City Council Meeting - Regular Meeting

Body. This is the city of Joliet pre council meeting here in Council Chambers on Monday, May 18 at 05:30.

Call the roll.

We'll begin with roll call. Mayor Darcy? Here. Council McCartney? Here. Council McClemmate? Here. Councilman Hug? Here. Councilwoman Navarro? Here. Councilman Moreno? Here. Councilman Mudrin?

Here.

Councilwoman Quoman? Here. Councilman Reuven? Here. First we have a presentation by IDOT.

Good evening. At council meeting, oh I don't know, a month or two ago, I think council Clement had requested an update on the I 80 construction from IDOT.

And councilwoman Reardon did as well.

I'm sorry.

Several council people. How

about that?

And And you.

Tonight, we have Eric Ray from IDAT with us. He's gonna go over a brief presentation on the status of the I 80 project.

Good evening. I wanted to give a brief presentation. It's a big project, but I'll try to boil it down so it's quick.

I don't wanna

take everybody's time to go through hours long spells of information. My name is Eric Ray. I am the area construction supervisor for South Cook and Will County at the Illinois Department of Transportation. Also, along with me is mister Philip Gibson. He is the senior resident engineer for the I 80 work, and we would like to just give an overview on the status of the I 80 work to date.

Just a quick agenda. Again, I'm not gonna take a lot of time, but I wanted to give a project overview. Giving the construction schedule, the impacts to Joliet, future construction, and also answering any questions that you all might have about the work that we have and what's to come. But hopefully, can touch on most of that now. So, overall, before we dive into the specifics, just an overview of the project.

This is I 80. Interstate 80 is one of the most important East West corridors in the country going right through Will County. It carries more than 80,000 vehicles per day, and about a quarter of that is freight traffic, heavy trucks. This contract is 16 miles of I 80 from Manuka on the very West end and at Ridge Road in Manuka. And on the very East end, it would be US 30 at New Lenox.

That is $1,300,000,000 of of construction we are delivering. And today, as we sit, we're approximately 60 to 65% complete. By the end of the year, we expect to be approximately 80% complete with that 16 mile stretch, finishing up the critical area over the Des Plaines River Bridge. And over the past four years, we have rebuilt and replaced several of the overhead bridges, Sheppley, River Road, Wheeler, Briggs. The Richard Street interchange has been reconstructed.

We've had several bridge structures carrying I-eighty over Des Plaines River Bridge, DuPage River, Rock Run Creek, I-fifty 5 and other areas. We are currently working at Larkin. The next slide will show you. We're currently working at Larkin and the Bridge Street interchanges. We'll be wrapping those up soon.

And when complete, the project will have more than 30 bridge structures that will have been rehabilitated or replaced. This is a overall view, again, going from Ridge Road in yeah. Ridge Road in Manuka all the way to US 30 in New Lenox. So the green area to the far left between Ridge Road and River Road, that's pretty much by the DuPage River, that work is almost complete. We expect to have that work fully complete by probably in the next two months or so.

But the entire corridor as a whole has to be opened in sync. So we'll be opening portions of it as we complete the work. But that section should be done in a in a couple of months. Moving slightly to the east, you have the section between River Road and Wheeler Street, or Wheeler Avenue. That section, we anticipate that to complete by the end of this year. That will be the stage two of the reconstruction of the I 80 pavement in

that area.

Hobo Road, that has been done for a while now. That's done and fully open. There's a section between Wheeler Avenue that you see right at the Des Plaines River Bridge, or at the Des Plaines River, between Wheeler Avenue and the Chicago Street interchange pretty much, what we would call Gardner Street. That area is newly under construction. We have begun that now.

We anticipate that section wrapping up by the 2028. Moving a little further to the east, still from Gardner Street to Rowell. That work was completed, but somewhat in between work zones. So it looks like it's still a work zone, but that work is largely complete. Moving east of there from Rowell all the way to Gallagher, which is just West of US 30, that section we anticipate wrapping up with our stage two pavement reconstruction probably in a couple of months, similar to the section on the far west end.

The Briggs Street interchange and the Larkin Street interchange will also wrap up in the next couple of months. And that section from Gallagher to US 30 is also complete. Zooming in to the work that has just begun, some of these projects work is three contracts here. You see the red section to the far left, the blue section in the middle, and the other red section on the right. Although they're three separate contracts, we see them as one work zone.

So we will be moving those contracts through different stages of construction in sync with one another. So we'll zoom in a little bit closer to the Center Street and Chicago Street interchanges. But the work has begun. They are underway at Center Street. They have done a lot of earthwork.

They're just getting started on the Des Plaines River Bridge, and the Chicago Street interchange has been underway for a little while. They have begun with some traffic staging and some bridge deck demolition in that area. This is just a picture of the River Bridge that we are completing. But to look at our plans, if you would notice, the existing bridge is on the south, the bottom portion of the picture, and the new proposed bridge structure is just to the north. We are building that on offset alignment.

We will maintain two lanes in each direction on I 80 across river. As work progresses on the new bridge structure, we will begin switching lanes onto that new structure. We expect for this section of the roadway to be completed by the 2028. And there are some well, that's this spring. So, yes, we've already begun that.

I probably need to update this slide. The Center Street interchange, that work is underway. One thing to note, the existing interchange does not allow access from Northbound Center Street to Westbound I 80, and it does not allow access from East I 80 to Southbound Center Street. In the proposed configuration, you will have full access from all directions to go from anywhere to everywhere within the interchange. This is a similar look at the Chicago Street interchange.

Big takeaway here is that in the existing interchange, you have full access. In the new proposed configuration, you will still have full access to all of the different movements from Chicago Street and to I 80, whether it's eastbound or westbound I 80 or northbound, southbound Chicago Street. So this is the home stretch. This portion of the work that we have just begun over the Des Plaines River Bridge is probably one of the most complex portions of the entire 16 mile project. Again, the three contracts will be moving in sync with one another so that we can try to expedite the work as much as possible.

We have deliberately resequenced all of this work to get it complete as quickly as possible. We understand that it is a big inconvenience, and we would rather have a big inconvenience for a small period of time rather than a big inconvenience for a long period of time. That is pretty much all that I have as far as an overview of what is going on with the I-eighty work. We are working closely with the city of Joliet. We appreciate a lot of the help that we've gotten from the City Of Joliet from public works.

