Town Council - Regular Meeting

Hi, Mr. Owl. Are you on? We are live. It is 6 pm. We're going to call this meeting to order. Um, [clears throat] just for public's information, the only ones here this evening are the clerk, myself, and April. [clears throat] So, with that being said, Jacqueline, what do you have for us? Let's give a minute first. [clears throat] These are the minutes from November 3rd. I'd like to ask for a motion to approve all further minutes. All those in favor? I I so be [clears throat] So, there's that one. I think I have APBs. Next, I would like to ask for a motion to approve the APBs in the amount of $96,786.97.

I will approve. You'll make the motion. I'll make a motion. Sorry. All those in favor? All right. All right. All those pose. So be it. [laughter] What else do you have for us? That was it. I gave you that paper. Just

utility director is not available. Police is not available. I would like to say Brandon got his car back today, so it's fixed. RDC not available. EDC not available. Fire not available. Um, we're online. We have nobody right now. [clears throat] Really quick, tree lighting ceremony will be on the 30th at 6:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m. 6 p.m. [clears throat] 6 p.m.

6 p.m. on November 30th. Um, so also our Santa parade, which we do every year, um, the fire truck has an issue. It's getting fixed this week. Um, Watts's fire truck, which was the original fire engine for Leo.

Yeah. Yes. Um, so Ben and I will be picking that up, I believe, the 29th and we will do the Santa parade. I will add all that. I've not had a change. The stuff that I do online yet also. Uhhuh. That'll be on the 30th.

Yes. So, what we are going to do is the Santa parade from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Um, a map will go out so everybody can see what the route is. We go to Riddles Lake. We go up to Coburn Acres, which is the Osborne Road area, and then we do town. Um, we'll try to get every single street on the post. I will make a map and if somebody's downside street, well, they can message me. We can I [clears throat] just wonder, do you have a backup if something should happen? M okay. No, there's an actual mechanic going out going to replace the starter on the truck as well. So, we should be good to go.

Um I did contact the fire department today. Um the fire chief to ask if they would like to join us and he said he's putting it on his calendar. Good. Um and then we'll have the police with us. We'll just have to get candy canes. Okay. Which is fine. Um Patrick usually gets those for us. We just have to remind him. Um, so our plan is 3 to 5 to go where we normally go and then we will warm up for a little bit because it's probably going to be chilly. And at 6:00 when the tree lighting, I'm not going to be sitting here with you because the truck's going to make one last loop around as the trees are being lit as Mr. and Mrs. wave and say hi. We're nobody's going to stop because of facial facial recognition and if there's any little children.

Yeah. Um, so I will be up there to help with other things. Mhm. After the initial lighting, did you have any hair from Larry? I cannot call. Give me Okay, that's fine. I just wonder cuz we had talked about it. Yes, it's fine. Yeah, I'll get a hold. I can call him here. I have some stuff for him. I left a message for the Lions for Larry Port um with his wife. I said, "Can you ask them if there anybody would be available to do cocoa and coffee?" [clears throat] Just, you know, some somebody else in the community is kind of providing some stuff

for very limited budgets, you know. Uh I do have music arranged already, so that's nice. And um because I just felt like it would be kind of weird without it. You know what I'm saying? Like kind of makes it a little more festive. So, we got a fire ring. Huh? We got a fire ring. Oh, good. Yeah. And I had talked to Patrick about a fire ring. A fire meeting. I know a fire wheel. Ring like ring. So, I don't know. Maybe you can make a fire. Maybe somebody might want to get Maybe I can talk uh Denny into like s'mores or something. Maybe that might be something.

But we do have to talk about like cookies or something. Do the Boy Scouts still do where they sell Christmas trees? Okay. So, that is my goal. That's my goal. We got like 10 of them out there. Do like a corner and then we string the lights and do the cute old fashioned town thing. That would be a nice thing. This year starting I was just kind of like, okay, we're just going to go mellow and then work on it cuz we didn't even know [clears throat] if we were going to do it at first or not.

Yeah. And so we kind of push through on things to get it done, at least our first one, and then maybe we can revisit everything, you know what I mean? And then go from there. So that is in my head. That is number one thing in my head, which is really funny that you say that because you watch the home movies. So it's that's kind of the whole purpose is not to be too big, just cozy, nice family night. Not a huge amount for the guy to come back from New York who went to, you know, do his career and he's going to come back to help us build the community back together. It's a homework. I know. Okay. [clears throat]

I was like, did I just step into something here? Yeah, that's what I was like going through in my head. Okay. So anyways, that's the whole goal is not to be ex like a lot of activities or a lot of huge stuff, but a nice because it's a school night 6 to 8, you know, something for them to hang out and do. Maybe we can add a few things. Uh Santa letters is definitely something I would like to do this year where it is a Santa letter drop off, which is kind of a fun thing. um that'll maybe hopefully draw some kids in, draw some people in with their parents, you know, but other than that, and then we can literally actually take them to the post office because you literally can do that.

