Council - Regular Meeting

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.

Please remain standing, Ms. Gary.

Thank you, Father, for this opportunity to be together. Father, I pray that you be with the council to help them make good decisions for the town of Cicero. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen.

Thank you.

I can. Joe Cox. Eric Hayden. Dennis Johnson. Jacob Everett. Emily Pearson.

I had an opportunity to look over the agenda. Is that under new business? Alright, anything else? Financial commitment letter for the season. It is. But I'm not sure.

Correct.

I'm sorry, what? No. No, I'm so sorry.

I need to make more and more people are coming.

I'm sorry about that. All right.

I entertain a motion to approve the agenda as amended.

So moved. Emily Pearson. Second. Doris Johnson.

Motion to second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? It happens. We move along to the approval of the prior minutes. Those include the Town Council Executive Session No. N, updated September 1, 2026. I apologize. Can everybody make sure everybody but me was good. So town council meeting minutes, September 1st, 2026.

So I made a clarification and sent it to Rhonda.

Okay. Have you updated that?

I did.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Well, good to go. We're good to go on that. I'm going to obtain a motion to approve the minutes as presented. So moved.

Second, Dennis Johnson.

Motion to second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Go there. Moving along to the approval of the claims dated 9-1 of 26. Has everybody had an opportunity to review those? Any questions? If not, I'll entertain a motion to approve the claims as present.

So moved, Dennis Johnson. Second, Emily Pearson.

Motion and second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right, we have an agenda. All right, moving along to the budget public hearing. Entertain a motion to open the public hearing for the budget.

So moved, Dennis Johnson. Second.

Motion to second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Public hearing is now open. Does anybody in the audience have any comments on the budget?

Can I just say, it was a challenging year for the budget with the shortfalls. And so we knew that most of you have been here for most of our public meetings concerning the budget. So it was a challenging year. Hopefully we'll end up a little better than we think we will. But our budget is funded, and it's been submitted to the Gateway. So I don't know when you guys can view it online, but it has been submitted. So any questions, I'll be happy to find an answer.

It was definitely a unique year. SEA 1 came into effect. There was definite revenue changes related to that. And we had new expenses that we had to add on. You know, wastewater, fire, across the board, all costs are going up. So definitely a challenge.

So next meeting we'll adopt the budget. This is a hearing, and the next one we'll adopt the budget. Then I'll do the salary ordinance, and that's the order, the sequence.

Okay.

Thank you.

I'll make a motion to close the public hearing. Second. Dennis Johnson.

Motion and second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Public hearing on the budget is closed. Moving along, council committee reports, stormwater. Mr. Freeman, you're out there. Right here. Good lord, I'm looking everywhere right there. It's been a long day, Bruce.

Good evening, council. If there's anything to bring to you tonight. All right.

Good deal. Thank you so much.

Hey, Mr. Freeman, did you ever go over on Iron Bridge and take a look?

No, I didn't. I did drive by it, but I thought that 480 was a 480 on the north side. Okay. I looked at it, just briefly, I haven't seen, I haven't talked to Terry. Was there more, it looks like probably the culverts are running together, something like that. But I can take a look at it and talk to Terry.

Okay, if you guys would at some point.

That's 480, I thought it was 480 more or less.

Perfect, thank you, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving along, legal counsel report, Mr. Cole. I have nothing at this time. All right, moving along to the Cicero Jackson Township Plan Commission Report. Mr. Zawadzki is not here. Does anybody have anything to report on poor Frank? I don't believe so. All right, moving right along. Town Engineer Report, Mr. Bryant. Good evening, all.

Going through the agenda here. Wastewater rentals. Keep the microphone on. It is. Can you hear it? Try to turn it up. Is that better? That's hot. Check. Reynolds keeps working to finish the punch list. They're probably about halfway through the punch list. I did email. We got everything late by the time we went back and forth with them on the pay app that I emailed today. So I'm not anticipating any movement on that. But I thought it would be beneficial to give that to you so you could consider it for the next meeting at least. You'll notice that they are proposing to draw down the rest of the contingencies. And they claim that they're probably $300,000 or $400,000 over their maximum price, but obviously they have to absorb that by contract. The other thing is we do have a substantial completion form as well. We did an inspection. That's the punch list that they're about 50% complete with. But that, again, lays the middle. No need to move on that tonight. We can discuss it at the next council meeting.

Rhonda, can you add that to the agenda for the next council meeting? Sure. Pay application and the substantial completion form.

So if no questions on that, it's a 2026 CCMG East Jackson Street project. Punch list work is complete. Still waiting for some paperwork items from them. We had emailed pay application number two. Again, that was 9-11, so you don't necessarily have to. That was after the typical cutoff, but we got everything laid from them.

It's not included on this.

Did they fix the manholes?

They did.

They weren't happy with those?

I think they're as good as they can get. They adjusted four structures.

I guess I haven't driven back. I didn't notice them when I drove through there.

That's a good sign. Every other time before, if you were on the eastbound lane, you noticed it.

And I'm fine closing out that pay application. You want to do it tonight? Yeah, I'm fine closing that one out. Everybody okay with that?

And that's not a final, by the way. We still have their retainage, and so there will be more.

What payout was it?

It was number two. We mailed it on 9-11. I mean, I have it.

I just didn't know what payout it was. So I make a motion to approve to Howard Company's pay application two in the amount of? $52,784.59. I'll second.

Dennis Johnson.

Motion and second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Go ahead and get them paid.

On that project as well, do we want to talk about the 79 East Jackson ADA space tonight? I had emailed up some thoughts. I wasn't at the last meeting.

Mr. Alden, are you okay if we move it to this section? Sure. Go for it, Keith.

