City Council - Regular Meeting

Yeah, two of them. One of them is in a box.

She had gone to the doctor said she had the truth. You never know. [laughter]

It was good. Good evening. Good to see you. I'd like to call to order the Tuesday, January 20th, 2026 meeting of the Danville City Council. Madame Clerk, roll call to establish a quorum, please. Mayor Ricky Williams, Jr., present. Alderman Ed Butler, [clears throat] Carolyn Deoy, present. James Pashard. Tom High Totower here. Barry Johnson present. Mike Oane here. Mike Poor present. Rick Strie here. Sherry Pickering here. Trisha Teague present. Eve Lewig present. Jalle Jones here. Doug Arn present. John Cooper here. 13 present.

13 present. Please let the record reflect that Alderman Pashard is actually out ill this evening. At this time we will have the invocation led by Alderman Barry Johnson followed by the pledge of allegiance led by Alderman Jones. Please rise. Thank you. Shall we bow? God our father, our creator, and our deliverer. Yes, Lord. In whom we live and move and have our being. Today, we come to you with joyful hearts and abundant gratitude.

Thank you. We ask that you look inside our hearts and examine our very beings to determine and magnify the degree of humility that resides within us all. For we know, Father, that if we humble ourselves in your sight, we will be lifted up. Please teach us how to strengthen those qualities that will allow the stature and maturity of our humility to be in line with your instructions. Father, teach us how to help every aspect of our love for you and our love for one another continue to grow as you would have it to be. Yes. It is because of you, oh Lord, that we arose from our slumber today and are able to stand before you to proclaim your greatness.

Yes, Lord. We acknowledge today that without you, the least of our undertakings will fall short, but with you all things are possible. Yes, Lord. We thank you for the sun that shines and the wind that blows, for the stars that glimmer and the seasons that come and go in our lives. We praise you for our prosperous times and thank you for guiding us through our trials and tribulations. We know to count it all joy when we fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces patience as well as a persistent will. We ask that you strengthen our faith and let it grow by leaps and bounds. Yes. Father, we ask a special prayer for the city council of Danville, Illinois. Yes, sir.

We stand before you at this time to position you for strength, wisdom, spiritual fortitude, courage, and understanding as we collectively endeavor to make prudent decisions for the well-being of this city and for all of its citizens. Yes, Lord. We grace gracefully plead with you, Father, to allow us to hold steadfast as we encounter adversities that will seem to place this city in seemingly uncomfortable situations. Please give us a calm resolve while we strive to find effective solutions to difficult circumstances which occur from time to time with our businesses, patrons, residents, and other entities which may go ary in spite of our deliberate and well- constructed intentions.

Yes. Help us find solutions, Father, that will place this city at the forefront of peace and prosperity. Yes, sir. More importantly, Father, allow us to bring to fruition positive measures that will be pleasing and acceptable in your sight. And Lord, if by chance our actions begin to falter or move in the direction of mediocrity, we ask for your intervention in order that we may redirect our paths and grasp hold to positive solutions that prove successful for this fair city. Please permit us the privilege to live in accordance with your will. Yes, sir. We ask today that you continue to give us patience and give us peace.

Provide to us that peace that surpasses all understanding. We ask that you anchor us in wisdom and understanding and provide us all with tireless determination as we work diligently to help the city of Danville maintain safety and prosperity. We thank you for the staff that work so hard to successfully sustain the inner works of this city. Mhm. They are truly the food stuff that provides the daily nourishments for this municipality. Lord, please continue to guide them and watch over them. We thank you, Lord, for all you do for us. We exclaim with great vim and vigor that you are indeed worthy to be praised.

Now, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of God, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit continue to be with us this day and always. Yes. May you God continue to bless Danville, Illinois and continue to bless the United States of America. For it's in your son Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Alderman, thank you both for that. I appreciate you very much.

You have before you the minutes of uh the January 6th meeting. Is there a motion to approve those? So move. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion or debate? All those in favor, please signify by saying I. Any oppose? Same sign. You also have an agenda for this evening. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion or debate? All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Same sign.

Thank you. Reports. I do not have any proclamations or board committee or personnel appointments. Are there any reports of boards, agencies, or commissions this evening? Seeing none, I do have a couple of items of information for you. Um before I get to the main one, which is the homeless shelter discussion and update, uh I want to say uh thank you to the MLK committee for the wonderful program that they put on yesterday. It was inspiring and challenging, and I pray that you'll be able to take some good words from it. Um and I also want to say uh to uh our team, our community relations team, great job on fire and ice. Um we had a great crowd and everyone seemed to have a really good time. So I think that that continues to be a a good crowd favorite. Um, this time we're I wanted to give you a little bit of an update on the on homeless shelter discussion, uh, specifically Danville Rescue. Um, and how I want to start that off is just by giving you an update. Um, Logan did send to you all a report of the the study and the commission that we had of the existing uh, building done on uh, Fairchild, what we all know as the former Fairchild school. Uh so we'll start there and then uh just a brief update on his recommendations and the uh how to move forward and then I will also provide you with some other items regarding the matter.

Yeah, thanks mayor. Um so we started out um with the the need of the Bowman Avenue um the original site. I'll I'll consider it that um with it closing and the need for reassessment for reopening. Um, we understood shortly after its closure that the basement was taking on significant amounts of water.

Um, no exaggeration, probably 15 ft of it. Um, which covered the electrical system, the boiler system, etc. Um, so once we we we employed a consultant to do a building assessment, a feasibility study of the space, um, to cut to the chase, um, without an elevator being installed, which we're still trying to figure out per the Equal Opportunity Act, um, it's $1.7 million just to get it to code. With an elevator, it's $2.3 million to rehabilitate. And that's with a lot of items without phase 2 design on the structure. Um, there could be more cost. um sprinkler system that we don't know how it operates and accessibility issues on the bathroom. Okay. So then we moved over to where they're currently operating and started assessing that. This is very recent. Um the team did this last week. We met with the mission board um early last week um understanding their their needs um in the structure. So the idea uh the team went into the smaller structure on Bowman as well and um we really wanted to assess how how does the city of Danville get involved in this and walk away for 15 years with no no required maintenance needs on this building. So we went in we want to give it all the bells and whistles and walk away. That was the idea. Um we're most of the way through the scope of work on that and to achieve that it is a large structure. It is structurally sound. has a great boiler system in it. Um, but it's there's some big items in it like a kitchen and a roof. Um, and they have an exterior out building that they utilize as well. All in, you could probably be between 120 to $200,000 give or take what bells and whistles you want to give to the structure. So, we wanted to provide the city council the two different options and then request the need from the mission themselves. Provide us the data. Um, they did send

that over to us and all we care about is the max capacity in my opinion. You know, we don't want to turn anybody away in the city of Danville. Their maximum day that they saw was 11 people in sleeping in beds. They have a capacity for 24. Okay. So, we took that into account. Um, and I believe they have an expansion opportunity. They have 24 beds right now. I could be misspeaking, but they have 24 beds right now. And there's rooms upstairs that can be expanded for more beds. I believe that to be the case as well. So, we assess both of them. There's your not so rough numbers. They're pretty realistic. And I'll hand it back to the mayor. So um after a lot of discussion with both them and us um given that we have not generally we're not even at half capacity. I do understand with the cold weather um and speaking to uh some of the board members that they have had as many as 16 or 17 folks there recently. But uh given that we have not been close to capacity for the last uh eight or nine months that they've been operating, it's our recommendation that it would not be wise to spend $2 million or more to rehabilit rehabilitate that facility. And our recommendation would be that we're able to use CDBG funding. Um Logan can do and his team tests can do a re go ahead Logan.

