City Council - Regular Meeting

20 items I think. Okay, we will call to order the regular meeting of the Bavia City Council for Monday, March 16th, 2026. And we will begin by having roll call, please. Barza, sorry, Barza absent. Lansancy here. Beck absent. Malay here. Malone here. Wolf here. Sulfa here. Baron here. Leman here. Lman here. Peeper here. Fenbach here. Anderson here. White here. 12 present, two absent. Your honor,

very quick, we have the necessary form to conduct business. And I'd ask you all now to let me do the invocation and then we'll rise for the pledge of allegiance. Uh tonight is uh we continue to live in a very challenging world both in our country and surrounding us in the world. We are ever thankful for the good efforts that we find in Betavia and for the outstanding group of citizens who have stepped forward to serve our city and the various boards but specifically the city council and their willingness to delve into some very intense issues that demand a lot of serious consideration. and we're very fortunate that we have that group of individuals with us on the city council tonight. We ask for just a special blessing on our community and for the ability of the alderman to understand and to react to issues in a very favorable manner. And we also ask for a special blessing on all those in our community who are under the weather and in need of health care. So we ask for all these blessings. Amen. Uh L may

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. All right, we've already had the roll call. So, we remind anybody that's going to speak to the city council that the meeting is being recorded. And if you're coming from the audience, we ask that you come up and use the podium and speak into the microphone. Without it, it's going to be very hard for anybody to hear you saying whatever it is you're presenting. Uh, moving to item number six, items to be removed, added, or changed from tonight's agenda. Do we have anything? Oh, okay. Very good. Okay, moving then to the consent agenda.

We want to do matters from the public first. Number five. Okay. Excuse me. Matters. Do we have anybody in the public that wants to speak to us tonight?

I guess not. Oh, amen. Denwitty, 1156 Pine Street in Betavia. Um, I questions, but I also have some concern concerns about that have been going on. Number one, um I wanted to know, as you all know, I've talked to you about TIFFs before, but how many of you have uh read the 10-year report for TIFF 4. And if you haven't read it, why haven't you read it? Because this is our tax dollars. These these monies are going to developers and and we should you should know what's going on with there. I'm in the process of doing an audit of all the tiffs.

Ivon, could you pull the microphone down a little bit closer to you so we can hear it? Thank you.

I'm in the process of doing an audit of all the tiffs in Kane County. It's going to take me a long time, but I expect to find a whole lot more than I've already found on TIFFs. And I am absolutely 100,50% opposed to TIFFs, have been for over 40 years, and will continue to be opposed to TIFFs because it is a scam on the taxpayers. There is no reason on God's green earth why we should have to ensure the developers make a profit on property that they bought in speculation. If it's not ready to be developed, it doesn't deserve a tiff. Now, that was all of that. But this other part here is very concerning. It's regarding data centers. And as I understand it, Betavia was considering putting a data center in at one point. So I wonder how much you all know about data centers. Did you know that the data centers require 1.2 to 1.8 gigawatt of power to run the data centers? 1.2 to 1.8 gawatt. 1 megawatt, which is 1 1,000th of a gigawatt, is enough to power approximately 225 homes, single family homes, two or two large store boxes or two large box stores. The data centers also require 100,000 100,000 gallons of water a day. Now I don't know whether you all are aware of the fact that we've had water restrictions here in Betavia for at least 30 or 40 years and that the the aquafers the short uh the shallow

aquifers are in the process of running dry. So we don't have the water to fund to fix these data centers. And then on the 19th of February in the Daily Harald, I'm going to read just a part of this ordinance for you. Um it's it's regarding Butterfield Road, uh which is down near where uh the Cyrus One data center is and the the new Hollywood Casino. It's ordinance 2512. Uh I believe that's 0102. I'm sure sorry this print is so tiny. It's an ordinance prohibiting the use of groundwater as a portable a portable water supply by the installation or use of portable water supply wells or by any other method within a defined area of the village of North Aurora at 7:30 Butterfield Road, North Aurora, Illinois 60542 and surrounding properties. an ordinance prohibiting the use of groundwater as a portable water supply by the installation of use of portable water supply wells or by any other method within a defined area of the village of North Aurora at 7:30 Butterfield Road, North Aurora. That's just down the street from my house. whereas certain properties in the village of North Aurora including 7:30 Butterfield Road has been used over a period of time for commercial industrial pro purposes and whereas because of said use concentration of certain chemical constituents in the groundwater beneath the properties uh depicted in exhibit A may exceed the uh groundwater quality standards for portable re resources groundwater as set forth in 30 believe

that's 35 Illinois administrative code 620 or tier one residential remediation objectives uh as set forth in 35 Illinois administrative code 74 and so on. I don't believe I need to read the rest of it but this is very concerning because this is right down the street from my house. I have dealt in water reclamation for many years. You don't control where the water goes and how it goes. We're out the the door of Fermy Lab and there's already been reports over the last 25 or 30 years about frogs in the water at some of the facilities there having five legs or you know three eyes or what have you. So this is very concerning to me and it should be concerning to all of you too because wherever this water is, it doesn't stay just there and I don't know whether Betavia has done anything to check the water and whatever kind of chemicals they're talking about there. That's it.

