City Council Meeting/Strategic Session - Regular Meeting

Call the council city council meeting for 04/14/2026. Order. Roll

call. Green. Yes. Here. Seton.

Oh, here. Sorry.

Houseman.

Here.

Furman.

Here.

Stamen.

Here. I'd like to have everyone stand please for the invocation given by Dale Barnhart from the Seventh Day Baptist Church and remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. Our heavenly father, we just want to thank you for for being who you are. You're the one who created everything, you created us, and lord, we need wisdom, we need understanding, we need strength to accomplish all that you want us to do. So, I just ask that you would totally cover this entire council with your presence and power and your wisdom, your understanding because we need you.

We need you and we can't do anything without you. So, we praise you for who you are. In Jesus name, amen. Next time.

The first item tonight is the Arbor Day proclamation.

Whereas in 1872, the Nebraska Board of Agriculture established a special day to be set aside for planting trees. And whereas this holiday called Arbor Day, it was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska. And whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world. And whereas the trees can be a solution to combating climate change by reducing the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water, cutting heating and cooling costs, moderating the temperature, cleaning the air and producing life, giving oxygen and promoting habitat for wildlife. And whereas trees are a renewable resource, giving us paper, wood for homes, fuel for our fires, and countless other wood products.

And whereas our trees are in our city, increase property values, enhance the economic viability of business areas, and beautify our community. And whereas trees, wherever they are planted, are a source of joy and spiritual renewal. Now therefore, I, Jeff Stamen, mayor of the city of council, do hereby proclaim Friday, 04/24/2026 as Arbor Day in the City of Council and will urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands. And further, I urge all citizens to plant trees to gladden the heart and promote the well-being of this and future generations. Next item.

Next under council discussion is the Willoughby Farm Master Plan Update.

And that will be given by Parks Director Kimberly Corin.

Thank you. Good evening, Happy to be here and give you kind of a truncated overview of the whole master plan process that we've been through for Willoughby Farm. It's been an enjoyable one. This slide is starting with just a little bit of the history of the park. As I'm sure you know, the park was kind of transferred over to the city of Collinsville in 2018 after the dissolution of card.

The you know, just taking a step back, the farm itself was purchased in the twenties by the Willoughby family. They raised several children there, and it has become, you know, kind of this iconic landmark and special spot for the city of Collinsville and the community as a whole. As we started this master planning process, we did our due diligence and looked at the previous planning efforts that were that had been done in the past, dating as far back as the the original master plan with Card in 2003 and looking into the the future together in progress plans for plan Collinsville 2045. The bottom half of this slide is showing just briefly in a diagrammatic form how we approach the master plan. So we began with site inventory and analysis looking at everything that's existing on the park, you know, the structures, the farmhouse, the utilities, the trails, looking at things such as ADA compliance, and really starting to build this base of what is working on the farm, what's not working on the farm, what can be approved.

We also next moved into master plan recommendation phase where we developed design concepts for the entire park looking specifically at the programming opportunities for the park and how we can improve everything that's there, plan for the future, and ultimately boost the park to be to generate more revenue for the city as well, which goes into the next step of financial operations and analysis. We partnered with Ballard King and Associates It has a fantastic track track record of focusing on parks and rec and sort of the business lens, if that makes sense. We're more of the design side. They were more of the financial and operation side. And we used all of that information to form this document, this master plan at the end.

Throughout this process, we had public engagement in the forms of meetings with stakeholders, volunteers, public meetings. There was an online survey that was open for a few months. And we used all that to kind of inform this feedback loop and our designs in the end. And we're very happy with how the master plan came out. So without further ado, the next slide gets into some of the core principles of Willoughby Farm that have been established on the right side.

So showcasing nineteen forties Illinois farm life is what will be farm is all about. Right? It's also important to preserve the natural resources of the farm. 30 plus acres of the farm is pretty much untouched. It's wooded area with trails in it.

So preserving that was also to And And users and citizens about native plant habitats, storm water BMPs, and all sorts of kind of green solutions that are, you know, date back decades, but we need to bring them to the forefront in our modern era. So we use those to inform our approach. And at the same time, we developed our own goals for the park on the left side, protecting the farm's resources, improving and increasing the amenities for park users, incorporating some of those sustainable BNP practices, managing visitor use in in every way in terms of access to all the improvements and experience, and then planning for future park developments and developing a financial plan for the park. And then, like I mentioned before, with Ballard King, we evaluated the current and future staffing for optimal farm operation and revenue generation. Just a brief overview of the existing conditions.

