City Council - Regular Meeting

kids in town, kids their own age, older kids even, and structured routine or being able to socialize and have actual conversations with other kids. I'm very grateful. Our youngest son is attending. In fact, again, I'm a teacher, so I taught summer school. My husband and I both teach summer school, so we decided that he would go just half days in the morning. Uh, he begged us to make him full days because he loves it so much. Um, you know, these kids are able to, like I said, that the communication that I'm getting from the leaders, um, the directors that are running it, uh, the, the newsletter, the crafts, the, you know, all the things that they're doing. I just can't express enough my gratitude for that. And I, I just, I wanted you to know, because I know that the city played a part in this. I kept asking like, wait a minute, how did this come about? Um, because honestly, I didn't know quite too much about it until I saw your fundraiser for it. And, um, so again, I also love the fact that you have the teams in town helping as counselors, that's also offering all of these high school kids a chance at leadership skills. We are very grateful. Like I said, I could go on and on about all the things that this rec is truly offering more than just play. I could go on for a long time about the different levels of that. I just personally wanted to come here and thank you for allowing that. I know you had a part in it and anything that we can do to keep it going, I love it. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you for your kind words. And I'll make sure Shelby knows this was Shelby's brainchild. Shelby's my director of municipal operations. I think that's what she landed on for what she wanted to be. And, and honestly, she made it selfishly because she also has children. You know, I think Bentley, Bentley and Maddie, I don't know how old they are. I have no concept anymore, but, uh,

good thank you for the glowing review that that validates what we did it's it's like i said it's fabulous isaac is we he begged us to continue i heard all about it so i heard you brought things too so and you know i can continue i will continue to bring things you know i know that they had wrecked years ago i i didn't grow up here ellen you know elliot he's not a wrecking Penny, it was COVID, so you didn't have it. And so, I mean, it's just great. And every time I can show up at any point in time and everything is just running, appears to be from an educator standpoint, everything seems to be running.

As you know, from an educator standpoint, you know, it's like a duck on water some days. That's great.

Thank you so much, Carrie.

um moving right along um we gotta pay our bills second time thank you motion from joey a second from alex that's a roll call please gillis yes fogs yes smith yes rose yes cruising yes thank you leads us to you chief in the police department of george

We replaced two radar units and patrol vehicles. And Lieutenant Carl Powell retired at the end of the month. He's pleased to be here from 2012 to 2017. And he stayed on part-time as a lieutenant, helped me through after I took over and made sure I did what all I needed to get done. And he's slowly been working less, and he finally decided to hang it up.

We wish Carl well.

I have a motion and a second to accept the police department report for June of 2026. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? That'll pass. We have no old business, but we got new business. First order of new business we have is a discussion possible action. Tony is working diligently on the gym building, buttoning it up. Everybody can see we've got a lift out there. They're going to be laying some blocks. They're filling in that window. They're going to brick up one doorway. The door to the north is a double metal door that has to be replaced. I gave everybody an estimate. Tony solicited this. This door needs replaced. We also need to replace the door on the north that works as a handicap door. because it is broken as well. Tony says we can get two doors for, they're $3,500 a piece. This is going to be part of the big package that we have once the RFP done for the side of this building. But I want to go ahead and get these doors ordered. And Tony says he can get them installed. And while he has the lift, he says it would be advantageous.

So just question.

Yes.

So the $3,500 is per door? Per door, yes. Okay.

And getting the handicap door would probably make us handicap accessible. Right.

I'd like to make a motion that we approve $7,600 towards the purchase of doors.

Second. I have a motion from Alex. Second from Joey. No, we've got to have a roll call.

Gillis?

Yes.

Boggs? Yes. Smith? Yes.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, are we supposed to be on video?

It's on. Well, I just got a thing and this person says no video. Says it's live. I can see myself.

This person says still no video.

Sorry. No, you're fine, Dave. Says it's live for seven minutes in.

Maybe off two minutes. Good.

All right. Next item I have discussion, possible action. These are the CDC recommendations. CDC met on June 25th at 5 p.m.. The committee makes the following recommendations. Commercial to Farmington Public Library. One hundred fifty thousand dollars payable over 10 years to facilitate the building and maintaining of their new outdoor classroom. An in-depth redevelopment agreement, first being Jim Schreiner for tree removal. It is his first grant. It's a $2,500 grant. Chris Helle for gutter replacement. This is a repeat grant for $675. Tyler Schmidgall with a patio and retaining wall replacement. It is his first grant for $2,500. And Steve Passmore with a window replacement is the first grant for $1,595.25. And then out of TIP development agreements, Bob East with a roof replacement for $1,000. Chad Holloway with a tree removal for $1,000. Greg Holloway with a tree removal for $1,000, and Kevin Huffrich with tree trimming for $1,000. These are the recommendations from the CEDC.

I'd like to make a motion that we approve the recommendation from the CEDC.

