City Council Meeting/Strategic Session - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call the council city council meeting for for 01/13/2026 to order. Roll call.

Houseman.

Here.

Furman.

Here.

Green. Here. Stamen.

Here. Would everyone please stand for the invocation given by pastor Dale Barnhurst from the Seventh Day Adventist Church and remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. Our heavenly father, we just want to

thank you for who you are and we thank you that we can come to you in prayer. You know everything about us. You know because you create us. You redeemed us. You know us inside and out. The Bible tells us, your word tells us that you know where we are. We just ask that you would keep our hearts tuned to you and we ask that you would indeed help us to see your face always because we want to know more about you. We want the wisdom that you have to offer and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen.

Next item.

First item, speakers from the floor.

Is there anyone on my left side of the room that would like to speak? Speakers may address the council under the terms of ordinance number 4,765. Time is limited to four minutes per speaker. Please refer to the last page of the agenda for our specific rules governing input. I jumped the gun a little bit. Anyone on this side? Anyone on this side would like to speak? Please go to the podium and state your name.

My name is Sierra Summers. I'll have to speak

now? Yes.

Alright. At the end of Goat Street, right before the big snow hit in Collinsville, a woman who got evicted from her house abandoned 10 of her cats outside. This neglectful act made the community have to shoulder their care and safety. So, we provided shelters for them, food, and water. Through all of this, the Collinsville Animal Shelter, a taxpayer funded building, has done nothing but make it harder for people to help them.

They are disregarding city ordinances to avoid picking up cats and talking down to residents on the phone when called about them. They refuse refuse to pick up any cats at the address for multiple reasons, all of which are always different and vague. The city of Collinsville is taking me to court for bringing a cat from the situation to the Collinsville Animal Shelter. They're trying to charge me with two different things. One of the charges is unlawful enforcement of animal control ordinance.

I'd like to ask the Collins ville Police Department. Do you attempt to charge everyone who brings in an animal off the streets that wasn't on their own property with this charge? With that in mind, I'd like to cite the ordinances that I believe have been ignored by the Collinsville Animal Shelter so far. Keeping in mind that in ignoring these ordinances, they are enabling the neglect of these cats. There are four cats still abandoned outside as far as I'm aware.

I will scatter an explanations and clarifications here and there and will also paraphrase for the purpose of saving time. Section six twelve oh sixty, general care of animals. A, no owner of any animal shall fail to provide proper food and water, proper shelter and protection from weather, to prevent suffering, and to provide humane care and treatment of animals. If all of the abandoned cats have not been vaccinated or microchipped, the one that I found was not microchipped, a failure to provide veterinary care also applies. C, no possessor of any animal shall abandon the animal where it may become a public charge, may suffer injury, hunger, or exposure to the elements.

Section 6.0807, microchips. All cats four months or older within the city limits of Collinsville must be implanted with a microchip for identification. This microchip shall be registered to the current owner or caretaker of the pet or to a facility such as animal control and adoption agency or veterinary hospital that maintains current records of the owner or caretaker. If abandoned female cats that the owner has let go have not been spayed, section six point oh eight point oh forty, domestic animals and heat is also being ignored. Of the 49 Google reviews, the Collinsville Animal Shelter has received over the past eight years, 34 are one star reviews.

I suggest people here read them. Some of them are kind of concerning. And you can also look at the console connection for similar recountings. If our taxes, what are our taxes paying the shelter to do if not to help animals where they can? Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. What street did you say I couldn't understand?

It's at the end of Goat Street.

Okay. Anyone else on my right side of the room? Being none, next item.

Comments and announcements from the mayor.

Yes, I'd like to make a few comments kind of as we're starting the new year. I can't, I don't wanna attempt to go over everything we did last year and everything we're gonna do this year, but I would like to highlight a few things that were done in 2025 just to give the citizens an idea of what we're doing and what we plan to do in 2026. I'd say these items are very general in nature, but they are some of the biggest things we're going to be tackling this year. The 2025 highlights, there was major infrastructure investments in two areas. St.