If you're unfamiliar, this is getting into that site analysis and inventory phase I spoke about. But most of the site is very hilly. The topography is intense. The farmyard itself is a relatively flat area. There are a number of existing barns there in the existing farmhouse, the original farmhouse from the twenties, which is shown in that top image.

At a high level, there are numerous animals that are housed in the farm for visitor experience and a lot of amenities for folks to explore in terms of trails, play equipment, and other things. And the some of the biggest constraints that we faced when we started digging into the site analysis portion of the project is there is frequent insufficient parking. There are accessibility issues getting to and from some of the amenities. And then just general aging of some of the equipment and signage and and amenities overall. So I won't spend much time on this slide, but this is kind of illustrating the topographical challenges.

This kind of left portion, this back 30 acres of the park is mostly trails. It's divided by numerous ephemeral creeks that go throughout the farm. So we're dealing with a lot of sloping, a lot of, you know, extreme grades. And then the farmyard itself, as you can see, is kind of towards the right side of that graphic there. Looking at the trails themselves, we noticed that there is kind of a complicated trail network here.

As somebody that, you know, experienced these trails for the first time when we started this project, I kind of approached it from a fresh set of eyes. There's a lot of loops that kind of intersect each other. No clear destinations or trailheads. So we saw this as a great opportunity to improve. Some of the signing signage could use some updating as well.

So that was just a look at some of the things that we studied when we're looking at the trails. The next slide is just kind of a zoom in on the farmyard showing all the nuts and bolts, the different kit parts that are there currently. So number four is the existing farmhouse from the nineteen twenties. And number one is the parking lot. So you can see everything kind of in the back is a little bit less accessible, but there's a lot of really important stuff happening there.

So we tried to approach it as to how do we unify everything, how do we bring it all together so that all the users can experience it. Another look at some of the beautiful barns here, Gindler Barn, the Bank Barn. It really is a unique kind of site for representation of these historical barn types that are very common throughout Illinois. We wanted to hold on to that and highlight that. The dashed areas marked with number seven, we saw as the biggest opportunity areas in terms of what would be the easiest to add improvements and features to.

Again, looking at sort of those constraints we have from distance to parking and topography and storm water management. Management. Into the community engagement, I mentioned we had a couple public meetings. We also had a very successful online survey. So these are kind of some snippets from the survey.

The top voted improvements from the survey when we asked what people would like to see were additional and improved animal habitats, updated playground equipment, trail improvements, and then improved ADA accessible paths. So we use that to inform our design and kind of prioritize these improvements in the master plan, which we'll get into phasing at kind of the end of this presentation, but use those to inform those decisions. So this is kind of the high level master plan graphic looking at everything that we are proposing. So in the middle, you'll notice that we have created this circulation loop through the core of the farmyard that would be a new paved accessible route so that everybody can get access from the parking lot to the farmhouse and to all of those amenities within the farm yard themselves. The biggest kind of noticeable addition in the built features is the inclusion of a new multipurpose building south of the currently existing farmhouse.

So represented in number 9 And 10 with the new entry plaza as well. We saw that as an opportunity to support the mission of the farm by providing space new space for staff, new space for educational events, multipurpose rooms that can be rented out to generate a little bit of revenue and support the mission of the farm. And the the way it's situated now, it works very well with the existing farmhouse and the garden that's been established and and maintained by so many of the volunteers over the year. Additional things I wanna point out on here as well. A new children's play zone is kinda featured up towards the existing area where the play of equipment is now at number 12.

So we are trying to create a destination for kids and young families to go with a discovery garden and a playground feature because those are some of the most visited portions of this park and most parks in general. Those are the things that bring people in, and they're very important in the in the public meetings and the survey responses. So that's a high priority item in this as well as, improving some of the animal enclosures, shifting the kids corral, which houses the goats currently, a little bit more central to the to the site and closer towards the kids discovery zone as well. The trails themselves are shown simplified here. So kind of creating some more intentional loops that work with the topography that we can establish a way finding system with.

And then also proposing two new trailhead connections connections to the neighborhood at the south, represented with number 17 there. And then at the kind of northern portion of the site, we are also proposing some additional parking, kind of creating a new entrance and kind of secondary entrance and trailhead to the site with some prairie restoration there and a trail connection linking to the heart of the farm. I mentioned the insufficient parking before, so this plan is also showing an expanding parking zone adjacent to where it currently is with some overflow parking kind of downhill, a little bit north of Willoughby Lane where we were would use that opportunity sitting at the downhill kind of low area of the site to highlight some storm water management best practices. So using things like permeable pavers, rain gardens, bioretention to kind of have a low impact on the site, give us some extra parking, but also educate users as they're coming into the park. This next slide is just zooming in on that farmyard itself so you can see better how this proposed multi use, multi purpose building is going to relate to the rest of the site.

