Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I would like to call the January 8th board of trustees meeting to order of the village of Indian Head Park. Clerk, can we please take role? Trusty Ayanako here. Trusty Sana here. Trusty Ek here. Trusty Donnersburgger. Trusty Svetka here. Trusty Gazis I here. And President Amy Joe Whittenber. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I'd like to wish everyone a happy new year. I am looking forward to a an eventful and adventurous 2026. So, I will be um not be providing a formal village president's report. We will move on to the consent agenda. Can I please have a motion for the consent agenda? Uh so move

second. All righty. Uh first by trustee E and second by trustee Sana. Any questions on consent agenda items? Approval of regular meeting minutes of December 11th. Approval of payables for December 31st and the approval of the preliminary financial report. Any questions? I think we need a financial report, please. Treasurer.

Yes. This is the financial summary for the month ending December 2025. Cash on hand at November 30th, 2025 was 2,194,98654. Payments in December of 2025 were $492,817.92. Total revenues for December of 2025 were $639,421.54. The ending bank balance at December 31st of 2025 was 2,341,59016.

Great. Thank you, treasure. I have a question on that. Uh if if the county was paying us all of the uh real estate taxes that were uh due as of the end of middle December, uh what might that uh 2,341 have been? Though the amount of taxes that we were anticipating in the first uh installment was about a little over 300,000 and total. Yeah. And I assume we'll be getting interest on that payment when it comes. I'm not certain of that. I guess we need to inquire then, right?

That would that would be basis to uh to do what we were talking about, wouldn't it? [clears throat] I can inquire. Yeah, you should ask because I don't think there's a law for that. They can charge us interest, but we can't charge they can't. Right. All right. I'll get I'm on a tangent. I'm sorry. Excuse me. Um, can we have a roll call vote, please, for the consent agenda items, please? Trusty Inako, I. Trusty Seldana, I. Trusty Yak. I. Trusty Svetka. I. Trusty Gazes. I. Motion passes 5-0.

Great. Thank you. Moving on to new business, please. May I have a motion for item D? Uh, I move to consider and approve resolution 2026-01 approving the intergovernmental agreement with the Illinois Controllers Office for the local debt recovery program. Second.

Thank you. Trustee Gazus and Trustee Selano. So, this uh program would allow the village to recover unpaid debts, whether it's from water bills, uh tickets, uh uh issued by the police department, uh parking tickets, code fines. Um there is no cost to village to participate in this program. Administr administrative fees are uh paid by the person who owes the funds. Um the money would come out of any state payments that they would be getting whether that's a tax return or even a lottery winnings. The uh due process is honored in in this. They would h we would have to go through our whole process where we um issue letters notifying people that they owe money. We do everything we can to collect the debt. We would we can also submit debts to a collection agency and then [clears throat] our a last resort would be to submit to the local debt recovery program. So on this um the uh the the debtor pays $20 uh for the state collecting the debt. But if the state doesn't up to $20, but then um if the debt is still not collected, we have the uh alternative to turn it over to a collection agency.

Yes, correct. collection agencies typically charge uh between 25 and 50% of of the debt that they collect. So that's a substantial amount, right? They would take that out of the debt that is collected and but we would still get more than we get when it's nothing. More. Yeah.

Right. So today we use a debt collection agency and that the process would be number one we would try to collect it through letters with the person that owes us the money. The second thing is to do we do is turn it over to a collection agency that the board approved about two years ago. So that process would still be in in effect. The third option now will be sending it to this collection that the state offers us. This would be the third way that we would collect the money. And then that would happen from the different ways that are mentioned, whether [clears throat] it's a state tax refund or it's a lottery winning or it's a variety of different payments that were in your packet. The money would then come to the village automatically and they would pay for this process. So the process will be those three ways that we will collect debts from people that owe money. And uh we have been doing that for a while and both Eve and Lucy and our staff have been very very um proactive about collecting money that is owed to the village.