Yeah. Yeah. So, the CDG funding, for those of you that have been on an alderman for a while, um it's it's quite a simple procedure. It would come back to city council as an amendment to the 5-year consolidated plan and the one-year annual action plan. Um the the plan of funds that currently exist, so we could do this tomorrow, quote unquote, is um move essentially moving the public infrastructure dollars that were allocated for the 2025 action plan. Um there's over $200,000 in that line code right now.

Thanks, Logan. I just wanted to make sure we covered how how would we pay for that. The other item that we have is that we know that uh there is ongoing need for for funding partnership uh with the mission. I know that many of us I know that some of us around this room are are monthly partners and partner with the mission in other ways. However, um [snorts] now that the mission has shown that they are up for meeting the challenge, I know that Alderman Cooper, you and some others had said, "Hey, we gave them money." The and it wasn't these folks, right? It wasn't this board of directors. I want to make sure we're abundantly clear about that, but we gave the former board of directors money to fix things. And that maybe didn't go so well. So, I'll be honest. I, as I told uh brother and sister Euing, I wanted to be sure that things were going to be done done right and and make sure as he reminded me, mayor, you told me we had to put all of our ducks in a row and that that's what we did. So, now that they've shown that they have the capacity to operate and operate well, I think that it's time that we come on partnership with them ongoing. Um, they have some high costs. Their insurance and their utilities are the highest of those costs. So, my recommendation to the council is that um out of general fund and and you're going to say, "Well, mayor, why general fund instead of CDBG?" With CDBG, as some of you know, there are a whole bunch more uh reporting and oversight uh functions that they would have to meet and and our staff would have to meet that would require them to spend so much time on it that we would be spending more time paying them to help than we would actually be helping. So, it would be coming from the general fund. I would be relying on Tess and Logan and Mumachu to provide a a formatting for us for their reporting procedures, but we are recommending that we we support them with $2,500 a month. So, $30,000 a year. That would largely help that would help them with uh a lot of their uh their insurance and also a little bit of their utilities. And our hope is that then that would allow them to use their money on other operational expenses to start building a nest egg. if we give them a

building that's set up and shouldn't need any work for 15 or 20 years that they can then start putting money aside for two things. Number one, so that they can have some money to maintain the building as they move forward, uh maintenance plans and things like that, but also then to eventually hire staff uh to run programs at the shelter as well. So, um that is the recommendation that uh we're we're working towards uh to bring to you. Yes sir. You want to go first? Go ahead.

Is 1617 is that a realistic number? I mean that report narr that seems like a small number to me. I I just

that that's the high end. Until that they're high until recently the highest number had been 11 a night. So with the with the freezing temperatures that we've had, it has been 17. Also, um I think everyone knows this, but in case you don't, they when there are these kind of temperatures, then the mission transitions to uh 24-hour service. So now they're now also providing the men three meals a day. Um because they're providing more meals, it's more important now than ever that we rally around them as a community. Um that we make sure that we have, you know, I know that there are a number of people that take food, for example. um you know they've got they've got a a good freezer and such um just to make sure that we help them. There are other items that they have need of too and I uh later I know that representatives of the board will speak to us and I'm sure that they will speak to some of those more immediate needs that they have as well.

Yes, Alderman.

Uh mayor, couple of things and thank you both for the information. I did go through the study and agree with the conclusion uh not to invest more at that location. Um th that sort of leads me to the next question which I have no problem with what's been proposed for their current facility on South Bowman but I guess my question would then be is are we prepared to do something similar for those that serve the ladies andor families and two um does that help us address the warming center issue uh that was brought up to where people don't qualify or won't meet the standards to get into the homeless shelter? uh would there be any way or how would we anticipate solving that? I know before we used the arena and other places warming centers. I've heard other communities opening warming centers and I'm just not familiar enough with what's going on among various organizations to know how we're handling that. So, I guess my my two cents would be I I can support what's been proposed as an interim solution and would hope that long-term the parties can still look at perhaps what will eventually be a better facility because multi-story buildings uh closed off rooms and things of that nature. I'm I'm not sure that's the model for for the best operation going forward, but I appreciate and support what's what's been proposed to this point.

Sure. Well, to answer your first question, as you know, uh we have given actually um probably over a couple hundred,000 in total to the dwelling place. Um for example, the most recent rehabilitation, the Dan the city of Danville did the complete rehabilitation for that entire home. No, and I'm where I'm just speaking of ongoing operational contributions. Ongoing operations

for the utilities and things and and I personally believe we have to serve a role in that. You know, I I so I have no problem in doing that. I just want to be prepared for when or if other groups come forward and say, "Well, our electric bill is pretty bad, too." And so, I just want to make sure everybody's been vetted and everybody understands who's in, who's not, and where it's going forward.

Sure. Uh, what what I would what I would say is that our rationale has been that we have just as we have dealt with specific requests from the dwelling place and others, we are now dealing with this specific request that we [clears throat] have before us from the rescue mission. And that's why we are uh addressing this now. Uh the dwelling place has never requested for us any kind of funds for operations and such. And I would also say because I think we've given them close to $200,000 in gr grant money already that a lot of the other organizations particularly this one have a a lot of catching up to do before they will uh see the kind of investment that we've already made in those other those other organizations. And also, you may recall when you were when with with the city, we also did provide uh funding to the YFRC and others for uh different repairs and such that were needed at that center as well.

Uh as far as your second question in terms of warming centers, uh the first three years that I was mayor, I opened warming centers four times and we never had one person show up to them, even in the most extreme weather. Uh the Red Cross expressed to us frustration in terms of hey mayor we're putting all these resources here and nobody's showing up. Why would you you know why why are you continuing to ask us for this service? And uh you know so I feel as though um they have folks have an option here if they're going to be reasonable. Um and if we didn't have usage of it before I don't want to continue to mobilize a great number of resources that aren't being used. I want to make sure that the Red Cross we're in good standing with them so that when we do need them in situations that people would use the resources that they're there for us.

I don't I don't think anybody want to see wasted resources. So yeah, I mean so for example um you know u uh Bishop and Mrs. Borne opened their place for us before the civic center opened their place for us before and we just did not see anyone showing up. Thank you. Yes, sir. Uh, Alderman T.

Um, one of my questions is somewhat in alignment with what Alderman Arms asked. So, is this meant to be the long-term solution or is this a um short-term solution in preparation for a much longer term solution? Um I'm prep we're prep prepared to make an initial recommendation of two years of partnership and that would give us a lot more time to track and see if the need fluctuates or how it changes um and and also to get data from the other service centers at home. So for example, Alderman Teague, right now I don't have any information from the dwelling place about their usage. I can tell you unfortunately for a while there was almost no usage of the first two houses. then they got a backlog of applications and then I'm not sure where they, you know, I'm not sure where they are now. But I think it's really important that we have the data to know where we would have most effectively mobilized the resources that we have to help the people that need it the most.

Okay. Okay. And my next question um is prior to the closure from the prior board, do we know what the max usage was of the old fair child school um prior to it being shut down?

