City Council - Regular Meeting

went through and practiced all your back schedules. That scares me more than anything. school district. Let's go get him. Good. Good. Ryder.

I mean, they threw us in the store. Nobody's told me. I've heard about it, but I don't know any about Okay, we will call to order the regular meeting of the Betavia City Council for Monday, March 2nd, 2026. Uh, I would ask for a brief invo going to prov provide a brief invocation followed by the roll call. So, would you all please rise and we'll do the roll call and then the pledge of allegiance. tonight in what uh I'm sure everybody in this room agrees is a very troubling world. We just ask for guidance and blessings and support as the world moves forward in the state it is. Uh it is troubling to see all the things that are happening all around the world and we are very thankful that we have a community that is as strong and as help helpful to itself as we do have in Betavia. So we are very very fortunate to live in a community where we look after each other and take care of each other and try to do the very best that we can for both Betavia today and Betavia is the future and we ask for the continuation of the blessings we've been receiving for this to happen. Uh secondly uh we would like to have a roll call or excuse me a pledge of allegiance. Alman Malay would you lead us?

Certainly. 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. Yes. The city clerk to please call the role. Here, here. Beck. Malay here. Malone here. Wolf here. Sulfa here. Baron here. Leman here. Lman here. Peeper here. Farenbach. Anderson here. White that's 11 and 14.

We have a necessary quorum to conduct business. Uh item four is the reminder from the chairman that we speak into the microphones because this meeting is being recorded on BATV and if you don't speak into the microphone, uh you're going to be on TV and nobody's going to be able to hear a word you're saying. So I appreciate the good effort that everybody do that. Moving then to item number five are matters from the public for items not on the agenda. Do we have anybody this evening? Very thin crowd so I don't think we do. Okay. Moving then to item six. Items to be removed, added or changed on the agenda tonight. Do we have anything there? Nope. Okay. Moving right along to item number seven, which is the consent agenda. Your honor, the consent agenda reads as follows. Accept and place on file cow minutes January 27th, 2026, February 10th, 2026, and February 16th, 2026. Historic preservation minutes for January 12th, 20, 2026 and January 26th, 2026. Approvals payroll fund totals for 2272026 in the amount of 1,175,23269. The accounts payable total for March 2nd council meeting in the amount of 1,269,162.93. Cow Executive Session minutes January 27th, 2026 for purchase and sale of real estate. February 10th, 2026 for purchase of real estate. Resolution 2026-31-R,

authorization to execute a 3-year RSA subscription. Resolution 2026 26-R, Gartner Service Agreement. Resolution 2026-25-R, approve agreement with Quad Plus for main substation testing. Resolution 2026-29-R authorizing execution of task order number 57 with Engineering Enterprises, Inc. for the Waterworks System Master Plan Update and Rate Study. Resolution 2026-24-R awarding a downtown improvement grant for Marco Limited properties at 2 to6 North Betavia Avenue amount not to exceed $25,000. Resolution 2026-23-R authorizing execution of a one-year renewable contract with Bright View Landscapes LLC for Westside Property Maintenance. Your honor, I move we approve the consent agenda as read.

Second. Have a motion and second for the approved approval of the consent agenda is presented. Do we have any questions or comments? Um, I just want to make one comment about the uh downtown improvement plan for Marco. Um, you know, he's done a great job at really keeping his businesses full in there and he's upgrading he has a need for upgrading the electric um which benefits the tenants and I think that's something you know with us supporting that um really shows our dedication to the businesses and the community.

Thank you for that comment. That's very well taken. Anybody else? At the clerk, call the role on the consent agenda. Hi, Lancie. Hi, Beck. Hi, Malay. Hi, Malone. Hi, Wolf. Hi, Baron. Hi, SA. Hi, Leman. Hi, Lman. Hi, Peeper. Hi, Fenbach. Anderson. Hi, White. That's 11 of 14. Motion's approved. Okay. Moving item item eight on our agenda. Presentation by the Betavia Chamber of Commerce and the executive director is here.

