City Council - Regular Meeting

want to scoop. We can scoop. I'll take mine. I was trying to get my bearings when I was out.

Yep. I would like to call to order the uh Wednesday, March 18th, 2026 meeting of the Danville City Council. Roll call to establish a quorum, please. Mayor Ricky Williams, Jr., present. Vice Mayor Eve Lewig, present. Alderman John Cooper, Doug, Jill Jones. Trisha Teague, present. Sherry Pickering here. Rick Strie here. Mike Poor present. Mike Okaine here. Barry Johnson present. Tom High Totower here. James Pashard present. Carolyn Deoy present. Ed Batler present. 13 present.

13 present. We do have a quorum. At this time we will have the invocation led by Alderman Datoy followed by the pledge of allegiance led by Alderman High Tower. Please rise. Gracious God, we gather tonight as neighbors and as stewards of this community we share. We thank you for this town, for its history, its people, and the generations who have built homes, businesses, and lives here through hard work and never giving up. In a time when many feel uncertainty about the future, grant us wisdom and clarity, help the leaders seated here tonight to listen carefully,

to speak thoughtfully, and to make decisions guided not only by policy, but by compassion and a commitment to the common good. Mhm. Remind us that a community is not measured only by its industries and or numbers, but by the character of its people. The willingness to care for one another, to work together, and to believe that tomorrow can be better than today. Yes. Yes. Give us the courage to face our challenges honestly and creativity to seek new opportunities and the patience to build a stronger future step by step.

Bless this council, the staff who serve our city and every resident that calls this place home. Yes. May tonight's work be done in a spirit of respect, cooperation, and hope. Mhm. And Lord, just now we pray for our country. Yes, Lord. We pray for those who are serving in such important roles that has so much to do with our future. Yes, Lord. God, we just give you the praise for all things and we know you have everything under your control. For it's in your son's name I pray. Amen. Amen.

Amen. I pledge algiance 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 for all. Thank you, Alderman. We appreciate you both very much. You have before you the minutes of the uh March 3rd meeting. Is there a motion to approve those? So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion or debate? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Same sign. Thank you very much. You also have an agenda for this evening, is there a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion or debate? All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Same sign.

Thank you very much. Um, for my report, I do not have any proclamations. Are any of there are there any reports of boards committee? There are not any board committee or personnel appointments. Are there any reports of boards, agencies or commissions? Seeing none, um just uh one one uh two important items of information. Number one, I just want to congratulate all of those who won election yesterday and also to thank all of those who ran but did not win. Uh as all of us know, it takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there. You've become to subject to a lot of scrutiny. um occasionally deserved and a lot of times not deserved, right? Um and so uh just want to wish everyone luck as they move forward to the next round of of elections. Uh the second thing is um as many of you all know um an important retirement has come upon us. Um as of next Thursday, uh Mr. Eric Childers, our acting city engineer, will be uh retiring after over 14 years of service to the city. um he has done an outstanding job for us including uh standing in for long durations and we were without a city engineer and quite honestly many of the things that are happening the good things that are happening for our people would not be happening without his leadership. So at this time um I want to turn it over to uh director Ruie to say a few words.

Yeah. So I just wanted to take a minute and honor uh engineer children uh soon to be past engineer children. Uh, so I've gotten the pleasure of working with uh Eric. I'm going to call him Eric for this. I know we're supposed to keep it professional, but I'd like to make it a little bit more personal if that's okay for with you guys. But uh so Eric, if you haven't worked with him, one of the most detailoriented and reliable human beings that not only have I worked with, but I've ever met. Um he doesn't just do it, he does it right. and uh I wanted to just take a moment and talk about some things that uh he's done for me personally in in my career and just I know that that's made an impact on the city as well. So as I stepped in the director role uh that there was a void there also with uh previous engineer Cole leaving. And so not only did Eric step up and uh lead the division over there and just bring a bring a sense of leadership, he also helped me step into my role and uh has been definitely a guiding light there, a voice of just that that steady voice, uh a trusted resource that I can always count on. And so, um, I just wanted to take a minute to to honor him. Uh, he's stepped up on, as mayor said, stepped up on more than one occasion to, uh, run the division, uh, when there was a need, not because he was even asked, honestly. It was just, uh, he knew that, hey, this is this is what needs to be done and he and he did it. And that's the human being that he is. So, as kind of the man behind the scenes that Eric is, um I think that this city has no idea the impact that that he has and will have on, you know, future generations even with just the infrastructure work that he's done. And that's something that I wanted to make sure got honored is every single life that is in Danville is is touched by him uh in one way or another driving around on roads or uh