Louis Road, roadway improvement, parking lot, that project is finished. If any of you have been in that area, you realize what's been done there over the last year. And it's really enhanced that area of St. Louis Road and that end of town. Right now we're in the middle of the Horseshoe Lake Road and McDonnell Lake Road improvement, which is another large project to facilitate some commercial economic development in that area. That's ongoing and will probably continue to be ongoing for six months or so. But these are two significant roadway improvements that we've done in the city. We'd like to do more. Funds limit us on how much we can tackle. We rely a lot on grants.

Our staff is constantly looking for grants to enhance our ability to do that kind of work because of the cost involved. Uptown improvements. We continue to invest in the uptown with two public murals, the installation of Edison style decorative lighting which is in the block between Clinton and Center. And this year, coming year, we're going to be adding the two blocks, one east and one west to kind of complete that project. We did expanded seasonal and holiday decorations to enhance the district's character and appeal.

Under sustainability and resiliency, real proud of the project that Derek kind of got started and saw through and we're still involved in. It was the installation of solar panels at City Hall and Fire Station Number 1. Those are going to pay off real quick and have a long lasting benefit to the city as we move forward. And an item that we've all wanted for quite a while is the installation of a new emergency generator at City Hall to improve operational resiliency. Keeping City Hall up and running during storms is terribly important, being as all of our computer network is based here and phone network.

On the economic development side, one thing that really got off the ground this year was there was and last year I believe too, awarded $428,000 in Northwest Business District funds over seven properties along Vandalia Street, Route 159 and the Beltline, generating $675,000 worth of private investment for a total of $1,100,000 in overall project cost. And there again, the biggest one of the big values there is if there's grant funding to team up with those business owners that encourages them to spend improvement money. So we all win in that process. Policy and code updates, adoption of updated door to door solicitation ordinance, which was needed and we needed to bring it in compliance with federal law. So that's been taken care of.

And adoption and updated our street solicitation ordinance, is clubs and organizations that solicit on Main Street and Clay. Zoning updates, clarifications of sidewalk sales, updated exterior illumination standards and establishment of a cap on smoke shops in the downtown area and the whole community. Sign code updates to modernize standards. Long range planning. We're in the process now of we officially kicked off the comprehensive plan update.

Quite a ways along on that. We'll be wrapping that up in 2026. So looking forward to 2026 on the strategic planning, we plan on having another strategic planning session, which the city council update the city's strategic plan, translating long term vision into actionable goals for the next five years. Those are important for us to sit down as a group from department heads and city council to address the needs for the city. The major capital projects on the horizon, probably the biggest one we're going to be seeing this year, the most costly is the Fire Station Number 2 that's being planned directly behind CVS Pharmacy on Pine Lake Road.

We're shooting for a spring groundbreaking on that project. A parks and maintenance building at Woodland Park, sorely needed building that we're gonna finally be able to get to put up this year. And completion of solar projects at the water and wastewater treatment plants. That's very important. We're doing the same thing we did uptown but those are our two top power users in the city.

So those projects are really important on saving money. Summit Avenue roadway improvements, something we've been working on for quite a few years, but that project is finally going to get underway in the next few months. And Street East pedestrian improvements. That's just a highlight of some of the things we've done and some of the things we're going to be doing. I know some of them don't seem like a lot but you constantly keep updating our codes and ordinances and plans to make the community better.

The council is gonna be working closely with the city city management, city staff in establishing priorities and goals as we move forward. I hope we can all kind of put some long range plans, what we wanna see in our community, bring those back to the administration and let you know our direction that we'd like to see the city go. We all have ideas. Mean every one of us on the council have things we'd like to see done. We've become a lot more of a council than just sitting here voting on things.

I think we've brought some things to light that could be make this community better. But I want to encourage everybody to continue that effort. A guidance for you, the city staff to help us. Anyway, just kind of a quick update there and thank you, that's all.

Comments and announcements from council members? Next city staff.

Yeah, thank you mayor, members of council. First before we get into announcements Sierra, you for bringing that matter to our attention. We'll follow-up with you. In fact, Chief Borum is here this evening as well. I certainly encourage you to connect with him to talk about the issues you have with the animal control facility. So thank you for bringing that to

our attention.

Okay. First, can I have Kimberly Coram come up and talk about some programming in the Parks and Rec department?