Good evening. Thank you, mayor. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you tonight. I wanted just to give you overview of what the chamber is doing to support the business community. We're busy as always. First, a little March fund. Hopefully you have seen that we've we're doing a raffle to support our high school scholarships. It's called the pot of gold raffle. It is um just a fun raffle that we're doing to raise money to put into our scholarship funds that go into that will be awarded to four high school students for $1,000 scholarships. The raffle is a $10. You buy a $10 ticket and you're entered into a daily raffle for the entire month of March and you could win a range of uh cash daily prizes of a hundred to $1,000. So, super fun uh and good and good for a cause. So, uh we have a friendly little competition going with our local businesses to see who could raise the most amount of scholarship funds. So, you could either buy a ticket on our website. You could you might you could probably click the link on Facebook, too. But we also if you stop in at Garage 31, Sidecar Supper Club, the Tea Tree, Overflow, Redhive Market, Riverside Pizza, and Khalis Jewelers, they're in a little friendly competition to see who can win um sell the most raffle tickets. So, uh come support us and hopefully walk away with some cash. Uh, speaking of the students, like I said, we have the four scholarships. The applications are open now. So, if you know a high school senior, send them our way. They are in four different categories. One is excellence in entrepreneurship. One is for a female in business, women in business. We have a career and technical education scholarship. and a um employee of a Betavia Chamber member business can win a $1,000 scholarship that could go to

whatever their next step is in life. Uh talking about um Inspire, we have our Inspire celebration coming up. I've mentioned this to you before. Registration is now open. We will be honoring Linda Sheli, our C citizen of the year and Betavia Women's Club, the Spirit of Betavia winner. And we are giving out OLE award winners. I've mentioned this to you before. Businesses that have invested money into their uh business here in Bavia that we want to say thank you to. In Ward 7, we have Earth Mover Credit Union, Ignite Medical Resort, Tesla, and Randall. In ward five, we have the BEI Tower Business Center, Dollar and Cents Bookkeeping, Everdine's Grilled Cheese, and Betavia Park District, the Patrick Callahan Center. They're getting a civic award. Ward four is Aldi with their multi-million dollar investment that they put on their their corporate headquarters there. And W two is another civic award winner. That's the Betavia Interfaith Food Pantry's new location. So these these OLE awards say thank you for their confidence in investing in our city. So come join us. That's inspire on April 23rd at Revalry 675. It'll be a great a great time. I would also like to warmly welcome the newest members of the Bavia Chamber. Rival Ma Mind, AEL LLC, BT Home Services, Warehouse 55, DLK Pest Management, Sand Hill Farm, My Chef Catering, and SMB Advantage Group. We're grateful that they've chosen to invest in our chamber and please go to our website to find out how you could support them. February was a really strong month for the chamber for our engagement. Our Bavia women in business

held an event at Khalis. We had about 75 members there who were building uh relationships and supporting each other's businesses and supporting Betavia Apartments. We collected items for donation for Betavia Apartments. We did a multi-chamber Tri City Geneva St. Charles Betavia Winter Mixer at Revalry 675. We had about 100 people there. So that was good. Revalry was thrilled. We had our drop in lunch at uh the GOAT. We had about 20 people there. So that was great. And then we did our we will do our drawing for the out to lunch chamber EDS program from that from that event or from the month of of February for the goat. Um looking ahead though we have um we have four active so uh referral and mastermind groups. We have the Tri City Business Council. Roman Seckle is a key member of that. We have our Betavia Chamber Connectors that meets every other month. We have our new evening leads group that meets at um it was meeting at Geneva Winery every other Tuesday that's called edge that was an evening one and we have our Bavia Business Exchange. So groups that meet on a regular basis that support each other and find great value in that. We also have our chamber non forprofit that meets on the first Wednesday of every month that will they will meet this uh Wednesday. Uh we have an alderman that's been attending. Thanks Alice for coming. That's a group of about 35 not for-profit leaders that really find ways to help support each other and and make our community better. We have been offering a strong foundations workshop, business education for our local businesses. It's been well attended. Our three series recently was our social media one at the library and um that's been about 35 people attending that each time. So, we're really thrilled with the success of that program knowing that businesses need help there. We I do want to say we have a ribbon