If I'm if I can address two things that you brought up in your little speech. Um, first off, we did approve the building of a data center on the east side over in the industrial park. It's a maximum of 50 megawws. That's what they could go up to. Won't be built as as 50 to start with, but it can grow to 50 megawws. So, that's all the bigger it can be. And it is a closed loop system that does not use water every day to cool the system. still has to be drained on a monthly or um every 2,000 days.

Yeah. Every 2,00 or 2200 days is when it has to be drained and changed. And they are planning on trucking the water in to the facility. And it's still going to go into our sewer system and it will have to meet the standards to be able to be discharged into our sewer system just like any other uh property in the industrial park. it will have to meet the standards that we can accept it. Let you know where my data came from. There are um regulations being considered all over the area.

I totally agree with you. An evaporative emission system that just pumps water in and evaporates it every day uses a ton of water. Most of the data centers that are proposed that are big that are getting a lot of problem and a lot of feedback on are above a thousand megawws which is a lot different than 50. Well, a lot bigger.

It's a lot different than 50. But if you think about how many are coming into the area and how much collective water it's going to use that that has to enter into all of it too. You know, Aurora has five. Aurora has five in the process and they have a current moratorum. I think it expires in the next couple of weeks or so. Um, but they have a moratorum uh pending research on the the data centers and more information. And a couple of them Neighborville I think pulled or or reduced the size of the one that they're doing. But if you have 10 or 15 or 20 of them, you know, they're all going to be using power and that power has to come from all of us collectively. So,

and we control what happens within Betavia's boundaries. I understand that. But, you know, the water the power Commonwealth Edison had puts power here in Betavia. They have the switching stations. Uh, we have our own power here in Betavia. But but still Commonwealth Edison has some areas in Betavia that they provide the power. So you know you you can't just look at it as Betavia because it affects all of us this whole area. It's going to affect all of us. That's collective power and collective water. Thank you. Anybody else?

Ral Paso. I just wanted to bring attention in case it's not brought up is um Abby Beck's mom passed away yesterday. Uh she was a friend of ours. Uh she was born uh within a day of my son and um it's uh very sad and she's not here I'm sure for that reason. But it would be nice uh for us to all remember Paulie. Anybody else? All right. Uh moving then to the consent agenda.

Okay. Your honor, the consent agenda reads as follows. Accept and place on file building report January 2026. December 2025 city council report 2025 budget transfers and reconciliation committee of the whole minutes February 26 2026 Planning Commission minutes January 26 January 21st 2026 and February 4th 2026 Historic Preservation Commission minutes February 9th 2026 approvals Payroll fund totals for 313 20226 in the amount of 1,173,45966. The accounts payable total for March 16th council meeting is in the amount of $1,795 1,795,775.83 83. City Council minutes February 16th, 2026 and March 2nd, 2026. City Council Executive session minutes January 20th, 2026 for purchase and sale of real estate. March 2nd, 2026 for workman's compensation. Cow Executive Session minutes February 29th, 2026 for purchase of property. Ordinance 2026-12 public urination and defecation resolution 2026-33-R authorization to purchase 1 2026 Altech TA60 bucket truck from Altech Industries, Inc.

Ordinance 2026-8, amendments to title 12, historic preservation and city code. Resolution 2026-32-R approving the 2026 zoning map. Resolution 2026-35-R accepting a plat of dedication of part of Northwater Street. Ordinance 2026-13 declaring certain property to be surplus and authorizing sale. Resolution 2026-36-R approving the 3-month extension for a final plaid of Main Street Place subdivision. Resolution 2026-34-R authorizing a one-year extension of the contract with Midwest Public Safety for body cam and incar video cloud-based data storage through March 31st, 2027 in the amount of $20,592. Ordinance 2026-11 temporarily pausing TIFF for TIF number seven. Your honor, I move we approve the consent agenda as read.

Second motion and second for the approval of the agenda as presented. Any further discussions on it? Clerk, call the role, please. Aaron, I Leman, hi Lman. Hi Peeper. Hi Farenbach. Hi Anderson. Hi White. Hi Lansancy. Hi Malay. Hi Malone. Hi Wolf. Hi Sulfa. Hi 12. Yes. No. No. to absent consent agenda is approved. Okay, moving down to eight is the main street presentation. Do we have somebody here from Bavia? There she is.

Thanks so much for having me tonight. Um, here we go. All right. I wanted to start off uh by reminding everybody that we have our first Step into Spring Winewalk this weekend. Um it is Saturday from 1 to 5. Um right now we're at 372 tickets of the 40 400 tickets sold. And of those 55% are from non Betavia residents. So we're really excited to have a new group of people coming into town. Um we want to congratulate Bokeados. They were the recipients of the Main Street America and American Express backing small business grant. Um that was a hund not 100 that would be amazing a $10,000 grant um that they will be using for a new espresso machine an ice maker and an oven uh to expand their breakfast desserts and coffee offerings. Um just about that grant. This is the fifth business to get a backing small business grant in Betavia in the last three years which is amazing bringing $50,000 into our downtown. Um, we had some recent media coverage. Um, the indoor market was featured on NBC on February 20th. It ran three times throughout the days the day and Sturdy Shelter reported seeing a lot of new customers at the indoor market that weekend. So, that's really exciting. And then we also have a segment coming up that will air this Friday about the wine walk. Um, our recast leaders started. Um we've had two meetings with the cohort and we're in the exploration phase where we need to um come up with a vision for what we want to achieve in the in the cohort. And our uh team has kind of come up with the vision to create a vibrant downtown where small and unique businesses succeed and residents and