Mayor Seaman and members of the council, the programs that I have here to highlight tonight are baseball. And it seems a little silly that we start registration for baseball this early, but it's important that we get our teams together and put together so that practice can start once the weather turns our favor in the spring. So our CBSL program there's a 10 discount if you sign up in January. So there is incentive to sign up during the January timeline. And then Itty Bitty Ball is our new program that we're bringing forth that's going to be for the little teeny tiny guys.

The little kids, four and five year olds, the pre T ball, teach them about the sport and hopefully get them to love it and then continue on to our CVSL program as we continue to grow. Not up here we have parent time tomorrow morning at the activity center between ten and twelve and aqua park passes are still on sale. They are at a discounted rate still before the full rate goes in effect after April. Thank you.

Thanks, Kimberly. Next, I have Travis Taylor, our Community Development Director. Travis and Mary gave a good plug for the comp plan. So this is the last open house I believe for residents who get involved.

That's correct. So as Mayor Stamen had mentioned, we are poised to wrap up our comprehensive plan update this year on January 20 of this January 20. We're looking to have our final open house and the residents and city staff, everyone's invited to come out, provide input on our objectives and key results. These are the action items of plan, very important as we move forward to get comments on these action items. The next step will be that our PGAV planners consultants, they will start moving forward with drafting the final documents which will come before the planning commission for an open hearing and that will be the last opportunity for public input.

We anticipate hopefully that the comp plan will be before the city council in 2026. Thank you.

Great. Thanks Travis. Mayor that's all we have for staff comments this evening.

Okay. Next item.

Next item is the consent agenda. Item one, motion to approve payment of bills for the period ending 01/02/2026 in the amount of $7,779,606.12. Item two, motion to approve panel for the period ending 12/19/2025 in the amount of $1,764,358.45. Item three, motion to approve minutes of the 12/09/2025 council meeting. And item number four is a resolution with regards to fair housing opportunities within the city of Collinsville.

Is there any items in the consent agenda that anyone would like to remove and vote on separately? Being none, do I have motion to approve? Motion to approve.

I'll second it.

Motion by Furman, second by Green. Roll call.

Healthman.

Yes.

Fuhrman?

Yes.

Green? Yes. Stamond?

Yes.

Next under new business, item one is an ordinance authorizing the purchase of a 2025 Bobcat MT120 minutei truck mini track loader in the amount of $56,959.12 from Bobcat of St. Louis.

Present dates be given by public works director Troy Turner.

Thank you mayor and members of the council. As many of you are aware of the state gave us a state allocation of $2,000,000 last year. A lot of our stuff came in under budget and with the amount of money that was under budget along with the trade in values we got from some of the vehicles we want to make sure we used all that money so we didn't have to leave it with the state. So the street department had been wanting this piece of equipment. It's a mini track hoe.

So it's a walk behind piece of equipment. Right now we have some projects that are just really difficult or expensive for us to do where we have to rent this piece of equipment. And so there's a lot of opportunities that we have for this and we saw this as an opportunity with money still available with it being in the midyear review for the CIP. We came in under the $60,000 And so we purchased this to make sure that it was completely purchased and we could accept delivery prior to the end of the year in terms of the budget allocation by the state. So I'm coming here retroactively.

Obviously, we didn't have a council meeting to get this to in time once we got the quotes and everything. So this is more of a retroactive approval. We did follow all the purchasing policy requirements on this though. So if there's any questions I'd be happy to answer.

Any questions or comments for Troy? Being none, motion to approve. Motion. Second. Motion by Houseman, second by Furman. Roll call.

Houseman.

Yes.

Furman.

Yes.

Green. Yes. Stamen.

Yes.

Item number two is ordinance authorizing professional service agreement with Oates Associates in the amount of $208,269 for construction engineering services for the Summit Avenue improvement project phase one and two.

As you Again, Troy Turner. Sorry.

I was

going to say, so as

you can see construction engineering is a very expensive cost for us when we have to take advantage when we have to use it. We've been privileged in the past to have retired IDOT people or construction inspectors that we've been able to get on part time. This one's a little different. We didn't have anyone available. And then there was also the fact that we got a grant from the state of Illinois in the amount of $1,300,000 which will be covering the entire cost of the construction engineering.