cutting coming up this month. It is uh this Thursday at 11:00 a.m. at Tesla. So come. We're going to be in their in their showroom. It'll be a lot of fun. Uh so ribbon cutting and open house. The grand opening is Tes is at Tesla March 5th at 11:00 a.m. And then we have our drop in out to lunch at Windmill Grill. We'll be focusing we'll do Chamber Eats at at Windmill Grill and focus on them for the month of March. So, go there, drop in your business card, and you could be put into a drawing to win $25 of Chamber Bucks and a $25 gift certificate to WinM Grillil. Um, before I introduce my guest, does anybody have any questions for me? Okay, I would like to introduce Lynette Spencer and Lillian Kton. They are they um Lynette is the founder of Blue Dot Psychotherapy right down the street here on um island in the in the Betavia Crearyy Mall. They uh provide outpatient mental health therapy for all ages. So I would like to invite you both up and talk a little bit more about your wonderful business. Thank you everyone

so much for having me tonight and welcoming us here. One of the best things that I did moving into Betavia uh this year was to join the chamber and it's been a a nice warm welcome for us. Um my name is Lynette Spencer and I am the founder of Blue Dot Psychotherapy. As you just heard, I have been serving families in uh mental health care in the Fox Valley area for about 10 years since 2015. My offices have been in Geneva and St. Charles, but now I've moved to Betavia and migrated here um and have a lot to learn yet about your city, but I've I've really loved what I've seen so far in the short two and a half months that I've been here. And um I wanted to um give you just a little insight into blue dot psychotherapy by first just probably the the easiest thing to do or the most important thing to do is to share why the name blue dot. And that's that's the first question usually people ask me. So I thought that's where I'd start. Um, and that's then I'll turn it over to Lillian um to my colleague to share with you her perspective on on what we do uh which represents the the the company as a whole. Uh it was interesting coming in and hearing the history of the building and learning that it has its some some roots in the space program because and I'm wondering if any of you here have heard of the uh the the picture called the pale blue dot. Uh it was taken by Voyager 1, I think in 1994 if I'm correct. It was the very last picture it took on its way out of service. And that picture was a a picture of the the planet Earth. And it was a speck of pale blue in a sunbeam.

And it was the picture with the photograph was handed over to Carl Sean who is an astronomer who wrote a book called The Pale Blue Dot. And I thought I would read a quote of his from that book and that will give you some insight as to why I named the company Blue Dot Psychotherapy. In in Carl Sean's words, look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us on it. Everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you've ever heard of, every human being who ever was lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering. Thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines. Every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, Carl Sean's words, not mine, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there on a moat of dust suspended in a sunbeam. And if you have the opportunity, take a look at that photo. You can easily find it online just by searching pale blue dot. Blue dot psychotherapy was built on the idea that this that on this vast pale blue dot, individual stories matter. and every person has one. So with that, I'll turn it over to my colleague Lillian who is a licensed

clinical professional counselor and she will describe her specialty focus um which generally represents both of us.

Good evening. My name is Lilian Contin. Um, I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be here with you tonight and to introduce a little bit myself and how my work supports members of this community. In my practice, I work mostly with adults navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, ADHD, life transitions, career stressors and so on. Also, I help cl um couples facing challenges with communication, emotional disconnection, parenting disagreements, and intimacy issues. I also support women's health across lifespan. I earned my undergrad in clinical psychology in Spain, so I'm comfortable providing therapy in Spanish. Also, I was born and raised in Brazil, so I provide therapy in Portuguese as well. In 2017, I immigrate to United States when my husband accept a position at FM Lab. He's a theoretical physicist. Like many families drawn to Fox Valley area through science and innovation, we came here seeking opportunity and found a community. Having personally navigate the experience of building a life in a new country, I deeply understand both the resilience and the challenges international families face as they adjust, creating um belonging and contribute to our city. As Bavia continues to grow and welcome diverse professionals and families,

accessible mental health care becomes an important part of sustaining a strong and connected community. I would welcome opportunities to collaborate with the city and local organizations to support mental health wellness um and strengthen resource for residents. Thank you so much for your attention. And um just wanted to add that if anybody has interest in referral to blue dot psychotherapy or anybody watching would like to reach out to us the phone number to call is 8478678936 and our website is blue.sychotherapy.com psychotherapy.com and we are just located right next door at 34 North Island Avenue and we're in suite f as in Frank. Thank you very much.

Thank you for coming down and explaining. I think it was very educational for the council and myself to hear this. So I appreciate your efforts. I appreciate I appreciate the welcome. Thank you.

All right. I guess then we will move to item nine regular agenda and the first one is proclamation for women's history month. Alman Baron, do you have this?