So just to clarify, we would still use a debt collection agency. This would be an addition to not in replacement of correct. Correct. Thank you. This would this would be u more efficient in some ways because a debt collection agency has to go after the the folks. This is money. This would be taken out of money that the state is paying to people. So is with that said, is there any reason to still use a debt collection agency if no matter what we're going to get our money through the state? Well, that's only in the if they're getting some kind of payment from the state. So, makes sense. We'd have to root for everybody to win the lottery.

As of the end of the year, roughly, what are our total unpaid uh debts? Rough numbers, fine. So I can tell you the police department alone is in excess of 50,000. So it's just the police department I can't speak to the village but we're in excess of 50,000. We probably collected a little over 2,000. So with this is an additional way that we can be guaranteed we'll get the money. Mhm. And that debt going back to 2022 right like 28. She has collected Yeah. I think Eve's collected close to 28 to $30,000 already. Right. just by doing that. But I'm just I'm just speaking to the ability to hit the income tax. She said there's about 50,000 plus out there still.

Yep. And as far as the water billing goes, we've got um accounts that are behind 60 days owes there's an amount of 3,000 and counts that are 90 days or older um it's about 9,000. So about 12,000 in those two categories. But all totally rolling it all up, we're somewhere between 50 and 100,000. Rough rough number. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Those stats for the water, do they still receive water or are you cutting off the water?

We have. So in a lot of cases, we have started payment plans and we'd really have, if we were to uh take advantage of this program right now, there's really one water account that we would that would be eligible for this. And they owe a substantial amount. Off the top of my head, I don't recall what that specific one is, but um most of these accounts are now doing uh payment plans and we're not going to cut off water. Although today's temperature, it it wouldn't be hazardous, but we don't want to cut it off during the winter because of the uh temperatures and and the impact of frozen pipes and all that. So,

you said 90 days. it was some we're working on this program and Lucy was successful in collecting um about 23,000 over uh in the past few months. So, our staff has been great about collecting money and now this is just going to give us another tool in our tool chest to be able to collect more money. So, we would hope that people would just pay their bills, but that's unfortunately not always the case. And we tried sending Joe and knocking on the door. We We actually Go ahead, Joe.

We notify the hangers on the doors um actually inspired a lot of people to come in and make payments. So, any other questions before we [clears throat] move for a vote? Seeing none, can we please have a roll call vote? Trusty Aako I. Trusty Sana I. Trusty Yak I. Trusty Svetka I. Trusty Gazes. Hi. 5-0. The motion carries.

Moving on to item E. Please, can we have a motion? Move approval um of ordinance 2026-01 approving a redevelopment plan and project for the triangle area tiff district. Second. Thank you. Trustee Sana and Trustee Gazus.

Okay. And we're going to take these next three one at a time. No, we're going to do each motion and then a vote and then a motion and a vote for all three of them. But um these we had at the last board meeting we had the public hearing for the tiff district. Uh we have shared the plan far and wide. We've had the uh joint review board. Um so the ordinances the three ordinances in front of you will authorize the triangle area tiff district um at Juliet and Wolf and 294. And the approval in this uh the the establishment of the test district is based on the eligibility study. It meets criteria as both a conservation and blighted area. Uh it enables the use of future property tax growth to reinvest in local infrastructure and redevelopment. It would run on a 23-year term. Uh the estimated redevelopment budget, and we've talked about this a number of times, would be 37 million. um that's a statutory cap. That's not necessarily a budget or a spending commitment. Um but based on the types of expenditures that we'd be able to use the money for and the the estimates in the in the study, um that cap is $37 million. Um redevelopment plans can include infrastructure, facade upgrades, remediation, site preparation, and marketing. And this whole plan and everything we've talked about in the tiff district uh is in alignment with the uh 2015 comprehensive plan for the village.