Thank you, Joey. Second.

And correct Tyler's last name.

Oh, yeah. I kind of left something out there, didn't I? I have a motion from Joey, second from Dave Rose. That's a roll call, please. Gilles.

I abstain.

Boggs. Yes. Smith. Yes. Rose. Yes. Krusen. Yes.

Thank you. We just had a planning commission meeting. Most of you were here. Planning Commission made the recommendation that we rezone the south side of 447 West Fulton Street to I-2 for a new manufacturing facility that will ultimately employ 10 to 12 people, hopefully within a year's time. And with this recommendation, there is ordinance number 2026-14. It's doing some of the same things that Justin Stevens who owns the Alexander building is doing. It's a steel erection business. Justin's in the process of purchasing the land to the south all the way to Fort Street. The only thing I can anticipate is we may have to look at upgrading Apple Alley. But if we can get a good manufacturing business in there, that's going to put 10 to 12 people to work. And I can only assume that there's going to be revenue sales tax revenue brought in from this. So we bring this ordinance Yeah, just just like an ordinance, like we usually do. This would be we want to do the first reading. Yeah, let's let's you want to. Yeah, let's do first reading and then we'll do second reading next time. Perfect. That's fine.

Make a motion to read ordinance number one, 26, 14.

Thank you. Do have a second second second by Alex. That's a roll call, please. yes bugs yes smith yes rose yes cruising yes all right this is city of farmington ordinance number 2026-14 an ordinance rezoning property at 447 west fulton street from i1 to i2 heavy industrial and amending the zoning map accordingly that is your first reading of ordinance 2026-14. I'll just put it in the folder and we'll bring it back next time for a second reading. Thank you. Next item I have is a discussion for sewer adjustments. Staff has been talking to me about, we have people wanting their sewer adjusted sometimes weekly. uh for watering pool filling mistakes and such and um talk to some of our neighbor neighboring municipalities and they um hannah city does it once a year i'm i'm proposing a twice a year um we'll have to amend an ordinance at some point for this but i wanted to get some input on this and we could do it like the end of June or beginning of June, beginning of, or actually I said end of June, end of December. And the other thing is those that are requesting the adjustments for watering and pool filling for $21, you can buy a meter on Amazon that you can tell us how much water you're using for this. That would certainly help without the staff having to go back and look at know what what's a history what's you know several years and you know is this above this above that because a lot of our meters don't have the ability for us to read how much water is being used but it's just a device that screws into the hose and then as the water goes through it it reads it how many people on average in town fill their pools every year a lot 20. we did probably 40 to 50 requests for adjustments every month with every month with pool filling and watering of flowers but watering flowers doesn't go down the drain to the sewer correct which is why they which is why they wanted adjustment that's why they're adjusting their water as compared to their actual you know because we base our sewer billing off the water uses america yeah okay I see what you're saying.

Because before it was off the water.

Well, it is off. It's off their water reading. It's off the number of gallons used is what our sewer, you know, you figure you bring a gallon in, it's got to go somewhere.

I do a lot of watering on flowers, but I mean, I don't know how much.

No, for $21, you can get a meter and it'll tell you exactly what you're using.

And then I come to the city and get an adjustment.

Well, what they would like to see is twice a year you can get an adjustment. Okay. Good, bad, ugly? Suggestions? We don't need a motion on this. I just want to know if you want me to bring it back.

Yes, sir. And we're going to need an ordinance for it as well.

Right, Bill?

Yeah, you're getting an ordinance and... Awesome, awesome. this is not really an optional thing like i think my first trial uh involved this when i first started practicing law so it's it's been been the law for a long time so you got to give them credit they can make improved non-sewered uh water use am i out of line asking for a meter no that's what that's what the greater courier sanitary district does

Does Greater Peoria Sanctuary District provide the meter or do they? I don't know. I wish Grant was still here. We know. They do. Okay. So they give them a meter that they have to use and then they pull. Yeah. And maybe we do something like that.

I don't have them pull, but I've got a sprinkler system. So I have a non-sewered water use separate meter for it. And you just call in the readings.

um and and that's what happens now we have people in here every week giving post-its so so and and just kind of piggybacking off of that sorry bill for stealing me thunder here i just have a lot of questions but for for you do they do that every month or how how what's the cadence on that for for yours with greater peoria yeah but period standard does you get one credit a year okay so they give you the meter you call it in and from that point that's that's the number and then every year you you get that okay all right i think that's fair i think that might be the way to do it if we've got to buy the meters we gotta buy the meters yeah so that they're cheap and maybe we can find somewhere that will give us a deal on them i'll ask grant

i know the people of pure sanitary district maybe they'll tell me where they get them and i can yeah well just type like everything the same so someone can't mess with it or anything they may have a file you know older technology ones yeah yeah so i mean the ones i saw on amazon were 21 they were digital oh yeah well all right um i amended this can i see your agenda yeah Yeah, it is and I didn't give myself a copy Last item I have and I'll bring this back for old business tax funds. Well last item is discussion possible action We have to accept the bids for the 1979 work truck That didn't sell on our last round and I did get bids for it this time I got a total of one two three. I got five bids for it and ranging from $106 to $2,012. The winning bidder was Jay Steffen for $2,012 is the high bid. And I would take a motion to accept the high bid. I'll make a motion to accept the high bid. Second. I have a motion from Alex and a second from Dave Rose. Let's do a roll call just because that's mine.