So, uh speaking to director of Velasquez, who was one of the last ver uh directors there, um they were usually averaging between 12 to 50, maybe 20, you know. Um there were some extreme times uh I don't remember a couple years ago when we had a really extreme temperatures they opened it up and they had one section that where they allowed um families and women to come and one for men and I think that that night alderman te they had I want to say close to 60

I guess what I guess what my concern is and I agree with what Alman Arin said I don't have a um an issue or concern as it relates to us doing this, it's the right thing to do. My concern is um just based on some of the conversations I've had with them. Um as well as you know what data suggests that the issue with homelessness is becoming a bigger problem than it's ever been before. And I'm just wondering will we eventually reach max capacity very quickly and then run out of space. So, um I am all for what we're what we're planning to do. Um my bigger concern is that once they do reach max capacity, um what happens then?

My understanding, Alderman Teague, is that um they would they unless things change substantially that even based on previous history from prior uh operations at the original mission and this one that the numbers were never that high. Um, and they have additional capacity, I I believe, of at least 10 to 12 more slots. So, you're looking at nearly 40 slots, and we have not met even half of that yet. Um, so I I think as

Yes, I understand that, but I also know the data that that we heard just yesterday, right, that homelessness has increased by over 100% in the last year. So, I would imagine that that would apply to our city just like every other city in the country. So, if at when um Mr. Velasquez was uh there and in the most extreme of situations the max was 60. Well, 100% increase of 60 would potentially be 120. Now, I don't know. Obviously, they don't have the capacity for that. They don't even have the capacity for 60. So, we're saying if their capacity is what you said, I think 25 to 30ish or something like

right right now. 24. Yeah. I I imagine that we could potentially reach capacity quickly and I would say that in the next two years that might sooner than the next two years that might be a concern. That's why I'm asking the question about long-term versus short-term. Mayor, if I may, something really cool about this location that I I kind of did think about that. Alderman Teague, um [clears throat] we will have a triggering mechanism whenever there is overflow the with this recommendation of rehabilitating their I'll call it the office building right now. If it starts overflowing, they can utilize that space. it is heated and cooled and we will ensure so there will be a triggering mechanism that we can maintain the influx of homelessness at that point and then and then option out of it. So there is comfort knowing that as well.

I would just love to see some sort of contingency plan for let's say we get to 30 and we're at 30 on a regular basis and that 30 could happen in in 12 months, right? just to be able to say and then when that happens then this is the next step beyond that and we'll also put together alderman their capac their actual capacity because the because of the not using of the upstairs and the outuilding they are not uh you know we'll we'll we'll get that number as well. Okay, thank you.

You're welcome. Anything else? All right, thank you very much. That concludes my report. Um, madame clerk, do we have any uh petitions, communications, or audience comments? We do. When I call your name, please come to the podium. You'll have three minutes to speak. I've got Patrick Howerin regarding Chris Transportation.

Good evening, city council members, Mayor Williams, and valued city employees. I'm Patrick Howerin and I have the great fortune to serve as the executive director of the Wheeler Foundation, an organization entrusted with providing muchneeded financial resources to groups that serve people with physical and mental disabilities. Throughout the course of my work, I'm constantly humbled both by the inherent goodness of people with developmental disabilities and also the dedication and deep, deep care given to them by folks at WorkSource and Cross Point. When Chris Transport announced its abrupt closure, it was truly a scary day. Over 150 people in our county, all with very special needs, who cannot operate motor vehicles on their own, who are incredibly routine oriented, and who have a hard time advocating for themselves, faced an uncertain future. Come Monday, would they be picked up? Would they be left out in the cold? How would they access the services essential for their health and well-being? I'd like to commend director Steven White and his fantastic team at DMT, Mayor Williams and the folks behind me at Cross Point and Work Source for understanding the urgent nature of this issue coming together and finding workable short-term solutions to ensure everyone who needed a ride got where they needed to go. To folks with developmental disabilities, this wasn't just a ride, it was an essential lifeline. Thank you for being advocates for those who cannot advocate for themselves. Tonight, there are several resolutions before you involving the city of Danville's role in providing paratransit services to cross point work source as well as pending agreements with the state of Illinois and IDAT. I urge this council to accept these resolutions in an effort to find a long-term transportation solution to the most vulnerable folks in our community. Please act decisively tonight and be a part of the amazing group of folks like those behind me who advocate day in day out for those who cannot advocate for themselves. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Allen. We also entertain uh grant requests from municipalities as well. Yes, we will be in touch with you in the next month or so about a project or two. [laughter] Michael Euing uh regarding homelessness. Good evening everyone. Good evening. Good evening to you, Mayor.

Um I thought long about what I would say tonight. I thought about writing a speech, but we don't need a speech. We speak from the heart. We need y'all to do the right thing. We need y'all to vote. Yes, we've done our part. My daddy always said, "You got to walk the walk and you talk." And we we've done that. We're not perfect, but we've kept the doors open. March 31st will be a year. And we haven't missed a beat. And I'm coming off a little cuz I'm a little, you know, we need we need Danville. We we've done it without y'all. Individual people help, but we need Danville to stand up behind Danville. We always talk about homelessness and blah blah blah, but we go back to our own homes and all of that. I go down there twice a day, every day, and I see these guys every day. Yeah, they got drug problems, they got alcohol problems, they got problem problems, but can we be part of the solution? That's what we want. We need help. We've got plans. We got uh with the big building. If it come down the road, we we we're going to try to get some grants, blah blah blah, but for the right now future for today, we need help to to to modernize our new house over there. We got some issues. We want to be able to give showers so they don't have to catch a bus. Thank God the city gives us bus passes. They can catch the bus down to uh uh the dwelling place, but we can offset the days that the dwelling place don't give showers. We can give showers. We've got work in the works with uh uh what's the lady name uh that does the ramps. We've got that in the works possible of making a wheelchair accessible. We've had to turn away a guy in a wheelchair. Come on, y'all. We're Danville. I'm I mean, I'm a Viking. I graduated in ' 86. Danville. I moved back here from Midland, Texas Pro. I'm glad to be Danville. But when you see the need that we have to to give, it's blessed to give than it is to receive, y'all.

Amen. It's more that's how you receive more is if you give more. So, our fate is in y'all hands. So after all of this is said and done, vote yes. And and we're be we're be good stewards. We're not we're not gonna drop the ball. We haven't dropped the ball in in over 12 months because it's God. It's not not about us. It's not about me. I I don't want no nothing out of I'm good. I'm a disabled veteran. I'm okay. But I know there's some guys out there like me that fell on hard times that that need some help to get up out of the mud. and we need you guys to help us help them get out the mud so they can become taxpaying citizens again so they don't stay down in the mud. All right, that's that's all I got. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Yuing.

Deianne Ryan regarding homelessness. I'm Deian Ryan and I've been here many times to talk about the homeless situation and I [clears throat] hope I'm not the only one here that's lulled into a sense of everything's okay because it is not okay. Um, when we talk about the men's shelter out on Bowman and I know the history of that and that's not nearly enough when we talk about capacity. There's a reason people don't go places. They don't go to warming centers.