Any questions? Any questions on item E, the redevelopment plan and project for the triangle area tiff district? Hearing none, can we have a roll call vote? [clears throat] Trusty Inako. Hi. Trusty Seldana. Hi. Trusty Eek. Hi. Trusty Donnersburgger. Hi. Trusty Svetka. Hi. Trusty Gazes. Hi. 6. Motion carries. Moving on to item F. Please. Can we please have a motion? Move approval of ordinance 2026-02 which is designating the triangle area tiff redevelopment project area. I second.

Thank you. Trustee Sana and trustee. I third it. very enthused. I can reflect. Is there anything you'd like to add, Gavin? On the No. The triangle area. Okay. Clerk, can we have a roll call vote, please? Trusty Inaco. I. Trusty Sana. Hi. Trusty Ek. I. Trusty Donnersburgger. I. Trusty Zvetka. I. Trusty Gazis. Hi. Motion carries 6. Moving on to the third motion, please.

Move approval of ordinance 2026-02, which is adopting the tax increment financing. I'll second that. Thank you, Trustee Sana and Trustee Spesca. Any questions or comments on this? Great. Hearing none, can we please have a roll call vote? Trusty Inaco. I. Trusty Seldana. Hi. Trusty A. I. Trusty Donnersburgger. Hi. Trusty Svetka. I. Trusty Gazis. Hi. 6. Motion carries.

Thank you to all that worked so hard on the TIFF district plan and I know there's a lot of people that put a lot of time and effort into this and thanks from the support from the economic development committee. Thank you. Moving on to item H. Please move for approval of ordinance 2026-4 approving a municipal waste recycling and landscaping waste services agreement with SBC Waste Solutions. Second, [laughter] we're very interested in getting our waste picked up. Okay,

so this is a 5-year agreement with SBC Waste Solutions for all residential waste services. It includes unlimited trash, recycling, and yard waste, all sticker-free. Um, it we're recommending maintaining the leaf vacuuming. Um, it adds and the price on that has gone down from what we were paying before. Uh, need to point that out. It adds uh free year round e-waste pickup with advanced scheduling with SBC. Uh, it results in a cost saving for most of the residents and HOAs already covered. Um and there is um the [clears throat] mult the annual rate increase is capped at 3%. Uh multif family and HOA communities overall will save 9 to 48% when integrated and it does this uh franchise agreement will apply to the whole all residences in the uh in the community in the Tyron village um including those HOAs that have independent contracts at this time. What is written into the ordinance and um what [clears throat] we've all agreed to is that um as those current contracts with other vendors expire, they will come on to the uh villages franchise agreement. And um Sean Flood is here from SBC. he can answer any questions about the specific programming. Um, and I'm happy to answer any questions about how this will uh be implemented.

Hey Gavin, you said 5-year agreement. Is that price locked in for the 5 years or is there an escalation every year? There is an escalation if and um what so what we're working on what the ordinance will do is uh authorize me to finalize the agreement and to uh execute it. But we I will share that with the board. I got uh tonight a final version from our our consultant who's been working with Sean and and myself to to get this finalized. And the pricing uh does go up each year. Um and it's all laid out in the fee schedule. The five-year uh five-year agreement has a different uh price for each year, but it goes up. For example, uh starting out with the 35gallon uh trash and recycling cart in year one for a single family residence would be $20 in year 52252.

And those rates are locked in once we agree on the contract. Yes. Okay. Correct. Thank you. So, it's not factored on the CPIW. It's factored on something else. Correct. A a fixed rate. Okay. 3%. Um, but that's not for the town homes.

Right. I was I was about to throw that out there. the um cart service and bag service for the town homes, Ashbrook, Indian Inian Woods, uh Chestnut on the Green, um town homes would be $18 in year one and going up 3% each year. Uh the bag service would be uh for Acacia Town Homes, they would continue with bag service as they do now. And for Indian Ridge condominiums, th those uh for Indian Ridge it's $18 a month. And then a CA because they do uh twice week twice a week. Acacia town homes uh would start out at 1285. And then the leaf vacuuming as I mentioned it's uh less than it currently is. Uh the year one is 30,000. Uh I think this year we paid 33,000 32 and some change. Um so the it it going out to bid working with SBC now that they've had five years experience here in the village, five plus years experience here in the village. Uh we were able to uh get the pricing to come down. So it was a lot of effort. I I want to thank the board for allowing me to engage uh a consultant through the solid waste agency of Cook County of Western Cook County and um and Charlie and Jim for uh serving as the subcommittee on uh waste hauling. So, thanks.