visitors actively choose to shop, dine and invest locally. This includes retaining existing businesses, attracting new entrepreneurs, increasing movein ready spaces for all for the small businesses. And then we also had to identify some of our key challenges which would include um some confusing processes for permits and grants, limited year-round foot traffic, and vacant spaces that are often too large large, costly, or in poor condition for small space, small businesses. and we will continue to um update you monthly on this process. And then finally, we re-released our restaurant guide in February. Since then, we just take uh February to update and uh kind of refresh our restaurant guide. We had 1300 over 1300 unique scans since February. So, we're really really happy about um the interest that continues in that restaurant guide. And that's all I have for today. Any questions for me?

Questions for the main street director. Um, thank you for sharing um the update on the number of sales for the winewalk. That's really exciting. And the fact that 55% of the people are from outside of Betavia. Did you do some advertising outside to kind of pull those people in?

Yeah, we um invested. We also got an Illinois Main Street grant for new marketing initiatives and one of the things that we decided to do was um larger eblast through Shaw Media. So we hit 20,000 uh subscribers with that and picked surrounding areas. So that really worked well. And then we also did um a lot of press releases for that. So, we were really happy with what we've seen come in because it's just such a great opportunity for people to get into the businesses we have. We have such great retail in downtown. So, it's just really nice to have 400 people going through. Anybody else?

Hoping for good weather. Huh? Hoping for good weather. No, we will have good weather. We will have good weather. Maybe great. Yes, it's going to be great for spring. All right, thank you. Great work.

Okay, uh we are through Main Street. We are going to regular agenda which is 9.1 ordinance 2026-009 granting a conditional use permit for government offices and facilities use at 812 Main Street. All um this was discussed at our last cow meeting. Um it's a um conditional use for office and facilities for the school district um at 812 Main Street. They own the building just to the east of that at 804 Main Street. And this is a property that they want to continue to stay centralized in that spot in town to be able to have storage and facilities uh that are support facilities for the district. I don't know if anybody comments or questions on or if there's anybody coming

just quickly and I I won't rehash what I said last time, but first I think um we're lucky to have a school board that is prudent enough to try to find ways to consolidate and put things together. I think they made their need very clear and I think their needs genuine and true. Um, I'm I will remain a no vote on this simply because we do have a vision for that district and that vision is for commercial and mixed use. Um, again, I really do think BPS has a strong need and I think we're we're lucky to have folks who are trying to find those savings where they can. Um, I just happen to believe that there's better spots for it that don't um, undermine our particular vision uh, for that area. Um, last thing I'll say though is that since um it it seems as if uh this this will pass, um I do hope the school board hears us and hears me when when I ask that they really commit to the beautifification. Um one way we can mitigate uh what I believe as a detriment to our plan in that area is if uh that storage space becomes um uh less of a gez I'm trying to be diplomatic about less of an eyesore, right? um that it that it kind of fits a little better in with our vision and our goals in that area so that the neighboring businesses can uh can grow and thrive.

Anybody else? No other comments. Um I'll make the motion that we approve ordinance 2026009 granting a conditional use permit for government office and facilities use at 812 Main Street. Motion second. Any further discussion? Clerk, call the role. Wolf. Hi. Sulfa. Hi. Baron. Hi. Leman. Hi. Lman. Hi. Peeper. Hi. Farenbach. No. Anderson. Hi. White. Hi. Barazza. Absent. Lansancy. Hi. Malay. Hi. Malone. No.

Uh, 10 in favor, two opposed, two absent. Motion's approved. Okay. Moving to 9.2. Two, ordinance 2026-010 amending title six, motor vehicles and traffic of the city of Bavius code ordinance regulating e-mobility devices. Who's got this one? Is it me? You want to take it in? Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. I miss where it has like the little um abbreviations afterwards. So, um talking to Max about that after the meeting.

Okay. So, this is an ordinance that um our police chief um worked with our active transportation team along with a business owner um updating our ordinance um for e-mobility. Um just to put a little bit of uh more law around and understanding of what is acceptable, not acceptable. Um it also um goes along with what the uh state right

with what the state has implemented. Um it does have a um potential for um violation with fees associated with it um at the discretion of the police department. I guess I butchered that enough. No, I I think that's that's correct. We're trying to fill some of the gaps that are that exist currently in state statute um for some of those unregulated or undefined devices uh while mirroring state statute as closely as possible for the devices that are regulated under that statute. So I think you summed it up perfectly.

Um so I move that we um Oh, anybody have any comments? I'm sorry. Go ahead, Kevin. Yeah. Um I I just because we maybe have some more folks in the audience who maybe didn't watch last week, I really like this uh this ordinance. I think it threads the needle well of kind of allowing and permitting uh ebikes, uh e- scooters, and other sort of e devices while also working in some accountability, right? Making sure that uh folks are operating them safely, appropriately. Um they're a great benefit to our town and uh I think it helps people get around and and shop in our shops and get to school and do the things. We also want to make sure people are safe and using them appropriately. So, I really like that that we've kind of threaded that needle, I think, in an appropriate way. I really like this a lot.