So I emailed up. There's a question of why we put it where we did. Just going back to the history, it's quite a while back. But looking at that, basically our ADA transition plan recommends that we have a spot on each side of the road close to businesses or any place that we think ADA disabled persons would need to go. Needs to be at an intersection. Needs to be at the end of a block close to a ramp. And, you know, the safest place you can put it for obvious reasons. So that's, you know, on the north side, we put it down by the church because that's the closest thing that we thought people would maybe need in access to. That side would put it as close as we could to the two businesses on the south side. There is a question of why we didn't put it closer. There's one spot closer to the to 19. And we were concerned about putting it there right at that location because that, you know, that's the busiest intersection in the city, in the town. We've got only a stoplight in town off the state highway, and we're a little concerned with disabled people trying to get in and out of vehicles with all that turning motion there. So we thought it would be better to slide it further east to be safer for the disabled.

Good point.

So... Long story short, that's why it wound up where it's at. Obviously, if we move it anywhere else, we're kind of getting away from that quote-unquote best scenario for the disabled, in our opinion.

Can you talk about your thought on putting it in front of the business?

Yeah, right now there's really not a marked spot there. There wasn't one before from what I can find looking at Google Earth, unless I missed it. But if we put, we could put it there, but again, it's closer to the intersection, so you get some, but less than the concern for the turn motion. But then you also got the, they've got big pillars right there, and whether they could park in there and not have interference with those pillars holding up that roof to impact the disabled from getting out of their vehicles, that's the primary concern. Gotcha.

Thoughts?

I mean, I'll give mine if you want me to start. I spent time down there looking at it, took Keith's input into consideration as well. I do agree with that spot on the corner. That was a question I had. It's a challenge right there and having to have them on both sides of the street, I just don't see a better place for them or for it. Given that there are a total of three parking spots in front of the residence and this takes one of those three, I just don't know where else to put it. Does anybody else have any feedback?

Well, the problem with someone disabled getting out quickly in traffic is a very real concern. I've had several surgeries, and I also take several people that have disabilities, and there's no fast way to get out of a vehicle, so that would be pretty hazardous.

Jacob? I think we should leave it where it is.

Mr. Alden, you were going to talk to your neighbors. Did you get a chance to? I did not get a chance to talk to them. Okay.

I did not get a chance to talk to them.

I can sympathize with the fact that your sidewalk goes right into a handicapped parking spot. But after listening to Keith and talking to Dan, I even recommended moving it down just to get it out of your sidewalk towards the 19. And I have to agree that it's just not the best location to put a handicap. It is closer to businesses at the corner. But when you're talking about handicap and the things that go along with that, Sorry, but it's probably the best place that we could put it.

Is the issue more your walkway? If it was in one of those other two spots, would that make a difference?

I don't think so. It's right there. Sure. Sure. And my opinion on the speed through there. is the traffic's going slower in front of big dogs than they are in front of the handicapped spot. By the time they hit the handicapped spot, eight out of 10 cars were going 30 plus mile an hour through there. And I can take a video and bring that back next meeting and show you the video of the cars flying by that handicapped spot. Honestly, it's not a safe spot for a handicapped spot, period. Anywhere on East Jackson Street, honestly. So, and that's my opinion, is they fly, and by the time they hit the handicapped spot, they are moving pretty good. Nine times, eight out of 10 times. I have a radar right there in front of my house, so I sit there and watch it constantly. So the traffic's flying by there already. At least when they're coming through the light, they're probably moving a little slower at that point than they are by the time they get to where that spot's at.

And that's entirely possible, but the people

They're also speeding probably.

The problem on a right turn there is if you've been northbound on State Road 19, which I'm sure we all have, you know it blocks. You can't make a right turn. You can't get around them. So everybody, by the time that light turns red, they're moving to make that right turn. And they're really not focused on people crossing. And that's what makes it dangerous at that location.

I don't think there's a safe spot anywhere through there for a handicapped spot, personally. I know it's a struggle for such a reality because... pretty rough parking anywhere in Cicero. And the ADA handicap crosswalks there, there are none. There are none on East Jackson Street. I see a wheelchair come out trying to cross Jackson Street. He has to get out into Harrison Street just to get across Jackson Street, which is treacherous for a wheelchair to start with. They have to get out into Harrison Street to cross. So there's my next question is what's going to be done about that all the way down into Jackson Street for the ADA handicapped crosswalks? And I don't think it's a safe spot for a handicapped bus. That's the cause of the flight, too.

All right. We'll take that under advisement. It'll be a discussion for a later date, but it sounds like we have a consensus that this spot stays. Thank you very much for bringing it to us. We did review it. We tried. We don't really have a better option to work with based on all the feedback. Do you want me to keep this in place?

All right.

Thank you. All right. Oh, go ahead, Keith. I forgot we were in that section.

That's all I had on that project. Unless there's more questions, I'll move forward.

Go ahead.

Morris Landing Under Drain Project, again, the contractor, we're trying to get them scheduled to come back and reseed some paperwork and some little miscellaneous things, but they're virtually done. I think at the last meeting, I'll go ahead and bring it up, it was brought up about the dry repair on 590 Morris Landing Drive. Situation there is a contractor did their sub, did all the concrete work down there, all the curbs, all the driveway repairs. Their sub is JG Case, but long story short, they did an excellent job, but after they did it, we got complaint calls from that property owner at 590, basically saying that her car was bottoming out when she was pulling out of the driveway. Contractor said, well, you know, we replaced it back to what it was. Terry and Sean and I went down there and looked at it, and you kind of eyeball it, and it looks like there was kind of a peak in the middle of where they repaired to the curb was lower. The distance from the curb to the pavement was less on the two ends and higher at a point in the middle, somewhere in the middle. That was with their eyes, so we sent our survey company or survey department up here and actually shot it and it verified that. Yeah, in fact it was a couple inches higher in the center and that was created the entire problem. We sent that to the contractor. They coordinated with their sub and said, well, yeah, but, you know, we didn't have the elevation to go on. But we said, well, yeah, but you got the rest of them right. If you had been consistent with the road grade, you'd been good. You really need to take it out and replace it. And to their credit, they did. They took it out. They replaced it. It's more uniform now. And we've talked to the property owner. She's happy as can be now. So it's very, very appreciative. Before they did it, they said, well, you know, our subsidies, that's $9,400 worth of work. And we said, well, that's fine, but we don't think you're entitled to anything, so it just needs to happen. Well, it did happen. They did do it. They didn't argue. And now they've come back and asked us to at least submit to the town and ask them to consider paying them something. So that's what I'm doing. They basically said, well, we'll take all the overhead and profit out and all the markup, and it would be $6,500. But... We send it up to the stormwater board because it's their project. I think Bruce has yet to coordinate and talk to them about that. But if the council is opposed to paying that, we can just end it right here. We'll just tell them, no, you're not entitled to anything and leave it at that. Another option is to say, hey, we'll pay you something, but we're not paying you $6,500 because you did such a good job and we want you to bid future projects.