And we owe it to them to find out why. Um I've worked with homeless for a long time in many agencies and many departments, many different and there are women who can't leave their abusive husbands because there's nowhere for them and their children to go. They don't have room at the end at the YFRC. There are homeless people that come into the dwelling place and I think a indepth conversation with the dwelling place needs to take place and surveys on what the people are there for. Um I have met older 65year-old women who can't get into affordable housing and they're homeless. You know, I have met women who have children who are living in a van out at Village Mall and I think they're still out there. I saw their van last night. I saw a man walking down Vermillion Street with his um little girl running behind him and he had a suitcase and a backpack. They can't go out to the shelter on um in Bowman. You know, it it there's no availability except for what the Y has and I'd like to do an analysis of their turnaways every night. Um because we send people there from the dwelling place in the morning and they have to go and ask if there's a room and many times there's a waiting list. Where do they go? We have no place for men who have children who are raising their children to go with their children, you know, and I and I'm not

I'm ju I'm just saying all of the data and everything we're talking about is anecdotal. There's no facts to back anything up. Um, and I think that we deserve as a community, we need to do an indepth data analysis to look at what the scope of our problem is because I'm not at all assured that people aren't going to be out in the cold and they aren't already out in the cold, families and children. And um, so I I applaud the little bit of money that's going to go out to the Bowman. And I think that, you know, they there needs to be a way to get more people to use that facility. When when I volunteered out there, when it was women and children, it was full all the time. You know, we had people sleeping on the couches. Why is it not full now? You know, there's reasons for this. We can't just assume that people don't want shelter. And as far as warming shelters, I've looked at other cities that have warming shelters and they are full. If they aren't using them here, there's a reason for it. So,

thank you, Mrs. Ryan. Okay. Okay. Orington.

Good evening. I'm Kathleen Orington. Um, I've been up here before. Um, I have, um, 45 years as a registered nurse. I want to give a quick anecdote. I was actually sitting at home and I thought I got to go over there. So, I'm in my pajamas. Okay. [laughter] But, um, I got these really strong vibes tonight and I think it was for two things and these are two little quick anecdotes about my career as a nurse that is very memorial to me. All right. The first one is I was actually over at the U of I studying in the dorm and I hear this coming down the hall because everybody was studying real intensely and you could hear somebody walk. Okay. You could tell it was Boots stopped at my door. I thought, "What the hell?" It was the police. They took they were telling me, it was a night like this that I I asked me if I knew Douglas Marshall Jones. I said, "Yes, it's my brother." Uh, well, we got a call from the Chicago Police Department that he was found deceased outside of his apartment and they need for you to come back to Chicago and identify him. This is my brother that was the same age as me. We were always very very close and we you know had to go into foster care but we still kept in touch and he was 25 years old when that happened. The other thing is I remember once after I got my license I had been working for about 10 years. I was working one night and we had a man come into the emergency room on a night like this and he ended up with frostbite and having every digit of his hand removed and he was a younger man and I just could not believe that that happened to him and I thought next he'll be committing suicide. We have got to remember these things and not just forget about them.

Thank you Mrs. Arrington. Hope Garrett regarding the shelter.

Good evening. Um, first of all, thank you for giving the community an opportunity to speak to you guys at [clears throat] each of these meetings. I haven't been to nearly enough of them, and I'm going to fix that. Um, if you don't know me, uh, Tiny Homes of Vermillion County, if you've heard of it, that's my crazy brainchild. Um, and so I'm speaking tonight because I I wanted to back up a couple of things that some folks already said. So, also my apologies for not getting my yellow card in earlier. I really didn't plan to speak. Um, I I wanted to agree with Deianne. Um, we know the homeless are out there. I actually literally just received a report today. You saw it, too. I don't know. I know it came from Cross Point. I don't know who uh put the data together, but there's probably closer to a hundred at least homeless people in our community um that individuals have interacted with and and made records. So, we know they're out there. So, then it begs the question, why are they not going to the places that we have available? Um and I can tell you right now, it is not because Minister Yuing has not done everything imaginable. Um, meeting him one of the best things to come out of tiny homes for me. Um, this man is doing the work. Um, Deianne has been advocating for years. They are doing the work. I'm new, [laughter] but I'm also going to try to do the work. Um, so I think we do desperately need to understand why. And I don't know how you get that information, but I think it matters. and if I can help get it, if that means going out and talking to folks and we got these little forms today that you can fill out when you have a contact so we can try and start gathering this information. Um I I I agree wholeheartedly. We need to understand why. And again, you know, I know with the the current house shelter, you know, there's some concerns about privacy and everybody's kind of in one

area and whereas the uh the larger building was well larger so people could spread out of it. I don't know how it was run. I was I've literally never set foot in it. I've been in this shelter in this house. Um what they have managed to do with it is nothing short of amazing especially on the limited resources. Um and Minister Euan and I are going to be working together.

Um I wholeheartedly believe that the different things that you hear going on with my program and what he's doing, I think we're all stops along a journey. you know, he's dealing with acute, I need somewhere to sleep right now because it's freezing. I want to deal with how do we get them from that to what you and I would consider traditional housing. Um, so my tiny homes are going to be affordable. They're going to um put aside money so that these people are building financial stability. Um, and then eventually we're going to get these people to your standard apartment or house or, you know, cost affordable living. Um, and that's that's just what I wanted to let you guys know what I'm doing, what I think these guys have already done. That's amazing and the piece I want to play. Thank you. Beep beep beep. [laughter]

Thank you, Mrs. Garrett. And just for the council, so you'll know, we have had conversations to work towards identifying sites with Mrs. here at potential sites. Katherine Yuing.

Good evening, y'all. As you know, I'm the secretary of Dam View Rescue. I just wanted to inform the young lady that stated that there's no, you know, men with children. Well, we do have rooms upstairs for men and children and also for uh trans transgender also so they have somewhere safe to stay, you know. So, but I just wanted to give you an update of how we're doing. Yes, you know, it's it's starting to grow. We starting to see, but also we have zero tolerance. Like, we want to make sure that everybody is safe. Everybody. And we also want to make sure they get fed, you know, and then there we see change in them, you know, our regulars. We do we have housed three of them help them [clears throat] get into homes to get in the housing authority. We also help them get their IDs, you know, we got that ball rolling, but we we're helping each and everyone and we're getting to know each and everyone. We do have regulars, but we're starting to see a change in them because when they first came in, they were rough. And I know my husband, he's the president, but I they he deals with them a lot. I just I deal with them the financially, you know, I help pay the bills and stuff like that to keep it flowing. But when we first started, we only started it being just regular board members. But like I said, when the ball dropped in our hands, we didn't drop it because we knew that they needed us, you know, somebody to believe in them and somebody to help them. So when we said, "Okay," and I heard this loud and clear, you know, step out on faith. I know the Lord was talking to me and I was talking to my mom. Step out on faith. So we did. We end up opening it.

March would be a whole year. We opened it in March 30th and finding insurance was the hardest. You know, we had to pay a a large down payment. It was close to like 8,000 we had to pay down. So just imagine 80,000 [clears throat] just to open up not having then every month every month for 10, you know, for a year has been 2585. That's not including the utilities. That's not including feeding them, you know, that's not including making sure they get what, you know, the a bus pass, none of that, you know. So, it's all our bills and we're just asking for help, you know. I think we have proven oursel for this whole year without asking. And it's been all built on donations, you know, people cuz it's it's hard to go day by month by month to see who going to donate, who's not it could be sometimes when we don't have no donations and we're like, "Okay, how where where we going to get this money from? How how we going to be able to, you know, so that they don't have to go back out on the street? They just know that there's somewhere they can go."