not to be crude but even flushing their toilet. So, so, uh, anyway, just wanted to say congratulations to Eric on his retirement. And, uh, also just, um, let you guys know, uh, for all you alderman on next Thursday, the 26th, from 3:00 to 5:00, we're going to just have an open house out at public works, feel free to stop in and just, uh, you know, have a cupcake and and tell them goodbye. So, anyway, but thank you, Eric, and congratulations. Eric, I know you're often a man of few words, but is there anything that you would like to say?

Uh, I want to thank you, mayor, for giving me the opportunity to be the acting city engineer. Um, and there are so many people I I need to thank. Uh, one being u former city engineer David Snell who uh reached out to me early May uh uh 2012. I'd not worked in the city of Danville for over 30 years. And uh I had done some projects over here. I was working private consultant over in Champagne and uh he he cold called me and said, "Hey, uh and ironically, it was Sam that was leaving the city the first time and they were needing an engineer." And so it was a good fit. I came in March of 2012 and uh never looked back. I really enjoyed working 14 years. Uh it's a very small time frame but uh I hope I uh was able to make an impact in some ways. Uh but you're in good hands because uh the department uh has what I consider a couple savants uh director Ruie and uh deputy director Tim Cowan who has in my view outstanding leadership and asset management. So, I think uh good things are going to come for both public works and engineering moving forward.

Thank you all. Thank you, mayor.

Madam clerk, at this time, are there any petitions, communications, or audience comments? Uh, yes, there is. When I call your name, please come to the podium. You'll have three minutes to speak. James Boucher regarding the special use permits 270 and 271.

Hello everybody. Uh my name is James. I'm a developer with Soltage. We're a firm that's building these energy projects and uh I want to say first thank you for allowing us to speak and uh many of you have been incredibly generous with your time including the mayor and the city staff and we very much appreciate the opportunity to to come before you. I know I don't need to tell anybody about the rising electric rates in our country, about the conflict in the Middle East that's going to have a profound effect on oil prices and gas prices that will flow through to power prices. The solution to these problems is local dependable power and that's what these projects are offering. We're just off of Lynch Road. We're planning on developing 58 acres of industrial zoned land. We're going to put solar panels on them. Right. This is going to be a a manageable electric site. It's going to be fenced in for safety. There's going to be a vegetative buffer between the site and the road to limit the visual impact. And we really consider ourselves to be stewards of this land. Right? We have done a number of studies and surveys to make sure that this land use is safe, low impact, and compatible with future uses of the land, be that agricultural, industrial, residential, whatever might happen at the end of our projects. Uh you all have before you a copy of the presentation that we made to the planning and zoning commission. We're very pleased to have earned a unanimous vote of approval from that commission uh two weeks ago. You also have a checklist that outlines the ways in which our project meets all of the items in the Danville city ordinance that are specified for a project of this type with reference to the application that we made to city staff. It's all cross reference. There's lots of exhibits and and we're very happy to answer any questions. The bottom line is this. Soultage, myself, Jonathan Roberts, you know, we're we're a small business. This is how we make our living. These projects are going to be beneficial to us. This is how we make money. But they're not just beneficial to us. We really believe