We are also working with the other municipalities, Rockdale, Will County, and other folks involved, as well as keeping in touch with the emergency responders and other agencies that have a stake in the project overall. And we do have a project hotline, we have a website, we have social media access, and we share our press releases with the City of Joliet in advance of upcoming stage changes. Changes. Work that will be coming up will be more closures at the Chicago Street interchange. Those are planned to go after July 4, the July 4 holiday, because we do have the NASCAR event and the holidays, so we are going to get other work done first before we go into stage and further affect the flow of traffic through the Chicago Street interchange.

That work, those ramp closures will come in conjunction with detours, and we will let everyone know in advance there will be posted detours using mainly Larkin to the West and Briggs Street to the East. Those interchanges will be complete by the time we go into stages that require those interchanges as detours. That is pretty much all that I have. Did you all have any questions for me?

Thank you very much for coming, by the way. We do get a lot of questions as to when we think it's going to end. It looks amazing. I know it's difficult for everybody to get through there. But I can see what it's going to be when it's done. You what what you just gave us, you anticipate the Larkin area in the next couple months? Yes. Okay. That'd be great. And I'm gonna I'm gonna just pull it out there because I have to. Any any news on our

The bridges are very troublesome. They are very difficult to work on right now. We currently have the Cass Street Bridge closed. Mhmm. It was reduced down to one lane because of structural problems. I had attempted to procure material to get that mechanical work done. That did not happen because of procurement issues. So we have to let a separate contract to get that work done. Originally, we were hoping to have casts reopen by the end of this year, but it looks like it's going to go into next year. I do have a meeting tomorrow to get more details, and I can forward more details based on what comes out of those meetings tomorrow.

But it looks like at some point next year, and I wanna say maybe late summer or early fall of next year, that we can get the Cass Street Bridge reopened. Once that happens, we have other critical work that needs to happen at the Topey Street Bridge. So we will avoid trying avoid closing two of the bridges at the same time. But we wanna get gas done as soon as possible because we don't want something unexpected to happen, and we're not ready to build another

bridge. Thank you. Thank you.

Mayor? Yeah.

Quick question.

On the bridges, Cass Street, Jefferson, all of them, it's a question that a lot of residents ask. And I've been told this, but I think coming from an expert instead of from me, it might make more sense. Can you explain why a flyover at these, know, a longer bridge, a flyover bridge like they have a 9th Street bridge in Lockport, why it's not possible downtown?

So if you can visualize the Lockport Bridge, it it's very long. It goes far beyond the river because it has to be so high up. You can't have a bridge go immediately up and down. There are a lot of geometric concerns. To do something like that in the city of Del Vient would require an immense amount of land acquisition. Probably very critical properties that you don't want to demolish and use for bridge landings. And the cost associated with that, the amount of right of way that would be required, make it really difficult to implement a design of that nature.

So it would be safe to say that to make that accomplish that on the downtown side,

it would devastate downtown. You would lose a lot of downtown trying to accommodate what's required for extending those bridges out that far. Because they do have to have a certain amount of clearance underneath because the elevation of the barges and the water and the river require that for them to safely pass.

And this is not a matter of choice. This is engineering principles and formulas used that if your apex is here,

you have to be hair to hair. Yes.

Okay.

Yes. That is exactly correct.

I just thought that it would be better for an expert. I'm not an expert. Yeah. I've been explained kinda similarly from other people in private before, but, you know, I I appreciate your question

a lot, and that is exactly if the geometry just would cause significant problems to the existing properties, and we'd have to take much of that area downtown Joliet.

Only other question I have, when you do the bridge over I 80, right? Yes. What happens to the old substructures that are in the water?

I am not fully sure. I know that we demolished them. I don't remember how far down the demolition goes. I have to call an expert. Do you know off the top of your head what the demo looks like for those companies?

I believe they should be going. A couple people will be bottom of the street, but so

they'll they'll

get handed.

So they'll they'll be gone? They'll be confirmed.

Because we

have to allow for traffic, know, bars traffic, and you can't have these things sticking up.

Yep.

Okay. None

of the piers are gonna be within the navigable channel.

Can you come to the microphone,

please?

The none of the piers will be within the navigable channel. And the old piers are outside the channel also. But they'll be pretty much in line. But we're gonna remove the old piers so that nobody runs into them, so we don't have to protect them.

Okay, thank you. Mayor, you.

Thank you.

Mayor, Joe,

go ahead.

Thank you so much for coming. Greg, thanks for having these guys here. A lot of good information. In reference to the bridges downtown Joliet, are the parts made out of the country? I mean I hear this all the time. They're made in Germany. They're made here. Are the parts made here in United States or in other countries?

So a lot of them are custom parts. You can get parts that are made outside of the country, but we have requirements that where we have to purchase parts that are made in America for federal requirements. There is a process where you can use foreign material. I'm not an expert on it, but it does require a different pathway to set those contracts up involving the Federal Highway Administration and their own register, and that process. For the most part, we have to stick with made in America motors, brakes, other pieces of mechanical equipment in order to procure those.

And a lot of times, they're not readily available in The US, and the lead time is much longer. It's more expensive, and it's more difficult to get on the fly when there's an emergency failure.

Thank you. Thanks again for coming.

Appreciate it. Anybody else? So I

think the question in regards to what Jose asking is that the reason why it's taking so long to, like you said, like right now, you just mentioned that this was scheduled to open Cache Street by August, September, now we're talking next year. Is that because the parts are not available or they're not, what's the delay?

That is one of many reasons. The bridges are very old. And when you try to install a new control system on an old bridge, there are inconsistencies. It's like taking an antique car and putting fuel injection in it. You're gonna, you know Yeah.

Try to modernize it, but it's difficult to mix the new and the old. So, for instance, some of the mechanical components have certain motions that they've been doing for the entire life of the bridge, where the electrical components need to sense a certain range of accuracy, whereas the old mechanical equipment, it has been working and it just works. But now with that range of accuracy that you really need to have a reliable control system, so now that electrical system thinks that there's a problem when it's really just that the bridge is so old that it just doesn't work right. Mhmm. That's an issue.

The bridge has a lot of wear and tear, so there are things that fail unexpectedly that we don't anticipate. And we don't want to work on more than one bridge at a time, so we have to stagger each project. So, if something goes wrong with one project, that prolongs the next one, and the next one. And a lot of the work that we are doing in these bridges can't be done simultaneously. It has to be sequential.

So, for instance, there are some things that we have to do in order to get the bridge to operate. Then, once the bridge operates, we may have to lower the lease, or raise them, in order to do certain parts of the work. So, if we lower them, then we can access certain parts of the bridge while it's down, and then raise it, so we can access other parts. But that can happen until it's operable. That can happen until we get the motors correct. That can happen until we get the brakes in. So each thing is sequential, so it's a domino effect. When one thing happens, it stretches out the process for all the other repairs to have to come afterwards.