Alderman Lam. Yeah. Ke I mean Kevin summed up a lot what I was going to say. I just want to thank the parties involved. I think, you know, it's a classic example where filling those gaps is absolutely necessary. I think, you know, the state is behind the times a little bit on this. These things are absolutely prolific, fun, uh, everywhere. Um, you know, I've ridden the fast ones, the not fast ones. They're all fun. Um, but we definitely need some more regulation around them as, you know, kids are riding around on them and some of these things are super fast.

Just one more thing on top and that's education, education, education. uh if this goes forward tonight, I think it's critical that we as a city council are out at the farmers market talking about the difference between a a one, a two, and a three and an e-mobility device versus an emoto. Um and the active transportation and also the uh the service officer in the schools as well. Education, education, education is critical on this because there's a lot of gray. Great. Anybody else? I move that we um accept ordinance 2026-10. Question. Oh, sure. Oh, go ahead.

Yeah. Could you please come up to the mic, please?

I'm glad you brought that up. I brought my 45-year gold pin as a federal employee involved in transportation safety and engineering is the um education is the number one thing we always look for. Engineering number two and enforcement number three as in levels of effectiveness to get the public involved. The I have a question then I have a comment. I driving in here. I saw the bike paths. Will ebikes be able to ride on the bike paths? Oh, good. Cuz I get past I'm doing 18 and I got bikes going by me like I'm sitting still. Okay. Um second count. I find the I find the ordinances a lot of reiteration of the state law plus some of our ordinances, but I find it very long and cumbersome and I don't know who's going to understand it. So, I'm back to education. I would like like you saw Ivonne come up here with a cane and it's the only way she can get around and get out in nature anymore is on her ebike. Um, I don't know what you can do, but I'd like the committee to think about how we could get some cliff notes or shorter shorter ideas of what what's really important for an ebike owner to know rather than read that whole ordinance which I read which has graphs and charts and all kinds of stuff in it. So that's my only suggestion is education, education, education and simplifying. Thank you.

Thank you. Did you want to go ahead? Yeah, I just wanted to address that. I completely agree with you. Um expecting someone to read the entire ordinance and understand everything in there um is challenging. Uh we we do need to be able to address a lot of different potential situations, which is why there are so so many different regulations within the ordinance. But um our goal over the coming weeks is to craft uh very easy to read um uh both diagrams, charts, things like that that kind of explain where these devices are permitted, what types of devices are permitted, and various regulations related to them that would be most impactful for the citizens to know.

And Chief, could I um would you be able to explain to us some of the uh public outreach and public cooperation you've had in in working on this ordinance? And

so we worked very closely with the Betavia Betavia Active Transportation Commission. Um we've also relied heavily on guidance by Riot Illinois who's one of the primary advocacy groups for um all sorts of mobility and transportation issues and in the state of Illinois. I know that they are actively working with the state legislature on uh improving or updating some of their regulations as well. So we've had uh those different conversations. Um, moving forward in terms of education, we plan to partner again with Pavia Active Transportation Commission to provide education. Um, and we're going to also uh share information through our social media channels on our city website and uh utilize our our connections and network at the uh school district to try to share information there as well.

Yeah. And I I I think this is a great opportunity to highlight how lucky we are to have um our chief of police here and our police officers. I think this is an example of great community outreach, community collaboration in trying to craft an ordinance that both meets the needs of the city and safety as well as the dealerships. I know you've also worked with uh Bogeikes uh our ebike dealer here in town as well as uh the active transportation commission. So, I also want to want to thank you for all the hard work you've done to make sure that this was wellcraftrafted and it looks like you have a a great plan moving forward to address the concerns we just heard. Anybody else? All right. If not, I move that we accept ordinance 2026-10 amending title number six, motor vehicles and traffic of the city of Bavia code of ordinances regulating e-mobility devices.

Second motion and second for the approval of ordinance 2026-010. Any further discussion? Ask the clerk to call the role, please. Baron. Hi. Leman. Hi. Lman. Hi. Pifer. Hi. Farenbach. Hi. Anderson. Hi. White. Hi. Lansancy. Hi. Malay. Hi. Malone. Hi. Wolf. Hi. Sulfa. Hi. 12. Yes. No. No. Two. Absent. Ordinance is approved.

Okay. Moving then to 9.3. Uh, Ordinance 2026-037, authorization to execute a contract with Sunb Belt Reynolds Perimeter Security for $124,626. Who's got this one?

I'm going to take it. Um, are we kind of bypassed cow? So, I just want to give a quick brief um, synopsis of this. Um I believe it was last fall some of the police met with um this contractor vendor to kind of show us some of the safety measures that you can put in place. I don't know if you guys been to other communities where they put out the barriers to block people from potentially driving through um an event. So, we want to be prepared and um protect all those people that are coming to our events and looked into this. We put out an RFP. This was the lowest bidder. Um and they're able to provide us these mobile safety barriers that will come on a trailer. We'll be working with ESDA and um to get them set up and taken down and deployed for different events. um mainly the farmers market, but we will be able to utilize them out in front for um anything that happens in the green space in front of Peg Bond or even the fireworks. So, where's the trailer going to be stored at?

Public works. Okay. And will this replace the current barriers that are being set up for those events then? Yes. Okay.