i'm not suggesting that but it could be justified i don't think i'm inclined to agree to any kind of payment in my opinion if it would have been done right the first time it wouldn't be an issue and i think that's perfectly logical i mean so i have no issue at all telling them that but

I wanted to make sure I at least followed through, because I told them I would at least ask.

Sure. I mean, if somebody has a difference of opinion, feel free.

Yeah.

Emily? I agree. Consensus is we're not interested in paying any additional monies for that.

I totally understand. The question was asked, and we will inform them of that, so. 2020, any other questions on that project? It's done now? Everything's done? They still got to come back and do the reseed and grading. You're waiting for better weather, but now we're getting to that point they need to get back. So we've been pushing on them to get back to finish that up. 2027 CCMG project, that's the new project. Survey Bay is complete. We're pushing design. We were up there last week and walked with Terry and Sean. I emailed Um, on the 14th information to you all, but just just basically wanted to update the estimate because when we were out there and walked it as opposed to when we scoped it, you know, months earlier, walking in detail, we found some places in the pavement that we thought we need to do some additional subgrade repair. just to fix where wheel paths are moving and things. A couple other little tweaks here and there, but otherwise it's the same as the original project. It did increase the project a little bit, and if you look at that email, you can kind of see, but not dramatically. And again, keep in mind, these are estimates. When we do construction estimates, we don't try to be the low bidder. Let's put it that way. We'd rather be somewhere in the middle or be a little conservative because the worst thing you can do is plan for something and the bids be higher. So there's a chance it could come in lower. But if you look at that email, I mean, basically, again, the grant would be 80-20 if we get it, or CCMG, with a million dollar maximum grant. What that means is if you had a perfect project at $1.25 million, all grant eligible, then it would be a perfect 80-20 split with a one million maximum grant. Right now, we're at 1,318,000 estimate. Again, could come in at 1.25. We'll see. But that would mean that we have $318,000 in change that we have to pay eligible items plus another $483,000 in the non-eligible items that we all discussed before. Nothing's changed with that. And that's primarily power and streetlights is what most of that was. hydrant relocation as well.

So basically the same as what we experienced.

Yeah, I mean, it's as close. The estimate went up a little bit because we did have some paving, but again, it's still within that margin of error that hopefully we got bids lower.

So I have a couple. Are you done?

With that part of it, yeah. I was going to move ahead to the Main Street evaluation.

Go ahead, please.

Okay, so on Main Street, Eric had brought up a point that he got bumped in traffic, I think, two meetings ago, and we need to look and see what options might be out there to make pedestrian crossing on Main Street a little safer. Remember on Jackson Street, we got, I'm going to say mid-block, but they won't be exactly mid-block, north-south crossing on each one of those, a raised crossing with push-button flashing lights. Again, the reason it wasn't done on Main Street is there's a vehicle stop there. You don't normally do it on a vehicle stop unless there's some other circumstances, but obviously Jackson Street, there's no stop, so it forces them to stop when the push button's done. But, you know, there's still a lot of traffic, a lot of people turning on Main Street. So what are our options? We walked in and looked at it, talked to Sean and Terry as well. But basically one option, the option one is we can put it right now on what's in the base is putting a striped crossing across Main Street basically where it is now. looked at moving it back, you know, if we move it back a little bit to the south, that doesn't really help. That creates more of a problem, we think, because you get in the sight zone of the people stopped there. And they're just going to pull on top of it anyway because they can't see if traffic's coming. So basically, we don't think unless you move it quite a bit, it doesn't help. So that's one option, to leave it the way it is. Another option is to leave it in that same location, north-south, where it is now, only a little wider, and put a push button in there. Vehicles already have to stop, but at least it does get flashing lights and brings it more to people's attention. Another option, 2A, in that email, and there's exhibits that I sent as well, would be to turn south, to go south of that sidewalk and go down to the north to the drive entrance into Alexander's.

So would that include extending sidewalk down Main Street?

Yes.

Okay, that's in that clause?

Right, so yeah, we'd basically have to extend down Alexander's a sidewalk. Right and to to a is a raised crossing across to the west side and then a sidewalk back up That that would be eighty three thousand dollars roughly with the raised crossing and of course we added a push button It'd go up about another fifty thousand dollars with that system. So one hundred thirty three thousand dollar ad to do it like that and then three eight is really the base is really the same except that It's an at-grade crossing, so it wouldn't be elevated, the crossing, so you save some money there, which is $46,000, and then again, you could add a light, and it'd be about $96,000. The things to consider also, in addition to just money, which is very important, but related to any of those other changes going south there is... The northwest or the southwest corner of that intersection, we cannot do any of this and get a sidewalk around there unless one of two things happen. We acquire some property there to give us more room because if you look at those exhibits, it's real tight there. Or we get Duke to move their guy wire that they've got stretched out there and it's like two foot off the edge of the pavement. One of those has to happen to be able to get that southwest sidewalk up and reconnected. We have already reached out to Duke. And we've got a meeting scheduled with them in the field. So we're going to see what their temperature is on moving that. But I don't have that. It may take Duke two months to tell me whether they'll even move it. But we're pushing them as best we can. But if we decide not to do it, then obviously, We'll probably still meet with them, because if we can get them to move it, we would still like to get them to move it. And we actually have one to the west. We'd like them to move, too, because it'll make the walk configuration a little better. So there's a benefit to getting them to move it, whether we do this or not. So we'll continue pushing them and see if that can happen. The funny thing about the one that we're talking about here at the intersection is normally they put those in if there's no power, no lines going in one direction to counter the force. There's power going both directions on that. So we're hoping they come out there and look at it and say, well, shoot, we can just eliminate it. That's what we're hoping. But they may have a different idea.