Thank you, Mrs. Ewing. That's all I have. Mayor,

thank you. Anyone else wish to address the council this evening? All right. Thank you. Um, we do not have any zoning petitions this evening. Actually, before we move on, I just want to say a huge thank you to all of the board um of the Danville Rescue and particularly Mr. and Mrs. Euane who have been it from the beginning. They've had a lot of people come and go and give up on them, but they have never given up on the men and they've never given up on this community. And so I just want to say uh thank you again for everything that you did. And and I remember I I told y'all if you you proved you showed yourselves that you were going to do it that we would come come and help. And we're doing that. I think I've shown you personally. Now I want to make sure we show you professionally as a community. So um God bless you and thank you again for everything. We can't thank you enough. [applause] You have before you the payrolls of January 9th and 16th. Is there a motion to approve those?

So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion [clears throat] or debate? Seeing none. Roll call, please. Alderman Deoy, yes. High Totower, yes. Johnson, yes. Okaane, yes. Core, yes. Streing, yes. Pickering, yes. Teague, yes. Lewig, yes. Jones, yes. Lawrence, yes. Cooper, yes. Butler, yes. 13, yes. 13, yes. The motion carries. You also have the vouchers payable of January 13th and 20th, 2026. Is there a motion to approve those? So move. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion or debate? Roll call vote, please. Alderman High Totower, yes. Johnson, yes. Okaane, yes. Core, yes. Streing, yes.

Pickering, yes. Teague, yes. Lewig, yes. Jones, yes. Orange, yes. Cooper, yes. Butler, yes. Detoy. Yes. 13. Yes. 13. Yes. The motion carries. At this time, I will uh we will receive our public works committee report. Chairman Boore. Thank you, Mayor. 11A is a resolution approving the disposal of surplus equipment. Move dispens approval. Need a second. Second. Second. Any questions? Roll call, please. Alderman Johnson. Yes. Okain. Yes. Core. Yes. Streing. Yes. Pickering, yes. Teague, yes. Ledwig, yes. Jones, yes. Barnes, yes. Cooper, yes. Butler, yes. Detoy,

yes. High Tower, yes. 13, yes. 13, yes. Thank you. 11B is a resolution amending the fiscal year 2526 budget fund number 301 for the H&L landfill leate system demolition. Uh, move tool move to dispense read and ask for your approval. Second. We'll need a second. Thank you. questions. I got one or what are we doing here? [cough] Get rid of the leate system. [laughter] But I mean, Eric, you want to take that?

Yeah, this is uh transferring money. Uh if you recall, we awarded a bid to Owens Excavating to do demolition at the H&L landfill. And this is basically uh taking reserves and moving it to the fund 301 to do uh the work. So it came in over budget or no it it came in on budget. It's just that the money to pay for it wasn't all in the active budget. So they have to pull it from reserves. Good enough. Yeah. What else? Roll call, please. Alderman Okaane. Yes. Core. Yes. Streing. Yes. Pickering. Yes. Teague.

Yes. Lewig. Yes. Jones. Yes. Orange. Yes. Cooper. Yes. Butler. Yes. Detoy. Yes. High Tower. Yes. Johnson. Yes. 13. Yes. 13. Yes. Thank you. 11C is a resolution approving a professional services proposal agreement for sanitary sewer rehab SSES phase 1. Move. Dispense for reading. Ask for your approval. Need a second. Second order arms.

Couple questions on this, Mr. Chairman. Uh the the phase one for this first year phase as they refer to it. Is that all that has been approved for their services? I see we've got a five-year program here. How is I'm not familiar with how all that is set up.

Uh yes. uh we uh initially uh have gone out for an APA loan of uh of five phases that will amount to 24 million.6 24.6 $6 million and the uh first phase is what we're going for as far as the 7 uh 1 million. I think it's approximately right now.

So the loan the so the council approved a loan uh agreement for up to 24 25 million. Is that correct? or we're only at the loan has already been approved or No, we're in the process of getting it of applying. Yeah. Well, we're we're we are applied. We have applied and uh we're just in the queue to uh get awarded the uh the loan basically. Okay. And what what's what are the terms on that loan? How many year payback? And uh I we're going to go for the 20 year I believe

really is what we're looking to do. And so there is no commitment with RJN or uh IEPA anything beyond what we're talking about in this. That's correct. So there's been no design work on future phases and the EPA loan we can either continue to take out or not. That's correct. Okay. Thank you. Other questions. Roll call, please. Alderman Strebing. Yes. Pickering. Yes. Teague. Yes. Leadwig. Yes, Jones. Yes, Lawrence. Yes, Cooper. Yes, Butler. Yes, Detoy. Yes, High Tower. Yes, Johnson. Yes, Okaane. Yes. Core. Yes.

13. Yes. 13. Yes. Thank you. 11D is a resolution authorizing a grant application to the US EPA for the Brownfield Communitywide Assessment Grant. Move to Spence reading. Ask for approval. Need a second. Second. Questions. We already identified all the areas. Uh it it is not set in stone. So we've identified select corridors and uh good redevelopable ground uh for the application for scorability, but we are not we do not have to follow what is in the application. [clears throat] Okay. Anyone else? Roll call, please. Alderman Pickering. Yes.

Teague. Yes. Ledwig, yes. Jones, yes. Lawrence, yes. Cooper, yes. Butler, yes. Detoy, yes. High Tower, yes. Johnson, yes. Okaane, yes. Core, yes. Streing, yes. 13, yes. 13, yes. Thank you. 11E is a resolution authorizing an intergovernmental agreement between the city of Danville and Vermillion County for lease for the lease of city parking. Move dispensary read and ask for approval. Need a second. Second. Alderman T, is this a continuation of a prior agreement? And I asked that because it says revised January 1st, 2023, but the effective date on this is

must be a typo. Yes, it is a it's just an extension of the on of an ongoing agreement. Uh it was it came to our attention that that had um expired and so this is just updating that agreement. So then the five years that's referenced in here then it will be good for five years starting this month. Yes. Yep. How long was the prior agreement? Good question. I am not sure on that. I can find out and get back to you. And the reason why I ask is because if this is a continuation of a prior agreement and this agreement is 5 years, will 2023 so the 2023 is a typo? Then it's not it

that is potentially the case. Uh, I would have to do a little research to find out. Okay. Yeah. Because that's only three years. So that's one of the reasons why I'm asking. One of the whereases does say a period not to exceed 20 years. That's I think based on state law, right? That it was state it says um I saw that it said um I don't remember exactly.

Uh it's in part uh it's in part one of the actual lease agreement uh where it talks about the 5-year period. I I got the impression I shouldn't say that is because of state law. I got the impression because I didn't go read the state law, but because the same sentence also refers to state law that it had something to do with potentially state law limiting the time period being 20 years. Um, but I didn't read so that could be inaccurate assess uh assumption on my part. However, the five years versus three years ago is the thing that kind of threw me for a loop. Alderman, I if again I would have to look back to verify that I'm relaying this accurately, but I also know that a couple of years ago, we had some concern about whether or not one of our parking structures was going to continue to be usable. So, we may have done a shorter term lease for that reason.