Yeah. So, it's just a fun thing that I think we could at least provide that little thing that for now. Okay. And go from there. Yep. I think it's a good idea if anybody comes up with anything else that Yeah, I'll give a little play as soon as we're done here. I did talk to Jenny about a switch because Menard's does have this really cute switch. I think I showed it to you, right? It's a box. Has a candy cane on top and you go like this and you light the tree. Okay. Just as a symbolic little thing. Yeah. Yeah. And I'll probably talk to the people just a little stew and then you know,

but nothing just a mellow nice evening. I did talk to dad about lights around the pavilion pavilion though because I thought that would look nice and Carol was like that would look nice all through the season. Battery powered ones if you wanted me to order those. It would be nice. It would be nice just to line the top and it just be lit also. And it would look nice through the season. I mean a lot of places their park their gazebo or their pavilions have lights around them. So, it's just an idea. It would be cute. Yeah. So, if we want to do that, do you want electric or Let me talk to Denny and switch up

what they end up because it's also limit power doing it. The bulbs or do you want like the little twinkle lights like kind of like incandescent lights? Oh, I see you're saying little twinkle lights. I think the bulbs. Let me look on Amazon. Let me see what I can find. See what you can find. balls would probably be better, but you could probably get away with. You can find more. Even the ones that go like this, the short ones, you know what I'm talking about. I see the lights. Preferably colored though cuz they always look better. I don't know. Christmas you can get multicolored ones. You have to wait during the Yeah. Now you have a lot more options. So I It's just whether we have the manpower in that short amount of time to actually get that done.

Let me look on Amazon. Maybe somebody can know like, "Hey, Patrick." Cuz I know Tim might help if somebody says, "Hey, we're doing this." Mhm. He might be over there to help, too. So, yeah. All right. Uh, one last thing. Newton Christmas party and they're Newton Park Christmas. Yeah. Festivities. I am not certain if I'm going to be here on the weekend. Remember that happened last year. Yeah. I will be getting my true that day. November 6, I cannot do this all day by myself. Uh Carol usually comes. I'll talk to her, too. She's usually there. Patrick's usually

And Patrick and Sarah usually help. So I found online you print it out on card stock and I have a bunch of card stock left from the Fourth of July. Um it is you color it and then you cut it out and you fold it up. It's a little gingerbread house. House. Yep. So then we can get little glue dots to stick it so we don't have to take glue up there. Um it's simple enough. We're going to have a smaller area this year. We're not going to have the big round circle in the middle. It is a lot like to do the big one. It's a lot like Well, and I did the Easter one that year and it was a It's just so big. Like when you get too big, it's too much. It's too much to keep up with.

So I still have the little bells and the little golden tickets. Mhm. So, somebody wants to do a necklace, I can put that stuff out there cuz it's like from last year, and they're still doing um the Polar Express, which they will be showing on December 7th. We don't have anything to do on the 7th other than go and watch if we want to, but um on Saturday, it's from 1 to 4 for a little bit. I won't be there if we're in town. It's from 1 to 4. And the activity, I'm just going to print out those cards stock if everybody else is okay with that. Um, kids can color them, cut it, and assemble it. It's pretty. Yeah. My kids got home from Florida that morning and then we're going to get our tree.

Yeah, that's the last day that CL will be working. [clears throat] Um, I will be here for the December 1st meeting. I will not be here for the last meeting of the month, which you're going to have to have to wrap everything up for year end. Um, and I'm hoping to be back. I should be able to be here for the January meeting, even if it's just to be a ride. Um, what did I have written down here? So, we have a meeting was it December 18th? H. Yeah. Do we want to switch? You need to just be end like maybe the 29th that we move it to then and then we just have two meetings instead. Monday, the 29th was a Tuesday, right? Or is it?

No, the 29th is a Monday. Yeah. Would that be It's going to be just to you guys. I mean, I'm sure Dean's going to be here cuz that's the one I'm not going to be able to attend. This is the one where we approve all your end of years. Should we should we uh figure that out on the first if we want to switch? I think we'll talk more about it. And at least that's I didn't think and for year end we need to [clears throat] it's been such a like we just we do it. We just do it and we've been doing it. I just figured there's three meetings. We just It's the payroll resolution for 226 plus the elected official salary. Yep. It's a resolution or an ordinance. We were going to do that. It might be an ordinance, not a resolution. [clears throat] Yeah, they are ordinances. So, we need ordinance.

Yep. We need to approve the meetings for 2026. In the payroll ordinance, we need to do the 2026 pay dates. Yep. Uh we also need to check on the apex contract. Trash. Yes. Uh Cindy said we're good until we'll have to start doing it in October of next year. Okay. So we have one more year. It was like almost a two year. I thought Yeah, it was like a two or three year. I think it was a three is what Randy thought it was yesterday too. Humane that would be right because that was last year. The humane societ that might be a two-year but that's something that we need to get prepared for December. Um the contract for towing for the police.

