Tree Program website and form. And we're promoting this right now on our webpage. And just to let everyone know that we made the decision to utilize the bag fee funds, a portion of those revenues, to subsidize this program. So now it only costs a resident $30 in order to obtain a parkway tree. And these are pretty significant trees. On average, the trunk is two inches. in width and they are from six foot to 12 foot tall. So they're a pretty substantial tree that you're getting for just $30. Water received the 2025 award for perfect fluoridation from the Illinois Department of Public Health. And this is the 10th year in a row that our water department has received that award. So we're very proud of the water department for that. The urban blue restroom was delivered on Tuesday, May 26th that required us to shut down the road and a huge crane was used to lift it off the truck bed and place that in place. But I think that's going to be a very positive, significant amenity for our larger events that we have on North River Street and will help us, you know, with the ramp right there I think that'll bring more bicycle and pedestrian traffic into that area. And being a bicyclist myself, I know that when I see the opportunity that I can, you know, take a little rest stop. I think what we really have going for us is not a rest stop that's like in a park where there's not much else to do. We've got all those businesses around there. So I do think that this is going to be something that's going to help bring foot traffic and wheel traffic into our downtown this summer. So we're really excited about it. Speaking of grants, the Batavia Fire Department was selected as a recipient of a small equipment grant from the Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal. And it was about $21,000, and it was awarded for the purchase of a Lucas III chest compression system for the squad. So excited to be able to obtain that as well. In the police department, in an effort to further support the department's commitment to the Blue Envelope program and improving law enforcement response to individuals with autism or other communication challenges, all sworn department members completed autism-informed response training through the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board Online Learning Network. And the police department has an upcoming event to kick off summer. The department is hosting a Cones with a Cop at the Batavia Creamery this Thursday, June 4th, from 2 o'clock to 3.30 p.m. We usually get a big crowd for that event. And then lastly, I just wanted to share with everybody an example. I need to navigate to the website for it, but you may know that we have a historic marker program. We had 10 markers that were installed last year, and that was with grant money from the Dunham Foundation. And this past year, with funding that we received from the Community Foundation of the Fox Valley, we were able to complete another 10 markers. So I'd just like to navigate to the website where people can find this. It's called Discover Historic Batavia. And this site includes every single one of the markers. There is an interactive map that you can use that shows the location for all of the different historical markers. And if you hover over and click the icon, that will bring up an explanation of the historical marker that is there. We worked with Peterson Design to design the markers, and they're really beautiful. Here's the one for Batavia's original depot. You can see it uses this beautiful historic photos that Kate Garrett and the Depot Museum look through their archives to help us to provide the spectacular artwork that is with this. But we hope that you'll take a tour and visit these historic markers. While we've got 20 done at this point, We're the group that are working on it. We find it hard to like whittle things down to just 20. It's just remarkable. The number of historic things that have happened here from both a local to a local statewide and the national and even global ways that Batavia has a part in history. So I encourage everyone to take a look at the website and also to go on the walking tour to see these all around town. And that's all I have this week, unless anybody has any questions for me. Questions or more? Thank you very much.