Gillis?

Yes.

Boggs? Yes. Smith?

Yes.

Rose?

Yes.

Krusen? Yes.

All right. That is all the new business I have. Leads us to committee reports. Got anything this evening, Jenny?

I don't. Thank you.

Thank you. Joey, anything further on public safety? That is a report, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Nate is not here this evening. Alex, street sidewalks, garbage.

Nothing necessarily to report. Just a question. You bump into Shiloh before I do. Does anybody have any update on when Illinois American will come through and start paving? I do. Fantastic. That has been a topic. Yes.

So I finally got a good solid contact. They are now, the Illinois EPA is the big hold up at this point. All the new lines that have come in now have to be attacked the houses have to be attached to the new line which requires an illinois epa and permit so they're in the process of that jason my contact jason told me this could take as much as 90 days okay but they're starting on idle while sure and then once i had a while because they're the ones that have been torn up the longest right as as these get attached then they will come behind total gravel out and or put new asphalt on top We did make a phone call to the contractor that did this out on Vernon streets and several other streets. We asked them to go look at it. With all the rains we had, they washed a lot of the gravel out. Carl came back and filled in a bunch of the washouts. The reason they haven't replanted grass on the two blocks of North Main and down West Fulton is because same reason they've got to come back and they're going to have to tear it up again. They didn't want to, I wish they would have planted grass, but I wouldn't, but they didn't. And though they will seed it and put the mats down, the stuff they put the mats down, the grass looks great. So then for two blocks, but that is the update. All right.

leslie parks and rec um i had a call from shiloh a couple weeks ago and he was saying that the pavilion at reed park has pretty much seen its better days and he would like possibly to see something different there um you know i don't know they did he call you two or something we've talked about it um You know, so if anybody has any ideas, I mean, I could just see like a concrete slab with like, you know, posts and, you know, big metal roof over it, kind of like at Demet Park, but on a bigger scale. So that way it is all handicap accessible. The kids wouldn't be tearing up the floor with their bikes and skateboards and all that stuff. You know, put picnic tables underneath there or something. So, I don't know. So, I think it's When was that erected, in the 80s? 80, 80, 80? 40 years ago, probably. No idea. So he said the roof's bad, and the boards are bad. So that's something to think about, if you all have any design ideas or any other ideas for that pavilion. I think that would be nice, something different.

Why don't we solicit Maurstutz to give us an opinion?

On design?

Yeah. We're working with an architect on this building. Anyhow, maybe I can get them to have something in their pocket. I'd love to see something at ground level so we don't have that handicraft ramp.

Right.

I will see what I can learn about that.

That's all I have.

All right. Mr. Rose. you did touch base on that but we did actually need an architect to try and get some design on how to finish this and also the entrance there so possibly this month sometime we'll have some sort of bid to present to you all about what the ideas are it's a little bit in depth initially thought because of the anchoring point and the wall nobody dreamed it was going to be the wall that wasn't there it's just craziness it's just a whole lot going on with that so i'll have something for you hopefully by the end of the month

Nice Dave anymore I hear it was a nice parade.

I'm so unfortunately I was out of town.

Oh Good What was really nice this year too is I don't know about years past but the KVL the almost the entire girls boys young old trucks floats and mean they i think they had more in that parade than anybody else combined it was nice to see they were all dressed in uniforms and throwing candy and it was like that's half of our youth in the city so i i was that's one thing that touched me they built floats they did trucks they decorated trailers the kvl group really kind of did that parade really well along with the others obviously but that was just one thing i noticed jim i'm good gary

I would like to wish a belated happy birthday to Blanche Wilson at 108 years old. 108. We can all only hope.

Motion to adjourn. Can I tell you one thing?

Blanche, she played golf into her 90s. She drove into her 90s. She used to drive up and park next to Keith Sweaters and walk down to Razor's Edge. Okay. And that was about the time that Kenny and I were redoing the trainings.

So we would take a break, Blanche walks in.

Well, Kathy finds out about that. She says, if you're gonna park down there and walk there, you take your cane. And so the next week when we saw Blanche walking down, she had her cane wrapped around her wrist and she was walking.

i hear she left it at the bank a lot she had it with it hey we can all only hope all right we got a motion in a second all in favor opposed thank you thank you bill