It just seems like the new bridge is gonna be built before these ones get

Yeah. What

about Brandon Road bridge? Mean, no, not, yeah, the Brandon Road.

Brandon Road in Rock Dale? That is the poster child of what can go wrong for the bridge. We have had so many problems. Initially, we wanted to replace the motors. The original contract called for refurbishing them. We got in there, saw the motors, they were in such bad shape that they basically fell apart on this. We had to procure new motors a year just from that. We get motors. We find out, okay, now the new motors that are made in 2026 don't match the same dimensions as the original motors that were in there from god knows when. So now we have mechanical components along the motor shaft that don't fit.

We have to make structural repairs because of that. But now the structural repairs have to be analyzed by a structural engineer, and so on and so forth. We had aerial panels that require certain temperatures, and if we miss that temperature window, that pushes that work out to the next year. And again, if that work gets pushed out, now we can't operate the bridge. So, now, the work that we scheduled to do over the winter with the leaves down, we can't do until we get the aerial cables installed. So, a lot of sequential problems, and one thing can just screw up everything. And, we've had a lot of those things that have gone wrong with Brandon.

So you can't put a put a date on it, right, technically?

Yeah. It's kinda like asking your doctor, you know, what's your life expectancy? I can tell you, but,

you know,

I will say that originally I've been telling people the branch should reopen around summer of this year. I do have a meeting tomorrow to see how, if at all possible, that we can expedite this work even more, because now they're telling me it's more like October.

Okay.

And, they've made a liar of me many times. You've probably been hearing a lot of updates for when the bridges should be reopened, and that's been the case. I should know much more. I should know more tomorrow, and I plan to have a scheduling meeting. They're telling me October, probably November. I think that we may be able to get that a little sooner, but I don't wanna make promises and then have to come back and explain again why this thing didn't happen with that thing and why we couldn't get it open.

Alright. Thank you. And then just last real quick. On Route 53 between I 80 and Lairway, is there any plans to either put turning lanes or any other lights? Because I know that's Idagh Road. If it goes south on 53, right before Lairway? Well, basically How

far south is there a way?

A good mile.

Three lights.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm not familiar with

Do you know they haven't they don't have anything, like, in the books of wanting to

I would not know. Well I'm on the back end. I'm in the Bureau of Construction.

Okay. But

that stuff gets that stuff happens in programming.

Backup. Yeah.

So the the area South of Doris, there is a phase one, which is the first planning phase. They're doing a phase one study on that area right now. Okay. From Doris to Arsenal, I believe. I don't remember the south limits, but it starts in Doris.

Okay. Thank you.

Mayor. Yeah. I just have one more. Sure. Now I hate to put you on the spot for this one, but, you know, as you referred to, these bridges are very old, the ones downtown. I'm assuming there's gonna come a day when they've outlived their their their existence. Does is there a plan from a height on? Or how what's that gonna look like if we ever have to replace? I would

say that that day has come and gone. We are doing rehabs on the critical portions that have exceeded their life expectancy. Okay. So, all of the parts of the bridge that are problematic are being rehabbed. Unfortunately, though, we have bridges in the pipeline, bridge construction projects in the pipeline, that are being held up by the current construction delays.

So, for instance, the issues we had at Ruby, we had a failure in Jefferson, the issues we have in Cass, are pushing out the rehabs that we have planned for Jefferson and Jackson, and they aren't getting any younger. So we are trying to expedite this work as much as possible so that we can continue to get to those critical repairs. We're already past the point where they should have been replaced. This work probably should have gone on ten, fifteen years ago.

And what would a replacement look like? Do you have any idea? I know we're looking at

A full replacement.

Can you still replace them with bridges like that? Brand new versions?

Yeah. Okay. It costs a lot of money. It takes a lot of time and a lot of planning, but, yes, you can.

Well, thank god. I doubt him. Thank you. You answered my question, Mark. Anyone else?

I have to say, though, that sitting in a city of 150,000 people, it's difficult to tell our residents that we're going to sit another year without a bridge, maybe two. And I can't imagine that having these 80,000 pound trucks coming over them are doing us any So at some point, I think we gotta appeal to IDOT. We can we can't have these trucks continue to go up and down these bridges. I mean, that's gotta be terrible on the structure of these things.

I would say that the so for instance, Brandon Road, the biggest impact was just the elements and the age of the motors and the bridge itself. Cadd Street, it was a matter of what we call sectional structural members just deteriorated to the point where they were not able to be trusted to handle the loads. Not so much because of the trucks, but just because of age. That's a matter of maintenance, painting, other things. I don't wanna speak on behalf of the structural engineers, but I know that our pavements take a lot of pounding from the trucks, and they take a lot of damage from the trucks.

The movable bridges, I think the biggest factor is age and exposure to the elements and obsolescence of the equipment.

Alright. Thank you. Any other

questions? Yeah. No disrespect. I find it very hard to believe that those heavy trucks continuously going over those bridges do not have any effect on the deterioration of them.

They have an effect. Is not the biggest effect. I would say the the biggest problem that we have is the mechanical equipment, the electrical equipment, and the structural degradation that comes as the brick those structural members rust and corrode, and we have to go out and replace those. That's what happened with Cass Street. We had members under there that was just exposed to the elements, and there comes a point where the steel gets thinner and thinner and thinner as it rusts, where we inspect it, and we decide that it's too thin to keep trucks most section loss for the four numbers.

The trucks have an impact on the bridges, but I think that the biggest problem with the bridges is old obsolete equipment, end of lifespan, and just the elements.

That the method of just fixing them one at a time, it's like putting Band Aids on bullet holes that are never gonna heal. Eventually, at some time, it's gonna need to be replaced.

Yeah. I got a

real quick question for you. I know I know you're on the construction side, but do you happen to have the number of the gross vehicle weight rating for the bridges by any chance? Like, what's their rating that anything can travel through it?

So we do reduce the rating if we find a problem. Mhmm. But it is 40 tons in general. Is that correct, Phil? 40 tons?

40, you said, 44. Yeah.

Somewhere upwards of 40 tons.

Thank you.

Here. Just one thing. I'd like to thank you for coming down here today, and I can tell you love your job because you're always trying to find a solution to the problems, particularly with these old bridges. But they mean a lot to Joliet, and and very expensive. But thank you for trying to find solutions. I appreciate it.