I would say not necessarily. Um, it depends on the size of the event and whether or not the existing jersey barricades that we have could still be useful. They still certainly provide a safety benefit. Uh, depending on the size and footprint of the event, they may be uh necessary. We're going to take a look and see. Um, for events that are of a shorter duration, such as the farmers market, it's not practical on a on a weekly basis to roll out Jersey barricades, set them up, then take them back down. there's a heavy manpower involvement with that in terms of utilizing a forklift. They're very heavy. They're not very mobile. Um whereas these to these sorts of barricades are a lot more mobile, rapidly deployable. Um something that is a lot easier to set up in the field and cover a larger area. Um in significantly lighter footprint. So

thank you. Mhm. You have some I was just curious uh any particular reason we landed on this manufacturer or was like did Sunb Belt show us a whole bunch of different ones? Was it purely money or I'm just curious. We had um Meridian Barricade come out and demonstrate, but they were more than twice Oh wow. the cost. That's one of them I saw. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's one I've seen as well. Um, but this does the same thing and it gets us in the right direction.

And so then are we believing during the farmers market this would be sort of fully deployed um as the you know the farmers market's opening up. We deploy it somewhere and then the farmer farmers market's done we we put it back away. Is that kind of the the concept here? Okay. And all right. Um, are people able to get through this rel I'm looking at a picture of it right now and it doesn't look very people friendly either. Um, how are we envision how are we envisioning humans interacting with this as sort of those large groups are are going through the farmers market would divert them more towards the sidewalks where it would be within the roadway section.

There's also pedestrian pass through points that can be uh configured in the setup. So, uh, they would be linked the the fence pieces would be linked together with some sort of a chain with a ADA, uh, ramp over that so that it's not a tripping hazard. Right. Okay. Thank you. Questions here to make a motion. I make a motion that we accept resolution 2026-37-R, authorization to execute a contract with Sunb Belt Rentals Perimeter Security for $124,626.

Motion and second for the approval of resolution 2026-037. Any further discussion from the council? I apologize. I had one more question. What was the age expectancy on something like this? Is is this something we're going to have to replace every 2 years or do we expect to get something like 8 to 10 out of this? I don't have that information in front of me. I it is a it's much longer than 2 years. Yeah, especially being housed in a trailer, I would think 8 to 10 would be a very safe estimate and probably significantly longer than that. Thank you. Roll. Leman. Hi Lman. Hi Kefir. Hi

Farenbach. Hi Anderson. Hi White. Hi Lansancy. Hi Malay. Hi Malone. Hi Wolf. Hi Sulfa. Hi. 12. Yes. No. No. Two absent. Motion's approved. Okay. Moving to 10 city council updates. The administrator's report.

Um Laura unfortunately cannot be here tonight. She's under the weather. So um I'm going to go ahead and take this tonight. Um this morning a group of us um from police, fire, public works, HR, and administration um facilitated a small tabletop exercise. Um this is a part of our ongoing emergency preparedness work um to make sure that we're ready um for whatever comes our way. Um I can also say that the River Street Plaza, we had a precon meeting last week and we're expecting to have construction tenatively start on April 13th. Um and we're hoping to have it completed by June 15th. Um, so hopefully that all goes to schedule and we're going to have weekly check-in meetings to to keep you apprised of that. I also want to mention that on uh March 19th, there is an ESDA emergency preparedness uh community event um at 6:30 at station 2. Um you know, if you were thinking during some of the severe storms, what do I need to know? What should my family know? and whatnot. This is a really great opportunity to um learn from our experts in Battavia about how to be prepared, um how to build things like a little go bag, um what sort of things you should do if there's a tornado, a warning, a watch, and all those sorts of other things. So, that's at 6:30 on March 19th over at station 2. Um and that'll be put on by Betavia Asda. Um I also want to shout out the police department and uh Lori Bottoman for working on the um blue envelope project. That's a really cool initiative that our police department is um taking on to um make sure that um persons uh on the autism spectrum and other things like that um have um the ability to kind of hand the police department a blue envelope that may share some of their um considerations and whatnot. And um I'll let Chief go into that in a little bit if he wants to talk about that more. Um phase one permit for QT9 project on South Water Street has been issued and construction is underway there. um you app the historic preservation commission approved an approval matrix um which identifies some things that may be able to be a little more administratively processed at the um staff level um to

help make sure things are be being moving quickly um and then those will be shared on an HPC agenda when they are done at the staff level. Um we're welcoming Eric Sunval to the manager of electric operations position and today was his first day. I hope it went well for him. Um for city council, um save the date for the employee recognition breakfast on April 9th at Lincoln Inn. Um where will we recognize employee milestones and our wonderful staff um electric division Steve Allen and Eric Sunfall also held a training at public works on uh March 11th for the um ESDA staff were onboarding. So they're aware of electric safety. So should there be a situation where they're called out um they have knowledge about how to be safe around electric lines and whatnot. Um, I also want to let people know that the utility dropbox that's currently right out there um at some point is going to be moving to that roundabout in the uh um government center lot. Um we're going to put up some signage and make sure people are aware of that. That's just to kind of address some circulation issues and other things with on our our property. Um officers Li Liz Webb and Austin Robinson participated in the Polar Plunge. It is still very cold in the river. Um so we thank them for doing that for Special Olympics. um they've been great at that and um our police department has long time had a really good involvement with Special Olympics or torch run and whatnot. Um and then I also want to shout out that our police department met with the Illinois law enforcement's training standards board, also known as um who confirmed that our entire department and all of our officers are fully up to date and compliant with the state of Illinois training requirements which are extensive. So give a round of applause to our police department for being all up to date on that. Do you want to talk a little bit about the blue envelope project and and share kind of what we've launched so far and um I think it's a really cool thing that our police department and communications team worked on. So,