So thanks for providing the ideas. I think, just like you said, if you go south, it creates other potential issues.

There's a lot of great issues to work out, and that's reflected in those costs, because we're looking at on the Alexanders, we have a backside curve and have to regrade, and then on the west side, we have to regrade quite a bit, but we've got the right way on Main Street to do it. It's just that corner gets real tight.

I saw a moment, but I think leave it as the initial proposal.

So I do have a question. My thought process is the same as yours, but with option one, the only crosswalk would, well, even if we went to push button, it would just be running east to west on the south side of the road, correct? Yes.

Well, option 1A is what's in the base now, and there is no push button.

Okay, well, let's just talk about the crossing, then take the push button out of the equation. It's just the striping would just be on the south side of Jackson, right? Right. Not on the north side.

No, there's the north side. Well, there'll be striping on the north side as well.

It's on the illustrator on the south.

That's why I asked. Yeah, there would be, but that's just for that proposal. Gotcha. Right, I was just looking at that south intersection. But, yeah, there's sidewalk on the north side and crosswalk. And we're extending that sidewalk on the north side down to the entrance into the converse.

I don't think there's a crosswalk currently on the north side because there's no sidewalk. Right. Correct.

Absolutely. That's correct.

So I appreciate you guys working with proposals. I'm fine with your original plan. I'm good.

I appreciate you bringing it up, Eric, because I do think we needed to look at it.

you know the route is if there's development or something happens down there then things may change as well too so so if we don't do it now there's no that doesn't mean we can't do something later i guess that's what i'm getting at we're not locked in to you know wouldn't change a whole lot so 1a then 1a 1a for now okay

I do have one more comment. Well, I probably have more than one, but just food for thought, Keith. I don't like having signs everywhere because we have signs everywhere already, but I do think even when our plan is to put these raised crosswalks in right across Jackson, I still think you're going to have people trying to cross at the intersection where we don't want them. I don't know if we can put signs or something that says, like, you know, go to the crosswalk, basically. We may just be trying to convince people You know, we're already doing all the work for them to put the crosswalks in, but anything we can do to encourage them to actually use those would be helpful. I mean, a sign may not be the right answer, Keith. I don't know. I just want to encourage people to go to the crosswalks.

Yeah, there could be something there. I mean, we could put some type of sign, small sign, and it basically says, you know, proceed to crosswalk in a direction. Or, you know, we could come up with something.

It may be futile. I don't know. But it would be a big difference if people will actually use them once we get them installed.

That's a good point.

So then I know we have raised ones there. We didn't do raised down through town. Do we still want raised there? We didn't do lights down through town.

you could you could reduce and take the raised out i mean it was just put there more of a if you remember that there was a study a long time ago and even the whole intersection was broad there's you can bring the whole intersection up chad amos i work of course worked at carmel said hey we got some just raised crosswalks down there we went looked at them and they seem to work they do help slow people down but you know you're also going to have Some people that don't notice them, they're going to drive over them too fast and going to have potential issues there as well. So I don't know if it's a perfect solution, I guess, is what I'm getting at, but it definitely slows traffic down.

Terry, what would be the effect with those raised areas on the snowplows?

I believe that it's a kind of radius on what I think would interfere with it. It would cause a lot of wear on the thermoplastic part of the crosswalk. I think that we could do the crosswalk pretty easily.

Yeah, if they trained it, the slope would rise.

There's a slope there, right? There's a slope there. Yeah.

But definitely, I mean, raising those brings up a lot of issues. I mean, I do think it helps with the safety for the pedestrians, but you've got to weigh that off with the fact that it probably costs us $50,000 or $60,000 to raise them, plus we have to do more stormwater there. So, I mean, overall, it may be $100,000 just in raising those things. Because, again, you basically are building a dam across the road, and that's where all the water's running. So we have to put inlets on the high side and catch those. So there's some storms that are involved as well.

I'd be more inclined to go with the flashing lights over the raised crosswalks in that regard.

Versus both. Right now it's both.

I think we've got to do at least one. I mean, I like doing both, but I understand it's expensive. I think we've got to do at least one of the two.

When you say one of the two, you mean raised or the flashing light? Yeah. Right now it's both.

My personal opinion is I lean towards the flashing light.

We didn't do it, but we didn't do rays downtown. But we don't have flashing lights downtown either. Right.

Right. And I don't think you have the issue with, especially with people coming from the west, coming too fast. When you get downtown, people are just naturally slower because they know there's a stoplight up here. There's more businesses. There's more things going on. So if you were going to do just one of them, probably the west one makes the most sense.

I do think there's...

similar to out here unintended consequences i'm good with flashing lights dennis thoughts i think the congestion and traffic out there probably would dictate But the flashing would be more helpful out there than it would be downtown.

I think if we don't do the raise now, we start with the flashing, and if we still feel like there's a problem, we can always come back in and put the raise in later if we needed to. I know it's not ideal, honestly, but at least we're starting somewhere. I think some improvements to that area, which I think is really important.