And I appreciate you coming here to explain because I'm gonna go get a lot of questions and catch a lot of

heat for the income payments that's being caused. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is citizens to be heard on agenda items. I do have some people signed up this evening. So we will start with looks like Ron Schelling.

Thank you for your time today. So I've had the property for twenty years now.

Can we have your name, please?

Ron Schelling. I'm sorry.

Thank you.

And we tried to just about every use possible over the course of that time. I was able to get the gas station on half the property in twenty twenty And since then, we've I brought Mark here tonight. He's he's tried as well. He's very, very well expert in the area, the Joliet area. There's any questions or?

I don't think anybody's really seen a presentation. Is this just north of the gas station on Brown Road? Correct. Contiguous?

Contiguous, yeah.

And there's High Lines and then the neighborhood behind that? Pretty big gap between?

The high lines have a good sized buffer, 300 feet wide.

And these are one story?

One story storage units, yes.

With a vinyl fence around them. Is that how you're gonna contain the look?

It's a metal fence with a electric operated gate. There's a berm with the landscape berm that goes completely around it. So very little of it will be visual from Cotton Road.

Any questions?

I think I'll just one. So the only access is Droughton, not Caton Farm at all?

Correct. Yeah. Just the same, we'll split off the same interest at the gas station she's using currently, all for driving.

Mayor, real quick. The facade obviously, I can't look at the plans right here. I didn't have my paper. But the facade of the storage unit for example, I drove by one on, I think it was Division or Renwick. And I'm I'm sure it's not related to yours, but they were doing it nice. It was, I think, like a fake brick around the facade of it. It was a one story. It was behind the neighborhood as well. And so my question to you is, do you know what the facade is made out of? Or is it just how your typical one is just the vinyl or the metal?

Not a 100% sure of that right right to this moment.

Okay. Thank you.

That's not on our line, though, putting that on

there. Thank you.

Anybody else? Thank you.

Josh Melder.

Good evening. My name is Melder. I work in the Menards Properties Division. I'm gonna be here presenting the self storage special use permit request on behalf of Menards for the property that we own at 2450 West Jefferson Street. You guys are probably familiar with that being the old Bookie McGee's OTB. We have tried to market it for many years to try to get another restaurant type user in there. Unfortunately, we just have not had success with that. And so what a lot of people don't know is we have recently, over the last decade or so, begun to get into self storage. So in our self storage at the end of this year, we'll have approximately 37 facilities throughout the Midwest. They are adjacent to our stores.

We operate them with both store personnel and corporate personnel at the GO up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, which is where I'm from. And we've identified this property as one that we think would be well utilized for the self storage facility type use as it is located behind our store, behind Walmart, low visibility, hard for another user to maybe use it, and we think we can utilize that for beneficial use rather than sitting vacant. So I'm here to answer any questions that you may have either now or when the actual item comes up on the agenda. But I just wanted to kinda introduce myself and let you know that, yes, Menards does do self storage. This isn't a one off. This is something that we do, and we've been doing it for a while now.

I have

a question.

Sure. Go ahead.

So there Maybe there was some confusion with me because I thought you were using it for storage for your things. You're allowing people to come in and rent these out just like any other storage facility?

Correct. Yes. It's a self storage facility that would be used by the general public. It's a fully enclosed facility that is only accessible to individuals who rent. Our renting is done mostly online but you can rent in person as well with our site coordinator. But you'd be given a pin and then you punch that into the PIN pad that's at the gate. There's an overhead door that would allow access in, and then you'd go to your unit either inside the old Bookie McGeeve facility. We're gonna have some inside units, and then we also have some outside units here.

So there's nobody it's not staffed?

It is not twenty four hours staffed. It is going to have a team member from the store that is identified as a site coordinator is what we call them. They are going to be the primary staff member for that facility. They're gonna be there Monday through Friday, 08:00 to 5PM available for questions.

Is it twenty four hours, though, to somebody somebody that that has has a a PIN number?

Correct. Yes.

Are there camera are there gonna be cameras then?

We we put all of all of our facilities have security cameras. They are monitored at the general offices. The same security team that helps monitor our store security is the one that also monitors monitors these facilities.

Okay. Thank you.

Yep. Thank you.

Joseph Spilley.

Who are you guys? My name is Joseph Spilley. I'm the owner of Ink Everything Tattoo Studio. I appreciate you guys all taking the time to listen to me about my petitions that you guys will deal with later in the meeting today. I'm proposing to operate what would be a private tattoo studio located on the 3rd Floor at 81 North Chicago Street here in Joliet.

There's just a couple of things I'd like to iterate about studio itself. The studio itself has passed the required Will County health inspection process and received approval through zoning and the special use process. The studio itself would be private appointment only with no walk in traffic. And with that, there would be no exterior signage and no outside advertising. The studio is designed to operate in the early morning hours with one client a day to make sure there's minimal impact to neighboring tenants while also allowing us to work with neighboring tenants and other businesses.

The goal is to provide a clean, professional, and fully compliant environment for my clients that travel from out of out of town and out of state to operate responsibly within and with the community. Like I said, I appreciate you guys taking the time to listen to me and read through my petitions. And I'm here to answer any questions, whether it's now or when my petitions get kind of brought up later in the council meeting. Any questions?

Why so private?

I've worked at tattoo shops. I think the basic model of tattoo shops as it stands is you walk in. It's kind of an upfront. You look for your art. My clients are currently booking three to four months out for large scale pieces, things that are taken very seriously, thought of most of the time years in advance, and these clients have to come sit for six to nine hours with me. With me today, brought something of a small portfolio of mine, if any of you guys would like to take a look at it to kind of exemplify the quality of the tattoos and that these are things that people have to sit long term for. And it's more of a luxury than a, in general, tattoo shop.

So my question for you then, is it worth your while to do one at a time that they're that expensive to say, for example, a full back tattoo? Sure. So rather than have many clients, but one, you say, a day to do one. Right. So how long does it take you to do a full back?

So a full back, it depends on the size of the person. In general, if any stranger asked me how long a full back tattoo would take, it's anywhere between four and seven full day sessions. And starting those things, it does make it worthwhile because it kind of does lock people into something of a subscription program to get these things done and to kind of further the progress on setback. For me personally, I'm anywhere between nine hundred dollars and $1,000 a day for tattoo work. So for me, it has become a very worthwhile thing.

And it caters to those who take it more seriously rather than the kind of like group matching tattoos or the kind of like last minute spur of the moment tattoos. I tattoo anybody between I have clients that are saving their tips to come and get tattoos from me. And I have clients that are selling their companies for multimillion dollars. So it's kind of all over the board with them. The one thing that they do have in common is that they're all taking it extremely seriously. They're traveling quite far to get it.