I do, your honor. Thank you. City of Betavia proclamation. Whereas women's history month is a time to honor and celebrate the invaluable contributions of women to our society, history, and culture. And whereas the city of Betavia, Illinois has been profoundly shaped by remarkable women whose leadership, service, and determination have paved the way for the women who are making history in Betavia today. And whereas Dr. M. Ella Whipple, a pioneer physician and educator born in Betavia, dedicated her life to medicine and was an active advocate for temperance and women's suffrage, advancing opportunities for women in both civil life and the medical profession. And whereas Dr. Annie Spencer broke barriers in the medical field as an assistant physician at the Belleview Place while also maintaining a successful private practice specializing in the care of women and children at a time when few women were physicians. And whereas Ellen Skirmmont, a Betavia native and a 1934 Betavia High School graduate, trained as a medical technician and contributed to the University of Michigan University of Chicago's Manhattan project during the World War II, demonstrating the vital role women played in scientific advancement and national service. And whereas in 1958, the Betavia Chamber of Commerce awarded its first citizen of the year honor to Glattis Larson, founder of the Valley School of Exceptional Children, recognizing her service and support beyond the normal call of duty to individuals with

disabilities and elderly residents throughout the area. And whereas Linda Schuli was named the 2025 Betavia Citizen of the Year by the Betavia Chamber of Commerce in recognition for her service and support beyond the normal call of duty to the Betavia community reflecting decades of leadership as an educator, musician, volunteer, and civic civic advocate and continuing Betavia's tradition of women whose dedication strengthens the community for generations. generations to come. And whereas the leadership of Betavia reflects the foundation built by these trailblazing women where five women currently serve on the Betavia City Council, women leading half of the city's departments, and women serving in top leadership roles at the Betavia Public Library, Battavia Pist, Betavia Chamber of Commerce, and Battavia Main Street. And whereas women continued to strengthen Betavia through leadership of vital community and service organizations including the Betavia United Way, Betavia Food Pantry and Clothes Closet, Water Street Studios, Betavia Women's Club, and Betavia's Mother's Club. Now therefore, I Jeffrey D. Sheli, mayor of the city of Battavia, do hereby proclaim March as women histories month in Battavia and encourage all residents to celebrate and recognize the extraordinary achievements of women past and present whose leadership continues to shape a stronger, more vibrant Bavia. Your honor, I move we accept the proclamation. Second motion and second for the approval of the proclamation for Women's

History Month. Any discussion? Cir. Hi Lansancy. Hi Beck. Malay. Hi Malone. Hi Wolf. Hi Sula. Hi Baron. Hi Leman. Hi Lman. Hi Peeper. Hi Farenbach Anderson. Hi White. That's 11. So, I'm not sure where we go from here. Nobody gave me that instruction. This is shy. Yeah. Well, I mean, I'll come and do it, but nobody said that that's what we were going to do. So, I'm just didn't want to do the wrong thing.

Yeah. There you go. Like a Yogi Bear. Hang on. The city honor and great privilege to present this proclamation to Linda Shelkey for her good efforts doing everything that was made in there. I can attest was done with no salary

and I know a lot of these uh women from our history of this community. So to even have my name on the same page as all these greats, thank you very much the city and here's to all the hardworking, fast-paced, uber talented women of Betavia who've done so much for so long. Thank you.

Thanks, SIR. OKAY. Going to 92 which is resolution 2026-030-R authorization for execution of a contract with landmark contractors for construction of the River Street Plaza site work. This is um the last approval that we need to get moving on the plaza um where we're going to have the restroom and have some benches and garden and all that. So, we have um we went out to bid and had quite a few bids and they all came in close and um Landmark contractors were selected as a low responsible bidder and they have done similar work in neighboring communities in the area and um once we get the go-ahad to go, we're looking forward to setting a pre-construction date and coordinating all the efforts that Max has put together with Urban Blue to get that um pre-made bathroom installed and have it running up by the end of the season. So, I don't know if anybody has any other questions.

Happy to see it constructed. And it amazes me that there's 201 pages in this memo for a spot that's a little bigger than this room. It's all the legal stuff. Are we in need of a motion here to make a motion that we um passed the resolution 202630R um authorization I got to find the page here uh for execution of contract with Landmark Contractors for the construction of the River Street Plaza site work.