Another thing that we are proposing is additional farm implement storage. The volunteers out at the site have done a a tremendous effort at speaking to the history of this farm, how it was farmed into the past by getting all of this old farm equipment and restoring it to its former glory. So but right now, a lot of it's just kinda sitting out in the open under the elements. So this plan accounts for that and adds some additional storage areas for those features as well. At the bottom of the screen in number 13, we are proposing a guided ropes course, which could be, you know, utilized for clubs, camps, youth groups, those sort of functions to kind of utilize this bottom corner of the park adjacent to that multipurpose building.

Kind of the more passive side of the park, what we're calling the back 30 here. Again, it's primarily trails, but we are proposing a few key elements that will make it more of a destination, little bit more meaningful. So we like, as I mentioned, we're simplifying the trails a little bit, adding some trail heads, new signage, a trail gateway element kind of right smack in the middle at that high point where it is right now. For you know, we're showing a couple examples of what could be there. The top image on the right is a a Kugelbond, which is basically a gravity, you know, gravity fed ball run system where trail goers can put in a dollar, get a wooden ball, and then follow it as it goes down the hill next to the trail.

So that's a a fun thing to promote the brand of of Willby Farm. You know, you can even put a logo on a ball, as well as a selfie station. So creating some sort of these destinations for folks to go to in the trails. Trails are already utilized a lot, but what we're proposing would really elevate those in the long run. This is a quick look at some of the signage concepts we developed.

So playing off of the established color palette for Willoughby Farm, we worked with our graphic designers to develop some attraction signs that could be standardized across the park, interpretive signage sort of thing, but used at every barn, every educational site to really promote again some consistency across the board with Willoughby Farm branding, as well as some way finding signs and trail signs to start to simplify those trail loops, make it easy to know which loop you're on if you're unfamiliar with it and which way you're going. I'll speak quickly to this. It's not my forte, but we did do a great amount of detailed study with Ballard King and Associates looking at the financial and operations of the park. And these are their immediate recommendations. So first and foremost, develop a cost recovery goal for the farm, developing a program proposal process to guide staff in setting price points for rentable revenue generating amenities.

Secondly, raising awareness of the farm in general. It is very much kind of a hidden gem within Collinsville in my opinion. It's an enormously impactful park, but the recommendation is to develop a specific marketing campaign for the park to really start to get the word out more beyond Collinsville into the region. The third bullet point is a really important one because you may or may not know, but there are a ton of really devoted volunteers who donate a lot of their time to making the park what it is today. So finding a mechanism to celebrate that and promote that is gonna be a great thing for Willoughby and to and trying to make the effort to sustain that volunteerism into the future.

A lot of these volunteers have been doing it for years and years, and we see a a need to kind of promote that to other generations as well. And again, just advertising the opportunities at the farm for community service opportunities. Churches, clubs, groups, you name it. There are a lot of opportunities for for them at the farm. Kind of wrapping up this slide, succession planning, starting to track tasks on the farm and time frames for those operational tasks so that they can be tracked into the future.

And, you know, starting to think of a succession planning for the staff that's there. Part of the recommendation also is to develop a formal maintenance plan. So really getting all of those maintenance tests on paper so that they're measurable and and can inform the park operations as a whole. Finally, developing a formal capital improvement plan to address the long term needs of the park. That's what we're hoping this master plan can can be leaned on and informative heavily informative to address those capital improvement plans.

And then the last point is adding a full time maintenance position to the farm staff. The next slide is looking at on the left, it's a comparison between the 2025 budget figures for the park comparing it to if everything I just showed you on those master plan slides was built out to the max. All phases were implemented. How would that affect the budget for the park? So Ballard King did this analysis and as you can see it increases.

But on the right side, all of these line items now are existing and new improvements for the park that can be revenue generators. So comparing it to the 2025 figures and then the full build out, these are forecasted numbers for how those items can boost revenue for the park. And at the bottom, you can see the cost recovery is proposed to come from 16 to 34%

for the park.

All of that is a lot at once, but we try to break it down into manageable portions. So these next few slides are going to kind of divide the proposed improvements to plan into five phases. So we'll go through one at a time. You can see the probable cost opinion on the right side. So we took after we did the plans, we partnered with our in house consultants to develop a really detailed probable cost that we feel confident about.

