City Council - Regular Meeting

That's all right. Do we have a meeting next week?

Unless I miss anything, but I think I just want to make sure Yeah, can't get enough.

Another We got another episode of sanitation status. The path to the playhouse. Open it up a little bit here.

Everything's playing around with the playoff predictor. If we win straight to Christmas cookies so much of that today. Yeah. Is that why you're wearing the sweatshirt? Why I'm wearing the sweatshirt? I got to hide it. Neutral colors. And then we saw later that you know plus two my next day of work.

I thought that would be a fun idea this time. Why not? Why not? deeper into the elect We're also going to

come home to warm up. Not a big deal. 14 by 14. That's We just want something to be able to put a table out there, which we already have in our basement. Chairs, which we already have in our basement. I want him out of the basement, but then to sit out there.

Yeah, we uh somewhere.

Okay, that works. That's fine. 14 by 21 just rectangular. Did that all the skirting and everything was like I could have probably done this but it would have taken me about four weeks just so this is well worth the money. I think I have everything I probably want. Go through and figure out some more.

Yeah, we did not So you're on your own.

Oh yeah, we get Christmas. I mean, the cameras instantly just

Yeah, it's all shocked. a little tree around our backyard. Yeah, I found I found that they were already open or something. I've experienced I think it's might not be This thing

my kid love they love this tree because perfect spot right in the middle of the backyard. I was like, "Well, now there's a mountain just from from grinded." But now I'm actually I think it's going to dry up the deck. And then when we I don't know if he's not here in 5 minutes, I can start. Thank you. I have not heard anything. Now the last time this happened was three years ago. Fire department. What the fire department from Robin here's

it never dries up and I think like our deck is always the way the sun doesn't get a lot of sun

some of our gutters actually went down it so she's making specific Yeah, we got to get some tails off. So they're like, "Oh, do you want to put vertical?" I'm like, "Nope."

Oops. You three more minutes. Three more minutes. Okay. Oh, he's kind of

ready. probably missed it tonight. Yeah, we started thinking Christmas day. We're going

nowhere. It seemed like a good idea when you started it for the meeting. I'll give you back. We'll do a bunch of time for it. Couple minutes late getting going there. My fault.

Okay. We'll call to order the regular meeting of the Betavia City Council for Monday, December 15th, 2025. Uh I would ask the city clerk to call the role. Raza here. Lansancy absent. Beck here. Malay here. Malone here. Wolf here. Sulfa here. Baron here. Leman here. Lman here. Peeper here. Fenbach here. Anderson here. White here. 13 present, one absent, your honor.

Very good. We're going to start with an invocation to be followed by the pledge of allegiance. Tonight, as the city council meets, we are ever mindful that we are in the highlights of the Christmas season and all the special moments and meanings that this time of year prevents. And tonight we take great pride in knowing that in Betavia, while we have a strong sense of what Christmas is all about, we also are a community that stands up and really steps forward and provides a lot of acts of kindness and support and giving to those who are less fortunate or in need in need of help. And this makes Betavia a very special place on the face of this earth because of all those who we have working for us. uh in our community we have a uh toy distribution program that was started in 1950 and this is the 75th year that has been done on an all volunteer effort by members of the Betavia community. So we are ever thankful for all these kind kind acts and deeds and we know that Betavia is a very very nice place that truly understands what Christmas is all about. It's both its religious and its social and its sentimental meanings. Tonight, uh, I would ask that all the members of the city council be blessed with thoughts of vision and understanding and that the meeting go forward in a manner that truly reflects Betavia as the town that it truly is. I ask for all these blessings. Amen.

Malay, you want to lead us? Sure. I pledge allegiance 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.

We already had the roll call, so we all know who's has anybody joined us since that and I don't think they have. All right. Uh, I've got an item four as a reminder to the audience that if you're going to address us tonight, we ask that you come up and use the microphone at the podium as this meeting is being recorded and filmed and so we want to make sure that everybody can hear whether you're here or someplace else. Uh, moving to item five, matters from the public for items on the agenda. Does anybody in the audience tonight wish to address the city council? Would you come forward and give us your name, please? Good evening. Good to be back again. Bob McQuillin of Betavia. Um I'm actually came here to make a comment on the budget um process. Um but I since I was here, I figured I'd talk on my favorite pro uh subject and that is the flag policy. Um over the last year and a half, the council has spent a lot of time in uh talking about uh an appropriate flag policy and and probably passed one maybe 18 months ago or so. Um and um in my opinion, the policy is a sham. Um it is written so that anyone can approach a city council member or a city council member themselves could nominate uh a particular flag to be flown for a month usually for a specific month that um uh ties into an organization or something like that. Um but in reality, the flag policy was written by the majority of the city council members to only fly um in addition to the normal flags, the LGTB

plus pride um whatever you want to call it flag in June. And uh several city council members probably aren't even listening to my comments right now uh because they're tired of hearing from me. Um and in uh in August, a city council member brought a particular uh organization up to be uh flown um the suicide awareness group and um and I also asked for cancer in um breast cancer in October. Um after discussion most everybody believed that they were great organizations but both of them were rejected uh for different reasons and they were the only two uh requests over the last two years. So uh one of the there's a couple of uh reasons the city council used for rejecting it. One of them is that uh one person didn't like it. It's a nonprofit organization. Uh but in reality there's 2300 LGBTQ organizations throughout the country right now and they are all nonprofit. Uh another thing was uh the flag itself. They thought it should be a nationally recognized flag as opposed to in the case of the suicide awareness a local organization that had a flag. Um, I mean, maybe you can agree to that. Um, but there are also probably at least 15 different variations of the LGBTQ plus and pride community flags, too, and that's never been brought up as an issue. The last issue that um really gets to me is that it is a slippery slope

when we allow someone to ask for a flag to be flown. Um because what happens if you don't like the flag or some other reason about it? You're creating a major problem. Well, you could. I don't think anybody's going to sue you over because you say you're not going to fly their flag. Um, but at the same time, it is a slippery slope that you're only flying the LGBTQ plus flag because someone could sue you over saying you're only flying that flag. Your policy says that you can fly flags upon the agreement of the city council of any organization their requests. So if you're rejected, you could sue and say, why isn't my organization being flown? So in that and and also in August, the discussion was, okay, let's give them a proclamation and we'll talk about this down the road and change it um or discuss it, whatever it might be. I don't know if that's going to happen uh or not in a committee of the whole meeting or not, but I figured I'd speak tonight and just say let let's make it transparent. Okay, let's not play games with the community members. Let's just say if we have a flag policy, it's going to be voted on. And the flag policy is going to be that the American flag, the state flag, the um P flag, and the city flag are going to be flown all the time. And every June will fly the pride flag. And that's the only one we're going to fly. Let's just do that. You know, why why why hide behind a slippery slope or a nonprofit or a wow, it's not a flag that I would recognize. Um, you're you're just

playing games with the community. And um, so I think your options should be you're only going to fly the four flags that are out there every day. You're not going to fly any other fly flag at all. Never. or you're going to add the LGBTQ community flag for the month of June. Let's just do it that way. And if anybody has any problems, then maybe they'll sue you, just like you're afraid they'll sue you if you say no to anybody else. If you've got a policy and you've only had two requests and rejected both of those requests, it's not a policy. Thanks.