Thank you. It's nice to get all these wondrous reports about all the good stuff that's happening in town. I KNOW SOME OTHER MAYORS THAT THEY GO TO THEIR MEETING AND THEY HEAR NOTHING BUT THE BAD STUFF. ALL RIGHT. NEXT ONE IS OTHER BUSINESS FROM THE COUNCIL. ANYBODY? WELL, THEN IT GOES TO MY REPORT, AND I'M JUST GOING TO TAKE JUST A COUPLE SECONDS TO SPEND SOME MORE POSITIVE THINGS. I WOULD, THIS HAS BEEN A VERY UNIQUE YEAR FOR VISITORS TO COME TO BATAVIA. AND I THINK RIGHT NOW, I PROBABLY HAVE HAD SOMEPLACE BETWEEN 20 AND 30 HAVE SHOWN UP. AND MANY OF THEM ARE PEOPLE WHO GRADUATED FROM BATAVIA HIGH SCHOOL BACK IN THE 1950s AND 60s WHEN THE HIGH SCHOOL WAS UP HERE WHERE THE LIBRARY NOW IS LOCATED. AND SOME OF THEM HADN'T BEEN HERE IN 50 YEARS. And they come in and say, my goodness gracious, what happened to the town? It looks so much better than when I left here because this whole area was all these old buildings and all this other good stuff. And so the compliment that I'm hearing more and more about, though, is Batavia's serious commitment to the Fox River and enhancing the appearances of the water and the Fox River bicycle trail. and how we've made ourselves probably maybe the most accessible town on bicycles on the river of anybody that's out there, because it's on both banks, et cetera, et cetera. So we get a lot of people in firing up about this thing and saying real nice stuff about Batavia and what you've done. And I remember when Robert Brown was the mayor of Batavia, AND HE GOT ELECTED IN 69 AND HE SERVED UNTIL 77. HE WAS THE ONE THAT LED THE CONVERSATION ABOUT BUYING ALL THIS AREA WHERE WE ARE NOW IN, THIS BUILDING. AND THEN EVENTUALLY BUYING WHERE RIVER RAIN IS AND ALL THIS OTHER GOOD STUFF. TO THAT TIME I WAS A NEWSPAPER REPORTER COVERING THE CITY COUNCIL. And every time I'd come to the meeting, I'd write yet another negative story about somebody who thought this was crazy to buy this old building down here. It would never go anyplace. And what were we going to do with all the buildings around it that were falling down? And through starting with Mayor Brown, who took a lot of grief about buying this, he's not with us any longer. But I had the opportunity to tell him before he passed that really that was one remarkable change. move that he made that really got this whole thing going and got the all this development along the river on both the old river and the new river and all the stuff that's happened that it kind of keyed the movement to do all this and certainly one of the big benefits was the arrival of river rain senior living community down here at the end of the island and there's I think it's 185 units in there. And I've had several of those folks in here who moved in from other towns telling me how lucky they feel they are that they got in here, that this is a great place. We get a lot of compliments and I just wanted to share that with the city council that what we're doing is stuff that is serving a lot of people. Many of them didn't have a lot of money and they were able to get themselves into Batavia and be able to live out their life in a very safe and nice restored area. So we have a lot to sing our praises about or you do as a council because you're the ones that have done it all. But we really have had a positive move toward the world. And the other thing I just want to briefly mention is that coming up on Thursday is the annual Batavia fireworks display. And this is, there's an argument going as to whether it's the 75th or the 76th, because back in the early days, the fire department just kind of went out to the old athletic field on Illinois Avenue and fired a few things off that weren't near a house out there. And needless to say, it now has developed itself into a $40,000 expense that every year we don't put any tax dollars into it. It's all money that gets donated. Either people come to see it or send us donations. And so I know we're having another expensive show and i encourage you all to come because there's everybody from a lot of other towns are making their effort to come and the police department tells me that that show when it when that show is over with about 10 o'clock on fourth of july generates the largest traffic jam that we have in batavia throughout the year we don't have anything else that comes near it as far as the number of people that want to be here and come here and wait in line and get out. And so I point to that as another good example of stuff we're doing in Batavia. And then I always get some comments from former veterans of our U.S. government military about how they appreciate that Batavia pays such a warm and colorful tribute to good service by our country people and those who, the men and women who have served in the wars and So I think we're doing all the right things at the right time at the right place. And certainly the council has been very supportive of us as we go forth with this. And I just wanted to let you all know it's coming again on the 4th of July. And be ready because we think we're going to have another very large crowd and something that Batavia should be very proud with. So I guess that's the end of my report. I guess we got to go to item 11, which is an executive session to discuss the purchase of real estate. So Dan, I think you're the only one that gets to go. We take entertain a motion to go into an executive session. So moved.

Second.

Motion and second. Kirk, call the roll.

Hi. Malone? Hi. Wolf?

No.

Killing me. Sulfa? Aye. Barron? Aye. Lehman? Aye. Lohman? Absent. Pieper?

Aye.

Berenbach?

No.

That's a close one.

Barraza?

Aye.

Lancy?

Aye.

Beck? Aye. Nine yes, two no, two absent. Three absent. Still three absent.

All right.