sure. Right now, we've done kind of a soft launch launch of the program. Um looking at getting some more uh public marketing and and uh information out there in the very near future. Uh but this is a great initiative. It was started by the Autism Hero Project. uh kind of encouraging uh law enforcement to um work with uh individuals with cognitive uh difficulties um or uh somebody on the autism spectrum. Uh the way that this is done is through uh we provide the driver with a special uh logoed uh blue envelope where they would store their uh necessary documents, insurance, registration, driver's license, those sorts of things. And it's a really uh quickly readily uh observable sign for law enforcement upon approaching or interaction uh with an individual. A there there may be uh some communication challenges here and to really approach the situation with patience and empathy and and work through it that way. So it's it's a great initiative. It kind of reduces stress both for law enforcement and for the the uh vehicle occupant and and something that we're really excited to start pushing out very quickly. Is

that something that could be used by other people with disabilities? Yes. We'll be publishing more information about that soon. Um I just know we've we've kind of gotten that underway a little bit and it's a really good initiative that our police department and communications team have been working on together. Yeah. else question for the uh any idea when the uh bathroom for the plaza will be delivered?

Um we have a meeting with them later this week. Um I know it's further along than we anticipated. So we're still working out kind of when everything quite literally fits in. Um what I will say about the bathroom is we are expecting it to come on a flatbed and require a very large crane. Um, so we may be filming that and making it so that you can see the um the giant bathroom drop down like a little claw toy or something like that. Um, but we're uh we had a really good precon last week and so trying to fit everything in and where it goes is going to be a bit of a challenge, but we're up for it.

White Peace Bridge railings, the new ramp, the railings. Do we have a schedule on that or any update on the schedule? our public works director supposed to be 70 Saturday. You know, they it is not going to be done and or opened by then. Um

I know that they're dealing with whether they've been out there. We still have to seal the bridge deck and work on a grand opening. So once we can figure out all the pieces um with the railing and then getting that obviously the weather has to cooperate for us to do that. So um as soon as we know more we will coordinate that and convey that information publicly but you know construction everything changes when it we're waiting for mother nature. Thank you. All right. Uh do we have any other business from the council? I have two things I'd like to just comment upon under the mayor's report. First of all, uh I I think you've all gotten a memo that was sent out to you about out trying to outline and this is very difficult this new bill that the governor of Illinois has proposed in which basically he's going to take away the zoning restabilities of each city in the state of Illinois and the idea that he will allow for smaller lots and houses that can be built on adjoining pieces of property that somebody may own and you'll be able to resubdivide your lot and put a one-bedroom house on it. U I've now been in the last week and a half, I've been to four meetings of regional mayor's groups and everybody's howling and screaming about this. So, I'm somewhat optimistic this thing isn't going any place real quick cuz there's all every city out there is really taken back by the idea that the state of Illinois would come in and assume their zoning responsibilities. Uh, it's amazing to me how much interest this thing seems to land in Betavia. I had three realtors from out of town show up here the other day and wanted to ask

me a couple questions because they were quote unquote scouting Betavia for potentially developable side lots that they could go to the person that owns the house and say, "Hey, would you like to sell sell off your sideyard or your backyard?" And under this new law, you may be able to get the state to reszone that for you and put up a small home. You know, I think we do a pretty good job, the council and the plan commission and kind of keeping track of what's going on, what's being built, where it's going to be built, how big it's going to be, following our zoning ordinances are in place, and to come in and kind of totally retrofit the place with all kinds of smaller, newer stuff. I can understand that the governor's idea that he's trying to get more people involved in things, but I don't think this is going to work. Uh, some of these conversations I had with a couple of realtors were they already had been out driving around over on the souththeast side of Betavia and I think they were on every place probably west of JB east of JB Nelson School going all the way to Kirk Road and they were scouting out lots that they could see that may be able to be retrofitted with a instead of a 10,000 ft lot, maybe a 2,000 ft backyard where you could run a driveway to it. I told him, I says, "Well, if this gets passed," I said, "I can tell you that you'll probably get some fights from the city council and the plan commission about some of these ideas cuz people have, you know, in Betavia have long enjoyed their investment of their money and their values in a in a nice home lot. And to have somebody come in and now say, "Well, we're going to redivide these and put in more housing." I'm not I don't think that's going to work here. Uh so I'll be anxious to see how it may given that the political ambitions of the governor. I I'm surprised that he would make this conversation right now given how much