Thank you. Anybody else in the audiences this evening? Okay. Moving then to item five, matters from the public for items not on the Well, we just did that one. Uh items to be removed, added or changed on the agenda. Does we have anything tonight from the council? I guess not. Okay. Moving then to the consent agenda. Uh we have accept and place on file item 7.1 committee of the whole minutes from November 4th, 2025 and November 25th. I always forget you. That's all right. I'm sorry. Go ahead. That's all right.

I'm easy to forget. Um your honor, the consent agenda reads as follows. Accept and place on file committee of the whole minutes November 4th, 2025 and November 25th, 2025. Historic preservation minutes, November 10th, 2025. November 2025. Building report approvals. Payroll fund totals for 1252025 in the amount of 1,145,796.50. The account account counts payable total for December 15th council meeting is 3 million $1,670.80. Resolution 2025-147-R approving a lease with the Albright Community Theater. Resolution 2025-140-R, authorization to execute amendment number two of task order number 42 with Engineering Enterprise, Inc. Resolution 2025-142-R authorizing a contract agreement with infrastructure management services for the citywide pavement condition survey and approval liquor license for Betavia Patel's 2 LLC doing business as Windmill Market and Spirits at 336 East Wilson. Your honor, I move we approve the consent agenda as read. Second

motion and second for the approval of the consent agenda is ready. Any further discussion call the role, please. Aaron, I Leman, hi. Lman, hi Peeper. Hi. Farenbach. Hi. Anderson. Hi. White. Hi. Barazza. Hi. Beck. Hi. Malay. Hi. Malone. Hi. Wolf. Hi. Sulfa. Hi. 13. Yes. No. No. One absent. Motion's approved. Okay. Moving to item number eight, the Main Street Report and we have the executive director president at the podium. So, please go forward.

Hi, thanks so much for having me tonight. Um, as we uh end the year, I kind of wanted to take an opportunity to talk about um what Main Street does just as a reminder for um and how we operate underneath Main Street America and their four-point approach to downtown revitalization. Um so here I'll just go ahead and start. Um so the first um point is design and just so everybody knows this all four of the points are supposed to interact with one another. So there are overlaps from that. But design is to address the physical appearance and functionality of the district including its buildings, storefronts, public spaces, and streetscapes with the idea that good design reinforces community character and supports preservation and creates an inviting uh environment. And we've been doing this with the branding of downtown, creating um consistent visuals by having professional photography. Um we maintain the five kiosk directional kiosk downtown. We collaborate with the city on the downtown banner program. And then in the new year, our design committee is going to be focusing on uh downtown continuity and streetscape improvements that Main Street can hopefully assist the city. And we've allocated $10,000 in our budget for the upcoming year. The next is promotions. and promotions aims to create a positive image and a sense of place in the district through marketing, events, communications. Promotions highlight the dis the district's unique assets and attracts residents, visitors, and investors. Um, we do this by things we've talked about many times with you guys, the downtown newsletter, the promotion of the business events. Uh, we add those events to our calendar, the restaurant and shopping guide. Um, again, the social media and professional down photography for downtown, our hype team, which is

more of our guerilla marketing. Um, events that get people moving throughout the downtown district like the upcoming spring wine walk, Boo Days, Batfest, and the Holiday Lantern Walk. Um, we also do um funding and assistant event assistance for uh collaborative events between five or more businesses. We do paid marketing um through print and social media um boost as well as influencers and then regular press releases um to local and regional news agencies and we also send out welcome mailers um to anybody who has purchased a home in the downtown in Betavia and in North Aurora. So we've sent over 500 of those this year. Um the next one is economic vitality which f concentrates on the strengthening of local economy by supporting existing businesses attracting new investment encouraging entrepreneurship and adapting marketing consist conditions to marketing conditions. This point ensures the district remains competitive and economically resilient. Um the boardwalk shops is our biggest economic vitality program. Um, we've had many shops go into brick and mortar after that and we currently have 10, I'm sorry, 12 in our downtown district um, from that program. And then this year we added the business support page to our website where you can find information if you are looking to start a business or move your business to downtown Betavia. Um we also started this year we do um business retention and expansion visits with the the current business owners and that's where we ask a certain set of questions and we're going to be compiling that to share at our next board meeting with uh uh our board and then we'll share that with the city as well. Um then we also do monthly features for our downtown

merchants on our socials and our website as well as communicating with downtown business owners, b property owners and leasing agents. And then finally organization. The organization um pillar or point focuses on building strong sustainable main street program through effective governances, partnerships, volunteer engagement and financial management. This point ensures that the program has leadership and capacity needs to carry out its mission. Um, as well as the funding that we get from the city and the SSA, we raised um, in 2025 we raised $62,000 through our sponsorships and over $70,000 through our programming and events. Um we also include in that point board member recruitment and uh board member and volunteer recruitment, training and appreciation like our upcoming cocktails in the park. And then in 2026, one of our big focuses will be on the national recast your leaders program where we're trying to figure out some of the problems we can hopefully solve in our downtown district. So that basically covers the four points in the Main Street program and how we operate. They all intermingle with one another. Um and that's all I have to report today unless anybody has any questions for me on those points. Yeah.

Yeah. I' I'd just like to say um first off as you knock down each one I see it right and it's really nice to now see that it's an intentional effort. I always knew you were an intentional organization but it's nice to see those four points. So, thank you. And I really enjoy pulling back the curtain a little bit and getting an idea of what you do. Um, one thing I hear all the time and I think we all hear is the small town feel of Betavia is what we love and this shows that that's kind of an intentional thing. We have people showing up to turn the lights on to do that. Uh, and today as we kind of think on the budget and um the money that we provide to that as well, I see it just as incredible asset and money well spent that we're seeing a great return on investment. So, I want to thank you and um it doesn't go unnoticed.

Well, thank you. Anybody else? I would just like to publicly thank you for your leadership in this program in Betavia the last several years now that you've been our executive director. You've taken to a new height of in community involvement and appreciation and I think Betavia is very well served by you and your leadership in that role and we hope that uh we can continue to work with you and promote some new programs and new ideas. And uh I'm honored by the fact that I now have, as I've said before, other mayors in the region, wanting to come to Betavia and tour our downtown and see what's happening here because they say Betavia seems to be the place where all the ideas are and they've got leadership that gets the ideas put into place and done. So I just want to then thank you for what you've done this year and may 2026 be a even greater and grander and more memorable year than you've already given us.

Well, thank you. All right, I guess we move then to item number nine, which is the regular agenda. And our first one is this annual event on the present, not annual, regular event of uh the update on the wastewater treatment plants rehabilitation project and Jerry Ruth from Troder and Associates is here to give us the lowdown.