Okay. And then the I'm assuming then nothing else changed like no pricing change or anything else? No. Uh no pricing change. Okay. Correct. Thank you. Anyone else? Roll call, please. Alderman Teague, yes. Ledwig, yes. Jones, yes. Yes. Cooper, yes. Butler, yes. Detoy, yes. High Tower, yes. Johnson, yes. Okaane, yes. Poor, yes. Streing, yes. Pickering, yes. 13, yes. 13, yes. Thank you very much. 11F. Resolution appropriating MFTt funds for the maintenance of streets. Move dispense read and ask for approval. Second. Question. All in Arms.

Uh just a status update on another roadway, Boiling Springs, uh on the west side of Vermillion. I know there's a project out there somewhere. Is that still on a schedule and and where are we at on that? Wonder if you want to give up. Yeah. Uh we're completing design on that and still expect to go that to go out to bid uh here with but before the end of fiscal year still. Great. Okay. And the other question was there is Cape Seal in Denale West on Park Haven. Does that assume that the median has been removed from the middle? Yes, it does as part of that project. Great. Thank you. That's one of those things alderman that people have I mean when I was an alderman I remember people prior to that we actually wanted to remove it and they didn't believe it or not.

I remember the trees were gone. Yeah. [laughter] Right. I think once the ashbor got the trees alderman they were finally changed their minds. Yes. Uh talking about blowing spring roads. I can remember I last asked about a year ago. They were right right in the process of getting started on it and it was going to be too much and the budget was going to be over. So they held it over to this year. So it's a difficult project and they're anxious as you can imagine. The other the other problem chairman, as you'll probably recall, is we had easement issues too. So thankfully that we've been able to resolve those. I had I had a lot of questions [laughter] from out there.

Okay. Anyone else? I I was just going to give you a quick update. One thing that changed on the map for Cape Seal is Virginia came off and Delaware got added. Uh the day after our meeting, we talked to Aqua and they've got a water mane improvement plan. So, we're just swapping roads there. Uh all the roads in this area are really in the queue for this type of treatment. So, we're just switching a road over so we can be more coordinated with the water main efforts and then we'll come in after those to cape seal that road uh in 2027. T,

does this mean that they're going to be remind me of the Cape Seal procedures as it relates to what actually is being put down on surface? Is this going to include rocks and uh is it chip chip and whatever? Yeah. Yeah. Basically, the Cape Seal is a two-part system. You have an oil and chip which you seal on our normal seal coat roads and then you have a microsurface over that to improve the long-term sealing and and it's a better wearing surface long term. So, it's a two-part treatment. Uh you won't notice like the loose rocks and stuff as much as you will with like a normal seal coat.

Well, the reason why I asked my street happens to be on here um cuz we got rocked but we didn't get anything over the rocks this year. So, that's part of the reason why I'm asking because um I'm assuming that many of the other streets are probably in the same situation where they got rocks this year but didn't get anything else put over it.

Yeah. So, uh we always look at what the existing surface of the road currently is and what the base of said road is as well. A lot of the for these cape seal roads, a lot of them that are just straight asphalt and have curb systems and everything, uh that is when we would typically add a cape seal treatment because basically cape seal is just like an addition to the seal coat. So they'll go through and seal coat everything, meaning tarn chip with the rocks, and it's annoying and and frustrating. Uh and we uh will always do a uh and we're working towards even more of a proactive approach just to um help uh tempers uh during that time of people that used to have a nice asphalt road and now it's now there's loose rock on it. Uh so that has to go on for a period and traffic has to get on it and uh the rock has to settle into the uh to the oil and once that gets settled in then they come in and do a cape seal layer over the top. But that only happens on roads that uh that are, you know, typically an asphalt road with curb and gutter and everything. But if a if a road was already a seal coat surface, it would just be a resurface of that. And most of the time, you know, the city uh internally goes through and we'll put in those asphalt wedges and just and that is strictly just to help with rideability and filling in low spots and getting rid of the dips and getting water off the road. uh and um that way it prolongs the life of of the road and so uh that's I guess that's the difference between the two treatments.

Okay, thank you. Okay, I'm seeing no other questions. Roll call, please. Alderman Lewig, yes. Jones, yes. Arns, yes. Cooper, yes. Butler, yes. [clears throat] Doy, yes. High Tower, yes. Johnson, yes. Okaane, yes. Poor yes. Streing, yes. Pickering, yes. Teague, yes. 13, yes. 13, yes. Thank you. 11G is a resolution authorizing application to the US EDA's disaster supplemental grant program. Uh, moves reading ask for your approval. Need a second. Second, questions. Okay. Roll call, please. Alderman Jones, yes.

Arn, yes. Cooper, yes. Butler, yes. Doy, yes. High Tower, yes. Johnson, yes. Okain, yes. Poor, yes. Streing, yes. Pickering, yes. Teague, yes. Leadwig, yes. 13, yes. 13, yes. Thank you. Um 11H is a resolution authorizing application to the DCO's Illinois Regional Site Readiness Program. Uh move dispense read and ask for approval. Need a second. Second. Alderman Cooper. I guess what we're doing here is this is just getting ready to be shovel ready. I assume we're not going to do this until we get a commitment, right? Or are we? I

Yeah. If if awarded if awarded the grant funds, the intent is to proceed with the construction of the sanitary sewer line. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead.

Uh yes. Uh similarly, I just wanted to do I I'm okay with pursuing this as a grant project. Uh I would not want to see this particularly come out of our sewer fund without further discussion. There is another entity that also can provide service and I just think there should be some additional discussions. But if we can get grant money to do it and it can get done, I'm all for that. Glad that we can get the design finished at least. And does that was my other question is does any of this qualify for design costs? Yes. If we're successful. Yes. Okay, thank you. Anyone else? Roll call, please. Alderman Arns, yes. Cooper, yes. Butler, yes. Detoy, yes. High Tower,

yes. Johnson, yes. Okain, yes. Core, yes. Streing, yes. Pickering, yes. Teague, yes. Lewig, yes. Jones, yes. 13, yes.

13, yes. Thank you very much. If there is no objection, um 11 I through N all deal with the city of Damoth taking over the rural mass transit um functions uh disposal of equipment getting into agreements with the various organizations and director Schaefer is here if we do have any questions. One of the questions that I have um because I just don't think it's come up yet um in conversation is Well, I need to get on table. Does anybody have a gesture to IN? No. Go ahead. Okay. Move dispense read and ask for your approval on I2N. Would you like me to read them all?

Second. Need a second. I need a second. I'll give you a second [laughter] to avoid you reading them all. Yes.

Fine with me. They're in the minutes. [laughter] So I threw in Alderman. Um, one of the questions that I have because I don't believe it's come up yet is whether or not we need um to take on additional administrative staff um to take on this operation and not just in general but the one that also so it it is a general question but also specifically for 11L which is about us being a Medicaid provider because typically I know that Medicaid requires a lot more administration than most other things. So, um I'm also curious to know as it relates to us being um a Medicaid provider, does it also require any other additional training or education or whatever for our staff or potential new staff if we do need new staff in general?

So, the Medicaid billing will be handled by the finance department. Um, I have worked with Medicaid for 20 years. So, this is just another day. It's I was like, "Oo, something I'm good at. I know this." Um, so, uh, the finance department will be handling the billing, reenrollments, and enrollments, um, with the assistance of the DMT team. We we will need to hire additional personnel. That's one of the items that we'll be going into close session to discuss with you. Okay. And so then we'll have also um additional expense information and budget amendment um information relating to that. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Uh I think those cover my questions. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Alderman T. Alderman Cooper. Just a couple question. I assume that we're taking the whole county in this, right? [clears throat] Is all Vermillion County? Yes. Not city of Danville. We're we're taking everything. Is a county uh board are is this an all or none? I guess we take it all or we don't get any.