Well, I'd like to say just a few things, Gavin. Uh you know, new to the new to the operation here, not really new anymore. I feel like you're a seasoned veteran based on what we had prior to this administration under Amy Joe and Gavin's direction. Um we really righted or wrong that I think with a municipality of our size being a resident here 15 years the the multiple carveouts regarding contracts dates specifics really didn't make sense on an economic basis. Charlie was great in negotiating. Uh special thanks to obviously Sean and SBC that not only made it met us in the middle but really made the effort to let us know that they valued you know this contract but really all the a lot of the work that Gavin and Phil and the consultant uh Phil the consultant and Charlie did uh you know behind the scenes working with Shawn. Um you know uh many meetings, many back and forths. You know Charlie we tried to move him a little bit but he stuck to his guns. Sean, to your credit, you guys really showed the village how much you value the business and uh again, leadership was great. Uh I was just happy to be in the room for a couple of those meetings, but I thought you all did a phenomenal job.

And I'd like to accent that as well. I would agree with what uh you were saying in terms of uh the work being done by the village and Gavin in particular and Sean. Thank you. Uh, one point to make uh is that these fees are uh uh we no longer need stickers. Is that correct? Correct. So that's a that's a big positive. Thank you. And just one note um one other opportunity that we took advantage of is we joined the West Cook County Solid Waste Agency. We have not been prior a member of that which afforded us the consultant Phil Kowalsski.

Yeah. which was a benefit to the village. And we also are able to participate in the regional disposal program, RDP, which is also um a way that we were able to um get some costs that are lower than um we were paying today for the disposal of our trash in more of a consortium or co-op where we are working through the solid waste agency to provide pricing for the disposal of our trash in the landfill or the transfer station. basically. So those are some major differences between what we have done in the past and what we have done this time. And I want to thank everyone who spent the time and effort to get this all done. And now we can um move on with other really important initiatives. So thank you.

Any other questions before we go and have a roll call vote? Sean, do you have any questions for me? Any other questions? Fridays. except for I don't think there are any other questions but uh if there are none we will move on to a vote please roll call vote trustyo I trusty sana I trusty yak absolutely trusty Donnersburgger hi trusteska I trusty gases hi 6 motion carries great uh now we can move on to any public comments did we receive any emails this afternoon. No, from the public.

Nothing specifically noted as public comment. No. Okay. And do we have any public comments from those in the audience this evening?

Uh good evening and [clears throat] uh happy new year, mayor, trustees, uh Gavin, Joe. Um, thank you all and thank you guys for instilling the the trust in us again uh for the new term with village and um I just want to compliment Trusty Sonetta for your all that is the best outfit that I've seen in a long time. I mean it's I have to get that vest for my that jacket for my wife cuz I mean I am impressed. So go Bears. I'm very excited for Saturday. So I saw that and I couldn't stop looking at it. But um uh just some recent news on the leaf vacuuming. The numbers I did send them over to Gavin. Um 2025 we did uh 118.36 tons of leaf vacuuming. Obviously we were impacted by the snow and ice. Uh recently we did get back out there as a defth and got a lot of it picked up for you guys. Um in 2023 we did 123.06 tons. 2024 we did 133.8 eight nine tons and then in 20. So we do um estimate there's some still out there um if residents do call obviously with the new program now they're going to be able to have that stuff removed so they can just clearly move that out to the curb bag it or in their personal carts. Um I do want to highlight on the new RFP that we did propose a new composting program together for the village for the residents residents are able to opt into that program. It's $5 for all three sizes, regardless of size. They can have that uh compost cart for food scraps. So, I'm going to work with Kevin and staff to better educate residents on how to eliminate that out of landfill and keep that cost down so we can start doing some more um proactive environment stuff for res uh village residents.