All right, thanks again for having me. Another exciting update for the project of the wastewater treatment facility. Uh so what have we been doing for the last month? Um in our primary clarifiers, we've been doing some final touch-ups of the equipment. There were some manufacturer uh issues with the equipment that was delivered and so uh they facilitated modification to those rotating assemblies. So these are big 68t diameter spinning steel cages essentially. And so we had to do some uh field welding, some field uh repair, and uh those should be finished up by I think they're targeting Wednesday of this week on uh the second of the two uh modifications that were being made. Uh on-site basically, you know, now that there's a hefty blanket of snow on the ground, we're not really doing anything on the site anymore until spring, but we did get a lot of the final grading done. and all of the hardcapes are done, paving, sidewalk. Um there's some minor bits that need to be done uh when we come back in the spring, but we'll take care of that then. And it's, as you'll see, a very small component of the project. Uh in the sludge handling building, they've uh we've had the manufacturer of the uh thickening equipment out there to try and dial in uh that piece of equipment. and it was the last piece of equipment to really be started up and so it's still going through the throws of trying to calibrate it to the city's uh bioolids and make sure that it is uh operating at the optimum level and uh meeting our specification. So that's ongoing as well. Term of project photos, there's not a ton this month. Like I said, we really only had uh since our last presentation, a couple months in November and the first uh couple weeks in November and the first week in December. So, you'll see some hardscapes here inside the plant prepping for sidewalk. On the picture on

the left, that's just on the north side of Flint Street behind the construction trailers. And the picture on the right is in between uh the new primary clarifiers and existing aeration base on the west side of the plant. placement of concrete sidewalk all over. So, the picture on the right, that's the north side of Flynn Street, right behind our construction trailers. And on the left, uh that's a concrete uh section of essentially pavement right around one of our other new primary clarifiers. It's kind of tough to see. The black asphalt is really what I'm conveying here. There's not a whole lot else that they were doing at the south end of the site where this picture was taken. Aerial from November 15th. Main difference is the snow. Uh there's not a whole lot else that was going on out there. The same with on the north side. This is uh the northwest side of the plant. Uh west side end of Flynn Street. Main difference, like I said, snow falling down. Uh but it does look it does look nice. Now, um, this is some of the modifications I was talking about to the clarifier equipment. You can sort of see it. I don't know if you can see my mouse on this right here. There are some openings that they cut in the center column. Um, that was the main changes that they made. Otherwise, the the equipment is working great. They had some electrical components that they had to replace as part of their work that were damaged as part of the welding. And they've since uh replaced all of the wiring and uh some fuses that were blown. Another aerial of the primary clarifiers from November and surface course is down and pretty much everything is uh operating as uh intended over uh just more more paving pictures down. This is down at the south end. Uh no snow covering so you can sort of see a better view of it.

This is again some of the areas that we needed to uh excavate to get in some underground utilities. Um but all of this is now brought to final grade with surface course in terms of cost. So all in uh city has spent just under $44.5 million with engineering and construction. Schedule progress on paper 81% but as you can see cost progress 99.6. We're we're pretty much there. Um something I just wanted to highlight that due to the project finishing well ahead of schedule, um we're able to save the city. We're not at the final number yet, but it looks like it's going to be right around $400,000 uh in savings on construction engineering. In terms of uh change orders, we don't have a change order for you yet. We're still getting some final signatures on some things. Um, but approved changes up to this point just under $150,000. This uh next change order, which may be the final one. We're not uh 100% sure if there's going to be anything that we discover in the spring with restoration, but um in all likelihood that'll be very small. Final change order looks like it's going to be around $322,000, which would bring all the change orders for the whole project to about 3/4 of a percent. So that's an update on the cost. for the schedule. Um, not a whole lot different to update. I changed primary clarifiers to December just because they're still tinkering around with the equipment. But in terms of the rest of these items, the sledge handling building equipment will be dialed in here this week. The primary clarifies will be done this week and really the contractor will have achieved essentially final completion five months ahead of schedule. And that is the update. So, um, if there are any questions, ask them now cuz you're probably not going to see me for

5 months. Um, I know that's going to be hard for some of you. But, um, again, I appreciate, uh, your time and your attention over the last couple years. Uh, it's been a privilege.

I think I want to thank you, Jerry, for your good efforts and repeatedly coming in here and giving us the updates of what's going on. I think I've shared with you already, we again we have we're under the watch here by other communities and I've got several that want to tell me they're sitting on the waiting list to come in and see the plant once once it's completed because they think there's a lot of good ideas there and good workmanship and engineering's been enacted to it. So they all seem to be very favorable in what they're seeing. So keep up the great job and thank you for what you've done so far.

I appreciate it. Again, thanks goes to the the contractor and their efforts and the team at this city that we've been working with throughout. Anybody else? Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Next is a presentation. Betavia Environmental Commission's quarterly report. Hello everyone. Um, thank you for having me. So, my name is Alex Ellis. For those of you who don't know me, I'm the chair of the environmental commission. Um, I'm just made hopefully, you know, just a shorter version of what we usually do since we were here not too long ago. Um, but we'll just recap kind of the last couple months of what we've been up to. Um, for those who are not familiar with the environmental commission, we fulfill the role of environmental adviser, educator, and motivator for the city of Bavia and our community at large. Oops.

Sorry that happened to you.

You should have clicked refresh. Threw me for a loop. Let me see. Gosh, I wish I would have brought my glasses. Derek have to refresh the email. thinking. All right. Um, back in business. So, um, we have seven appointed um, members and also um, three student positions. One of whom is our first Gina who's sitting in the back waiting to be officially appointed by Mr. Mayor tonight. Um, so in addition to myself, there's Emma, Michael, Andrew, Gary, Barb, and Nikki. Um, we also have two additional, um, I'm going to call them student liaison. They're, um, technically not members yet, but they've been coming to our meetings, um, and

hopefully applying soon for student membership with voting rights. Um and then Tim attends our meetings monthly as well as our steel leazison. Uh so since we were last here um we've had a couple representatives with other um suburban uh groups come and reach out to us. Um, so the mayor's metropolitan caucus um had a representative who came to our meeting to discuss a new recycling education and outreach initiative. Um, I've linked a website here called feedthecart.org that residents can go to. You can put in your um your place of residence where you live and it will pop up and give you information on what items are recyclable, how you should recycle them, um how to recycle them into our cart program, and if I think there's information if it can't go into the cart, how you can recycle or properly dispose of something um alternatively. Um, so for those who are interested, it's a kind of a really neat resource. I would recommend you check it out. Um, and I've also passed on some of that resource information to Lori. Um, so we we'll hopefully work with her on getting that out on our social media and um, city in city website, city newsletter um, wherever it's appropriate. Um, we also met with the suburban climate action team who have just created a new climate reality Chicago suburban clean buildings team which is a mouthful but they are focusing on reducing building emissions in the suburbs which is one of the largest

contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in our area. Um, so that PEM is launching this January and they've asked us to kind of be on board as one of the western suburbs. Um, and just we're we're part of their conversation, keeping tabs on what they're talking about. And then um, as we learn more, we'll hopefully bring stuff to Betavia. I think it would pair really nicely with some of the um you know the Kain County climate action plan that was developed and I think Betavia has signed on to that um and would also pair well with some of the other work that we're doing with our strategic plan as well. We are also looking into the Kain County water conservation funds. Um, so I know Tim has kind of started reaching out a little bit with some of the public works department people to see what they're currently doing and what projects um might be done that we can utilize some of these funding through the county grant program. So as we learn more information about that and have some ideas to share, we'll bring that back as well. Um, as always, we're continuing to share information and educational pieces on our social media pages, um, including relevant posts from what the city is sharing as well. Um, and I I didn't have this in here, but I just found out also, um, as we continue to develop our educational programming, um, we'll have a library program in February about invasive species removal. So that's continuing to move forward um trying to align with our strategic plan.