So that helps us move our resources to a project where we don't necessarily have all that funding. So will Oates is the one that is going to be doing the construct is who we pick to do construction engineering. The project was designed by TWM to try to make sure that we don't have we try to make sure we don't have the same designer doing the construction engineering that way. If there's an issue with the plans, the construction engineer will bring it up and they will be basically a third party. So they'll be doing construction layout, observation materials testing, doing measurements, getting all the pay estimates to IDOT.

And so like I said, we'll use local project funding grants. This is just a general outline of what the area is going to look like. I know it's not very pretty. It's nice black and white engineering plans that were approved by IDOT. But kind of gives you an idea, road is going to be reconstructed. We're going to take some of the spots out where we have issues with elevation in the road. You won't be able see that in this. It's going to help out with some of the intersections where they come in at steep angles. We've got spots where we've got one inch gouges, 1.5 inches gouges in the road from trailers coming out. So we're trying to solve that issue.

At the same time, we're going be putting in a sidewalk where there isn't one. It's a very dangerous road for pedestrians and bicyclists. And then on the other side of the road, we'll be putting in a shared use path. So as I said, this will be Oates and Associates doing this. And that's who we picked. I just wanted to we have a master service agreement with them. They do a good job working with the city and we're happy to see this project moving forward.

So they'll be your watchdog down there?

Yes. We will have some oversight out in the field as well, but they will be doing a majority of the work for us.

Any other comments or questions for Troy? Troy, has it been determined what side the sidewalk is going to be on the west side or east side and the shared use has that been determined?

So the shared use path will be on the west side and the sidewalk will be on the east side. A big part of that was as we move further south, Willoughby Farms is on the west side of the road.

So

that was one of the deciding factors.

Okay. Thanks. Yes. And can you mention the I talked to about a week. So the retaining wall is there now. That's going to be on the next phase, that's going to be a big issue.

Correct. There's going to be a big retaining wall project on the next phase. Out of this project, I want to somewhere close to $300,000 is on retaining walls. I mean retaining walls are expensive and they eat up a lot of our budget on these projects. But it'll help provide a safe alternative for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Being no other questions, I have a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second. Motion by Green, second by Houseman. Roll call.

Houseman.

Yes.

Fuhrman.

Yes.

Green. Yes. Statement.

Yes.

Item number three is a resolution authorizing the use of MFT funds for the construction engineering services for the Summit Avenue reconstruction project phase one and two.

Again, Troy Turner.

Thank you again. I mean it might seem counterintuitive that we're using MFT funds but the state funds for construction engineering are a reimbursement. So we're going to use an MFT agreement with IDOT and then as we get, as we make payments to boats, we process the bills, we submit them for reimbursement from the state. So we have to use MFT funds, we have to appropriate the money and so this is to appropriate the money that we can get reimbursed later. If there's any questions I'd be happy to answer.

Questions, comments? Motion to approve.

So moved.

I'll second it.

Motion by Furman, second by Green. Roll call.

Houseman.

Yes.

Furman.

Yes.

Green. Yes. Stamen.

Yes. Thank you.

Item number four, ordinance to award bids and authorize contracts for the purchase of street maintenance materials for the 2026 m f t maintenance program.

Presentation given by city engineer Kevin Madden.

Thank you mayor and members of council. Approval of this ordinance is advised acceptance for the lowest qualified bids for street maintenance materials. Bids for the calendar year of 2026 MFT maintenance were open 12/17/2025. All the unit prices that we received this year were within about 10% of the approved 2025 bids. Most of the increases almost for all items were roughly between 5% to 10%.

We had some below 5%, some that were stagnant. And when it came to sewer pipe, we actually had decreases. One of the items was not bid that would be the the CM-thirteen seal chips. This was the slag that was provided by Granite City Seal with that steel mill shutting down. We can no longer receive that bid item.

So in the last couple of years, we've started switching to a different limestone in order to complete the oil and chip projects that we provide for maintenance. To give kind of a rough summary of these items, as I said, the Centimeters seal coat was not bid. We did not receive any bids. Reinforced concrete pipe increased about 8% that was across all diameters. Aggregate increased by roughly on average 6.5% concrete items by about 5%.

Staff recommends awarding all items that were bid and please let me know if you guys have any questions or concerns.

Any questions? I assume you got enough seal coat to last you for the year if you no one bid on it or what does that mean?