That's open for all village residents and we will include that in with the multifamily as well. So if um the multif family buildings uh want to maybe purchase a couple cards or add a couple cards out of that program, the price is the same for them as well. So um it's it's it's a really good program. It's something that's taken off really well in today's uh society and our goal is to help eliminate a lot of that out of the landfill and we're going to work with the residents on that too. Um obviously uh we have the we have the yardway season coming up here in April. Uh so if residents do have leftover leaves out there, they can obviously bag it or put in their personal cards or they can rent a card from SBC and we'll be able to happily remove that. Um we're excited to be a part of the new association with you guys. Um it did help drive our cost a little bit lower um speaking with Gavin. So by you guys joining that group, it helped us come in a little bit more aggressive uh with the village and uh in our proposing RFP. Um, as Kevin said and Charlie and and Jim, um, you [clears throat] we value IHP and, uh, you guys put us in the residential game and if it wasn't for IHP, we don't know where we'd be today. So, uh, that's why we came in aggressive and that's why we, um, just felt like we had to do what we had to do to make sure we kept this community. So, I want to thank you all uh, for tonight's votes. Um, and we're excited to continue our partnership for the next 5 years. Um, a couple new things also as well as Gavin said, we're going to be doing e-waste and paint and hazardous removal now yearly at the curbside. A lot of problems we had over the past 5 years where residents would call in and they missed the event and they're like, I was on vacation or I didn't I didn't see it online or they didn't see it on social media. With the new program now, these residents can call in year round and it's best to them. It's more of an allocart service.

So now residents can schedule with us at our call center what best fits their needs to move to have these items removed. In the past we had residents, you know, close on the house, sell the house, and then the new homeowner comes in and they're like, "Hey, I bought this house. There's 20 gallons of paint in my basement. What do I do with it?" Like, "Well, you have to wait till the spring." Well, now they don't have to wait till the spring. Now they can call it in whenever they want. So it's a really good add-on uh for the residents. I think this is going to be really beneficial. We're going to see some different numbers in my opinion. Um, we always have a great spring event, but I believe uh this is going to increase and also help the residents. No more stickers for white goods. I know they were used to put 10 stickers on a stove or 10 stickers on a refrigerator. That's all gone now. So, residents now are able to have those items removed free of charge. Uh, all they have to do is basically contact our office, give us 24 hours notice, and we'll schedule that with the residents. So, I think it's going to be a lot more convenient for them. A lot more cost savings for them, especially for senior citizens, too. We had a lot of senior citizens were like, I I don't have the access or the manpower or the help to get that to the recycling event. And now we're going to be able to get simply either leave it out their door outside their garage. They don't even have to bring it down to the curb. If they talk to the call center, our call center reps, we'll schedule that best fits their needs. So, we've had people where our drivers will go up to the uh the front door or the garage door and they'll remove those items. So, um I think it's going to really help uh with with these residents. I think they're really going to like the new service. And I did draft a new um uh welcome flyer. It's not a welcome flyer, but it's like a a new program flyer that I sent to Gavin for approval. So, once it's approved, we will mail that out to all residents showing them, educating them on all the new programs. So, we're not just going to rely on old information. We'll make sure we do a mass mailer to all the new residents. Um, a couple given some