Um Michael, who's pictured on the right, organized a Shanahan Grove restoration project collaborating with the Betavia Park District and the High School Eco Club. So um Casey and Abraham are smiling faces. This was just this last Saturday, so they braved the frigid temperatures um to do some invasive species removal and restoration at the park. Um they got a nice little dent in as you can see from our before and after photos. And um I believe they've got more work days that they're going to start planning and hopefully get a little bit bigger with the group that comes out. But um they had a great time I think and stayed warm cutting all the brush. Um the park district came and picked up the brush, held that away. So um yeah, we're looking forward to to continuing to do that and getting more students and community members out there. Um upcoming we're going to start thinking about Earth Day in April. Um, also in the spring we're going to continue implementing our Art of the Fox native landscaping project. Um, so we'll I think in the new year once um the plant catalog is out, we'll order some uh some plants to get planted in there, we'll organize a workday and for volunteers to come out and help with that. Um, we're also continuing to develop our initiatives in educational programming based on our strategic plan and the city's strategic plan. Uh, we are also going to partner with Sustained Kain to represent the environmental commission at their upcoming community day this summer. Um, like I mentioned, we've got our high school students who are actively engaged with us. Um, so we'd like to help support their initiatives

and things that they would like to see done at the high school and also in the community. And then I think we mentioned this last time, um, in the spring we'll have two vacant positions. So we've already received um, a handful of really nice applicants. So, we're going to start that interview loosely interview process and um recommend to applicants for those upcoming vacancies. So, just a shout out if somebody is interested in um being on the BEC commission as a formal member or I know the um active what is it? Active transportation advisory commission I believe also has a vacancy um and they're looking for new members as well. So, feel free to submit an application which can be done on the city's website. Um, yep. And lastly, just a reminder to anyone, um, our website is on the city's um, Betavia.gov. Um, so you can find us on there. Check us out on Facebook and Instagram. We meet every second Wednesday of the month at C 700 p.m. here in City Hall, usually in the Appleton conference room. Um, as always, please come to our events, volunteer, let us know how we're doing. Thank you. And are there any questions?

Well, one of the things we have on our agenda here pretty quick is the appointment of Gina Rkachi as a student commissioner on the Matave. Is she here tonight? Yeah, Gina's right here. She's She's coming. Well, we haven't yet, but I just thought why don't you come on up and just say hello to the city council for a second so everybody knows who they're voting for.

Hello everyone. I'm a senior at Bavia High School right now. I'm a vice president uh for Eco Club and joining the BEC has kind of led me to get a sneak peek into how the government deals with environmental issues and it's just been a blessing to work with you guys. So, thank you for considering me. Well, thank you. We'll be appointing you here and just stand by for a couple minutes and we'll get to you. Do you have anything else you That was all I had unless there's other questions or comments.

Well, I would just like to say that the Environmental Commission has really taken on a true stand on itself and is stepping forward and helping to educate a lot of people in this town about what are the challenges of the environment and what we can do to make things better. And I'm very pleased to see the age of most of the commissioners because you're the future generation that's going to have to live with this world and by doing the things you're doing you're making it a much better world. So uh there's some people in the old days like myself I try to be very modern in thinking but you know they say why do we have to do it this way or whatever have you and there's good reasons why and you know why we now segregate out all the bottles and bags and everything that they're in the garbage and whatever this great stuff and it's finally making I think a improvement in our world moving forward. So I thank you all for what you're doing. It's an important movement by her. So, thank you.

Yeah, appreciate the support.

All right. Where do I get back to the Thank you. All right. Uh item three is the appointment of Gina Barachi as a student commissioner on the Betavia Environmental Commission. Would somebody care to make the motion?

So moved. Second motion. Second. Any discussion? Cl I was just going to note that I like to attend the BEC meetings and she's been very involved with the BEC so far and is very eager to be a part of this. So I think that speaks very well of her involvement. I know um it's it's quite a young age to be already active in city politics and I think that is you know just a stunning endorsement. So I'm very much looking forward to her work on the on the BEC. Thank you for that observation.

Your honor, um I would say also and probably echo what Alice is about to say. I got to work with Gina, 2018 as a parent volunteer at the HD Storm School green team and so I've seen her be very consistent in her commitment to this work and very excited to have you on in official capacity. Yeah. Anybody else? Going to say the same thing. Um at HC Storm we worked in the green team and um Gina was very involved in that and instrumental in in the initiatives there. So excited to have you here. Yeah. We're call the roll I guess then on the motion. Beck. Hi. Malay. Hi. Malone. Hi Wolf. Hi Sulfa. Hi

Baron. Hi Leman. Hi Lman. Hi Peeper. Hi Baronbach. Hi Anderson. Hi White. Hi Barza. Hi 13. Yes. No. No. One absent. Well Gina welcome to the commission. You're official now. Thank you all. to item number 2025-128R adoption of the city of Bavia 2026 annual budget. Who's got this one? I've got this.

So, this is uh the passing of our um 2026 annual budget. Um the expected budgeted um expenditures are going to be about 161,000 um with the revenues or 161 million um just a little bit over that with the uh revenues of being just a um around 151 million. So we're looking at uh closing that with um using some of the reserves around 9 million. So, does anybody have any questions or comments? Would anybody from the um public like to speak regarding the budget? Okay. If not, I recommend that uh we pass the budget. He's just waving his hand. Come on up. Come on up. Good evening again, Bob McQuillin. Um, my comments really aren't u about this year's budget uh because uh I realize that this year's budget pretty much has to be passed tonight uh because you have to pass it before the end of December. Uh, I guess my comments really are going to be about uh future budgets and maybe some things to kind of look at um and think about as you we go into uh 27 and 28. Um, as far as revenue sources, um, property tax of course is what everybody cares about and worries about. And um and and for some reason, and I don't understand, this is the first time I've ever seen a city budget for any city

broken out this way, but it's broken out in property tax revenue for it just says property taxes and then pension property taxes. So, I'm assuming that's going to employee pensions. Um in um 2024, the property tax was collected was 4.8 8 and in 26 you're projecting 8.7. So that's an increase of u almost $4 million or 44 12% over a one two really just a threeyear period. Um so certainly property taxes have been increasing and on the pension side of it says the revenue will be 4.2 2 million in 2024 and in 2026 4.9. Uh so that's an increase of 630,000 or a 12 or actually a 13% increase. Um so taxes are going up. Um and actually I realize that there's a lot of growth in Betavia over the last several years. A lot of new developments and some industrial growth. Some of those haven't come online yet as far as tax income coming in, property tax income coming in, but over the next several years they will. I think it takes two or three years um until that full tax value comes into it because some of the land is still valued, I know it, uh for uh developments, especially at at zero. Um and then the pro the homeowner gets a little bit of a break the first couple of years and then the three-year average hits in. Um, so our property taxes will increase. Um, and and this is where I guess where a concern is. Everybody yells about my taxes are going high, too high, and you know, how come you're not