and we hope to demonstrate that these projects are going to be beneficial to the land owner that owns this site, to our customers, and really to the entire city of Danville. You know, you're going to hear from my colleague Jonathan on the benefits to the city from our property taxes and other benefits. You're going to hear from our engineers about the state of the project and and what we've done to make sure it's safe and low impact to our neighbors. You're going to hear from Eric Hannah, the son of the land owners, who's going to tell you what this is going to do for his family and the benefits it's going to bring to the folks that own this land. And finally, you're going to hear from David Rand. He works at Tiss and he's going to tell you about the profound benefits that this project is going to bring to the customers that we're going to sell this power to. We're happy to answer any questions. We're very grateful for your time. Thank you so much and we hope to own earn your votes tonight.

Thank you, sir. Jonathan Roberts regarding the special use permit.

Good evening. I'm Jonathan Roberts with Saltage. I'm vice president with Saltage. Been there for about eight years now. Um, I first moved to Illinois back in 2007. I moved to uh Springfield to work on the power plant uh that serves the city of Springfield. Had uh have an engineering background and worked in the power industry for quite some time. Um I've been working in Danville for quite some time. I've been working in this community for about eight years uh during my tenure with Soultage. At the PNZ hearing, uh we had one of our current land owners for two projects that I helped develop eight years ago. um and one of which just recently came online, just wrapped up construction with uh Judge Clary, uh came to provide some comments tonight. He wasn't able to to be here tonight, but just wanted to give a sense that, you know, we're someone that owns and operates projects long term. We've been here a while in the community already. I have another project in Ridge Farm that I helped uh bring about and was constructed and completed around 2019. And um with these projects uh we we are investing in the community and I wanted to speak just a little bit more about some of the benefits that we're hoping to bring to the city of Danville. So one of the benefits are the uh the property taxes that these projects are going to bring to the community over the current use of uh you know rotating between the corn and soybeans in this industrial zone district across from the Tissen Crook plant. And we estimate that over the 40-year useful life of the project that we lease the land from the Hannah family that this is going to bring $2.1 million of new tax revenue to the county. We think that is appreciable and substantial. Um but we didn't want to just stop there. We wanted to be a good neighbor, a good partner, a good steward. So we wanted to go above and beyond. and working with Mayor Williams and his team. You know, we spent some time working with the city staff with,

you know, Eric and Mumuchu and Logan and and and uh David. Um we uh looked at a community benefit agreement to go above and beyond the tax benefits. Um and for this community benefit agreement, we're seeking to help the city with its efforts to attract new industrial clientele to town to help market those efforts. I know that there are efforts underway for a mega site project and we'll have some more commentary on that. But um we we think that we can help with that with this community benefit agreement that is um approximately $800,000 in total to the city. That's $300,000 that would be paid upfront and a an ongoing commitment for 10 years of $50,000 that we uh presented to the uh to the city staff. And then beyond that, um, we had met with many of you around tables and and offices and in the, uh, area and we identified the Fiser Theater as an additional beneficiary for $100,000 to help with their revitalization effort and programming for the youth in the community and continuing forward. So, thank you for your time tonight and we appreciate

Thank you,

Robert Mack regarding the special use permits. Hello everybody. Um my name is Bob Mack. I am the uh project civil engineer. Um I I work uh for an engineering company in Chicago uh WSP. Um I've been working on these projects for about eight years. I started with the uh due diligence for Soltage. They hired um our company to go out and initially do the site screening. Um I personally has been involved um with the planning and the uh preliminary engineering working with Eric and his team for several years on these sites. Um we have done um various uh environmental um clearance um uh submitts to the state DNR. We got uh clearances on the EcoAT, the ID DNR, which is an environmental uh clearance. We got a a clearance on the Shipo State historical preservation. Um so in general this site really looks very favorable for solar in the industrial district that it's located in. Um I um also um did a preliminary uh drainage study for this site and we know and in the city recognizes that when you convert um agricultural land rowcrop uh to solar and you put native vegetation you will reduce the runoff and we we have um an analysis that shows that. Um, in spite of that, we also um are going to um uh offer uh to the city as part of their uh program a fee in lie of detention in the order of $94,000. Um so rather than even though we're reducing a stormwater runup, the city has a requirement uh for any impervious surfaces that you add that you have to provide um storm water detention or you can pro provide a fee and loop payment, which is what we're going to do. So, in addition to the money that Jonathan talked about, we're looking at maybe also offering about $94,000 um in that range uh for the storm water fee inl um I'm here to answer any questions about the engineering preliminary uh design. Um happy to be here. So, thank you very