questions about where the recycle the e-waste is going. We have a partnership with Etronics Recycling. So, what they do is they supply us with bins at our main location. Our drivers pick those items. So, we have a box truck. I'm sure you guys have seen it throughout town. and he goes around picking up special hazardous waste and he brings it back to our shop and then we call them and they come and remove those bins and swap them for new empty bins on an on call basis. They're located out at Carol Stream and they're confirmed the company name is Eotronics out of Carolream and they're a great company to work with, a great partner and um they help eliminate all that material out of landfill. Um in regards to paint recycling, a lot of the stuff now what we've realized what we've been doing is we've been recycling a lot of the paint inhouse and we'll actually take the paint and we'll inter put it in the interior of our containers. So, a lot of the metal containers that you see out there, compactors, dumpsters, uh we have our own fabrication shop, luckily uh out of Broadview, and we'll take those plans of planes and we'll actually paint the interiors of our dumpsters and compactors and stuff. It helps put a nice line to help protect the metal and steel. We also have a partnership with Earth Paint who actually takes the material and recycles it and turns into new paint and resells it. But a lot of the stuff we've been um lately we've been doing internally is helping protect the interior of our metal containers and [clears throat] preserving the life of those. So, as you know with water and snow and ice in the Chicago land area, steel doesn't last as long and tends to rust out at the bottoms. And this has been a really beneficial factor for us. So, um, with that being said, we're really excited for it and I I appreciate Charlie and Jim and obviously Gavin, mayor and Joe's support in the process. You guys definitely did your due diligence. You guys work extremely hard and I respect it and I understand why you did it and that's why we came in and we did what we needed to do to make sure

we preserved our relationship and partnership and I want to thank each and every one of you and we are so excited for the next 2026 and the next years ahead and we're excited to be involved in your community events and donations and uh and thank you for allowing us to be a part of this community for the next more five more years. if there's any other questions for us. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have any other public comments this evening, Jim?

Um, yes. I'd like to make a comment. I was pleased to hear about the uh composting component that we have here. Um, coincidentally, we have four of our five kids live out of state and in California where we have one, in Colorado where we have three. Um composting is just a thing that they're doing uh presently and um having lived in Chicago all of them before they say it's amazing how much that's reduced the the trash that would have gone to a landfill in place of that. And uh it it's not only good for the environment, but I think it's a progressive way for us to look at the at the future where we can take advantage of things like compostable containers uh from restaurants and things like that that eliminate a lot of the the dead waste.

Yeah. One point that um I'm very proud of is that we did a community survey on refuge in the spring. So, we were able to collect information about people's preferences regarding garbage and that's what came up with some of the ideas like getting rid of stickers was a big topic of course and also I believe 35 or 40% of our um residents talked about composting and wanting composting. So, we got a lot of that trend data from the survey and we were able to use the survey data to craft the new agreement. So, thank you staff for working on that survey and um taking the feedback from our residents to heart as they renegotiated the new contract. So, thank you. Any other comments this evening? All righty. We'll move on to reports. Trustee Gazis,

no report. Trust. The only update I have is from the planning and zoning meeting that occurred this past Tuesday afternoon. Um, there was just continued discussion on the topic about the potential of approval for fences along I think what was deemed busy streets. Is that Andre is going to correct me because you're good at that and I'm not. Major roads. Major roads. Thank you. Non nonIHP roads.

Thank you. That's even better. Um that discussion is continuing into next month and um I think that we're going to hopefully have something to bring to the board maybe the month after maybe in March depending on details of it. um possibly February uh because they've landed on an aesthetic look which is that black row iron sorry I'm bleeding over that black row iron fence that is very common in the area um is kind of their idea of what they want there's some uh details they want our hammer out there's things talked about like screening uh possibly um whether or not the survey we sent out was about major roads the four major roads through the community um there's some discussion now about whether even for non Indian park roads which would add 65th Street which backs up there there's houses that back up to 65th Street which is a Dinhead Park Road but that's very open. So there's ongoing discussions about that but um it could very well wrap up and we could have something here in next month or for certain by March.

Thank you. Trust Donnersburgger. Well, I just have to say how happy and relieved I am that the uh TIFF is moving forward. uh there our Jim is on the committee as several others and they've been working really hard over the past many months. So um that's that's a relief to us and we look forward to great things happening up there. Um as for the heritage site committee, we've taken a rather long sbatical uh but hopefully we'll get it going this month. Trusty Egg.