What's your infection rate?

My personal infection rate, if I'm being transparent, I would say if I have 30 clients a month, maybe one or two of them is getting infected. But a lot of my clients are also union guys. So these are ninety nine percent of the time, it's external infections. The one percent is people being allergic to things that we are using in the studio. But we test for those in the studio. One of those examples would be like pigmented ink. A lot of people are allergic to reds and blues. We do spot tests in my studio that prevent from people getting large scales of work and leading to infection and stuff like that.

And what type of license do you have to have for this?

So there is no technical tattoo license in Illinois, I noticed. There is a blood borne pathogen certificate that I require. And then zoning requires that the building itself be certified to tattoo out of. And that's kind of in line with zoning regulations, of course, and health department situations, which have already been passed for both. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Stan

Keene.

How's everybody doing today? Yeah. Good. Sorry. My got a little cold. Good evening. My name is Stan Keene. I come here as a concerned citizen. I lived in this town for over forty years. My grandfather was a fireman for fifty years, so I'm not new to the town. So, anyway, I'm deeply concerned about where the town's headed, especially with the traffic, the dangers with these traffic incidents. For example, I was on the way home driving the other day. I see a guy crash right into a Burger King light pole just right in front of me.

And this

ain't the only one. On May 5,

a lady got killed on Black Road.

So this congestion, this traffic is very concerning. So I'm seeing speeding. I'm seeing unsafe road on I 80 becoming more increasingly hazardous on Route 6, Hobo Road. I mean, recent fatality crash this month. Consistent backups every day on the way to work. This is getting ridiculous. I've seen all that. At the same time, I'm seeing drug related crimes. I'm seeing all kinds of shootings. I'm seeing violence and guns up.

I don't know the statistics. They're saying it's down. I don't see that, but whatever. In the recent in the recent other months, I've seen there's a road being blocked off by my house out from the Ingalls Park area off Washington Street. It's been blocked off for, like, a year. I don't know what construction company is fixing it, but it's ridiculous. I mean, these people I mean, we gotta get through. And I I work in Elwood. So when I go to Elwood, I got police out there every day doing traffic stops at about fifty five. So I I don't know

if if they got

a light coming up or what, but there's two patrolmen sitting there directing traffic. So, I mean, I love the city with all my heart. I've been here, but I was speaking up as a long time resident because I wanna get I wanna say for streets. I want law enforcement engagement, also crime activity, better planning, accountability from leadership. We can I mean, this is just we cannot accept dangerous roads and rising violence as a new norm until yet? This is ridiculous. I've been here for forty four years. My grandfather came here in 1953 to be a fireman. So I never seen it

like this.

I mean, I know mayor Schultz. I know Tom Gerronti. I mean, it wasn't as it wasn't as bad. So I think, you know, the people at Joliet deserve better and accountability. So that's really all I wanna say.

Candice Johnson.

Everyone. I'm Candice Johnson. Most of you already unfortunately know me. I am before you today on behalf of the Bicentennial Bluffs Neighborhood Association. As many of you know, our neighborhood association is a volunteer organization where we try to work every day, every month to make our neighborhood better and beautiful and more appreciated and more understood.

So it was really interesting watching the IDOT presentation because our neighborhood is completely inflamed by IDOT. So it actually kind of eye opening. And I appreciate the information they gave. However, I'm here today for agenda item number two eight eight dash two six for the resolution authorizing an intergovernmental agreement between the city of Joliet and Pace. Many of you know our neighborhood is it's technically with Cash Street working.

It is the main thoroughfare for all the Pace buses to come through our neighborhood. A lot of them stop in our neighborhood. Recently, we found out that our neighborhood residents, roughly 31% of them, utilize public transportation. 25% of our neighborhood residents do not have a secure way to go about and get to things that they need. A part of that is needing things like bus shelters and bunches in order to get around safely, in order to get to and from places when there's inclement weather.

Imagine being a single mom who does not have a vehicle and you're carrying your baby in a carrier and then you have a toddler or a middle school child and you're trying to get your groceries along with your children, shelters are very important. They're very essential. I know that technically the inter government agreement today that'll be on the agenda for vote tomorrow is not for a Pacebook shelter specifically in our neighborhood, but it is the first step in a fight that we have been fighting. It's not a fight. It's not a fight.

But in a process that we've been dealing with for over seven years, dealing with Pace itself along with City of Joliet consultants. And so we're really excited. Sarah could not be here today because she has a softball game for her daughter. But we are very excited. So we will be here again tomorrow to hopefully make sure that that resolution gets approved by you guys. Again, public transportation in the city our size is the heart of our community. It's direly needed. And so we're excited for that. We also had our I know this is not on the agenda. We had our spring neighborhood cleanup. We have two cleanups every year. We just had it on May 2. We had over 80 people attend and volunteer. We had over 15 high school students come out to get community service hours. We fed everyone.

We had raffle prizes. Councilman Susana Ibarra was there. She didn't just stand around and look pretty. She put gloves on. She picked up a grabber. She went and walked the neighborhood with our residents was which was really appreciated because up until this year, I don't think we had a councilman or a councilwoman or a city employee honestly attend any of our cleanups. And this was our eleventh year of of having a cleanup in our neighborhood to show community pride and investment in our area. So it was really appreciated that you attended. And we had a great turnout. You can go on our Facebook page and watch all of our pictures. We posted all of them. So thank you for that. We really hope that you guys approved the first step in getting a best shelter in our neighborhood. So thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. That's everybody that I have signed up. Is there anyone else who would like to speak this evening on an agenda item? You can come up.

Thank you for taking the time tonight. I will be speaking under Rebecca's tattoo artist. During the time, I've been in Joliet for the past twenty years. Parents immigrating here from Eastern Europe. Joliet to me, especially now being a union a union worker who's law enforcement too, means a lot of heart and pride. For someone who I've seen him throughout my entire years get to see truly his work. He can charge three to four times in any way his heart desires. He chose to still stay here in this field. One thing I definitely learned throughout my time here in Joliet is not only about the people, but the consideration and the hard work and determination. From someone who has came here, who showed a story, and every time you listen to him, he listens to you not only as a therapist, but as a friend.