Second motion and second for the River Street Plaza Sidewalk. Any further discussion? Kirk, call the role. Barazza, hi. Lansancy. Hi. Beck. Malay. Hi. Malone. Hi. Sulfa. Hi. Wolf. I. Baron. Hi. Leman. I Lman. Hi. Peeper. Hi. Fenbach. Anderson. Hi. White. It's 11 to 14.

Motion's approved. Uh, moving then to 9.3 presentations on strategic plan update. Whack. Max. Hello everyone. Give me one. Oh, that's loud. One second. All righty. So, it is first quarter 2026, which means it's time for a strategic plan update. Um update, we just approved the contract for the bathroom plaza. So, I won't cover that as part of this, but um our our strategic plan started in 2024, really got kicked off in 2025 last year. Um this year a lot of funding was put towards the plan, staffing, resources. Um but what I really want to talk about is kind of what we've already accomplished less than two halfway through this plan. Um you know, we had 2024 and 2025. July will be roughly halfway through this plan. Um and we should all be very very proud of what we've already accomplished from it. Um and what we're on track to accomplish. um truly a lot of plans like this sit on shelves, don't get done, don't get resources put behind them, and two, um see where we're at and to have um community members talk about it, be proud of it, and see that we're getting things done on the plan. Um you all deserve a pat on your backs for for making that happen, but also to the, you know, staff that make this happen as well. Um a lot of really good work that's been happening. So I'm going to first kind of run through last year within the strategic plan what we've accomplished. So obviously you know we've constructed the River Street ramp and improved access at the Larsson Becker parking lot. Um that has opened up an entire section of our trail to um uh our community where people on bikes who are who need wheelchairs or otherwise have mobility issues um can finally enjoy that section um and be a part of that. Um, I know

we're in the process of finalizing putting the ramps up and getting this transferred over to the park district. Um, but that is moving ahead. Well, um, we're also thinking about kind of what artwork we put on there. So, that's something that'll be cool. Like I just said, we advanced the public restroom design and procurement for downtown. That's getting started and should be up and running uh kind of by midyear. One of the things we put into our plan was to uh support workforce housing and affordable housing. Um to not even halfway through already have a 72 unit workforce housing complex in our downtown that's revitalizing a site that you put um 1.2 million worth of TIFF funds to. Um, that's a really good example of setting a vision, working with the downtown plan and other things to kind of have all of that fit together. Um, and and involve 72 more units of affordable housing that we know we really need in this community. Um, we've also been working on building market rate of housing. Um, you chose to purchase two um, parcels to put an entire block together. Um, and that project is moving well ahead um to kind of build out a parking deck as well as um, some mixed mixeduse developments in the downtown. Um we've digitized well over a thousand boxes of community development and police files and are continuing along with that. Um that's really opened up office space and uh allowed us to use documents a lot more uh readily available. Uh we've also launched a new website uh and we're continuing to modernize kind of what applications we use so that they can be used both from your phone and your computer. Um we expanded field mobile devices to all of our staff across all of our departments. Um especially in our public works department. they're now able to better access and use um their mobile devices to identify data uh to put new data in and to manage our both GIS systems but also our work order ticketing systems. Um we've uh introduced additional online permitting permitting options uh via our llama software. So we're continuing to roll those out uh as we go along. Uh and then we've also added our application

specialist role within our IT department who is already doing a very very good job uh integrating apps together um making sure systems talk to each other and um we're ready to go live tomorrow. Lori, we're still going live tomorrow with Dakra. Um which is the new eing system and so they worked on building some interfaces between our record system um and our eing system that's going to save us a lot of time and resources. Um, we've begun using our standardized memo templates and linking everything back to strategic goals. Um, last year we had y'all at a farmers market and we're going to do more of that this year. Um, we've expanded our lunch and learn serieses for staff development on various topics. Um, Lori was able to attend uh, I believe it was a chamber event called the senior savvy expo and we've also held tech talk outreach events um, that also focus on uh, preventing fraud and uh, scams for our senior community that was at the library and uh, got really good feedback. Um, and then last year we did a lot of work to um recognize our our really great staff in front of council and in front of the community um for the great work they do. There's three more pages. Um, so we used uh single use bag fees to expand the Parkway Tree program. Um, we're now purchasing entirely hybrid police fleet vehicles. Um, and a lot of our admin type fleet for community development, IT, electric, um, etc. are, uh, plug-in hybrid vehicles and we continue to use those. And uh I I've heard nothing but really great things about those vehicles and especially the hybrids for the the police cars. Um we've partnered with an application through the IEPA called Recycle Coach to help promote sustainable waste practices. Um we've really kicked off our tabletop exercises and emergency preparedness efforts. Um we've done two tabletops. We have a couple of smaller ones scheduled this spring and we have a larger one this fall and we're continuing to grow in both rigor and scale of what those uh exercises entail. And then the fire department's also done a bunch of good work towards their strategic plan uh with regard to accreditation. Um they're