Uh yeah, two things. Uh the next finance committee will be next Monday the 12th at 4:00. It's an open meeting. So if anybody wants to join us, they're welcome to come in. And the second thing is to acknowledge our leader uh uh chief administrative officer of this organization and all the things that he's doing well and we thank you for that. You're welcome. Trusty Sana, no report. Trusty, no report. Just go Bears. [laughter]

I do want to to uh thank before we turn things over to the uh staff um everybody that made our volunteers and staff that made the Frosty Fest happen. We had I think probably 150 people show up um with Santa and the live reindeers that were out here. We had two live beautiful reindeers that came to visit Indian Head Park. And we also had a food drive for the Kelly J. Olan Memorial Foundation, which that food went to the St. Clutus Food Pantry. So, we appreciate all of the help. We have lots of volunteers that make these things happen and we appreciate that very much. Moving on to staff. Can we please have the public works update?

All right. Uh I'll start out with um we got our uh 5-year water main plan from Strand Engineering here in December. Uh so we're going to work with this and also our road program that we had uh done to coordinate these projects to get things moving forward. Um and with that, I also had a meeting with Strand this week to go over some of our projects that we're working on. um one being the Pontiac water main uh and road program that uh the plans are mostly complete but they will be done by the end of this month and then we're looking for February/March for possibly going out to bid with that but we'll be bringing that to the board once we get that uh moving forward. Also the chlorine switch over um from gas to liquid is moving forward. Uh they it's it's out for bid right now. Strand put that out for bid through their uh resources. Uh the bid opening will be a Zoom bid on January 27th and myself and Andreas will be involved in that bid process as well. Um once that goes through, we'll be looking to take that uh for approval uh to the board meeting on February 12th. Um and hopefully have that job completed by the end of April. Uh what else we got here? Um inhouse, we've been doing a few things. Uh we've been doing some storm sewer maintenance just because of all this rain and and freezing and so forth. We've had some uh things in house. We had to have a couple areas rotted out to make sure they're working correctly. Um uh also we're looking to uh working on in public works. Actually Brian is working on it. He did our RFP for our uh lawn maintenance and he's working on the RFP for looking into a new cleaning service for the village uh buildings. Um he kind of got a first draft together. So, we'll be uh uh polishing that up and hopefully get a a new cleaning service to for both buildings because right now

the way it is, it's set up that there's a a cleaning service that services this building and a separate one that does the public works. So, we're looking to hopefully combine all that into one and get a get a good price on that. Um I've had my quarterly meeting with the Morton Arboritum uh and updated some things for the for the grant process and moving forward with that. Um, and I think that's Oh, the louvers for the public works building. I'm waiting for the designs for that so that we can uh start getting some quotes for that as well. That's what I have for tonight. Chief, why don't we have you next and then we'll follow with Andreas and and then Gavin.

Okay. We submitted the grant for uh body warn cameras and incar cameras. It was due December 31st. We're waiting to find out if we need to uh add any additional information. However, we'll hear something in April. We requested uh just under $60,000 and we were assisted by um a grant company. I can't think of the name right now, but uh they did a great job. We got it submitted in time and uh hopefully we'll hear something in April. The new squad is in service. that um takes a long time to get these outfitted, especially since CO it seems to take forever. However, it's been outfitted. It's back in service. It's replacing the squad that was totaled when uh Corporal Mileus was hit head-on. So, now that we got that back in service, so we're uh we're running on more than just a band-aid. So, that that helped us a lot to get it in service. IP uh we submitted the invoice for ILE. They're going to contact the the department. I'll be working with them directly which will get us they're going to look at all our policies and procedures and advise and once we get certified it should bring down insurance costs. I don't want to guarantee that but that's what the whole reason for doing it. It was only a $1,500 item and they're going to review all of our policies which is needed. I want somebody else to look at them. And Commander Gardner has been selected to go to staff and command of Northwestern Center of Public Safety. It's going to be a two week on and two week off starting this Monday, coming Monday. It's a very prestigious class. It's a tough class. He's going to He hasn't been in school in a long time. He's going to have to write research papers and properly site them and all that fun stuff, but he's looking forward to it and I'm sure he'll do a great job. So, thank you for allowing him to go. I appreciate that.