Yeah. It might be kind of the belt and suspenders approach, what we're doing now. Maybe you don't need to go that far, basically. But, you know, it is cheaper to do it now than to come back to it later. Because if you think about it on the north and south side of those, you're going to have to take out some sidewalks. Your grade's going to be different. Your sidewalk's going to be six inches different elevation on the north and south. So you've got those transitions you'd have to replace as well.

All right, so do we have a consensus on the flashing lights then? No raised or flashing lights?

Yes. So what do you think that does to the budget, Keith?

Just rough numbers, I bet it's $100,000 less probably.

I had $80,000 too.

Because we're going to remove some storm sewers. That's where we're going, in the right direction. He definitely gets the estimate down to less than $1.25 million. So it gets you down to all 80%, 20% grants, assuming they were funded, of course.

I'm good with that concept.

Now what we would probably do if you're if you find it acceptable we would probably still get the say the estimate comes in at 1.2 we'd probably bump it up another 30 or 40,000 just to maximize to give us the potential without knowing what the bids are because we don't know what the bids are going to come in when we do the application just to maximize our odds and not having to you know pay any more hundred percent funding than we have to so.

And to your point on the Duke conversation, I mean, regardless of what we do at the intersection, I think, yeah, if we can get rid of those wires or relocate them, let's do that.

Yeah, it would be helpful if we could do it. Because, I mean, we could also, if we can get rid of them, we can make that sidewalk transition there better, and we might be able to increase the radius on that turning lane right there. And that's for people going eastbound and trying to make that south turn with a trailer, we could widen that. We could get those guys to move.

So then there's like $155,000 in storm sewer inlets, Mr. Freeman?

We're still doing it, but we'll still be doing part of that, but yeah.

So does the storm level board help cover those costs? Just a question.

So if you want information, I would say it's possible to have a storm level board. you know other projects that we're looking after that coming year but this was what i talked about but it really was kind of a back burner i have about 155 000. I don't know if it would be 25% of that.

We need to modify. Right. It would be 20% of that, whatever that number winds up being. So I'm going to say if we take these raised areas out, that's the next question. If we take the raised areas out, I assume we want to take those inlets out. Now, that makes it more difficult to put them in later. We do put them in, but, you know, we're, yeah. So if we take those out, and I'm guessing we're down to $100,000 in storm sewer, which means only $20,000 if it's funded.

Oh, it's over $20,000. I'm sure we have funds available. We will be on board with some financial aid.

Okay. And then Rhonda? I think you have $110,000 for intersection improvements when the condo went in. Is that correct? In what? Intersection improvements down there when the condos went in. They had provided money.

Yes, that's true. I think it's $100,000. Something like that.

Special capital fund? It's $110,000. All right, yeah. All right, so that could be used down there as well?

It is $110,000, yeah. All right.

That money's been there a long time. It has. So long I forgot about it.

I thought everybody did.

It's been there about 18 years.

Long time.

I was on the board with that one.

No wonder you did.

So we'll move ahead. We'll modify this for the scope we talked about. Modify the estimate and give it to Rhonda so she can work through the application.

The application is just about ready to go. We were just waiting on you to sign the letter.

But that letter is going to change. So I don't know if you can get approval for whatever the new reduced number is to have Joe sign it later.

I'll make a motion to have President Cox sign the financial commitment letter to 2027 CCLG as revised for discussions.

Second. Dennis Johnson.

Motion to second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? It is signed.

Thank you. Just real quick on the water works project. All the survey is complete. We're moving ahead with pulling the site plans together and the plan and profile sheets for the different divisions and working through, you know, preliminary engineering. So now that we got that, we can really, really push hard. So it's moving ahead. So I had any questions?

You getting any indications from the world? I mean, are you guys working any other water projects?

Yeah.

From a pricing standpoint, is it?

Yeah, and we're getting updated equipment costs, which is a big part of the work, and it seems like everything's stabilized, and if anything, maybe it's gone down a little bit. So that's the initial feeling we're getting right now compared to what it was, say, two years ago. Okay. And whether it stays that way, who knows, with tariffs and everything else that can come into play, who knows, but...

based on what I've seen from demand, it may get uglier. Anything else for Mr. Bryant? Thank you. Thank you, Keith.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, moving along to old business.

Tamara. I don't have much.

I know that Eric told me you were going to try.

Thank you. That you were going to try to walk out the north side of the pond, and I don't know if you had a chance to do that or not.

I did not.

Okay.

But I've already made an opinion, so it's. Oh, then share. I didn't know. We'll talk about it later. Okay.

I had a conversation with Jim Hunter today. We were together for something totally different, and he threw some ideas at me. I need to ask you guys, I just told Dennis this before we started, please, everything goes through me, okay? Let's take out the middle man and all of this. That's why I keep showing up is I want to create the relationship. So if we can work everything through me. We've got some people that go a little rogue on us. And so I would appreciate if we could keep it through the board. But Jim had come up with some other suggestions for that area. As I told Dennis, we do want to continue to pursue the wildflowers if we can do that. Obviously, it'll be next year. The reason we're doing it, I don't know if you guys caught this during all of our other conversations, we've got a quote of $60,000 right now to drive to that pond. And that's only one pond. And the only pond that's in good shape is pond three. Pond four, one, and two probably are all going to have to be dredged at some point if we don't get ahead of it. So that's the reason we're pushing so hard to figure out what we can do to fix it. So that's what we're going to do over the winter is see what it's going to take around one and two. I don't think one and two are going to need to have the wildflowers go in. I think one and two have enough maturity to them that we're going to be able to work with it and do some overseeding. do some aeration and things like that. And hopefully we'll be able to save those. They're just a lot more mature than this fourth pond is. So I'm not thinking I'm going to come to you begging for wildflowers or having somebody yell at us about weeds there because we continue to mow those. I am continuing to mow four. We mowed it this past week. It's pretty much dirt right now because of the weather, you know, but we'll keep that up through the fall. And then throughout the winter, the board's going to be talking both with the landscape companies Because we're getting a new landscape company this year, too. So they're giving us some ideas and some quotes as to how to better maintain this and what the maintenance for those wildflowers means to us. So we're getting the quotes for that. And then we'll go forward based on what your decisions are, what your opinions are, if that works for you guys.