cutting and and those kinds of things. And, you know, I I've come to realize that, you know, taxes are going to increase every year. It's just the amount that they're going to increase. And, you know, you try to keep them as low as possible. Um and when you look at the um expense expenses for the city um of course the main expenses are salary and wages. Um when I looked at from the slides that were online about the budget um and and this is probably just not salary and wages but the police department takes up 34.1% of the budget of this is the general fund. Uh the fire department is 19.5, public works is 19.8, the administration is 16.4 and then um GF interfund 10.8 and community and economic development is 6% according to the slides. Now that adds up to 106.6% so I don't know really what the right numbers is. So, this the slides are off a little bit, but um you you look at those three top departments, uh the fire, the the uh the police, and public works, and even administration, I mean, you're talking about almost 80% of your budget right there. So, unless you're cutting those areas, you're not going to make really a dent in your budget. And and people need to realize that. Um if you want to get a decrease in your budget and a decrease in your taxes, then you know you're going to have to have less police, less fire or less public employees or less administration. That's just that's that's the the nature of the business. So if you're willing to agree to that, then that's your prerogative. Um, but if uh you also need to call the police

department and they don't show up for a half hour, you got to realize it's maybe because your taxes were decreased. Um, same thing with the fire department. If your house is on fire, you want them there as quick as possible. So, um, but one of my concerns in that whole area is, um, of course your benefit costs, but also your pension costs. um if in in my opinion if we continue having to pay the pensions that we're currently paying uh we're going to have a real serious problem. Um and as I again looked the slides on uh online um your pension the police and fire pensions there was nothing recorded for 23 and 24 and in 25 the police pension was 3.3 million and the fire um uh uh pension was 1.1 and then that increases to 20 in in 26 to 3.625 625 and 1 uh25 um respectively. Um so right there you're looking at uh just quick math almost $5 million a year in pensions costs alone and as you increase fire and police um your pensions will increase unless somehow the pensions are changed and this was done recently well probably about 10 years ago with the teachers pension. um the teachers pension really got out of hand for the state costs for the pensions and new employees came in under a different pension plan than the current employees that were there. Um I think both morally and ethically it's probably not really good to change um somebody's current pension plan as their current employee. Uh though a lot of corporations did that years ago when they got away from pensions and went to 401ks, they eliminated everybody's pension and all of a sudden you managed

your own pension. Um, but I think that that might be something that the city might want to seriously consider if it's legal to look at new employees and changing their pensions less towards a guaranteed um pension plan and more to a self-funded or a self-managed plan. Um, and another item that I I looked at was uh contractual services. Um, and in 2023 it was uh 2.8 $8 million spent on that and in 2026 it's projected to be $4.5 million. Um and you know that's an increase of $1.7 million or almost 38% over a 3year period. Um so you know why are we spending so much money on outside contractors? Um, and if we've got a great administration, which most people think we do, and uh they're always u held up in high esteem, why so much why so many things have to go outside? Is is there a need for that? Um, or maybe more things should be contracted out and we need less administration then to help on salary and wages. I don't know. I haven't dug into that at all. Um, but I I think there's some minor things that you can do to kind of control your costs more than anything. I think that's the best thing you can look at in today's environment is to control and minimize your increases as much as possible. Um, and they're certainly not going to eliminate your increases. um except if you're retired and they'll eliminate your increases on your social security to uh to just uh cost of living. But um again, haven't dug into a lot of the numbers. Just spent probably an hour, an

hour and a half tonight looking at what is online on the budget and that's kind of the my topline ideas on it. So, uh thanks very much and uh have a good year and have a good Christmas and happy new year. Anybody else? Okay, I guess we'd entertain a motion for approval of the budget. We have we made it already. Yeah. Okay. I think so. Oh, no. No, we haven't. I move that uh we adopt the um 2026 annual budget. Second. Sorry. Motion and second. Any further discussion of the city council? Kirk, call the role, please. Aaron, I

Leman. Hi Lman. Hi Peeper. Hi Farenbach. Hi Anderson. Hi White. Hi Barazza. Hi Beck. Hi Malay. Hi Malone. Hi Wolf. Hi Sulfa. Hi. 13. Yes. No. No. One absent. Budget approved. All right. U next then is item 95. the ordinance uh 2020-060, the 2025 tax levy.

Thank you, your honor. This is the tax levy for 2025 and the amount is going to be just a little bit over $13.5 million. Does anybody have any questions? Anybody from the public would like to speak on the tax levy? I move that uh we pass the ordinance sorry ordinance 2025-60 2025 tax levy. Second motion and second for the approval of ordinance 2025-060 tax levy. Any discussion further by the council? Kirk call the role. Aaron hi

Leman. Hi Lman. Hi Peeper. Hi Fenbach. Hi Anderson. Hi White. Hi Barza. Hi Beck. Hi Malay. Hi Malone. Hi Wolf. Hi Sulfa. Hi. 13. Yes. No. No. One absent. Motion's approved. Okay. 9.8. Ordinance 2025-061 special service area number 30 Prairie Trail South Tax Levy. Who's got this one?

Thank you your honor. Um this is for the um special service area number 30 um for the detention storm water detention um in the amount of 9 million or 900 or 9,350. Does anybody have any questions? Would you like me to read the number again? It's like get it right. 900 $9,350. All right. I I move that uh we pass the ordinance 2025-61 SSA number 30 Prairie Trails South Tax Levy. Second.

Motion and second for the approval of ordinance 2025-061, the Prairie Trail South Tax Levy. Any further discussion? Kirk, call the RO. Baron. Hi. Leman. Hi. Lman, hi Keeper. Hi Farenbach. Hi Anderson. Hi White. Hi Barza. Hi Beck. Hi Malay. Hi Malone. Hi Wolf. Hi Sulfa. Hi. 13. Yes. No. No. One absent. Motion's approved. Okay. Movement item 9.7 ordinance 2025-062 special service area 42 for the Nagel industrial area tax levy.

Thank you your honor. This is for the storm water detention area um in the um Nagel industrial area. The amount to be levied is $4,448. Does anybody have any questions, concerns? I move that we pass ordinance 2025-62, the SSA number 42 for the Nagel Industrial Area Tax Levy. Second motion and second for the approval of ordinance uh 2025-062, the Nagel Industrial Area Tax Levy. Any further discussion? Kirk, call the role. Baron. Hi. Leman. Hi. Lman. Hi. He hi Baronbach. Hi. Anderson. Hi. White.

Hi. Barazza. Hi. Beck. Hi. Malay. Hi. Malone. Hi. Wolf. Hi. Sulfa. Hi. 13. Yes. No. No. None. One. Absent. Motion's approved. Moving to item 98. Ordinance 2025-063 special service area number 62 for the Betavia Main Street Tax Levy. Thank you, your honor. This is uh to support our Main Street program and the amount to be levied is $32,000. Does anybody have any questions, comments? I move that we pass ordinance 2025-63, the SSA number 62, Betavia Main Street Tax Levy. Second.

Motion and second. Any further discussion? Kirk, call the role. Baron. Hi Leman. Hi Lman. Hi Peeper. Hi Farenbach. Hi Anderson. Hi White. Hi Gazzza. Hi Beck. Hi Malay. Hi Malone. Hi Wolf. Hi Sulfa. Hi. 13. Yes. No. No. None. One absent. All right. Moving to 9.9, resolution 2025-143-R authorizing the purchase of a medium duty fire rescue squad. Chief, you want to talk about that for a minute?