doing joint trainings and then also working on uh RIT guidelines as well. Um we secured a state grant to support fire department projects. We're adding fire department uh firefighters to improve our coverage. We talked about that during the budget. Um they worked on digitizing fire records uh training records and building out some uh checklists for like rig inspections and other things. Um we're well ahead of schedule on uh lead service line replacement. Um will be done this year. Um and that is a fantastic thing that will pay dividends for generations to come. Most of it at little to no cost to to Betavia rateayers at least in interest. Um we're working on our electric utility planning. You should see some stuff probably tomorrow about our IRP and kind of what we uh our responses to questions as well as the uh the public comment and more. So that was 25, but um 26 starts with the the budget you passed and I really want to hit on that because the budget you passed contains numerous investments into capacity building our infrastructure um but really into this plan that makes it happen. Um, so we are hiring a community engagement intern to promote additional community engagement events, um, to organize ward based events and farmers market participation. Um, we're expanding the green energy audit and grant program. We were thankful to get $20,000 from Kain County to help make that happen. Um, within the budget this year, we have funded a downtown parking study, building condition survey, as well as a bike and pedestrian design policy. Um, we provided additional funding for Main Street to expand their programs. And then we also are adding two new police officers and two new firefighters to continue bolstering our ranks there. Um, we're implementing Axon body cameras. I think Eric has one on right now. Um, I'm not going to put him on the spot. Hi. Um, as I do that, uh, with AI assisted transcription and uh, translation, uh, we're working on purchasing, we actually just had a demo

today of some of them. Well, not a demo, just how they work. um positive protection systems for parades and community events to really make sure that those are as safe as they can be. Um we're adding our public safety analyst to support the fire and police departments. Um we're creating the HR management analyst position to promote wellness, policy updates, and organizational development. Um and continued digitization and process improvements. Um kind of an environmental thing. Uh we know that it's getting more and more challenging to make big things happen with the funding we have. things cost more. Um, resources are dwindling at the state and federal level. Um, inflation costs, etc. continue to rise and it's really placing a challenge on being able to get big things done. Um, but putting resources toward it, um, voting for budgets and being responsible with long-term planning makes it easier to do. So, um I like following up on last year's budget to to do what you all did was a very big testament to the trust you have in your staff and to the community um that we've got a really good direction that we're taking and that um there's the the effort and the support behind it. So, that's kind of my Q1 update for this year. We'll obviously keep you posted as we move along um and then as things move ahead this year that are related to our strategic plan. You can also always follow it online at our website where there's um regular updates and whatnot being put in.

Any questions of Max after his good presentation? Yeah, real quick simple question. Um we have a great interface on the website where he kind of breaks everything down. You can click the links. How often and it gives you percentage as well of how advanced we are uh in getting it. How often is that portion um updated?

Um it depends. Different items have different uh update cadences. Um, so we get, you know, a lot like a lot of the items that I have are are quarterly. I think some are more in an annual basis. We try to go in um relatively often and make sure that we're keeping them up to date mainly as we have things to report. Um, so different items have different reporting timelines, but if you ever have a question, reach out. We'll get you an update on something. And if folks watching at home want to take a look at it, they can go to the website and see that we're, you know, 48% done with beginning the process of restarting and bringing ED consultants to do things uh inside or outside or internally, right? That was a mouthful.

Yeah, it gets very ind depth as much as you want to go. I try to keep it at a high level for you all, but um feel free to dig in with as much information as you want. um departments can talk on about what they're working on and um yeah if you ever have any questions reach out questions out for further review. Okay, I'll get it to Lori so she can post on the reports and presentations hub which was another one of our strategic plan items was to build that out.