It works for me. So based on the last meeting, it sounds like we're going to go with a special exception route instead of doing a sweeping ordinance just because the sweeping ordinance opens up too many potential unintended consequences. Understood. But I didn't gather that there was any objection to the wildflowers in Pond 4. Okay. Just specific language relating to maintenance, the height, which would they come – which – with which they can come up to the shoreline. And that was really it for the most part.

And also some stipulation. So the coolant was very helpful that you guys provided. I mean, it walked through and talked about the root beds and all that. So it was good information. So that's why I didn't go walk because I read through that and it made sense.

There's one other point to that, too. I want to make sure you guys are aware, and you can put this in whatever those stipulations are. The recommendation is you mow once or twice a year. If you guys come back at us and feel like because so many people look at wildflowers and think weeds, if you think we're better off doing two mows in a year, we're totally willing to do more. whatever it takes to keep all the surrounding neighbors happy is what it comes down to. So consider that when you're going through your actions and stuff, just because we're flexible. We can do whatever you guys need us to do on that.

I'm not so sure about the mowing with wildflowers. It's the invasive weeds that, I mean, it says yearly, so I think that needs to be addressed.

Part of the process, as I understand it, and here's where I have a problem with it, to be honest with you, is part of the process is that you have to go in there and kill everything first, which means you're putting chemicals down. And I'm not a big fan of chemicals. in my ground, in my water, anywhere. So I want the proper research done to the chemicals that are being recommended to us to kill that stuff around there before we just start spraying stuff out there. And we're very selective as to how we treat our ponds. And I think we need to be really selective as to how we treat around those ponds too. I don't want to see a chemical go out there that next week every lawyer's chasing something because people are dying from this chemical or whatever the case may be. I want to make sure that we do our proper research on that before we actually do kill what vegetation is out there and then ultimately do the planting of the wildflowers. So that'll be done.

I'm actually talking yearly maintenance of invasive weeds as well. Mr. Freeman, you wanted to go look as well.

Our only question that I went up to the property, they want to put the fence on my backyard. Prior to them mowing, they had a good 15 foot on our side all the way around to the north side of vegetation. And I think all the state wants or the county wants is something to hold that dirt in. k5 we have to trim those down but they had some vegetation growing if they're talking going in now and killing everything and starting from scratch there's already grass growing there i think if they just let it go through the winter and see what comes back and then seed from that point but i think they need about a 15 foot buffer all the way around to help with the filtration of anything that does get into the pond. I think mowing it once a year is fine.

You're talking about- We got written up for that.

Well, all you have to do is mow it with weeds. But you had mowed it last year and you didn't this year, we understand that. And all the mowers that are out here, all you want to do is just kind of maybe go to the crest of that hill with our mowers and just knock down those weeds. But like you said, if you put some little plaquettes up there that say they are whatever you're going to put in there. People will respect it. And the other gentleman that was with me kept talking about trespassing. The little six-year-old neighbor boy who was down in the fissures for about a half hour, that's the only people I see on the Morris Landing site that get down in there. Nobody really goes down there anymore. So once you get that vegetation going up, keep the ducks out from people's backyards. Now, we'd like to see that on the other side from a stormwater board as far as the plants and everything growing. But there is right now, they don't have any vegetation right to the very edge. So if they could just put just a furry strip there just to kind of help with the filtration of any chemicals, that's all they're asking about protecting the retention pond.

Well, that's not what was stated in the complaint, okay? The complaint was stated that we weren't taking care of it properly. So I had to go based on that complaint because Mr. Rednauer called me and said, hey, you gotta mow it and you gotta do it now. So we need to satisfy the ordinances of- Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Yes.

That's what I ordered.

I mean, your erosion problem, it sounds like this wildflower solution, Can't address it. It sounds like it. So I think we're good. There will be a couple stipulations. I don't know that mowing's gonna be a stipulation. If you guys wanted to, I think that's fine. I do think taking care of the invasive species on a yearly maintenance program. I think it has to be done.

Yeah, I agree with you.

I think that's where we left it. It's actually recommended to mow at least once a year though, correct?

The recommendation is once or twice is what they tell us. Now what that does for you is that all reseeds then. I mean, I had in my old house up north, I had a wildflower corner up by my pool. Seriously, it lasted two years. I couldn't keep up with it because the first year it looked great. The next year I had to reseed again. The next year, all these invasive things were coming in and I just said, put some up to it. I mean, it's just, it's a lot of work. And I think that's what we're, what we understand is we're going to have to put some work into this. But, again, it's only about the erosion. I mean, that's what we're trying to stop right now. This pond just was a second thought to them. And, you know, it's ours to carry now. We have to figure it out. Sure.

Yeah, so to Eric's point, bottom line is we're going to allow it. Okay. On the back end, on our end, we just got to get the stipulations written out and we'll be good to go.

Okay. Whatever, I mean, whatever you need. Like I said, if you could please just communicate through me. Like I told Dennis, he... We've got enough drama in that neighborhood to last a lifetime. And so I would like to keep the drama at a lower minimum if I can. And you guys have been nothing but respectful and helpful. So I appreciate that. Thank you. So what should she expect?

Drama coming from the Morris Landing side? No.

No, I said in our neighborhood. I said in our neighborhood.

What should she expect next from us? What I would ask is when you get a maintenance plan that you like, send that. I will prepare some written stipulations that we want to make part of the approval, and that way everyone's on one page and we all are working from one document. And then we can disapprove that at a council meeting, but I won't have them approve anything until we make sure that that works with what you're trying to accomplish.

I'm leaving for California in a day, and I'm going to be gone a couple weeks, so it won't be right away, but I will definitely get a maintenance plan put together for you guys so that you have it with all the other papers.