It never comes to monetary purpose, but the ability to influence and to always get a story to tell. Being on patrol right now, my tattoos have been an opportunity for kids even approaching as a law enforcement officer. It's one of

the greatest privileges I have

in this city and in rural. But I truly appreciate him, it's not only the time and dedication he puts into it, but the meaning he asked me to listen to you. To show his true determination, his philosophies, and he's willing to care and listen to people. Joliet has had struggles. Yes. But in my honest, truly opinion, having him in the city is much better than going to somebody else. His perseverance, his character, and his true blood has shown here. And I truly believe this will be a better place with him in the studio with the one person he has. So thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak on an agenda item this evening? Okay. Seeing none, we will move on to the city manager reviewing tomorrow night's actionable items.

Good evening, We'll have a number of proclamations tomorrow, Appointments to the Historic Preservation Commission, the Joliet Public Library Board, and the Committee on Citizens with Disabilities. We'll also have reappointments of the Tree Advisory Board. We will hear from council committees, communication technology and information systems, diversity and community relations, finance and public service. Consent agenda, councilmember 250 eight-twenty six, purchase of interior wall painting and sanding services for Fire Station 1 and Fire Station 9 from Smith Painting Services in the amount of $67,062 Council Memo two fifty nine-twenty six, award of contracts for 2026 Street Light Assembly Painting Project, contract A, to Cosgrove Construction in the amount of $84,300 Council memo 260.26, award of contract for the 2026 pavement marking program to America's Parking Remarking LLC in the amount of $307,416 Council memo 261.26, approval of purchase of traffic barriers for Meridian Rapid Defense Group Sales LLC in the amount of $126,344.6 Anybody have any questions on that one? Council memo 262.26, approval of professional services agreement with Strand Associates Inc, International Code Council ICC, and HR Green for on call development review for the Rock Run collection development project.

Council memo 263.26, approval of change order number three for the lead service line replacement phase four contract to Strip Brothers Excavating in the amount of $89,410 Council memo two sixty four twenty six, award a contract to VideoTech for five year renewal of Genentech Advantage Support Agreement in the amount of $83,872 Council memo two sixty five-twenty six awarded contract to CDWG for Nutanix cloud infrastructure subscription licensing and hardware support renewal in the amount of $101,687.68 Council memo 266.26, award a contract to Heartland Business Systems for VMWare annual renewal in the amount of $66,014.8 Council memo two sixty seven-twenty six award a contract to evolve for the three year renewal of project docs premium bundle in the amount of $129,210 Council memo 268.26, award of contract to Fort for the Joliet City Square AV background music system project in the amount of $554,742 Funding for this project will be provided first through $225,000 in grant funds awarded to the city by Heritage Corridor. And the remaining $329,742 of the project costs will be covered by the original budgeted amount of $350,000 in capital funds, leaving an unused balance of $20,258 in capital funds available for other initiatives and keeping the project under budget.

License and permit applications, Councilmember 02/2006, application for a drive thru permit for a Zaxby's restaurant at 110 South Larkin Avenue.

Mayor? Beth, can we jump back to $2.67?

Sure.

What is the total right now? If I remember, was $8 to

$8,500,000

when we first approved it many years ago. You guys, mostly weren't even here when it was approved. What is it up to now?

Are we talking about the city square?

Yes, please.

Overall? Yes.

You said something about being under budget.

Well, yeah, for this, what we budgeted for this screen. And because we got some budget we got some we got no sorry, excuse me.

Grant money.

We got grant money for $225,000 And we budgeted $350,000 for the screen. So we're still operating under that. I know that always these questions come up about different things in the Square. And so I just wanted to highlight for you exactly where What the was the economics sound system? I'm sorry?

When was that budgeted for? This is like 2018, 2020?

March.

When was it budgeted? Oh,

Kevin?

Do you

mean originally, What was few years system budgeted? Oh, that I don't have with me.

Can you find

out if

can We can

look that up.

Chris, do you

know that off the top of your head?

No, sorry, I don't have that information off the top of my head. We'll

pull it.

We'll get it for you before the meeting tomorrow, Larry. Yeah, for sure. Get it to the whole council.

And not at tomorrow's meeting. In the near future, can we have a presentation from the beginning, going back to, whatever it was, 2020? Yeah.

Where we're at?

Sure. That's a good idea.

Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. Of course. Okay. On to ordinances and resolutions. Council memo two seventy two twenty six, ordinances associated with the development of 1701 Drowden Road, an ordinance approving a special use permit to allow a self storage facility, and an ordinance approving a variation of use to allow B3 general business use in the B1 Neighborhood business zoning district at 1701 Drowden Road. You heard from the owner as well at the beginning if there are any more questions for him at this time.

Mayor, this one's already come before us a couple of times, is it not, going back a number of years? This is not a new one. Right? We we didn't we just

have this several months ago too?

I don't believe we did.

I guess what I'm getting

at is I believe that,

you know, and even before your time, Terry, it was brought, I think, once. You know, what's changed

since the last couple of times that it was rejected, I guess,

is what I'm asking.

Is it the same proposal that we've been we've viewed before? Or has there been some kind of significant changes?

Dustin, can you provide any light on that?

Counselor Hug, just reviewing the staff report that was included, we did not include a summary if there was a previous petition here. I'm happy to bring that to you tomorrow.

Okay. Thank you.

Council memo two seventy three twenty six ordinance approving a variation of use to allow the continuation of a three unit residence and r four multifamily residential use and r two single family residential zoning district located at 201 North William Street This did go to the zoning and word of appeals. They recommended approval five-two-zero. The property in question is an existing three unit residence. There are no proposed changes to the number of units or the exterior appearance of the structure. The approval of variation of use would allow the continuation of this property as is.

Council memo two seventy four twenty six, ordinance approving a special use permit to allow a self storage facility located at 2450 West Jefferson Street. We heard from Menards already on this, a self storage facility on the former off track betting lot located behind the existing Menard store on Jefferson Street.

I got a question real quick. Sure. Are you guys gonna knock that down or you guys just gonna reconfigure everything?

No, we are not planning on knocking that down. We are gonna utilize the existing building for climate controlled inside storage and then we'll have outside storage units in addition to that climate controlled.

Thank you.

Thank you. Council memo two seventy five twenty six, ordinance and resolution associated with the vacation of a portion of Breen Road and an ordinance approving a vacation of 76, 289 square feet of Breen Road east of Route 53. The purpose is to vacate the 76,289 square foot segment on the west end of Breen Road that connects to Illinois 53 to allow the eventual 53 Bridge landing to be constructed, thereby allowing the eastern half of the Eastgate Logistics Park development. If anyone has any questions, I think we do have a visual on this if you want to see it. Can you bring it up for us, Lauren?

And Greg, could you walk us through it?