So the next slide is showing phase one improvements. So this is focusing on things that we see as the highest priority based on the public engagement, the surveys, the public meetings, the feedback we got from stakeholders and volunteers, and then our professional recommendation as well for what is the biggest needs for the park right now. So phase one is proposing to widen and improve access along Willoughby Lane. Right now, there's portions of it that are, I mean, 13 feet wide at the narrowest, so that is a pinch point. There is not a complete sidewalk that gets from Summit down to the farm.

So that you'll see that in the second line item, providing some monument signage and a gateway as an entrance element as you approach the site, improving those utilities along the road at the same time that that construction is happening, implementing some of those cover displays for the farm equipment that I mentioned. And then the site trails number in here is just that paved loop and the roadway to promote accessibility, bringing to ADA compliance. We're also proposing covered picnic area and the children's play zone this. Again, we mentioned the desire for the updated playground was high priority in all the responses or majority of the sponsors that we got. So that is included in phase one as well.

Phase two, still kind of a short term to medium term goal, high priority here. That involves a lot of the kind of unshaded elements here. So looking at electrical and sanitary sewer upgrades is a big item. A lot of the planting proposed in the plan is proposed here as well as the parking improvements. So you can see both of those parking areas are highlighted here in this phase two as well.

Phase three is kind of building an infrastructure focus to support those needs. So this includes taking the existing bank barn, which a lot of events take place in currently, upgrading the HVAC system, adding a kitchen add to that, making it a lot more usable climate controlled space, as well as renovations to the existing farmhouse, which is in good condition, but it is aging. Things are needing to be just repaired and replaced with normal lifespans of some of those elements. As well as the big one here is the new multipurpose building, which we're proposing here. It's roughly 7,800 square feet in this master plan.

Obviously, that's flexible, but that's our recommendation right now in sort of the midterm goals. Phase four is relocating the kids corral, implementing a new outdoor theater in the children's discovery zone and children's educational zone itself. So while these are important, we didn't see them as the highest priorities, so they are into the fourth phase right now. And then finally, phase five gets into some of those signage updates, the trail improvements on the back 30, implementing a covered bridge in the lower storm water demonstration area. There's an orchard on the hillside as well as some of the press prairie restoration things that we're proposing around the farmyard and the new secondary kind of trailhead at the northern edge of the site.

So that is a high level breakdown of everything. Welcome your questions and comments. I didn't wanna take too much of your time. I saw that there was a very full agenda. So with that, we will take any questions or comments.

Any questions or comments? Yeah.

I just wanted to say one, I trust like I know you're like you will seek out every grant Kimberly. So I know like that I see the numbers. I don't get that concern because you're you do amazing at that. My only question and and maybe like concern would be like phase five seems more important to me than phase three just because it it that's going to like maintain the integrity of what the the farm has been for years of just giving more trails, the the prairie restoration of native plants and more of the small attractions that's kind of made it the hidden gem. And I guess my concern would be if we build the seventy hundred square foot multipurpose building, does that does that take away from that being a hidden gem and it becomes like a venue destination where a family doesn't enjoy going there on a Saturday because there's another wedding booked because it's like barn weddings are all the rave now.

So that would be I get that it's one of the biggest revenue generators in this.

Yeah.

But would it how much would it impact the fill for what what we have right now, Willoughby Farm?

Yeah. I I understand your view there. Another portion, I don't know if I mentioned it, but another need for that multipurpose building is having good space for the staff to have their offices. We early on in the concepts we considered, okay, what can we do with the farmhouse to make it better? We don't wanna touch it too much and kind of change everything.

So I think there is still a need for having some support services for the staff, having office space and storage space. But I hear your point about, you know, not wanting to detract from the attractive part about this park is that it is a hidden gem. It's it's historic and it's it's very meaningful to a lot of people. So I think it can be done in a in a in a way that kind of compromises and meets both needs. There was an image in here that showed kind of hypothetically what this multipurpose building could look like.

And we specifically picked it to show that we don't want it to stand out in the farm. We want it to look like it belongs in the farm. We want it at that top image right there. So, you know, whatever form it takes, we we we think it's very important that it relates to the architecture of the farm and that those sort of elements that we can control aesthetically are controlled.

Roundabout way there. Don't know if that answers

your Yeah.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah.

David, you have a point like balancing the integrity and the feel of the park, the atmosphere that Willoughby Farm is without compromising it based on just revenues alone. So there is that fine balance in there. We're going to have to work our way through as we work our way through this plan. And if it works out and we don't necessarily have to do phase three before phase five, if phase five makes more sense for us before we have a greater opportunity at a funding source or you know some of these things like the Southeast stations like maybe that's something that like an Eagle Scout project could be we could take advantage of you know an Eagle Scout meeting the project and check that part off the list so that would be part of it. We could meet some of those needs and not the exact order.