problem negativity he's going to get from this from probably almost every city in the state. So we'll see. But it's certainly got a lot of people stirred up. And I just want to let everybody know that. The other thing is I I as most of you know I serve as chairman of the Tri City Ambulance Board and as most of you know the many years ago when we were served by notice at the then Delnor and the then community hospital in Geneva first they said they didn't want the ambulances based there anymore and then subsequently within a couple years they both kind of remade themselves and went went out of business and now we have a very nice hospital in right up on Randall Road in Geneva serves all three of us and they do a great job and that was a step in progress. But the Tri City ambulance ended up coming to the cities and so the fire chiefs agreed at that time that we would put these ambulances in the fire departments. There was initially one in each one of the three towns with a fourth one up in St. Charles as kind of a backup. and uh they are manned by a private contractor that is hired and we've had the same one here since it was started paramedic services of Illinois. We currently have uh 32 employees working for Tri City Ambulance and we've given the call volume that we have we've had to increase the the number of ambulances. So now we basically have six, two in each town. And the way the system works, if if the ambulances get real busy and we're down to only one left, that one changes quarters to the fire station in Geneva on the west side off of Randall Road, which then puts it central to the three towns if if there's another one needed. But uh last year the Bavia Fire Department responded to 5,369

calls of which over 70% of them were ambulance. And that just gives you a idea of our call volume. I know St. Charles had a little bit higher number and they had about the same percentage as did Geneva. So, this is a service that we we have and we do bill you if you we give you an ambulance ride cuz the costs of this are significant and uh it it's working very well. But uh I just wanted to share with you the call volumes. And so I was in Chicago with Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning recently and they were analyzing some of the populations of the cities in the region. And uh there's a lot of cities in the 200 I think it's 284 that surround the city of Chicago in the six county area. Many of the cities are losing population. Uh they're going down, but there's a few of us that are going up and Betavia, Geneva, and St. Charles are three of the towns that are are going up. And Betavia's our percentages are rolling pretty high. And as I think I've shared with you before, between 2022 and 2026, we will have added about 900 new living units to Betavia. And the one thing that is impacting us, and they're we're finding this out in the other towns, too, is we are we we've taken in now in Betavia six senior living communities, and they're great to have. And you know, River Rain up here, I can't say enough for the nice things that I've seen happen there. But, uh, they they have a demand on us, and it's kind of a quiet demand. They don't play noise or make noise or yell and scream at each other. Everybody's kind of peaceful and calm, but they do need the ambulance with great regularity. And so, that's where our call volume really shot up as did St. Charles was telling me they had the same experience that their ambulance is

going up because of all the senior living communities we have here. So, I just wanted to put that all in your ideas in your head as to what's going on here cuz the alderman Wolf represents myself with myself on the Tri City Ambulance Board and we have two alderman or in my case the mayor from each one of the towns. Uh it's a six member board and we generally get along pretty good and get a lot of things decided and whatever and we meet is every 3 months I think it is. Yeah, we meet uh four or five times a year and uh the fire chiefs obviously are the ones that kind of run the show for us and everybody does a great job but it is a an increasing volume of of command in in that business. And so we've got we've got the older people here and they're great to have and I'm not encouraging us to do anything but try to serve them and do nice things, but that is a demand on us. Uh the boys in Chicago have told me that they're now trying to calculate what's going to be the increase in population in these suburban communities. Now there's some places where the populations are falling including the city of Chicago supposedly and there's a number of the suburban areas where the also the populations are falling but there's a few pockets and uh one of them is the tri cities Betavia Geneva and St. Charles, we're going up. We're not going down. And I I guess the fastest growing city in the region is Huntley right up on the Kain Mckenry County border up at Route 47 and 90. Uh that's got several Dell Webb senior communities in it and a bunch of other stuff going on. So they're the they're the fastest growing one at the moment, but we've got a lot of lot of population that they're suggesting that Betavia's population in the 2030 census will be over 30,000 people.

What's the source of funding for the ambulance service? Pardon? What is the source of funding for the ambulance service? Well, we charge for every one of the calls and then we we each one of the cities shares a a small percentage of that and you know every now and then we get somebody that can't make their pay their bill or whatever and we kind of have to work around that but there's there's a lot of calls. I mean we're really popping the calls. So, uh, and as I say, the the 32 employees that we have working for us now up there on the ambulance are not city employees. They're working for the contractor that we've hired, and we've just renewed their contract the other day. So, we're good to say. You want to add anything?

Yeah, I wanted to add too, and I'm glad you brought that up about the funding. Um, one of the things that is a real bonus to being a consolidated unit between the Tri Cities is the savings. Um, for Betavian St. Charles, it's over a million dollars a year that we save versus having it inhouse. If we had firemen that we paid for the firemen, their pension, all their benefits, we would spend a million dollars a year more to have the same staffing levels on the ambulances. Geneva is just under a million and St. Charles is over a million. What's the issue? If it's self-funded and you're charging for the service, is it an issue for taxpayers?

It's a good thing for the city of Bavia that we are part of that and and not doing it on our own. The fact that the mayor is bringing this up, is it an issue for taxpayers? If this is a a privately funded situation where it's it's part of the fire department and etc., But if they're being charged for the service, except for the few who can't pay. Okay. There's a lot that gets written off every year. The thing is, is it an issue for taxpayers? No, I think it's something to be aware of and and to know that that's all I believe the reason he brought that up. I mean, I would tell you the way we run it is cheaper than if it was done otherwise.

M I know you.

