Board - Regular Meeting

His fingers on one hand. Good evening, everyone.

At this time, I'll call to order the regular scheduled board meeting for the Village of Minolta in Wednesday, August 26, 2026 at 7 p.m. Roll call, please, Lord Chancellor. Trustee Burbette?

Here.

Trustee Crotley? Here.

Trustee Hilli? Here. Trustee Jen? Here. Trustee Johnson? Here. Trustee Killily?

Here.

Mayor LaRue? Here. You have a quorum, sir. Yes, sir. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance and remain standing for a moment of silence for a follow-up. 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. Thank you. All right. At this time, we'll go over to Florida's public comment. Is there any public comment tonight?

No.

Joyce? Joyce.

Give it to us, Joyce.

Hi. I'm Joyce Holstey, and I live at 5108 West 148th Street in Midlothian. I haven't done this in a long time, and so I'm trying to get building permits. And so I did the thing that you should do. I went to the city, and I got the list of the plumbers and electricians that I need. And lo and behold, I started calling some of them and they said, where do you live at? I tell them. They said, nope, I won't do it in Midlothian because they take too long for building permits. I went through like three of them before I finally got somebody that said they would try. So I just want to let you know that that's my experience that I'm getting. And it's from, I guess, a reputation of the building permits taking too long. That's what they're telling me, that they take too long to get. And so I'm trying to get one now that was applied for Friday. But now they tell, I called this morning and they said the clerk's not there so it can't be put in the computer and then it's got to be approved by the building supervisor.

Did you say that address one more time?

What's the address again? 5108 148th Street in Midlothian.

Yeah, there has been a problem. In the recent past.

Yeah, and these people were on the list, and they were bonded and everything, but they just turned me down straight out. They wouldn't even come out and give an estimate or anything.

Thanks to the current Department of the Trustee, Chad, we have gotten caught up on parties. So we're hoping we are resolving these issues. We want to get rid of that reputation, and that's what we're working on very hard.

And as I was talking to a couple plumbers to try to figure out who I was going to get for a plumber, they mentioned to me about that, you know, you have to have a building permit to even get a hot water heater. And they said they're having a lot of problems with that because hot water goes out, you know, your hot water heater goes out, and then People don't want to wait to get the building permit in like a week or something.

No, we allow emergency replacement of water. You do? Anytime you touch electrical plumbing or gas, it does require inspection once completed.

But could you go ahead and replace it?

We do allow emergency replacement.

I can get the permit later. Oh, see, I didn't know that. And then one more thing I got to add is when we have these two bad storms, I didn't have any TVs on in my house and I was upstairs and I barely heard the siren that's over there by Ricky Rockets. And I thought, my gosh, is my windows that soundproof? And so then I finally opened up the window and then I could hear the siren. But I'm just saying, when that wind gets really bad, you cannot hear the sirens in my neighborhood.

That was brought up last week. My neighbor Rita and Eugene said it. I pulled the board. Everyone seemed to have heard it. You are correct, though. If your windows are closed and you have good solid windows, maybe the AC was on before the car went out. It's possible. It's a one... It's a one-dimensional siren. You said last week there's not a volume control. Oh, there's no... Annie was here last week, and he said he would at least look into it and see if there's anything to do to raise the decimals. But the alert's on your phone. You have a cell phone, and the alert's on the cell phone.

Yeah, the alert is on my cell phone. They're more accurate than the sirens. Okay, that's it.

No, we didn't, nothing?

No.

Nothing.

All right, then I will close the court of public comment and move on to tonight's consent agenda. Number one, approval of Ordinance 2189, an ordinance amending Title VII of the Municipal Code of the Village of Midlothian, Cook County, Illinois, regarding security fogging devices. Number two, approval of the Administration Department Monthly Report, July 2026. Approval of the Building Department, July 2026 Monthly Report. Number four, approval of the Fire Department, July 2026 Monthly Report. Number five, approval of the Police Department, July 2026 month report. Number six, approval of the Public Works Department, July 2026 month report. Number seven, approval of the Treasurer's July 2026 month report. 8. Approval of the August 5, 2026 Committee Meeting Minutes 9. Approval of the August 12, 2026 Board Meeting Minutes 10. Approval of the August 19, 2026 Committee Meeting Minutes 11. Approval of the August 19, 2026 Closed Session Meeting Minutes 12. Approval of the List of Bills Any item, any trustee would like to offer tonight's consent agenda? Hearing no dissent, so I'm looking for a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda as read.

I'll make the motion. I'll second.

Any discussion? Roll call, please.

Trustee Johnson? Aye. Trustee Crawley? Aye. Trustee Brevet? Aye. Trustee Jenner? Aye. Trustee Kittley? Aye. Motion carries.