I'll I'll start off with this. Um, uh, this is something that we've been discussing and have been working on, the addition of a couple extra firefighters. Um we we do have some good news with this and that uh we're able to get this uh the squad vehicle a little sooner than than would normally take. Uh 18 months is actually soon especially some of the timelines we have seen. Uh this will uh you know greatly um serve our our constituents as uh providing additional uh advanced life support capabilities. Uh and um I and and I would point out uh you know half the cost or more than half the cost is coming from a grant from the state and $300,000 that we received in 2025. Um and the remaining is budgeted for 2026 that we just passed the budget. So Chief, if you want to add anything to that.

No, I think you summed it up well, Tony. I want to thank the council obviously for passing the budget for all department heads in the community and supporting our initiative for public safety, both police and fire and the advanced life support uh unit that we're trying to look at. As Tony said, uh this is part of that three-legged stool I talked to you about before. you've supported us in the ALS equipment in this budget and the two additional personnel in the 2026 budget and this uh med this medium duty uh fire rescue squad is needed basically as the final leg to support all that equipment and the personnel and increase the uh provision of advanced life support within the community by adding a third ALS unit uh at the fire level where we only have two presently with the increase in call volumes and everything that we've shown you before and the and the manpower study that was provided to you a couple years ago. The advantage to this and Alderman Wolf will understand we're going to a commercial chassis to reduce the uh production time on it. Commercial chassis now add at least a couple years to it. As you know with our ladder truck that delivery time from beginning to end is going to be about 5 years which is just ridiculous at this point in time. So, by going to the commercial chassis, which we're fortunate to get that was already in stock and just building the body to this, we have a delivery time of approximately 18 months, which is kind of unheard of this point in time, but it meets our timeline that's, you know, necessary and facilitates our our ability to get this service to the community at a quicker and more rapid pace. And we appreciate your support on that. I don't know if you have any more questions you need me to answer or details.

I just make a comment. and I got the um specs and stuff from the chief and I was able to just sit back and relax and read the 100 pages and stuff the chassis and everything. And then I figured, you know what, I'll just see if I can find one to see what even of the commercial chassis. There are virtually none of them available in the Midwest at all. And anything that was available was already built out as a bucket truck or a well pulling truck or a flatbed tow truck that were typically anywhere from $200 to $300,000 for for those to me simpler version trucks. And you know, so I think we're really lucky that we found one. And it really the the price as far as I can tell is probably better than we get on anything else that's out there. Even some of the used trucks were 300 grand that are available that are out there. So

yeah, as Alderman Wolf said, we I had him assist a little bit on the specs to uh based on his expertise, but we were able we started to search for this chassis back in June. We had some questions and and we were able to uh secure it and they were willing to hold it for us to meet our timeline here. So, uh, as Alderman Wolf said, I'm I'm very grateful to the manufacturer to Alexis and also, um, extremely, uh, I don't know, blessed, I guess, at Christmas time to be able to pull this one off. So, I'd appreciate your support on this particular

both had a Tri City ambulance meeting last week and we're probably what 3 years behind in getting ambulances right now to replace the the fleet that the Tri Cities has. So, really really lucky to get this quick. Yeah. Ultimately, yeah, the timeline that feels very encouraging. Are there any drawbacks to a commercial chassis in comparison to

I I I believe that's uh you know a matter of opinion and and uh Alderman Wolf could speak to a little bit more. Some of the advantages to the commercial chassis is that it can be serviced anywhere within the commercial thing. It doesn't have to be serviced by uh specific uh fire manufacturers. So that assists us obviously in the in the first year to two years u because of the bumper-to-bumper warranty and aspect the chassis will have to go to a freight line or uh authorized dealer or service center. Um this particular like freight line uh model and chassis as all Rolf could tell you is probably one of the most utilized chassis within the commercial industry. So, not only is it uh uh more readily or more there are more service centers available to to uh service it and deal with it, it is also uh because of the number of units that are manufactured, probably one of the easier ones to get parts and things to. And that's the problem we're seeing in the customuilt industry, especially the fire industry. and the fact that the number of the manufacturers have been bought up by a consortium um and have a uh I don't want to say monopoly but a controlled interest in those that we are being delayed by the the delivery not only delivery times but trying to get parts and our trucks sit for months and months at this time trying to get service where this commercial freight liner will be part of the uh commercial uh trucking industry has uh like I said, one of one of the most utilized trucks. Utilizes the same engine, the same transmission and things that our custom build will, but has a a better premise of getting the service

done and the parts delivered in a more expedient time frame. Anybody?

Any other questions? I'd just like to add u little information. This past week, a couple of days ago only, the Betavia Fire Department passed its 5,000th call of this year. And last year, it ended the year with 5,383 calls. And I think we're at 5,090 as of when I came in here tonight. So, we're probably going to give last year's number a run for its money because we got more than two weeks left on the year. Uh, that's a lot of calls. I mean, that's and the vast majority of those 5,000 plus calls we now get are rescue, emergency, ambulance uh calls. And uh I speak at many of the I speak at all the senior living communities in town at some point during the year and this becomes a very prominent subject and they want to know they used to ask me why does that fire truck or the pumper or the ladder truck have to come with the ambulance? And then I'd have to explain to the folks that modern technology in the medical world for a paramedic crew is they have all kinds of devices they have to bring in. They have to check your temperature and check your heartbeat and put under, you know, various things on your body. And then when it comes time not only to carry out in the stretcher, but somebody's got to carry out all the boxes and machines and things that are attached to you. So that's why you have to have these extra crews. And I'm I'm sure that's why we're buying this squad is that's going to be the vehicle now that a couple firemen will ride to back up the ambulance at all the times that there has to you know be used. I will tell you of all the things that we pro provide in the city of Bavia, the paramedic ambulance service and the fire department are two of the most appreciative things we get because people are most appreciative when we show up and do the things that

we have to do. So, uh, we should be very proud of the fire department as all towns should be for what they're doing. But, uh, we are experiencing a dramatic increase in the number of calls that we get. And we're not alone in this. Talking to other fire chiefs and mayors in the area, everybody's telling me it's the it's the same thing. And the medical world is just made itself much more advanced. then there's more things reasons why they can monitor you or bring your blood pressure down or shoot you with something or whatever and all that takes equipment and manpower to get it there. So, you got to you got to know what the heck you're doing and we're fortunate we have that. So, any further conversation? We'll have a vote on this motion then.

I'll make a motion. Uh I move we approve resolution 2025-143R purchase of a medium duty fire rescue squad. Second motion and second. Any further discussion call please. Malay I Wolf I Sulfa Hi Baron. Hi Leman. Hi Lman. Hi Peeper. Hi Farenbach. Hi Anderson. Hi White. Hi Barazza. Hi Beck. Hi 13. Yes. No. No one absent. Thank you all.