I think the real concern is invasive species maintenance plan.

I think you're right, because... That's what Jim Hunter said to me today, too. So that seems to be the key words in all of this.

He said he really won't start any work until spring.

It'll be spring. Yeah, we've missed our window here, and that's okay. I'll be honest with you guys. Some people are more bothered about that than I am. I'm not nearly as bothered about it. We've got control of it right now. We're not getting complaints from the outside. Like I said, I got enough drama. I don't need any more.

Thank you for getting it, Mother, as well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Are you still contemplating getting your fence up?

The fence was something we considered.

The fence, just again, a Morris thing, or you can encircle the entire con forum? No, we will not encircle the pond floor. So it's on the Morris Landing side.

There's not been a decision on the fence.

The fence is going to go on the Morris Landing side.

Yeah, because that's where we were getting the complaints.

I want to have, from the stormwater work piece, to have some verbiage in this so-called ordinance pertaining to these structures that these proposed suburbia, these neighborhoods want to put up a fence around there. Who's going to take care of it? Who's going to maintain it? Who's going to lead it? We're willing to work with you without putting a fence up for Pride Out Loud. And your idea of trespassing, how do you trespass without getting arrested?

Thank you. So last discussion, I mean, they were not even talking about offense.

Yes, they were. No. You're not telling a story about what's going on.

You're at the meetings. So the last discussion, I don't think you were here, the last council meeting, and that first proposal was somewhat withdrew, I would say.

Exactly. The meeting that I attended, the last one we had, it was pretty much going to be an item.

That was two council meetings ago.

I stand corrected. I apologize. But I will stand my ground if you start putting up a fence.

Well, so that fence has to go through another process, right?

Exactly, yeah. And I'm sorry, you guys don't have your names out, so I can't remember your name. You had told us that we wanted to make sure we took into consideration the ordinances that are in the town. And I told you, that would be a different discussion and those were things we would have not considered. I am not trying to cause any more issues between Morris Landing and us. We do have the issue. I know that you think that there's only the people coming over, only a six-year-old boy coming over. But we have a liability because that's our property. And that's why we are considering the no trespassing signs. And I've talked to Chief right now about this. all of these are considerations. I have only just started working with this town council since we got that first letter and everything, as I told you, everything will go through you guys. We will not try to skirt anything. I won't allow it. Okay.

Thank you.

Yep. Thank you.

All right.

We want the new business approval to submit annexation petition. Okay. Members of the council. I sent out these documents last week. As you know, We have been and we're in receipt of two petitions for annexation of the property to the south side of town. Three parcels owned by Mooney Farms LLC and one parcel owned by Ronald and Don Coverdale. In addition to that, the town has purchased pieces of the Mooney Farms property for potential future water wells. And so in order to not. not have to go through multiple annexations, I've prepared a petition for the town to have its parcels also annexed at the same time. And so the first thing I would ask is if you would approve signing this petition and submitting it on behalf of the town to join with the other two property owners in one annexation.

So voluntary annexation. I just want to make sure that is clear.

Voluntary, initiated by petition of the property owners themselves.

So I will make a motion to approve that the town property that we submit annexation petition to the town, I guess.

This is the consolidated petition? That's what we're doing first?

No, the first one we're doing is the one on behalf of the town of Cicero. Oh, I see. It's property annexed.

I'll second. Motion to second. All in favor?

Aye. Opposed? Good to go there. Thank you. Now the second one is we're officially filing all three petitions. As I said, Mooney Farms LLC, and they have 159.02 acres. Ronald and Don Coverdale have 27.59 acres, and then the town of Cicero. has 9.307 acres. So all those together, 187.6 acres would be coming into the town. They are already all three covered buyer zoning ordinance, so they would remain as they are currently zoned. And all we're doing tonight, we're filing the petitions, and then I sent you the annexation ordinance. So we're introducing that tonight, but we're not voting on it, and we're not discussing its substance. We have a public hearing set. The public hearing will be set for the October 6th meeting, and the notice has been published once. It's going to get published again in an electronic paper. The statute that governs annexation is very regimented. It sets forward a series of deadlines, and you can only do things, it has to be at least X days, but no more than Y days after something. And so the public hearing has to be at least 20 days after notice, but not more than 30 days. And so by getting the notice advertised, we can have it on October 6th. And then at least 14 days after that, we can then adopt the fiscal plan, which is a required step. I have reached out to Baker Tilly to ask them to prepare a fiscal plan looking at that. And I've asked them to have it put together. They're going to give me a deadline when they can have it back to us, but I don't anticipate a problem. And then at least one day after we approve the fiscal plan, we can then adopt the annexation ordinance. And so I have a schedule that would be the public hearing on October the 6th, the adoption of the fiscal plan and the annexation policy on October the 20th. And then the third and final reading of the ordinance and adoption would be November 3rd. We would then be required to publish the ordinance, and that would then kick off a 30-day remonstrance period. And if that 30 days ends without a remonstrance, then the annexation becomes final and we file it with the appropriate offices. Because this is a 100% voluntary annexation, the only valid reasons for an annexation would be if it wasn't 100% voluntary or if it was not at least one-eighth contiguous. I looked at this. Mr. Bryant looked at this. This annexation parcel is 19% more or less contiguous with the town. So the requirement is 12.5% or one-eighth. And so it's easily past that threshold.

Any questions or anything so far? No, I do have a general question regarding the advertisements of these. Is there a way to add to that advertisement a Cliff Notes section instead of it all just being legal jargon that nobody in the general public understands?

We can try. What you run into is sometimes the contents are dictated out of statute. And when you add to what the statute has, If somebody doesn't understand it the way you intended it to, then you could wind up in court arguing about whether you actually made it less clear or you introduced ambiguity. And so a lot of times the attorneys will just track that statute and try to ensure that they're not ad-libbing anything.