Anybody else? Well, keep up the great work and keep us on track here. Yep. All right, I guess then we go to city council updates and first one is the administrator's report.

Thank you, your honor and uh good evening everyone. Um Lori has been working on a project with public works this year that is going to provide information to our residents and and others who are visiting about what these uh projects are that we have going on throughout our town. Um it's called building a better matavia and starting with the public restroom and plaza project. There will be a sign at projects like that explaining what the project is, how it was funded. um cool information that people may want to know because that urban blue um all-inclusive self-cleaning uh restroom is really kind of an amazing technology for us to have here and I think people would be interested in learning more about it. So uh that's something that is underway. We also uh have many departments who have signed up for the uh farmers market city tents. So we hope to uh meet you at the market. um this summer season. Uh wanted to give credit for a couple of uh projects that it was able to do for um some other departments. Um we were just talking about the DACRA um e ticketing system and um there was a an issue with getting DACA and our uh new world system in police to talk to one another and we've got such great in-house programming um professionals that they're able to figure out these things that the technical support from the software companies can't figure out. So, I just wanted to call out Todd Davis and Sean Batton for working together. Um, they saved the city a lot of money when it comes to these things. So, um, the other thing are our, um, GIS staff, Mike Cayman and Matt Stocking. Um, over the

course of the last week, they've completed boundary and annexation survey for, um, the next census. They keep all of that information up to date which is so very important because we want to make sure that we get accurate counts because there is a lot of federal and state funding that comes to us that is per capita and so it's that's really important work and then also they completed data processing for the IMS uh pavement analysis study that engineering is going to be doing this summer. Um, something people might notice ordinarily, we've got the pretty pretty twinkle lights in the trees on North River Street. So, right now, we're going to be taking them down because there are a few that are uh out and the trees need pruning and we want to get all of that in good working order before our outdoor scene starts to happen on North River Street. And then also, uh, wastewater treatment plant is still working on closing out the punch list items. And as the weather warms up, they'll also be addressing some, uh, outstanding landscaping issues. And, um, we're looking forward to giving all of you a tour later this year. In the fire department, ESDA had a joint training session with the other emergency management organizations at uh, St. Charles on Monday. And in the police department, um, we worked with the public school, uh, to identify an officer to fill the vacancy of the school resource officer position. After a few rounds of interviews, um, David Sad has been selected and he will begin cross trainining with Jamie Goshi, the current SRO, in preparation for this full-time assignment beginning um with uh in the 2026 fall semester. We

really want to extend our gratitude to Officer Goi. She has done a phenomenal job and um this the school district has told us that uh she made a real difference um during her time there at the school and so we are very proud of her many years of service and dedication in that position. Uh she will return to the patrol division at the end of the 2026 spring semester. And that's all that I have unless anybody has any questions for me. Any questions? I

just wanted to highlight what I read in last week's report about the work it did. You know, like working with APIs for systems, I think is very much above and beyond what most IT departments do. So, I think that was Thank you. A huge deal. So, yeah. Again, thank you. That sounds fantastic. Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Okay. Uh, do we have other business from the council? Okay. So, the next thing is the mayor's report. I got a couple things to share. Uh I have been asked and uh I guess we've agreed or I've agreed with Laura by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. and they are going to have I think it's five regional meetings in the suburbs in which they're going to try to invite all the mayors and city managers from each county to come to a meeting and then talk about what's happening and what's the future and where things should be going and what's going on. And so the first one I guess is going to be May 12th here in Betavia and they want to come to the city hall and use your council chambers because they say it is a classic example of how you took an old building and renovated it. It's got some history with it, but beyond that, the facility was made so that it's easy for everybody to get in and out of. It's got no no issues with it blocking anything or whatever, but they think it's a a classic shining example of what a suburb can do and trying to improve itself and this should be shown and shared to everybody. So, and that but they've also going to do this in one town in each one of the other suburbs. And I don't know if I know all the names yet, but it's towns that have done something significant. But they specifically said to me, you know, not only on the inside, but you go right outside the door here and you've got the Riverwalk, you got the Peg Bond Center, you got the the stage for the bands to perform on. You got the uh Flag Day monument, you've got all this neat stuff that people want to bring people down here to see and show. and you you've really kind of taken an old downtown and I' I've supplied them with some old pictures of what this