Very good. All right. Moving then to item 9.10, ordinance 2025-069, annexing properties east of South Roant Road and south of Wind Energy Pass. And we got Scott Buun here to explain how we are in a friendly conversation with the city of Aurora and because they're annexing a lot of this there too. there's going to be nothing left down there unanniced I don't think but uh Scott

um yes this is uh a little bit unusual in that normally we take this to committee the whole first um but this is an area that is surrounded by the city of Betavia as well as the city of Aurora uh you may be aware that Aurora recently has approved developments just south of this on the old Marmian campus and there is active development going on there we have had several inquiries on this property uh about annexing into the city of Bavia um those some of those interested parties have proposed some things that are maybe not, you know, within line of the comprehensive plan. Um they have also um talked to the city of Aurora about it as well to try and see if they would be interested in that as well. Um, in light of of that as well as uh some of the things that happened in Geneva recently with a lot of tree removal on the industrial park north of Fabian Parkway, uh we were concerned that uh some things may happen on this property and we would not have control over that happening. Um so what we are proposing to do is an involuntary annexation of this property which is consisting of two different owners. One is the Kacker family which is the majority of the property about 25 acres and then there's also a parcel single family residence at the corner of wind energy and redant uh that would also be part of this annexation. Uh we have sent uh notices to the property owners by certified mail. We have also published a notice in the newspaper which is required under statute. So we have followed all their statutory requirements. Uh if the ordinance is passed tonight uh it would be effective immediately. Not sure if anybody from the public is here to speak about it or not. So, could you come forward and give us your name, please?

Good evening. My name is Joel Batterson. I'm part of the uh Batterson Family Trust. Uh this would concern the parcel one. Uh that parcel has been in my family. Um my grandmother lived in that home. Uh she's a graduate of Betavia High School. My father, it was his uh childhood home. He also graduated from the city of Battavia. As a family trust, we are not opposed to the annexation uh at this time. Uh provided that we do not necessarily need to switch to city water and sewer. um everything else that was provided and the information I can certainly reach out to the 1-800 number, get with the family and and uh further discuss. But at this time, I have talked to my aunt uh that is still living and she is not opposed to this uh ordinance, this change. So, we would uh prefer to stay in Betavia uh rather than Aurora.

Um can help with that. Much of that land, well, was held by my family and was sold and most of the homes in that surrounding area, uh, were originally part of the Quilllet family. I nobody here may know who that is anymore. Um, but yeah, it's a long-standing family plot, so we would appreciate the consideration. Thank you.

Thank you. And just a follow up to confirm just just like all other properties we've annexed um we do not force uh property owners to connect to city utilities unless they fail and our utilities are nearby. So if they have well and septic they're on KMED we allow that to continue you know until until such time they have to make an upgrade or replace their systems. So that's that's been our policy repair.

Yeah. You know it just areas. So um understanding there is a lot of development there to just just asking kind of what where it's at. Um so we have the we have the Harvest Point from PY Homes that's 59 homes that's in Aurora right then we have the Abbeby Meadows from LAR um that's 220 town homes these are the same builders that are you know working in Bavia but then there's another uh proposed apex district supposed to be like a entertainment district. Is that still happening over there? Apex district that might be the commercial along Route 56 possibly. So I know that the areas east of Rodant are all for sale or have been sold. So that's probably what that is actually. So and that would be in Aurora that's already in the city of Aurora.

And then or Lenar expressed interest in it. Are those already? We have had discussions with several of the of the major um home builders. Yes. And then others that other just general people that were interested in developing it as well. So there has been it's been an act you know they they are listing it actively for sale. So it is it is a property that is in play. Anybody else?

I I'll note um I'm generally a bit more wary of new annexations on the edge of town and that's going to come up again in a few weeks or early 2026 I'm sure. Um this one we already control the road out in front. So in many ways this would just provide development advantage to an existing infrastructure. I also feel like this area is relatively near um commercial outlets. So that would be you know supportive there. In fact just south of here there is another town housing development going in that provides a road connection from Radant to the Walmart there. So, I think this is relatively sensible given how it's already pretty well encased by the town. This isn't a bump out further. It's more of just similar to our island fill-in project. So, I I I'm supportive of this one.

And as I mentioned on the staff report, this this was on our side of the boundary line with Aurora before it expired in 2000. So, you know, it's it was planned for it to be on the city of Bavia's side. That's a separate discussion. It's going to go. Any other comments or questions? Your honor, I'll move that we approve ordinance 2025-69 annexing properties east of South Rodent Road and south of Wind Energy Pass. Second. Motion and second for the approval of the annexation. Any further discussion? Kirk, call the roll. Beck.

Hi. Malay. Hi. Malone. Hi. Wolf. Hi. Sulfa. Hi. Baron. Hi. Leman. Hi. Lman. Hi. Deeper. Hi. Fenbach. Hi. Anderson. Hi. White. Hi. Barza. Hi. 13. Yes. No. No. One absent. Motion's approved. Okay. Movement item 9.11. Ordinance 2025-059 amending the city of Betavia home rule municipal retailers occupation tax and the home rule municipal service occupation tax.

Got it. Thank you your honor. Um so this is a half% um home rule sales tax increase. Um the money would be placed in a restricted capital fund reserve um for future police department facilities. Um something that um we did come a light as this is be a home rule tax. This does not include tax on groceries like fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, vehicles, medical items, prescriptions and then services um like lawyers, accountants, hairdressers. Um, so it kind of falls in line very similar um competitively to local communities um in the area that also have home rule. Does anybody have any questions or concerns? Do I cover everything?

Yeah. Um, if not, um, I motion that we approve ordinance 2025-59 amending the city of Battavia home rule municipal retailers occupation tax and the home room municipal service occupation tax. Second motion and second for the approval of ordinance 2025-059. Any further discussion? Kirk, call the role. Aaron, hi Leman. Hi Lman. Hi Peeper. Hi Farenbach. Hi Anderson. Hi White. Hi Barza. Hi Beck. Hi Malay. Hi Malone. Hi Wolf. Hi. Sulfa.

Hi. 13. Yes. No. No. When absent. Motion approved. Your honor. Real quick just cuz this is going to be the last thing that we approve at a city council meeting in 25. That's over 200 resolutions and ordinances that we did this year. So, just a reminder of all the stuff that happens every year.

Okay, moving to council updates, administrators report. Thank you, your honor, and I'd like to begin tonight by thanking city council for your support of the uh budget items that were before you this evening. Um we had a lot of great discussion about how these uh budget items support the strategic plan um that we have in place currently and we uh as staff greatly appreciate the resources to be able to carry out um those plans for our community. So thank you very much and thank you to staff too. Um you do a tremendous amount of work putting putting forth budgets that you uh on the one hand know uh will provide the resources necessary to complete those projects that are uh part of our strategic objectives while also uh realizing the uh that these are public funds and that um we want to keep our community affordable at the same time. um and that we also want to put forth what we see as uh sustainable uh financial plans. So, and then last but not least, because uh it's usually a herculan effort put forth by our finance department to take all of those department plans and uh weave them together into the documents that you see before you. as well as uh want to thank Lori and uh Max have been a tremendous help in communicating about the uh need for some additional revenue sources to support our future plan. So, thank you all very much for your hard work in this year's budget. Um wanted to just point out a a couple of things that are going on. Um, as you know, we had a catastrophic failure of the uh pump on well number nine. We were b we were able to put that back in

service last week um with the assistance uh cooperation between our water department and our electric division and we are now um in the testing phase of that and expect to be bringing that online very soon and we're doing uh sampling as well. um our streets department. Maybe some people don't realize that we have our own sign department. And uh some of the more fun things that we're able to do for our community is we prepared the conference champions sign for the Betavia High School football team and we were able to deliver that to Coach Pur. um our paid on call firefighter, Jack Lent, and graduated from the Southern Fox Valley EMS paramedic program last week. And then also we had three paid on call recruits who graduated from the basic operations firefighting academy. On Tuesday, December 9th, uh the police department partnered with Chipin and participated with Shop a Cop and Shop with a firefighter at the Betavia Walmart. Um, this is a national community outreach program where uh law enforcement and and firefighters shop with underprivileged families and children during the holidays using donated funds to buy gifts for these families during Christmas time. And also um our police department hosted a mutual uh hosted the organization mutual ground at their roll call trainings on Thursday, December 11th and Friday the 12th. It offered an opportunity for Mutual Ground to uh share with us the all of the great uh services that they provide. They're an organization out of Aurora that provides free confidential support and advocacy for individuals and families affected by domestic violence, sexual violence, and substance abuse.