The

big balance is trying to generate that revenue to support some of the other stuff.

That's

a big challenge we have with the offices. Yes.

And truly right now rentals are our biggest revenue source.

I think it's a great plan. I like the work that it's been put into like the mayor said the cost recovery I think would help drive so much more of this even exploring you know other ways naming rights I don't know out of the box kind of things right I agree with you on the trails I hiked the Shenandoah National Park in October and it was far easier than my experience out there the first time I got lost Because you're right, there are multiple conflicting signs. Yeah. I'm pretty good at directions, but I got lost. So, but I made it back because here I am. So, but it's a great presentation. I look forward to seeing what we can do to and put more ideas to make some of these things happen. Any

other questions or comments? Well,

you Jordan for being here tonight. If you have do any feedback, let me know when I can let Jordan know. The idea will be that we will incorporate any of the comments that you guys have and then this will come back for formal adoption at a later date.

Okay. Thank you for your Thank you. Next item.

Next item is speakers from the floor.

Speakers may address the council under the terms of Ardinance Number 4,765. Time is limited to four minutes per speaker. Please refer to the last page of the agenda for specific rules governing input. Is there anyone on this side of the room that would like to speak? Anybody on the right side of the room would like to speak? All right. Being none, next item.

Comments and announcements from the mayor?

Yes. I'd like to give a little bit of rundown of a major experience I had a couple weeks ago to kind of give you an overview of what we did. As you can see, the picture is here. The bottom line, the highlight of the trip was obviously meeting the Pope. So anyway, I recently participated in the Illinois Mayors Public Diplomacy Mission, Papal Visit and Cultural Exchange held March 28 through April 2 in Rome, Italy.

The mission coordinated by the Illinois Municipal League brought together a small group of mayors and community leaders from across Illinois for a program focused on international engagement, cultural exchange, and diplomacy. It was a true honor to be one of the 25 Illinois mayors asked to participate in this mission. Council is one of twelve ninety four municipalities that belong to the Illinois Municipal League and are currently sit on the IML board. IML is an association representing municipalities across Illinois to provide a formal voice in matters involving common interest on the state level. IML works to support issues that can positively affect our community and negatively affect our community.

So having a unified voice is important. And there again, I'm a strong believer in all our departments participate in these type of associations, but there's also that association for the mayors in the cities. During the program, we were able to visit historic religious and cultural sites throughout Rome, participated in meetings with international and diplomatic leaders, and attended events in Vatican City. The delegation also attended a private audience with His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, an experience I can only describe as a once in a lifetime. We had a priest from the Springfield diocese that went with us to kind of help with the you know, help us understand what we were looking at.

And mentioned that. He said very few, he had been a priest for fourteen years, said very few priests will ever have a chance to meet a Pope. The mission also included discussions with Ambassador Brian Birch, a Chicago native and United States ambassador to the Holy See, providing insight into international diplomacy and global partnership. There again is the first time I ever attended a or visited a U. S.

Embassy, but the Vatican has its own U. S. Embassy right alongside Italy's embassy. It was an incredible honor to represent Consul and join fellow leaders from across Illinois during this mission and provided meaningful opportunities to learn, connect, and reflect on our local on how local leadership can contribute to global community. My wife Linda joined me on the amazing trip.

And just a little added item here, the actual tour in the IML portion was a five day tour. We added five days to it, the opportunity to be in Italy, which we'd never been to Europe, so it was quite an honor. But we added five days, went to Florence, went to Venice. And my wife's great grandparents came from Sesta and we rented a car and took a couple hour drive up into the mountains and visited that little community. And, you know, it felt with such a Italian heritage in Collinsville, this meant a lot for us.

And I can't help but to say that all mayors and public officials were responsible for their own expenses and no public funds were used for this trip. In our meeting with Pope Leo, he first gave an address or before he individually greeted us all in that address, he emphasized that effective governance requires a real understanding of people's lives stating that, quote, you must first strive to know people's aspirations as well as their challenges and stressing that, quote, the dignity of each individual must be recognized and upheld, noting that municipalities are not anonymous entities but communities with faces and histories. He also encouraged us to all carry out our duties with, quote, with joy, with love, and with zeal. I just can't emphasize enough what a great experience it was. It was an honor to serve Calvin.

That's all.

Next is comments and announcements from council members.

Oh, okay.

Comments and announcements from city staff.

Thank you, mayor, members of the council. First, I'd to have Kimberly Korn give an update on some recognition we got as well as programming in the parks department.