Yeah. I would just like to comment on this. We've talked about this before and and we really don't know. Thanks for bringing that up. Uh you said that there's there's revenue because we charge fees and obviously those fees are increasing enormously because we're having over 5,000 calls 5,369 calls and you just said that the money we charge fees but the cities get a small percentage of that. I understand what you're saying Allan. How do we know that the profits being made? Now, I think Tri City Ambulance is a uh a wise thing that we do. It's the outsourcing of the uh staff, the the ambulance uh paramedics outsourcing that. We don't know how much they're making cuz I've tried to get that and was told that's prop proprietary. I think we need to look at that and I would like to put have this added to a discussion if someone would join me so we could have further discussion on this. Tony, we can give you that right off of the budget from Tri City Ambulance. It's a contract with PSI. It's listed in a dollar amount and you can divide out how many employees there are. That's the contracted amount. It's real easy to figure out.

I would like to see that. I've been asking for that information for years now and I was told that it was proprietary. So, you can tell me how much PSI is getting. We can tell you how much the contract is that that Tri City Ambulance pays PSI for the services they provide. I've see that. I've been asking for that and I was told that that is proprietary and we we wouldn't be able to get that. Give me the

cuz it didn't make sense to me when the paramedics that are hired by PSI were being paid more than our uh starting uh firefighters and given uh large bonuses. it just, you know, a big big red flag went up in my opinion and I have yet to be be able to get uh solid answers that convince me that we should continue outsourcing. The most vital service this city provides and the the hour of greatest need of every one of our citizens, the people that show up at the door are not even city's employees. They don't get a pension. They don't get the benefits that the receptionist gets. I think this is a huge issue that's been and and don't get me wrong, Tri City Ambulance is an excellent thing. It's the outsourcing of the paramedics that we have to take a look at cuz I think we might be losing money to be honest with you.

I don't I don't want to get into So I would I if someone will join me, I would like to add this to a for further discussion. I'll join you. For no other reason than when I got elected, my biggest question was how does a single entity hold on to that contract for 38 or whatever years? That to me needs to be at least examined. I think we the board just for transparency purposes. They've done a good job.

I that's fine. But I mean I work in the public RFP space. Anyone who holds a contract for 38 years. I I'm just saying from a pure transparency standpoint, we should look at it. Let's make sure we're all good. for bid I don't know probably four or five times since I've been on you know for a multi-year contract. So, so PSI's revenue is not just what they're collecting getting from the fees from the city. My city ambulance bills the fees to the the the service recipient. Then they collect whatever they collect off of that depending on how much gets written off. If it's Medicare, Medicaid paid insurance see how much how much uh

I'll bring you a copy of the budget to the next time when we bring this up at a cow meeting. I will appreciate. I'll bring you a copy of the budget. Thank you. Yeah, I just think we're getting a little far field here and uh I think we have multiple other folks who would love to see love to learn more about this and get all the information on the table so we can kind of make an informed decision and and have our debate.

It's important that the council understand, you know, what the volume of business is for the ambulance service in Matavia these days. It's up there, way up there. And so far it's being handled professionally. I don't get many people ever call and complain about the fire or the ambulance or the police department. Everybody is quite complimentary. So anyway, yeah, we'll continue to to discuss it. The calls are increasing so much. Changing topic slightly. Are we still going to have a cow meeting discussion on the Illinois Build Act? We had discussed that previously and it wasn't on the last week's cow agenda probably because it was pretty full. But is that still coming up at the next cow?

On the what? For the Illinois Build Act. Yeah. If there was multiple older people request, we can put it on the next cow. What Laura wanted to do was try to get everything condensed into something that she can present. You know, we've all had updates. I think three of them that I know of that were sent out to us, maybe four. and then any other information that they had available.

And next week, um myself, Laura, um Alder person Lman and Mayor are going down to Springfield for the Metro West Drive. Um we anticipate we'll probably hear about this bill amongst other things. Um so we can kind of when we come back, we'll report kind of what we found and what we've learned while in Springfield. Um and so that's coming up next week. Let's put it as an agenda item on the meeting. The next meeting after that, next council meeting after it.

Yeah. Next week is the municipal drive down to Springfield to talk about legislation and the various groups mayor's caucus and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and everybody that has the mayors in it says everybody's going. They think it may be the biggest collection of mayors in Springfield, maybe in the history to get on there and talk about this bill. So, it's not being hel taken lightly by what's going on. So, I can tell you more about it after I go through it. Yes.

Yeah. You know what? Just one final note on the bill. So, it's I I think it may be a simpler conversation than we like to think. I'm just looking at who donated to the politicians who propose this bill. Um, you know, their top contributors are the the uh Carpenters Union and then also the Illinois State Realtors. So, I mean, it's not surprising. I I also donated to those politicians, so I don't know, Jim. I like I don't know if that means much. Sorry. Something else. I'll just say though for that discussion, I've actually received a fair amount of interest from citizens who I think would like to be, you know, speak on that process. Positive interest actually. So, it'd be good to have that conversation.

It gets past. I'm sure we'll spend several nights down here trying to figure out ways to work around it, I guess. Not necessarily. No, not necessarily. I've heard a lot of people who are um basically in favor of it. So there's it's it's um there's mixed interest. Yeah. Yeah. You take a piece of property that you have no money that you owe on. You can turn around and sell it and put up an 8 unit building on what you had a single family house on. That's an interesting thing to think about. That's not the only interest involved. We've we've heard a lot of people who want to hear talk. It's going to be

perhaps we can save this discussion for uh for the day it's on the agenda. I've stirred the crowd enough here tonight. I'll call move item number 11 which is the adjournment because we got to adjourn. All in favor? I. And now we're