We take it all or likely not only do we not get any, but then the rest of Vermillion County would have to figure out how to provide transportation for their citizens, which unfortunately I don't believe there's any capacity to do. Vermillion County Board has no interest or desire to do this, help or assist in this. And I mean that that I've been asked several times about if we're going down to Ridge Farm and all that. I mean, and I guess we are, but I mean, why no assistant from the county board or them assuming it, I guess, is what I, you know, as far as the city of Danville, I don't have a bit of problem with it. Well, I I could

experiment and stream and I met with the county extensively about this for a period of time a year and a half ago and and director White and um basically they didn't want anything to do with it. I mean, they said that it they wanted Chris to be the provider and now that that hasn't worked out, um, we are where we are.

So much for being a good neighbor, I guess. Director Sha, do you have any words of just a county ID came to, uh, the decision in November to name Danville as the designated funding recipient. Um, and so, uh, we did that. Um, and then obviously everything happened towards the end of December. Um, we have set up a separate appropriation uh for the city of Danville should they take on uh the the rural transit or all over million county. Um, and so we we would then if the city, you know, votes to go ahead and take on the uh the entire county, what we would do is we would uh work to expedite those those grant agreements, grant amendments. Um, should the county or should the city not decide to to take that on, we would work uh with the county and other providers to try and find a secondary uh, you know, resource. Um the one thing I can say is for every dollar that you that is invested um it's typically a $4 return and so I would like you know you guys to think about all those people that you guys will be given rides um in the county and bringing them back into the city of Danville. Um and so uh at this point the city of Danville is a designated recipient and and the state appointed them. Have you contacted to see or talk talked to anybody in the county board uh in regards any of this at all?

This has been very fast moving. Uh the county was aware uh my letter went out to the county in November. It went to the board chair and and at this point in time we've not heard back from we've not heard from them. Um we we have not engaged with county. Again, this has been rapidly moving and our our entire focus was to try and get uh resources to those uh vulnerable citizens that need the transportation as quickly as possible. Uh the city of Danville has a great uh transit organization and so they were our first call.

Alderman, one thing that I would note uh that director outlined for us too is that uh currently the state provides 65% funding. it would move that up to 80% funding as well. Um and uh then we would also receive additional federal funds because as one thing that I made clear to him is that look we want to help everyone especially our neighbors. These are our brothers and sisters, our cousins in the county, right? But at the same time, the city of Danville taxpayers cannot subsidize providing those services for them. And that's why they've increased the funding uh sources for us so that we can make sure that we're able to to provide that without it being on the t the the back of the Danville taxpayer

in a roundabout way. That's where I was going to go with this. Um as far as drivers, how many are we getting into that? I mean, we're going to hire or so. So, uh, alderman, we already had, so there are a couple of parts of this. One is that Chris was providing our paratransit service for the city of Danville already. So, we have already hired some additional drivers because we had to contractually continue fulfilling our obligation uh through our state and federal contract. So, we've already hired some of their drivers. There are other drivers that are very interested in coming to work with us should we uh choose to take this on. folks who are already, you know, used to working with the citizens that are uh serve that were served by the previous Chris group.

But those drivers that worked for them, and I pretty much know because I applied, they were all part-time and they didn't have any benefits, I I believe. Is that going to continue to be that way or they weren't all part-time. Um, some of them were actually full-time. They had they had, I think, three or four full-time drivers, which we've hired most of them. Um we for expedition we have currently hired them through uh in partnership with work with um express personnel and our our hope is that we'll be bringing to you an updated agreement with uh the with the teamsters sometime in the next couple of months for ongoing services um hopefully starting in this uh in July which would be the next pardon me I'm correct

uh contract year with the state of Illinois. So, this is going to be a total different line and everything in the budget's going to show that apparently, right? It wouldn't be a to total total different line, but it would be um there would there might be additional lines uh in that budget. But no, because everything would come under still under Danville Mass Transit. So, no property tax dollars or city dollars are going to this. That's okay. I mean, okay. [snorts] That's I think it's a service that needs to be done. And I just wish the county would get a little bit more involved in what they are because, you know, apparently that's not going to happen.

We shouldn't have to be, but we worked really hard uh to to try to to take care of this a year and a half ago. Unfortunately, it didn't come out the way we all anticipated, but the I think the bottom line is to make sure that the needs of our citizens in Vermillion County are met. We I don't know how we cannot step up. And if, god forbid, let's say, it comes and things are not working the way we expect or hope, we could always revisit that uh, you know, in in a future future. I'm not going to disagree with that theory. I think it I just wish the county would sort of stepped up and did some part of their role, too. But so be it. I guess I'm for it. I'd say

um, I have a followup. I'm assuming you're from ID do. This is the D. I apologize. This is the director of ID do, David Schaefer. So, bureau chief, bureau chief for transit operations. Okay. Sorry. Yes. Anything to do with roads? [laughter]

Um, one of the things that I read in the news was that the situation as it related to Chris Rome transit district um had the potential to be revisited or redeemed. So my question is, is this a permanent change for the city of Danville, or is there the possibility that if Chris um met specific standards that typically happens when um there's a grant um that it could go back to them that is and and that's only because I've read read what I thought was quote from you or someone else from I do that said that that was a possibility. So the only thing I can comment on that is uh Chris has voted in in their open meetings to start a dissolution process.

Okay. So this um as far as we are concerned then is a permanent solution for the city of Danville. He he can't speak to that but yes ma'am. Is there a time period on on I didn't read that particular leak and there's a lot of specific there's like what six of these resolutions. Is there a time period on this the uh on the resolutions that we have before us?

There is a time period for the contractual agreements with cross point and uh and uh work source. Um there is not a contractual agreement. It's just us agreeing to take over in that role. So it's So then are you saying that they're open-ended and this is just anouou or are you saying that there's a time period for which this is set and then it gets revisited at some point at the end of that time period? Alderman so the state has given us uh funding updates through the end of this fiscal year. They would then send us a new contract for the upcoming fix fiscal year which would be which would begin in July. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Alarm.

Yes. Uh mine, a couple of mine have already been touched on and I thank the the ID do and the director for uh bumping up to 80%. I I thought that was excellent and uh certainly we have the capacity and and the capabilities thanks to Mr. White to to take this on. So, him and his team, we are thankful. Uh you know, we'll be negotiating with county on other items in the future. And sometimes we're better at doing things and sometimes perhaps someone else is, but we're good at this and we have the resources. Uh similarly uh my one of my initial questions was I don't I'm not sure the language in the contract that requires us to put all of these employees into the bargaining unit. This is a service we've not provided before and I don't know if that's and perhaps I should hold that for close session. Thank you mayor. Uh the second thing is uh going back to Alderman Tigs is I'm assuming there is a termination clause that at some point in the future if things aren't going well or we determine that's not in our best interest or we determine there's another party that we could contract our go back to contracting our paratransit if we so chose. I just want to make sure we have that flexibility.

Absolutely. And and you know the next contract will come up before July. Yeah. Thank you. Yes sir. And thanks to Mr. Director White and all the team Butler.