So you can't just put a section in that said acquire three parcels for potential water wells in the future. I mean, I could look at doing that.

But that's not what this annexation is?

General question, because it came up with the advertisement of this annexation. So I'm asking the question, because with what went out today, if I was not part of this board and I was reading that, I would be like, what in the world is going on?

Here we go again. Another option would be to put something on our website with an explanation as a public information. So we have a legal ad, but then we have on the website so that somebody says, what is this? We can say, check right here. And we can say in the advertisement, please refer to the website for a further explanation. Yes, we could do that. Fantastic. And that's why I've prepared the different exhibits, including the map that shows exactly what the area is and everything else. Gotcha.

Was I supposed to give that an ordinance number because I did?

Yes, we need an ordinance. That's tonight's first reading.

It's 09-15-2026-01. You said 09-15-2026-01, right? Yes, sir.

And then if there are no more questions, that's all we had to do tonight on the annotation.

Today's date dash 01.

It's scientific. And quite frankly, if members of the public would like to see it, I can throw the map up on the screen right now.

No, we can't.

It's not working. We tried.

With our brain here, it's not as smooth.

Technology. Yeah. Down 216th Street. Down 19 to 216th on the north side of the road.

And that's all I have for that section. Okay.

So you've got everything you need then, Mr. Culp. So we're on to the CC.

We didn't.

Oh, we did already approve that. So we're good there. Okay. Then the next thing would be the plan. Completed the first reading. We're good? Yes. Yes. So now we're on to the plan commission appointment, which we have a plan commission meeting this week, correct?

The planning commission was canceled because there wasn't anything on the agenda. Gotcha.

All right.

So in this situation, we just need a motion for... Yeah, this is your appointment as a board until the first, second, and then vote. Okay.

So I'll entertain a motion for a nomination for the planning commission.

I'll make a motion to appoint Eric Shearer. I'll second Dennis Johnson.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, we're good.

What was that vote?

It was unanimous.

It was unanimous? I have a second. No, I mean, did you, what was the vote? Was it? Final.

It was final. Okay. Yeah. So we're good there. Okay. All right. Commons by citizens, which we have one. You know the drill?

Oh, yeah. Ann Mayer, 629 Shore Lane. Thanks, guys, for all your hard work. I really appreciate it. I just have a question about... The house next door to me has been vacant for over a month now, and it's owned by a company. And the last time it was vacant, they had a sign out in front right away for rent. And these people moved out like in the middle of the month, so I kind of like waited. usually rents are due the first of the month, so I didn't really worry about it. But still, no one has shown up. And then today when I got home, there were the orange utility flags in their driveway, or in their yard. But then there was a green arrow going in their yard. And I looked that up to see what that is, and it's like sewer. Is that what that is for, Bruce? Is that sewer? Is that sewer?

So that's my yard.

So I don't know. I just didn't know if you guys like to be made aware of vacant homes. The siding's kind of falling off the side of one of them and one of the sides and... You know, the grass hasn't been mowed. So I just didn't know if I could do anything or you could do anything or make you aware of it or what.

This goes back to our ordinances. Chief, do you want to take a look?

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I don't want to be a bad neighbor or anything. Like I say, it's owned by a company, but it's been sitting vacant for, they moved out like August 8th. And like I say, I usually do the first of the month rent. So I wasn't worried. Our meeting was September 1st. But no one's shown up. There's a- 589.

Huh? What's the address?

589. Yeah.

Yeah.

So the one closer to Stringtown?

Yeah, it's 589. Yeah. Do you live over there?

No.

No? So, I mean.

So I mean, there's an ordinance in place to stop overgrowth. So we just had other discussions about it.

Right, and like I said, I don't want to try to be a painter or anything. I just didn't know. And I mean, you know, sometimes it takes me a while to get my grass cut, especially when it's this hot out, you know.

And we also have an ordinance in the event that the house was unsecured, like the door was open and exposed to the elements, or if it becomes dilapidated or something like that, we have a way to try to deal with that too.

I took a couple of pictures before I left. Do you guys want to?

What I would suggest doing is getting them to Frank, because Frank would be our inspector we would work with.

Okay.

I can send you his email address.

Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. Super. Thank you, guys. All right. Thank you.

Did you want to say anything about the car show or anything?

Yep. I would like to say something as a citizen. First of all, the car show was a big success. Thank you to Jimmy Hunter and the Parks Department. But I wanted to do a special thank you because it takes a lot of people. There's a lot of unsung heroes. Eric and Laura Hayden have allowed the volunteers to park at Laura Hayden School of Dance. And that's been a huge improvement. The volunteers get shuttled back. so more people can come to the car show. So, Eric, thank you very much. You don't have to do that, and it's greatly, greatly appreciated.

Please, we can do it for the community.

Hey, we had a wonderful, wonderful year. He charges me any time I park something.

You just have to be nicer to him. And the other thing was, I wanted to remind everyone, this Sunday, September the 20th, from 5 to 7, told you wrong on the times. is the police and firefighters spaghetti dinner fundraiser. It's really neat. Anyone new in the community, it's a really neat event because the restaurants donate the food and the market, Harbor Market. People volunteer to work. It is a volunteer donation meal. 100% of everything taken in is split between the police department and the fire department. 100%. We don't take anything out. We don't charge them for plates. We don't charge for silverware and napkins. It's a really great community event. And there's also going to be a band playing at Red Bridge after it. So I hope everyone can come out and support our heroes, the police department and the fire department. Thank you.

The car show was fantastic. It was packed.

It was wonderful.

I have a quick comment about the car show. I noticed the park was remarkably clean. There were no foreign objects from our now permanent feathered friends from the north.

So somebody sure did a lot of cleaning up. Thank you for that, Mr. Allen. Our feathered friends from the north are on the move right now. All right, does anybody have anything else? If not, I entertain a motion to adjourn.

Motion and second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Thank you all.