It's not quite meeting the pope. Would, I'm mayor, chairman, members of the council, I'd like to let you know that we did, that council did receive its Tree City USA designation again this year, just the thirty first year for this such dedication. Part of that dedication or part of this designation involves the Arbor Day Proclamation that you did today. So that will count towards our designation for hopefully year number 32.

And I don't know if you had mentioned it before Kimberly but we want to talk about the trees we're planting in downtown was that six months ago or so? Did we talk about that before? I

don't know. Did we

Yeah, I don't know if that we did. I know we spotlighted on the on our social media but yeah, I think that was Caitlin Rice was instrumental in the plant community development department helping us secure a grant. And as a result we ended up planting I think dozens of trees along the block. All looking great right now too. We're in the spring and all that. That assisted in our effort as far as developing a canopy in the urban area. Good.

And all those trees planted and volunteer hours all that got counted towards next slide. It's springtime folks and that means yard of the month nominations are now open again. So please you can vote or not, I'm sorry, you can nominate online or you can nominate by calling the park office. If you have an address in town, it must be in the city of Collinsville for the community appearance board to vote upon and then, we get to do the yard of the month designation starting in May. Along the lines of Tree City USA again, another thing that we do as part of our designation is an Arbor Day Trees celebration.

So we're planning on Friday, April 24 planting a tree at Willoughby Farm with a class from Summit Elementary School and the Community Appearance Board. We plan to do this around 11:30. Anybody is welcome to come out. We do a nice little program with the kids. They get an opportunity to participate in the planting of the tree and then they name a tree. This is a tradition that's been going on since before the parks department was here. It's a lovely tradition that the community of parents has been keeping up. And then again, very busy weekend. So April will be at Collinsville Citywide garage sales. Calls are coming in folks.

We have at least 100 right now signed up. And then also that Friday night there'll be a Boot Scoot and Boogie Barn dance at Willoughby Farm that starts at ten I'm 06:30 and goes until ten and you can pay at the door.

Great, thank you, Ken Breeze. Last announcement council, if I can have Public Works Director Troy Turner come up. We have some plan improvements coming up here for Clay Street and he's gonna give a quick overview of the timeline on it.

So we had a thank you again, thank you mayor, members of the council. We had a meeting with IDOT last week and along with Hank's excavation who got the contract for the Clay Street pedestrian improvements. They want to start as soon as they can. So their goal is to start on April 20, but that is going to be I'm going give it an asterisk of they've got to get everything into IDOT and approved by IDOT. They've got to get all their subs approved and everything else before that.

But their goal is to be done before June 19. So we're hoping that they can get this done get started and get done because that would get it everything in order prior to any of our events in the uptown area. So just to kind of give you an overview, we received a $302,000 grant from Illinois for safety improvements. And then we also received $100,000 from ACT for a community action grant. So the total bid that Hanks had was $790,000 So the other $387,000 will be or 387,700 will be what the city is going to be responsible for in the project.

Just more so I want to give you an update and if we get hear any changes I will update you guys as soon as I can. If there's any questions I'd be happy to answer.

Thanks Fred. Mayor that's all we have for staff comments this evening.

Next item.

Next item is the consent agenda. Item one motion to approve Canada bills for the period ending 04/03/2026 in the amount of $1,324,992.65. Item two, motion to approve payroll for the period ending 03/27/2026 in the amount of $1,728,910.43. Item three, motion to approve minutes of the 03/24/2026 council meeting. And item four is an ordinance declaring personal property owned by the city as surplus and authorized the sale or auction of that surplus item.

Is there any items in the consent agenda that anyone would like to remove and vote on separately? Being none have a motion to approve as presented.

So moved. Second.

Motion by Seaton, second by Houseman. Roll call.

Greene, yes. Seton.

Yes.

Houseman.

Yes.

Furman.

Yes.

Stamen.

Yes.

Next in our new business, item one, ordinance authorizing the execution of a collective bargaining agreement between the city of Collinsville and the Collinsville order of police lodge one zero three civilian unit.

Presentation be given by police chief Brett Worman.

Thank you, mayor Stamen, council members. Before you this evening is an ordinance authorizing the execution of a collective bargaining agreement between the city of Collinsville and the civilian bargaining unit of the fraternal order of police lodge one zero three. So as you know, the current collective bargaining agreements for both FOP sworn and FOP Civilian expired on 12/31/2025. And after only one negotiating session, we reached a tentative deal on 01/14/2026 on a new three year agreement, was ratified by the union on 03/20/2026, which is now be subject to your approval tonight. Just to provide a few highlights and significant changes to this new three year deal.