Uh yes, I just like like to say, you know, kind of agree with what Alderman Tig was saying about, you know, the employees to help. I know uh director white is so kind that he took on this task and I've seen him number of times you know driving the bus and I'm sure that this is something different since we're starting early uh I heard a comment about we going you know there's some people need to go to the doctor pick them up about four o'clock in the morning to go long distance that he has an assistant I don't know if that's going to take place or if not I believe in order for him to be sufficient expended on his job I mean to take on his task just out of kindness I think would be unfair that he should have some some help uh to take on his task as well

director that um the director has a proposal for us to consider we'll we'll review that in here in close oh okay I'm sorry no no it's okay does anyone have any uh any other questions for bureau chief safer. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Okay, see no more questions. Roll call, please, on 11 I through N. Alderman Cooper, yes. Butler, yes. The Toyo Toy, yes. High Tower, yes. Johnson, yes. Okain, yes. Core, yes. Streing, yes. Pickering, yes. Teague, yes. Ledwig, yes. Jones, yes. Orange, yes.

13, yes. 13, yes. Thank you. Any items, guys? Sorry. Yes, I do. Okay. My apologies. [laughter] I wanted to announce uh as of January 26th, so next Monday, we will begin selling yardway stickers. So, uh let's prepare for better weather than it is right now. So, yep. I do have one. Anybody else? I do have one. Um, this one's specifically for alderman. Okay. And I have good news. Uh, the bids are going to be let for the Fairchild and Vermilion uh brownfield remediation site. Really?

Within the Yeah. Yes. Uh, you should be that posted within the next week or two. We're going to be working with the controller to get a bid number and get it out. [laughter] Don't stop. All right. Mayor, I believe that concludes the report.

Thank you. I just want to uh thank you again uh chief for being here with us to answer questions. Thank you for all of your help that you're providing and helping us help our people. And most importantly to our our partners here locally. I mean, man, I just cannot thank them enough. Uh Miss Diane and Miss uh and uh and our other folks at the partner agencies just for everything that they have done uh for to help us help our people. And I especially want to give a another shout out to Director White and his team and especially uh Janisha. That young lady uh used to work for Chris. Um she came to work for us some time ago and the truth is she has been an angel among us for all the work that she's done. So director just please on our behalf thank her especially again we want to acknowledge everything that she's done to help make this smooth.

Um at this time we will receive our public Thank you chairman. At this time, we'll receive our public services committee report. Chairman Street. Well, it's been a while since we met, [laughter] almost a month, I think. Uh, we will meet here uh next Tuesday 127 to 25 at 6 p.m. When 26 p.m. is it 26th? Okay. Next Tuesday. That's all I've got. Anybody on the public service committee have anything?

All right. That concludes our report, sir. Thank you, chairman. I we do have a need to go into close session. At this time, I would entertain a motion to section 2C1 uh to dis I would entertain a motion to go into close session under section 2C1 to discuss specific employees and section 2C2 to discuss collective bargaining matters and salary schedules. Is there a motion to do so? So moved. Second. Second. It's been moved and second. Is there any discussion or debate? Roll call vote, please. Alderman Butler. Yes. Do the Yes. High Tower. Yes. Johnson. Yes. Okain. Yes. Yes. Streing. Yes. Pickering. Yes. Teague. Yes.

Leadwick. Yes. Jones. Yes. Orange. Yes. Cooper. Nope. 12. Yes. 12. Yes. We are journed to close session. There will be action taken afterwards.

return to open session. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Same sign. If there be no objection, I would entertain I would uh like to take items 14 and 15 together. Uh, and if so, I would entertain a motion to approve the ordinance amending section 3907 of the city code pertaining to compensation of municipal employees and and item 15, the resolution authorizing updates to compensation chart and budget amendment to fiscal year 2627 budget. Is there a motion? So moved. I'll second. It's been moved and second. Is there any discussion or debate? Seeing none, roll call vote, please. Alderman High Tower. Yep. Yes. Thank you. Johnson, yes.

Okain, yes. Yes. Streing, yes. Pickering, yes. Teague, yes. Ledwick, yes. Jones, yes. Barnes, yes. Cooper, yes. Butler, yes. Doy, yes. 13, yes. 13, yes. The the motions carry. Are there any items of information for the good of the cause? I have two things.

Yes, ma'am. one. Um just a reminder to everyone that the project success uh youth expo and town hall 2 is uh next Thursday at Laura Lee from 6:00 to 8:00. And then the second one is that I am also hosting a citizens first town hall and listening session on Saturday, February 7th um from 1 to 3 at DAC um and BMER 14243 I think 4142 um um um anybody is uh uh welcome to come um but I plan to um facilitate the session.

Thank you Alderman T. Okay. I got more. Yes, Alderman. Go ahead.

Okay. Yeah. I'd like to thank uh the chief uh and his uh his other officers uh for Monday and you know leading us down the road there for the march for the Martin Luther King and uh it was cold but uh so we got through it. Everything went went well. I had to make the young folks they get in the cars because I didn't want no no problem frost bites anything but but they were good and it was a good successful march uh the service was good and uh so we really enjoyed the service as well on the 24th next Saturday this coming Saturday actually there's going to be a forum uh out at DAC uh 11:00 to two uh lunch will be served as well. And we're looking for uh three so far uh congressman [clears throat] they're running for Robin Kelly's position. Uh we'll be there if y'all got any questions or statements that you would like to make. It's going it's going to be out of deck. Uh third floor 306 and uh it's going to be interesting. And uh who is it? Uh uh Adel uh it's going to be French and uh hopefully uh Jesse Jackson Jr. will be there. Yes. So, please come if you got questions and uh you know, if you don't come and don't like what is being said, I mean, you should have been there to ask questions.

Thank you, Alderman. Just one uh last thing and just to remind everyone because of the new change in law, our next city council meeting will be on Wednesday, February 4th. Thank you, chairman, for the reminder because the law that you cannot have u public meetings on election day. So, next meeting will Yep. It's perpetual, unfortunately. February 4th. So, our next meeting will be February 4th at uh 6 p.m. here in these chambers. Haven't Yes, Alderman. Wednesday is a horrible day for me. I know a lot of folks have church, unfortunately. No, not the church. Um that's when I'm sit with my wife, so I won't be here on a Wednesday. Okay. All right. I think there's only three this

two or three this year. Three this year. Yeah, that's the only day I won't be here is on a Wednesday. Okay, I understand. Thank you. Thank you for letting us know. And that's a state level requirement. Yes, sir. Understood. Having satisfied the agenda. It's that time of the year again for the NJCAA tournament. Everyone should have received the email. If you go online, a lot of the spots already booked. So, um, sign up every every every spot. Uh, there's something in every spot on since it's now Monday through Saturday. Um, takes a lot more people.

Yeah, they got the girls tournament going on this week, too. Yes. Alderman. I would like to just thank uh Steve White. He's um he the way he stepped up and got things rolling, there was a lot of people feeling very desperate and um he made us all look good. He made Danville look good and I really appreciate that. Amen. Having said Oh yes, Mr. Speaker, one thing to add to that, we we went over there and looked at the bus station. He was very good about showing us around. If if you can go over there, just look. This is so interesting. I've done a tour of that and it's good.

All right. Anything else? Having satisfied the agenda, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. Second. It's been moved and second. Any discussion or debate? All those in favor, please signify by saying I. Any oppose? Same sign. We are adjourned. Thanks everyone.