looked like 40 years ago and it was a pretty rough shaken area with a bunch of old factories and stuff laying on the ground and whatever have you. So to the credit of this council and those who came before you in the last 40 years, a lot has been done to really kind of shine this place up and make it something that we can be be very very proud of. So, I'll keep you imposed uh informed as to what's going to happen with this. We may have some other ideas about trying to invite some maybe some of you down here to kind of meet with some of the other folks and share what's going on here because we're kind of a regional model. Now, on the other side of the thing, u I don't know what to tell you about this. our our governor of Illinois two weeks ago gave a speech about how he wanted to kind of rewrite municipal law in Illinois. And one of the things he'd like to do is interject zoning into the governor's law and kind of be able to change our zoning laws to fit other situations. And I've already had some residents call me. They're all stirred up, but I've uh the Metropolitan Mayor's Caucus has put together a a summary and every part of the region has put together some negative document about what in the heck are we trying to do here with this? I mean, he he's suggesting things like we should allow people to build small houses in our backyards and you know, there's just all kinds of different stuff. And in Betavia, that would be a real hard fight, I think, for a lot of people to take on that. You got, you know, you got density and zoning that was set up based on what was the commonly accepted thing. And now he's going to go to Springfield and and try to change it. So, we are going to have a legislative drive down

here later in the month. And I'd like to encourage as many of you who can find it's a two-day jaunt down to Springfield and one day down and spend day in the night there and then the next day some meetings and then you come home in the afternoon. But normally on those we do get a chance to get into the face of the governor and I've already heard the jokes about what some of the cities are planning to do when they get in his face over that particular issue. So, I didn't want any of you to think that that was wasn't something that we were aware of and trying to do stuff with. I I think we want to try to present this as a unified thing and it's just not one town screaming their concerns and objections. This is going to be I think the whole probably the whole state of Illinois because it's to try to come in and start changing everybody's zoning laws. And I think every alderman sitting here in the seven wards can think of some place where somebody could go in and do some crazy thing that wouldn't be very popular with the rest of your constituents. So, we got to be real careful what we're doing with this thing. And so, uh, I may suggest in a few weeks that we gather as a committee and hash over some of our concerns and issues we got and then put them in writing. and they're trying to present a a written kind of platform from each city to the governor's office about what's wrong with this whole idea and what what what are you thinking you're trying to do here? So, I don't I've never seen in my years here anything that drew as much concern and interest as this thing has. So, I'm not sure it's going to go any place too quickly. And I'm thinking that right now if you're running for state office, some of these people running for state rep and senator are probably hearing about about this already that what are you trying to do? What do you and most of them don't know because it hasn't been written up or it's just the governor gave this speech

about how he wants to change things. So I just wanted to let you know that that that that's out there and uh we shall see what we shall see. But uh look forward to talking some more about that in the days and months ahead cuz it's something that we like to do. One other thing I just would like to mention uh you know we we got so much we've done in the downtown here to be proud of and I'm very proud of everything we've done and certainly if you stand on the Wilson Street Bridge and you look north you got the big lighted sign about Peace Bridge and you can see all the bike trails and everything else. When you stand on the bridge and you look south, it's dark. You don't see nothing down there. There's There used to be some lights on the island. And I can't figure out what ever happened to those lights, but they're gone. And I just wanted to let you know I'm trying to push forward with the idea that we're going to talk with our friends at the park district because they have some element of control there that we'd like to do something down on the island down there that kind of at least puts a light on it at night so people can look out look down there and see that there's a nice area that in the daylight you can go down there and walk around and see what's going on. But, uh, if anybody's got any thoughts on it, please feel free to share them with me because I think that is something that is kind of a missing factor in downtown Betavia right now is what we could do to kind of brighten up the south look off the bridge. So, that's my report. Uh, I guess we need a motion to go into executive session. So,

move second. Motion and second. Clerk call the role for the executive session. I here sorry for compensation. Okay. I Yes. Nancy. Hi Beck. Hi Malay. Hi Malone. Hi Sulfa. Hi Wolf. Hi Baron. Hi Leman. Hi Lman. Hi Peeper. Hi Baronbach. Anderson. Hi White. That's 11 or 14.