Offering emergency shelter, counseling, legal help, and education to empower survivors and promote community safety. department members were uh refreshed on these services that are offered by Mutual Ground and also reminded of the value and importance of utilizing these services to support domestic uh violence victims. And on Friday, December 12th, I had the pleasure of attending the um N the Illinois Public Employer Labor Relations Association's 2025 legislative update meeting with Chief Hansen and Chief Blauers uh where we received a really great um presentations on uh legislative matters of importance to municipalities in the area of uh labor relations. And also I wanted to um share with you Eric can you remind me of the date for the upcoming it's not cones wind it

it's this Thursday uh so this Thursday um which will be the 18th we are hosting our inaugural Coco with a cop coco and that is at the Peg Bond Center um it's kind of a spin-off of our popular coffee with a cop event um really just looking to uh you know attract uh you know and build those relationships with the young people in our community. Um have them come out. So uh that event goes from 5 to 6:30. Um please if you have time come stop by enjoy a nice hot cocoa and some good conversation and fun and um I'll even wear a Santa hat. So thank you very much. And that's all I have unless anybody has any questions for me.

Any questions or more? Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, moving to 10 two project status. Who's got that one? No one. We have none. Nope. We have 103. Other business.

Okay. Going to 104, the mayor's report. I'm I think I'm going to be brief with you, but I just want to put this out and get this on TV in the community. This is a copy of the Saturday Evening Post cover that appeared on the front cover of the national uh Saturday Evening Post magazine on January 11th, 1958. And the it was a painting and each week the Saturday Evening Post had a different painting on their cover. And Norman Rockwell was the most famous artist that used this quite often. But this John Falter who painted this was right there. He was probably the one of the top five contributors of Saturday Evening Post covers. And he came up here in 1957. So the story goes because his sister had married a doctor in Aurora. And he came to spend Christmas with his sister and her family. And they were down in Aurora. And the family decided they were going to go up to the mil race in in Geneva for dinner. And so they came up to Betavia and crossed the bridge right here to get over to 25. And when they crossed the bridge, uh, there was a bunch of people skating on the pond out here. Now, this pond that's painted was the pond that existed. It went all the way to Wilson Street. And some of us old-timers here can remember this. This was the way it was when I was a kid. Mc This is probably where a lot of these people are is where McDonald's is today in in real life. But anyway, he painted this and a few about a year later at in January in the winter of 58, this appeared on the front cover of the Saturday Evening Post. And this was a big deal. There were people all over the place wanting to get this. And a lot of Bavians had a subscription to the magazine. So the one problem that developed in this whole thing was that when they sent you the magazine, they put a big address label right here on the corner of the picture. And so mo

most of the people in Betavia had I will call them spoiled front covers because they had this cover or this stamp on them. So uh William J. Wood who Hooverwood school is partially named after down on the southeast side was the principal at JB Nelson school for many years. And when he retired from both of those jobs he was a town historian. And so he had friends in upstate New York and he used to go to upstate New York once a year and visit his friends. And one year he was there and he walked into a antique store and right at the door was a magazine without the stamp on it for the Saturday Evening Post showing the Betavia cover. So Mr. Wood grabbed this magazine and bought it and brought it back. and uh I was the executive of his estate when he died and he left me with specific instructions that he wanted anybody in Battavia that wanted a copy of this magazine that could the city make it available to them. So right now it's Christmas time and people are looking for unique old Christmas gifts and if you've got some old Battavians in your family I'm sure you could give this to them and they'd remember when this happened cuz this was a big event. But anyway, Mr. would uh I still have the magazine with the cover on it and we make copies of it off the and the Bavia Women's Club at the end of the day back in 58 bought the rights to the painting and they have the original and I think you got it at the museum and so but that doesn't have the Saturday Evening Post part on it and that's kind of the interesting part of it because that shows it was on the front cover of a national magazine. So, uh, all those things come together. And so, I just want to spread the word that if anybody wants to have a Saturday evening post cover free of charge. Just come down to the city, come into the lobby here and

our gal that greets you has got them underneath the desk there and she can give you one or two or three or as many as you want. And if she runs low, she calls me and I just go to the copy machine and make more. So it it's but uh then they somebody took it and was trying to make it more framable. So they depreciated the size of it a little bit. So we also have this in a in a much smaller size. But again, because Bill got the one without the label on it. These are the the good ones that anybody can buy. And I she tells me already there's been several people in that wanted these because they were going to put these in a frame and give them as Christmas gifts to family or friends. So we're thinking in the next few days we'll have a few people down here at the city hall wanting to get the Saturday evening post cover. But I just wanted everybody to know that it's available and uh it's a great thing we gives Betavia some bragging rights that many other towns don't have. And a final thing I'd like just like to add as the mayor, I want to tell you how pleased and proud I am of the city staff in the last few weeks with the various challenges that they've been faced with, specifically the weather issues and getting our town ready for the Christmas displays and public works and the police department and the fire department have all kind of risen to the occasion and helped out. And uh really I think you know I get a lot of people telling me, "Boy, the town looks really nice with all the Christmas decorations up now." And if we didn't have public works out there kind of backing this up, uh we we have some things that are kind of unique in our Christmas decorations. And we have what we call the Charlie tree, which is this all red Christmas tree that's named after Charlie Chemist who was our city public or city water department foreman for a few years and

he was from Mexico and he always said that in Mexico the trees were red. Why couldn't we have an all red tree in Betavia? Well, it had happened after Charlie died, but I was good friends with Charlie and I suggested to the old public works director, we need to get an all red tree. And so we got the all red tree and we we move it around town now because families go on a tree search in Betavia and put everybody in the car and they go out and ride downtown and look at all the decorations and they're looking for the red tree. And so this year the tree is right down the street here and you can look at it when you leave here. in public works is we already had one problem with it. We had it up a day or two and the wind blew it and disconnected it and so it was dark out there for a while and so uh those things kind of happened and nothing anybody can do about it but it's it's lit now and you can go out and look at that but I'm just very pleased with the understanding and the support and the Bavisms that our city staff shows in trying to help Betavia appreciate itself in its history and we do have a lot of history to be very proud of. So again, if Betavia wants to have some Saturday evening post covers, they are available for no charge at the city hall. That's the end of my report. So I guess we need to go into executive session. Why don't we take about 3 minutes or 5 minutes and then we'll go into executive session. But

make a motion. Let's make a motion. Somebody make the motion to go into executive session. I moved. Second motion. What's the purpose of executive session? Just for the record, uh, the purpose of the exact is land acquisition and sale of electricity. Thank you. Start with Leman. Leman. Hi. Lman. Hi. Peeper. Hi Baronbach. Hi Anderson. Hi White. Hi Barza. Hi Beck. Hi Malay. Hi Malone. I close.