As far as the financial wage package, we came to an agreement of three and a half percent for 2026. And then in 2027 and 2028, we reverted back to the CPI language we've used in the past with a floor of 3% and a ceiling of 4%. We came to an agreement on some changes to the vacation schedule and employees between their tenth and fifteenth anniversary. They'll receive a hundred and sixty hours of vacation. They will receive two hundred hours of vacation between their sixteenth and twenty fourth anniversary.

And upon their twenty fifth anniversary, they received two hundred and forty hours. From the management side, we were able to secure increased staffing requirements for the night shifts, which occur during Italian fest weekend, New Year's Eve, as well as the Wednesday preceding Thanksgiving. These are some of the most busy nights that we have within the city. And now having the ability to deny deny vacation time and benefit time during those evenings and mandate to dispatchers in the in the console is is a big win for us. So that's something that we wanted.

And then we sustained some hiring benefits for certified and lateral telecommunicators. This is a big win for us in in the recruitment world. Helps us re recruit certified telecommunicators, lateral telecommunicators from other agencies. And then the rest of it was just other language and section cleanup throughout the contract. With that said, staff recommends approval and we'd be happy to answer any questions.

Any questions or comments? I'm just curious, little young related but I saw language there. Do you ever, is there any Spanish speaking dispatchers? I'm just curious about that.

Currently, don't believe so. No. I'd have to go back and double check, but I don't believe so.

So that that is ever does that ever come up with something? I'm just curious.

No. But we do have several Spanish speaking officers too that could step in and help us with that. I can think of three or four officers that are fluently speaking Spanish.

All right. Right. Being no questions or comments, I have a motion to approve. So moved.

I'll second it.

A motion by Affirm and second by Green. Roll call.

Green. Yes. Seaton.

Yes.

Hausman. Yes. Fuhrman. Yes. Stamen.

Yes. Item

number two, the ordinance authorized the mayor to sign the agreement to the city of Collinsville and Sentinel Emergency Solutions.

Presentation be given by fire chief, John Balam.

Good evening, mayor, members of the council in front of you tonight. It's an ordinance authorizing an agreement between the city and Sentinel, emergency solutions to purchase the self contained breathing apparatus. The the air that the firefighters wear on their back when they go inside of a building. Our current models are over twelve years old and we try and stay within National Fire Protection Association standards. These that we currently have were designed to the 2007 standards.

Things have moved quite far along. We did a formal bid process and we received three bids on March 6. The top three manufacturers are MSA, Drager and three ms Scott. So the three bids we received were Sentinel Emergency Solutions, Banner Fire Equipment and Ed M. Feld Equipment as you can see on the right hand side.

Sentinel is the lowest responsible bidder at $324,533.62 We are going to take the option to include a mask fit test. We have to have every firefighter fit every year mask fit. And so we're looking to take that in house. We've got some folks that can do that. It's a machine that actually runs through and calibrates and does everything for us basically.

So a total purchase price of $336,140.62 If you recall we did get a grant from FEMA. I think they're still in business. We do have a grant that's paying for the 90%. The city matches the 10% for the purchase under the scrap. I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Any questions or comments? Being none motion to approve. So moved. Second. Motion by Houseman seconded by Seaton. Roll call.

Green. Yes. Seaton. Yes. Houseman. Yes. Furman. Yes. Stamen.

Yes. Thank you.

Item number three is a resolution authorizing local agency funding agreement with IDOT for the Horseshoe Lake Road and McDonnell Lake Road project.

Presentation will given by Troy Turner, City Public Works Director.

Thank you, Mayor and members of the council. Sorry to throw you for a last minute loop on this one with the changes that were made. Just kind of go over those changes before I get into this. IDOT had requested that we move our money from construction engineering to preliminary engineering which we get the money sooner. We'd already spent enough to use it.

It saves us time when we go to construction because we don't have to wait for the federal government to approve the construction engineering portion of the contract. But they contacted me on Monday realizing that they had made an error on the updated sheet. So what this is, is it's a funding agreement that allows us to go out to bid for this project. We have obtained $600,000 in federal funding sorry construction is estimated at $600,000 with $480,000 in federal funding. And so the local match on the construction portion is $120,000 And so if there's any questions I'd be happy to answer them but this will get us going hopefully September or October for getting started on this intersection and getting the signal installed.

Any questions or comments for Troy? We have a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second. Motion by Green, second by Furman. Roll call.

Green. Yes. Seton.

Yes.

Houseman.

Yes.

Furman.

Yes.

Stamen.