So we so with the slag chip we can't receive that type of seal coating that we do, but we've switched to a limestone. We started doing a test with the Centimeters. Hold on. I have it right here. Can tell you.

The CA-fourteen is what we started doing a test with last year because we knew that this was coming up talking to Beelman who's provided it in the past. They told us we could probably make it through this past through the 2025 budget, but 2026 we would likely be without. Was talks that there were still some reserves, but it didn't seem like they had anything that they could commit to. So we do have an alternative that we tested out and it has been worthwhile so Okay,

thanks. Now that you brought up that aggregate, I talked to Donald little about it. I do like the use of the chips you're using now as opposed to that stuff in the mill. That was nasty.

The slag, yeah.

Yeah, slag. Are you going to continue to use that same type?

The stuff that we've replaced? Yeah. Yeah, so that's all we can use now. The slag is no longer available. It wasn't bid on this year and I don't think there's we'll be getting it anymore. And sorry, one thing I did want to note, I forgot to mention this. The reason why I had all those documents passed out on the desk, there was an error on some of my groupings that I had to change. So I just wanted to bring that to everyone's attention.

I don't think we'd have known it. Any other questions or comments? Kevin? Seeing none have a motion to approve. So move. Second. Motion by Houseman, second by Furman. Roll call.

Houseman.

Yes.

Furman.

Yes.

Green. Yes. Stamen.

Yes. Thank you.

Item number five, resolution in support of an application to agency for community transit for community action grant program funds for the Clay Street Pedestrian Improvement Project.

Thank you, mayor and members of council. Today, tonight, I have for you a proposal to apply for the ACT grant to apply funds for the Clay Street Pedestrian Improvement Project. This project consists of bump outs, upgraded ADA ramps, and crosswalks, as well as accommodations for the future shared use path that will go along the north side of Clay Street. The total cost of the project is estimated at $800,008 or $800,008 and 7 sorry $808,788 of which $379,455 are eligible for the ACT grant. And of this ACT or the ACT grant will reimburse 100% of these costs up to $100,000 and we'll be asking for the full $100,000 This just kind of fills in a gives us a good buffer for the project for any possible future change orders or anything.

It gives us a little extra leeway for

the project.

And so here I have a example photo of what the project could look like as well as a plan view of the intersection of Center Street and Clay Street. And staff recommends to accept this proposal and happy to answer any questions.

Okay. And to introduce you, this is Isaiah McNeese, associate engineer. So first presentation, right?

Yeah. Okay.

Any questions for Isaiah? It it how far will it go down again?

It'll go from Morrison Avenue to North Seminary Street. So it'd be each intersection between there.

Okay. Will be part of the project.

Okay. Alright. Any other questions or comments?

I hope a lot.

Motion to approve. So moved. Second. Motion by Green, second by Houseman. Roll call.

Houseman.

Yes.

Furman.

Yes.

Green. Yes. Statement.

Yes.

Thank you.

Item number six is a resolution appointing a member to the Cool Cities Committee, NOAA Canada.

Presentation will given by community development director Travis Taylor.

Thank you, mayor and members of council. The item before you is an appointment to the Cool Cities Committee. Mister Canada has been a frequent attendee of our Cool Cities Committee meetings and has also participated in many of their events. The city I'm sorry. The city manager of the city's mayor, mayor Stamen, Cool and Cities Committee staff liaison senior planner Caitlin Rice met with Mr. Canada earlier and both recommend his appointment.

Any questions? Roll call or a motion to approve? So move.

I'll second it.

Motion by House and second by Green. Roll call.

Houseman. Yes. Furman.

Yes.

Green. Yes. Stamen.

Yes. Thank you.

Next closed session.

I have a motion to go into closed session to discuss in accordance with five ILCS one two zero slash two c appointment employment compensation and discipline employees and number 11 pending or threatened or imminent litigation. Motion. Motion.

Second.

Motion by Furman, seconded by Green. Roll call.

Houseman.

Yes.

Furman.

Yes.

Green. Yes. Stamen. Yes. Last is adjourned.

Motion to approve adjournment.

So moved. Second. Motion

by Furman or Green. Seconded by Furman. Roll call.

Houseman.

Yes.

Furman.

Yes.

Green. Yes. Statement.

Yes. City council meeting for 01/13/2026 is adjourned.