Thank you, sir. Moving on to trusted business. Trustee Johnson.

Thank you, Mayor. I have nothing tonight.

Thank you, Mayor. Trustee Burbitt. I also have nothing. Thank you, sir. Trustee Jett.

I also have nothing, sir.

Thank you, Mayor. Trustee Killeen.

Just one thing, Mayor, and that is that September 12th is a very interesting and important day. We have three special events happening in Midlothian. The first thing is the Midlothian Park District is going to have tree planting at... Costner Park and also Bremen Heights Park. They got a grant from open lands for trees, doesn't include planting. So they need volunteers to help them with planting. And so they have taken down some old trees and they're replacing them and also adding some new trees. So if you want to help, You can come to 150 La Costner at eight o'clock, from eight o'clock to one o'clock, and you can help make the parks look greener and prettier and shadier, and you can help mitigate pollution and flooding and make Midlothian a little nicer place to live at. So it's from eight to one. You have to register, go on the Park District website and you can volunteer for that. It's a really, really nice thing. The second thing that's happening is the Friends of the which is always great because if you go there, you can always pick up some great bargains on books and some tapes and some other things. And it's always something that you can spend a lot of time looking at books and trying to figure out which ones you want to buy because there's so many of them. And it goes from September 12th all the way to September 24th. So support the library and the friends of the library go by and get some nice interesting books. And the third thing is the Kermats Festival at St. Augustine Parish parking lot. It goes from 12 to 10, and so it's a festival, and if you want some homemade, delicious Mexican food, you go there. It is just fantastic. These families get together and they cook up a storm and the food is just awesome. They also have music and they have a dancing demonstration from Folklorico and some raffles. There's no admission charge and it's from 12 to 10 and it's definitely a fun time. We're going, and I ask any organizations and businesses that want to publicize their events, send them in to submit an event on our events section of our homepage. and that will be on the calendar, and also we'll try to publicize the events a little more regularly, weekly. There's a lot of events in Midlothian people don't know about they could enjoy, they could participate in, and we want to give people an opportunity to do that, and that's our mission, so that's all. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir.

Trustee Crowe.

Thank you, sir. This evening, first on my agenda, I'd like to make a motion to approve the Allied Waste Transportation Doing Business as Republic Service Refuse Service Agreement.

I'll make the motion.

I'll second.

Second.

Is there any other discussion? We'll call for you, Mr. Clerk.

Trustee Crawley? Aye. Trustee Johnson? Aye. Trustee Burbank?

Aye.

Trustee John? Aye. Trustee Kelly?

Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. And thank you for everything you did to get that.

Next week we will have the ordinance to amend our Chapter 2, which is our garbage section of our city code. to include multi-family units in the process. So that is, I emailed everyone on the board this afternoon, and that will be on the agenda for approval next week. The back page is Exhibit A, which will be this contract. Deputy Clerk Harris will have it attached for next week's agenda to be approved. So we will move forward with that next week. Next, I just wanted to make the board aware normally when we're doing different trainings, we let the board know a training came up for an evidence management class. It's a $400 per person training. And Chief Delaney will be sending two of our deputy chief and one of our sergeants to that class. So we have to pay for it up front. I just wanted to make everybody aware. It is a budgeted item. Next, I just wanted to give a couple of economic development updates. First, we received notice from the land bank that they have acquired the deed for the property at 3356 147th Street. That property, once they evaluate it, clean it out, and move forward, they will be listing that for sale to be redeveloped. The other properties that I want to mention are the demolition of 4500-147th Street. The mayor and I have been working with Trustee Coley and the South Suburban Land Bank. That is the old counselor's building and shout out to the building department because they've worked really hard to get a demo permit for the South Suburban Land Bank and we are pleased to announce that by the end of September that building will be taken down. It will be green space. Because of the flooding issues over there, it will not be developed on, and Public Works will be maintaining it. They will be turning it over to the Village, and Public Works will be maintaining that property afterwards. So again, this was a huge effort by a lot of people, and thank you to everybody who participated. The last property that I want to just touch on is a property on Ridgeway Avenue. This is a residential property that has been going through the process of abandonment for some time. There's been a number of issues. And with the help of Karina from the building department, our attorneys were able to go in and finally get an order to have the deed turned over. So it's a huge accomplishment. We right now have eight other properties that we are seeking abandonment or demolition on that are dilapidated within our community. And once we get those all sorted out and get control and start marketing them, we hope to have them developed. So I'll keep everybody updated. I know I'm talking about it, but it's truly a group effort for everybody up here. We're all working together, and the abandonment process wouldn't be possible without everybody's help. So thank you to everybody who helped out. And that's all I have this evening, sir.

Thank you, ma'am. Moving on to the department heads. Chief Redock.