Yes. Thank you.

Item number four, ordinance authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement with all inclusive rec in the amount of $309,697.72 in relation to the purchase and installation of playground equipment for Glidden Park.

Presentation will be given by parks director Kimberly Corin.

The ordinance before you tonight authorizes an agreement which represents the next step necessary to complete the inclusive playground at Glendon Park. We have already purchased the playground equipment utilizing a pep grant, I believe in 2024. This last part of the agreement encompasses the remaining scope of work, including the installation of the playground equipment, the surfacing, and the fencing that goes along with it. Approval of this ordinance will authorize a full completion of this project. We did have street department work on the demolition of the playground last week.

And so if you go out there, you can see no playgrounds right now. And with the timeline with the community development block grant findings that we did a public hearing for a few meetings ago, the project will need to be completed by for mobility devices. You can see some of the really interesting parts about this with something as simple as like a recessed merry-go-round where instead of it being set inches above the ground, it's set flush with the ground. So if you have mobility, you use mobility device or if you have mobility issues, you don't need to step on to it. So it that's one of the barriers to restrictions there.

There's also quiet spaces incorporated into this for children on children and adults on the spectrum. And there's tactile and sensory elements incorporated in this as well as the color scheme is set so that people with visual impairments, it makes it easier for them to distinguish between the differences. Recommends approval and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have.

Questions? No questions.

I'll just tell you, great job. You've been working on this for years and way to go.

It feels like this has been a long time coming so thank you for your patience. We're really excited to be able to get it done. We still have a couple of outstanding grants that will be reimbursable at the end. The CDBG for the $100,000 and then there's an MEPRD grant, Metro East Park and Rack District way back from the beginning on this. It's also reimbursable as well.

Okay. Good. A motion to approve.

So moved. Second.

Motion by Seaton. Second by Houseman. Roll call.

Green. Yes. Seaton.

Yes.

Houseman.

Yes.

Fuhrman. Yes. Stamen.

Yes.

Thank you.

Item number five, the ordinance authorizing the mayor to execute a facility use agreement for the Convo Aqua Park between the city of Coventsville and Gator Swim Club.

Kimberly again.

Your statement of members of the council, I'm not done yet. Tonight this is an ordinance authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement with the Gator Swim Club. This is an annual agreement we do with the local swim club to utilize the lap pool at the aqua park for their practices. We've been they've been good partners with us for the seven years that we've been doing this, running the aqua park. And part of it is it helps as a feeder program for our lifeguards, which we always need. So I would be happy to answer any questions, but staff does recommend approval of this.

Questions, comments? Motion to approve. So moved.

I'll second it.

Motion by Furman, second by Green. Roll call.

Green. Yes. Seton.

Yes.

Hausman. Yes. Furman. Yes. Stamen.

Yes.

Item number six is a resolution appointing a member to the Park and Recreation Advisory Commission, Emily George.

Again, Kimberly.

Hey, again. Mayor Stamen and members of the council, I'm happy to recommend Emily George for a position on our Park and Recreation Advisory Commission. She does need to be approved by resolution. She is a recent former employee of the city of Collinsville, and she wishes to remain involved in our community. The Park and Rec Commission is a seven member committee or commission, excuse me, that currently only has five members. We have two vacancies and the resolution before you tonight would appoint Emily to one of those vacant positions. Staff recommends approval and Emily is here tonight if you have any questions of her or myself.

I talked to her her last week here. Was thrilled to hear that she wanted to get involved in Townsville and really appreciate your efforts. You're very well liked as an employee and you'll be you'll do a great job. Motion to approve. So moved.

Second. Second.

Motion by House and second by Green. Roll call.

Green? Yes. Seaton?

Yes.

Houseman. Yes. Furman.

Yes.

Stamond. Yes. Thank you. Next, closed session.

I have a motion to approve closed session to discuss in accordance with IL five ILCS one two zero slash two c, appointment, unemployment, compensation, discipline, or performance of employees. Number 11, pending or threatened or imminent litigation. Number 21, discussion of closed meeting minutes. Motion to approve.

So moved.

Second. Motion by Seaton, second by Houseman. Roll call.

Green. Yes. Seaton.

Yes.

Houseman.

Yes.

Fuhrman. Yes. Stamen. Yes. Glasses adjournment.

Motion approved adjournment.

So moved.

Second. Motion by Fuhrman, second by Green. Loco?

Green? Yes. Seaton?

Yes.

Houseman? Yes. Fuhrman? Yes. Stamen?

Yes. The city council meeting for council council meeting for 04/14/2026 is adjourned.