Sure. I'd be happy to. Okay. So what you're looking at is kind of a blow up of the general area. Those are two of the existing buildings for the North Point development on the West Side of Route 53.

You can see Compass Boulevard coming through between the buildings which is the current temporary access to that area. And then sort of that road in yellow coming from the top left corner of the of the image down over 53 and to the right is Compass Boulevard. And Breen Road is kinda hard to see there, but if you see some of those homes and buildings to the east there, that is Breen Road which comes through and and currently ties into Route 53. In order for the bridge to be constructed at that location, that portion of Breen Road will have to be vacated to allow the bridge to land. And then you see it it continues east and then curves down and and ties into the East West Road there.

A couple of items to note. The current temporary access on Compass Boulevard to the west, that will be gated off and closed once this bridge is in place and will only be used for emergency access. There'll be a traffic signal installed at the location just to the east of Compass Boulevard, will be the passenger vehicle access to that area. As you continue east, right above the note that says proposed Illinois Route 53 connector for cars only, that's a truck turnaround. It's kind of hard to to view in this blown out area.

But if a truck inadvertently gets in there, it will be forced to turn around and go back to Route 53. There's a roundabout a little bit to the east of that. So passenger vehicles that currently use Breen Road will come down to this new road. They will go east and then they will north to get back onto Breen Road. The area where you see Breen Road truck barrier car access only again there'll be a truck barrier there so trucks cannot go onto Breen Road from that location.

It'll be a 12 foot high restricted truck barrier. So any sort of school bus, emergency vehicle, Amazon truck will be able to get through there but a semi will not be able to get through there. So that's kind of what is at a high level being proposed here. This vacation will allow the construction of that bridge again over Route 53 to allow access to the portions of the East Gate Logistics Park to the East.

Mayor? Greg, where exactly is that gate going to be installed on completion of the bridge?

Yeah, Where you see boy, wish I had a laser pointer. You see the proposed Illinois Route 53 connection for cars only Yeah. With the the arrow goes in there. So it'll be to the west there. So to the left of that, which is currently a temporary access. That will be closed off with a gate to allow emergency access. So vehicles on a normal daily basis will not be able to get in there. If there's an emergency, it would be able to be open for fire vehicles or whatever needed to

get in. So what access for cars only would it

have? It would be to the east.

Okay. And what is gonna make it cars only access?

There will be truck barriers inside.

We didn't have truck barriers.

Yeah. They're closer to the to the roundabout area. But, yeah, there will be truck barriers.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. All

right. Anything else?

Moving on to council memo two seventy six twenty six, ordinance approving a platter vacation for 3.78 acre drainage and city utility easement along the former Bridge Road right away south of Gladys Avenue and North of Knoll Road. Council Member 2706, ordinances associated with the tenant space at 81 North Chicago, which you heard from the tattoo artist. It'd be approving a special use permit to allow a tattoo studio there, and approving a variation of use to allow a B3 general business, and the B2 central business. It also went through Planning Commission has recommended for approval five to zero.

Mayor, can I say something about that? Speaking as someone who does have tattoos and did think them out very well, planned them, designed them, drew them, these are actually people that sometimes fly in from Atlanta for these tattoos. So these are definitely people that would be coming to the restaurants, would come to the city square. He one thing he didn't say, but he said it to me, is how much he loves the city of Joliet and how he wants to be here in, you know, the downtown area. And thank you.

I'll I'll love this for District 5. But he also is planning a program with the high schools. He's very charitable, and he wants to do some work there too. So he wants to be here in Joliet because he loves the city of Joliet. He has a lot of pride in the city of Joliet, and that's something he didn't say tonight. So I'm gonna speak for him. I hope that's okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Councilmember 27826. Is that where I am? Am I in the right place? Okay.

Ordinance proposing the creation of a business district in the city of Joliet, Will, and Kendall Counties, Illinois, and fixing the date and time for a public hearing connection with the same Rock Run Collection business district. We want to do a little bit more additional study of the area to be sure that we've included all the correct properties. So I'm just going to bump it a couple of weeks so we can make sure that all of our T's are crossed and our I's are dotted for that one. For tomorrow, we'll pull it. Resolutions, Council Memo two eighty-twenty six, resolution approving and authorizing the execution of the collective bargaining agreement between the City of Joliet and AFSME, Local four forty.

Council memo two eighty one twenty six, resolution accepting and placing on file the Joliet Historic Preservation Commission annual report for 2025. Council memo two eighty two twenty six resolution authorizing the execution of a memorandum of understanding between the city of Joliet fire department and the East Side Joliet Fire Protection District which is essentially a mutual aid agreement. Council memo two eighty three-twenty six, resolution requesting authorization to enter into a regular 2025 justice assistance grant intergovernmental agreement between the City Of Joliet and Will County. Council memo two eighty four twenty six resolution approving an intergovernmental agreement with the County Of Will for the placement of license plate reading cameras located on county highways. Council memo two eighty five twenty six resolution appropriating motor fuel tax funds for the 2026 pavement marking program this is housekeeping from the earlier item council memo two eighty six twenty six resolution accepting an easement agreement from comed for the Glenwood And West Acres water main improvement project.

Council memo two eighty seven twenty six, resolution accepting an easement agreement from ComEd for the Glenwood And West Acres water main improvement project. And finally councilmember two eighty eight twenty six resolution authorizing the execution of an intergovernmental agreement with pace regarding transit shelters that we heard from Candace on That concludes the agenda. Okay.

Next is public comments. Is there anyone who would like to address the council this evening on a non agenda item?

I got some things I wanna bring up here. I, a while back, wanted to present a flash drive, you know, footage of some video that I want to be brought up with this thing with whimsy trucking and Joliet Police. Some things that were made, you know, whimsy truck and police go on the properties that they had bought next to my mom's house back in 2021 to do police training and everything. You know, this video is just so big of mine because this guy, Darren Wolf, the head of head of operations for Whimsy Trucking, of course, has been none but downright bad to me through all my process and everything. And you all know what I've lost from Whimsy Trucking, what they did once they acquired my mom's place from suffering my burden of being the minister of the estate.

You know? And things that were, like I said, were taken off the estate and my Ma's and everything. And I already had Crest Hill police do the do investigation. I hunt down that '80 four f two fifty pickup truck, which came back that, you know, I had a CARFAX report done. It showed, you know, there was a taken to a repair shop in

Crest

Hill and everything. Called the Crest Hill repair shop if I know who took that truck there and everything. A guy named John Byrne. And I don't know if it's the same John Byrne. It's with the Joliet Police.