I don't know if that was one or two. So, we need to look up Apex Humane Society and Betchers. Yes. And the RDC. We need to find out if they have any land acquisitions for next year. They have to be put on the um tip district request in a property. She said, know ahead of time what they're looking at. She cannot come up in June next year and say, "We want to buy this. It's for sale. We're going to put a bid in on it." It has to be on acquisition list. Well, [clears throat] that's what she said. I know. So, we need to make sure she has that by end of year cuz I don't think

I could be wrong, but I don't think that got in last year on time. And then for the first of January, these the organization of the board and the nepotism policy and I can't think of others. These are just things I can I can remember that we need to do in December, January, close to everything. So, just off the top of my head, this is what I come up with. Um, and I looked back on previous years for our end of year and for our January 1 meetings, and I didn't I couldn't find anything else for the past years on the agenda. Yeah, I didn't see anything. So, this might be it. Yes. Um, Randy will be here for our December 1st meeting and we can see if she's come up with anything else, but I think this might be it.

Yeah. Okay. We only did three% races this year. Is that right? It wasn't four. Let me look. I thought it was four. I was feeling like the wording said three and I thought we had talked about four and then because we've been trying to push it. We were so far behind for so many many many years that we were trying to I really want from now on and I wish we would have done it this year is to go with the elected official salary because for others that 4% raise is huge but for the elected officials not including yourself but for us small so minimal that 3% is like an extra $50 for the year. Okay.

For like the whole year. It's No, it's not even that because that would be We've [clears throat] never really adjusted it since we've been here and this is what year 10 something like that. So, ours needs to go up. And when we came in, we were like, "Wow, you got to be kidding." Like literally comparable to other places. We are very low. So, it is something to talk about and something we need to look at. And have we actually approved the elected official salary? budget. Let's look at that because if we haven't, we've not done the ordinance for it yet, so it could still be looked at. Okay.

Yeah. I was also I did have one question, too. Do we offer Cindy insurance even though she's part time? We offered her either paid holidays or insurance and she chose cuz we had both of those out on the table for her. She we did give her a raise and then because of all the extra work she's been doing because we've been between clerks so much um we offer her insurance but she So there is an option though like if somebody comes in or whatever other people because I'm just looking at that I know that eventually it'll change so I'm just looking at what are we already have to change you know when she would be retiring is pretty much right

I don't know if you can change it in the middle of the year. No. And we did it at the first of the year or the end of the year when we were discussing salaries and we did that a couple years ago because of all the extra she was doing. We offered her either paid holidays or insurance benefits and you have insurance and everything, correct? I do. Yes. Okay. I just wanted to make I thought you did, but I wasn't sure about her. Chris did tell me that cuz she said she didn't use it. All the other employees have it. So I was just and I know that's unusual with a part time but I think in today's world it's a weird thing you know I think we need to protect our people you know. Mhm. So a lot of companies offer it for part times even. So

it just is what you feel is the right thing to do. So okay [clears throat] I think that's all I have. Oh um we need let's put our thinking caps on the people that helped out with our lights. Every day we send a thank you. Um, thank yous are nice, but you open it and you kind of toss it. So, I don't I'm assuming if Leah's did not come breakfast on Sunday [clears throat] morning, then we paid for it. We did. Yes. Okay. So, check and then I paid the tax out of my pocket. Okay. Um, so yeah, Joe was going to pay a tax out of his pocket. Well, if you would have taken it back, I'm sure we would have removed the tax with the tax ID.

Yeah. Joe just said for one time a year it's just not people forget. You know what I mean? So I was like, you know what? I'm the queen of turning in receipts and forgetting to get it tax exempt. I was like all the time all the time. So So I just figured I'd pay you $5 and um thank you. Yeah, I ordered the tax all the time and have to pay it. Um, [clears throat] so I mean other than, you know, saying thank you, I not everybody was there for breakfast. I don't know. But that was because they chose.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if it was an invite that said, "Hey, whoever's helping, we're going to breakfast." Or if it was just like previous guys, hey guys, we're going to breakfast like a year ago. I I don't know. I thought that's all that helped was who was at breakfast. Okay. No, there were a few others that showed up. There were a few from the fire department that showed up and they did bring truck over. I think they had a tanker in his truck that came over. Um, and Brandon was there. He was invited to breakfast but did not go. So, we can get the thank yous and send them out like we always do. I mean, I'm okay with sending out thank yous. I know it's oldfashioned, but I mean these other I think it's a good thing to still do some of that old stuff, you know,

more personal. Yeah. So, can you get some of those from somewhere, please? If there are some Amazon, you want just generic or you want like a Christmas thank you or a holidays thank you. Sorry, I should probably say, do they make holiday? I don't do whatever you feel is appropriate. Okay. I mean the other side was nice. So I'll do that. Okay. Anything else? There's nobody online that I can see. Should be over here in the chat box and there's not. Um Oh, wait.

Well, we did change our date, too. So, a lot of people might not know it's true. they were watching last time, but it was on there. People forgot. That's okay. Um, it's recorded. Everybody can go back and watch it. But if we're done, I'd like to ask for a motion to close this meeting at 6:21 p.m. Make a motion to close the meeting. Those in favor. I So be it.