Thank you, sir. Just a couple things. Some of you may notice the funeral bunting is out at Station 1. I just wanted to recognize retired Deputy Chief Steve Morgan. He worked for the Village as a firefighter and then an officer from 1980 to 2011. He passed away over the weekend and we extend our condolences to Steve's family. Second thing is I wanted to share a certificate of commendation for one of my members. It's for Firefighter Paramedic Janann Abudaya. In recognition of her exceptional actions on August 11, 2026, while off duty, Firefighter Paramedic Abudaya observed a medical emergency involving a child experiencing a severe allergic reaction. Demonstrating clinical competence, calm professionalism, and compassion, she immediately administered epinephrine from the kids' EpiPen. performed a rapid assessment, and remained with the patient and family until emergency medical services arrived. Her decisive intervention and continued presence were instrumental in a positive outcome. These accidents reflect the highest standards in the Mimoltean Fire Department and the fire service profession. So I want to thank Janann Abudai. We have a, I mentioned it last meeting, we have a training coming up September 19th and 20th at Radio Lodge. The Park District was nice enough to allow us to use the building for training. We're going to be doing mutual aid Mavis training with a bunch of departments, Crestwood, Posen, Robbins, Bull Island, Oak Forest, and Markham. So they'll be out there that weekend. We'll make sure to let everybody know on Facebook and the Park District in case people call and they think there's an actual emergency going on. Just to let you know we'll be out there and we really appreciate the Park District letting us use this big building for some of the things we need to get done. And then the last thing is the end of the free smoke detector program on 8-31. If you guys need one by the end of the month, let Julie know at Station 1 Monday through Friday.

um and we'll get you guys installed and that's all i have sir thank you sir thank you yes sir um this over the past week we had our annual back to school event where officers responded to the local grade schools to welcome the kids back and hand out the goodies last thursday was central park and springfield and then monday was falling Again, thank you to District 143 for allowing us to do so. It's one of my favorite events. And we have pictures on Facebook if anybody wants to check out some of the highlights of it. Thank you. Well done.

Superintendent Swanson. Yes, sir. I just want to give an update on the storm branch removal. We're still working multiple crews and two chipper trucks. A front end loader that's just grabbing piles of branches and throwing them in the back of our truck and hauling them away. We're taking them all over to Republic Services. Crews have been working extended hours. including weekends, to help get our town back to normal as quickly as possible. Some of our totals so far, we had 32 tree hazards, which are hanging limbs that are still hanging in the trees, and we had to rush over there to try and help get those out so they were safe. 24 trees and power lines, 161 calls for branch pickups, 45 trees that were on cars, houses, sidewalks, seven uprooted trees. And as of right now, we're over 400 tons of debris we've hauled over to Republic Services. And right now, I estimate that we're about 60% done with the town. So we will continue to work as hard as we need to to get this all cleaned up. So please be patient. We're out here working as hard as we can. You can also bundle up your piles with string and twine as long as the bundles are no more than 4 feet in length and the bundles are less than 50 pounds. But please be patient, we're trying our best. Thank you.

You're not just throwing things in a chipper. We've watched the guys out there. It's a complete clean-up, raking. So each pile could take an hour or two because of the extensive amount of work you guys are doing to make it nice. So thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Sure, go ahead.

Thank you, Mary. I do have a few quick items to go through. First is we advertised a project for sanitary sewer lining today for bids. We'll be opening bids for that on September 15th. Second, got a resurfacing project that's going to be advertised probably next week, bid opening TBD, but probably around that same time. And then the third thing, believe it or not, is The Village was awarded another grant that I get to announce. This one is a $380,000 grant from CDBG for an application we submitted in the spring for water main replacement on a block of Hamlin Avenue. And that's all I have.

I've been in trouble area and this is gonna go a long way to minimizing water main breaks and especially in that area which is also very time consuming expensive so um thank you for everything that worked on me at that time so i appreciate it no problem all right um technical affairs welcome to the savings thank you ma'am director redmond just one item i just want to thank everyone who had come out to yesterday's wellness event it was a great turnout we have 29 participants and we're looking forward to doing it again next year excellent thank you uh attorney trella nothing tonight thank you ma'am um I guess I have nothing. The Loafy Cherry golf outings Monday. Nearly full with golfers, but just wanted to bring it up again. It's a lot of work that goes into this, and there's a lot of people working on it, trustees and volunteers. And every dime goes to Luminaria, which supports our local food banks. So we'll be out there Monday, and hopefully we can raise a lot of money. So thank you all for everything you do. Clerk Moscow. I have nothing tonight, sir. Thank you, sir. Then it seems no further business to come before the board. It seems no further business to come before the board. I'm looking for a motion to adjourn.

I'll make a motion. I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. All opposed?

The ayes have it. Meeting adjourned. Thank you all.