But I only could put two and two together thinking that since Joliet Police and Whimsy Trucking were making deals on himself and everything here, and this Darren Wolf was obviously in charge of doing this stuff that I don't know doubt had that doubt that this John Burn that had this 1987 f two fifty truck is the one, is the Joliet police officer, which I want this video footage of that to be to be brought up to city council meetings. They said I had to present the flash drive, let you guys review, you know, city officials review it. Now I'm told that somehow I gotta email this thing through. Well, how do I email it? I don't have computer anymore.

My computer got taken. I don't have really you know, only email I got is on my phone. I can't do this Taking this flash drive or the video and send it through my emails on my phone. It won't let me, you know, send videos. So how do I get this video presented? And I want this to be investigated too. You know? Because, like I said, I've been wrong done, and Whimsy Trucking is now gonna be going for developing my mom's place, my mom's property there. And so which I want this done before before that thing ever gets approved by zoning here, you know, which is later this week. And another thing about the Brannan Road Bridge, we all know the headaches with the Brannan Road Bridge.

You know, since I lived out there, that Brannan Road Bridge was my main road and everything, getting into and out of town and everything. And I got a picture here that shows the weight limit on that Brandon Road Bridge, 35 ton, not 40 tons. So them container trucks, 80,000 pounds, r and d too heavy for that bridge. And I when I bridge was always broken through the years. I would talk to the IDOT people as they're down there repairing the bridge, and they kept blaming them trucks for breaking that locking mechanism in the middle of that bridge.

That's why that bridge kept on breaking. Now they wanna do, of course, do go deeper and do more more things on that bridge and everything because everything is wore out and everything. I don't blame everything for being wore out. But when I got text messages, updates here from just the other day from here, and, you know, text my phone because I call them so many times on it and everything, They told me that construction hopefully, they'll open this summer until September since construction season began in May. But, you know and they have to weather weather dependent and or foresee repairs needed in coordination with the army corps of engineers on the Asian carp trap that they've been doing down there. The Asian carp trap has been the thing that's been keeping them from fixing this brand new road bridge.

Is there anyone else who would like to address the council this evening on a non agenda item?

Mister mayor, city council, my name is Bob Cobb. Tonight, I'd like to address an issue with the waste management division specifically the yard waste division. I was watching out the window the other the a week ago or so when the yard waste crew came by to pick up the yard waste. I have my yard waste in in the black 35 gallon can. And I I saw the the truck pull up.

There was two. One that was driving and one was operating the the arms. Well, I had I specifically took the lids off my cans to show that they weren't they weren't even halfway full of of yard waste. Mainly dead grass that I took up. And it was it was the the person sitting in it clearly could have seen they were only half.

Instead instead of getting out and picking it up, five year old could have picked these up. Instead Instead of getting out and picking up, he used those arms. And when when he uses the the arms, they don't I mean, it's one thing to pick up the the recycle bins, but those those yard waste cans goes out and he's he he destroyed two cans. I mean, instead of just they have to control the arms, you know, to not not squeeze it so tight that it's like popping a pimple. So I wonder if there's if there's anything you can I mean, to to to see this guy, clearly, he could see what's down there?

And I just don't know I don't understand why he couldn't get out and pick him up manually. If there's oh, I I was given a number to call, and I called that number. And the lady I spoke with said that they didn't have anything to do with it. She gave me another number to call. Well, I called the other number, and that lady told me that the route supervisor, the the head guy would would read the read what I told her and get back to me within twenty four hours.

Never called me back. So I just wanna say that it's a shame that the guy can't can't get out and pick up the can manually instead of crushing my cans. I got two cans that that I can't use anymore. If he want if he doesn't wanna get out and and pick up the can, which is probably only fifteen, twenty pounds, I I have no other choice but to start using the brown bags and fill them up where he has to get out and pick them up. And that's gonna be that's gonna be a lot heavier than what I had out there.

So that's all I gotta say. Oh, one other thing is this series coming up on HBO, when is that gonna be? Next spring. Oh, it's gonna be it's gonna take that long to film with this? Mhmm. Okay. Yeah. Well, thank you for your time.

Hey, Bob. Could you provide your address for me so I can look into the situation with your cans?

My address is 1602 Autumn Drive in Joliet.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Beth.

Beth? Yeah.

Krista has some of the numbers for waste management because we had this issue last year, and then she can give them to you.

Okay. If

you don't already have them, maybe you do.

Yeah. Great. Okay. Thank you.

She was very helpful. And then city calls, the big people call. They call you right back.

Right. No problem. That's what we'll do.

It'll be a quick talk for you.

Okay. Thanks.

Is there anyone else who would like to address the council this evening on the non agenda item?

Hello, mayor, city council, city staff. I'm Michelle from Internode at 81 North Chicago. I do wanna say I apologize I was late. I totally think that Joe should have his studio. He is the nicest person I have ever met. He is so supportive. My real fast story about him is two years ago, I put a call to action out on my social media to ask for people to come shop with us because we were in such dire straits. Joe is one of the first persons who walked in the door. I didn't even know him. He walked in the door. He spent money. We've been friends ever since. He's would be an asset to our business community. So there you go. So the reason I would like to speak today is I would like to request a stronger traffic enforcement presence on Chicago Street in Downtown Joliet.

Everyone knows my shop is right there at the corner of Van Buren and Chicago. And I daily see semi trucks coming southbound down Chicago Street. I see people running the stop signs. We have new stop signs that are flashing. People are still running them. I myself have almost been hit numerous times of people not stopping at the stop signs. People will drive speed limit, go to stop, someone will fly around them and speed down right in front of the Rialto. So I have talked to, our local police force, our wonderful police force that's down there. They are fantastic. Fortunately, they don't aren't able to just sit and watch people run stop signs.

So if we could please have maybe a study done to see what traffic is in Downtown Joliet. But again, there are no no stop signs coming from Jackson Street southbound on Chicago. There are some on Washington going northbound. So maybe if that's something we could look into also. But thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to address the council this evening on a non agenda item? Okay. Seeing none, I did receive a request for closed session. Is there a motion to go into closed session to discuss personnel collective bargaining, land acquisition, or conveyance pending or threatened litigation, after which the meeting will adjourn.

So moved. Second.

It's a motion seconded to approve. Councilman Cardenas. Aye. Councilman Clement. Aye. Councilman Hug. Aye. Councilman Navarro. Aye. Councilman Moreno. Aye. Councilman Mudrin. Aye. Councilman Quoman. Aye. Councilman Meriden. Aye. Mayor Darcy. Aye. Motion