Andreas. Um from the economic development side, as we know with the business district and the tiff district both being approved now, we'll be looking at engaging a planning consultant um to help us with just the market viability of the site for uses, what it can be used for, you know, someone who can really do that research and and outreach and even, you know, connecting with different developers that they might know. And then at the same time also having them you know looking at what type of goals we'll have for that site which will be informed by that market viability and then also having helping us develop possible you know incentive mechanisms to reach those goals in there as well as possible evaluations of those incentives. So that's our next steps here. We're hoping to get that consultant engaged sooner rather than later. Um so keep an eye out for that one. Um otherwise from the community development side uh the zoning ordinance and the building codes overhauls that we're getting to our first full public drafts on them we've been doing at peace meal for the last six or seven months with our consultant safe built. Um so those will be coming to both uh the plan commission and the board um sooner rather than later. We also looking at our business licensing uh code and um overhauling that as well. Some of it is outdated. Some of it can be modernized for more effectiveness and some of it the state threw a wrench in it and made some things easier for us shockingly. Um so we can also excise portions of it. Thank you. Rick has been help Rick and Pat have been helping us with that. So we'll be looking at reviewing that as well to get that really tuned up and in shape um from the community development side of it. And finally on the building side of it, uh 2025 is over. So we have a final number of building permits. We had did we issued well we didn't issue but we took in 122 this year I believe actually all of them have been issued at this point. Um in comparison last year we did 117

2023 has been the high mark of the last nine years that was 165 22 was 137 21 was 116 202 was 113 2018 was 101 and 2017 which I have the last reliable data on on the drive um was 74. So, while we're not as high as, you know, 21, 22, well, we're not as high as 22 and 23, that was kind of an anomaly. Um, just from my previous experience when I was at Burr Ridge, we also saw a surge of of uh building permits during that time. So, that was and due to pandemic money and everyone still being stuck in their house. Uh, so we are back to a about the historical average on that. So, that is looking good as well. Um otherwise all our gaming and liquor licenses have been issued and paid for. Uh I believe well yes they have and so we are now looking for you know looking towards the June one that way as well.

Question your building permit process uh when you talked about it before was uh in the process of speeding up with the new system. Has that uh been effective now? Yes, it's being is being much more effective now. Um we've ironed out some of the wrinkles in it. Um now we're the next step is going to be looking at cross trainining other staff. We've with any new ERP, you know, uh updates. We think we have everything set up correctly. And then recently we were looking at cross trainining here in December and found out that there was some thing there was some locked out, you know, for safety reasons. So we got to go back and and look at that as well. So that's our next step is cross trainining staff so I can be in faster. But everything else is is you know that it's cut time down by about half to do it and it help it helps with record keeping at the moment. So even better.

All righty. I think we are on to the village attorney. Do you have anything this evening? No. How about village administrator? Thanks. Last but not least,

village president. Um just wanted to note that we're are scheduling a committee of the whole meeting for January 22nd. Um and at that meeting we'll talk about goals and planning for 26 and or the 26 27 uh fiscal year. Uh we have been developing budgets for each of the departments with uh with finance committee. So, um, we'll talk about some of those, uh, some of the new items in the budget and how we're reorganizing the budget. Um, I wanted to say we haven't got word gotten word on the OLAD grant application for Sack Jia Park. Uh, we are supposed to hear something this month on that and as part of uh, Trusty Donnersburgger mentioned the heritage site uh, uh, committee. Once we do get uh the ball rolling on that again, we are going to meet with the same consultant that helped us with Sack Julia Park to uh develop some ideas for uh the heritage site.

All righty. Did I miss anybody? I'm good at that. So, I just want to make sure. All righty. Um I would like to entertain a motion for adjournment. Oh my god. Motion to adjourn. Second. I second. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Happy new year All in.