much. Thank you, sir. Eric Hannah regarding the solar project.

Thank you. I'm Eric Hannah. My parents Bill and Will Hannah own this property. um they do live in assisted living and were not able to be here. So um about 15 years ago, I kind of took over the management of this. Um this property was originally acquired by my great-grandfather, my dad's grandfather, um right after the turn of the century, right around 1900. Um he owned it. My grandmother inherited it in 1964. She passed away in 93. So, my dad and my aunt um inherited it at that time and then my dad and mom bought out my aunt in 2011. However, back when my grandmother still owned it, we um looked at opportunities that there were on whether to sell it, lease it, what more we could do with it since it was a good location. So, um at that time it was listed. Um it's been with a few different realtors. Um I remember Busby B butler and Hicks had it in the mid um 1980s. So this property has been out for about for um 40 approximately 40 years as um out on the market to whether um lease or sell it for some sort of development. Um even in the late 1990s, Economic Development approached us and asked us to put it into an enterprise zone. We went ahead and did that. That did raise our taxes. So they've been paying higher taxes than if they had left it at um as a farmland since the late 1990s. During this entire 40 years, the only interest that we ever had on it was what they called the Kodiak project. It's when Dollar General looked to come here. Um unfortunately we did lose that to Indiana. Then the only other interest since then has been solar farms. So I've been working um with Jonathan for about eight years and um this is a lease. This is not a sale. We are not selling it. The family will still retain the ownership

of it. However, my parents are in assisted living and um as you well know that is getting more and more expensive along with healthcare of it and this would be extremely beneficial for them to have this um additional income um for the remainder of their lives. So um the way we look at it is this is not a whole lot of change. instead of farming um corn, we want to farm electricity. So, um appreciate your time and consideration. Are there any questions? Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hannah. David Rand regarding the special use permits.

Good evening. My name is David Rand. I'm the senior health and safety manager for Tiscen crankshaft right across the street. I'm also the uh environmental specialist for sustainability and governance for the company. I've been with them for about 11 years. Uh but Tissprop has been with the city of Danville for over 40. We've been a little further up the road right now. We have a Danville Forge site there on Lynch Road directly across the street as well as Danville, Michigan. For those of you that don't know, we do what we do. We make crankshafts. All right. Um every semi you pass on the road, probably about six, if not seven of those has a crankshaft made right here in Danville in them. Takes a lot of power to do what we do. a lot of energy. We're heating up parts to over 1,000 degrees, putting them through a 12,000 ton press, feeding them down the rest of a forging line, sending them across the street, and running them down four different production lines. Takes a lot of energy to do what we do. Even with this project, another project that we're hoping to work on with the city in the future, um we still will be buying power from the from the grid. The these we're going to use well above and beyond what this is able to do. The reality is is the electricity is expensive. It's probably one of our leading costs that we have to pay for doing what we do. But then on top of that, now we have a bunch of tariffs that we're also paying. We're a global company for what we can't do here. Uh we have to ship parts in from overseas. We have sister facilities in India, China, Brazil. They can make the same parts that we can. Uh and in a lot of cases, they may have to make some changes, but they can do the same work. So if we can't make it, we take it from them. We have to do that. Sometimes it costs a lot of money to pay those tariffs. Um that is another reality. We are competing with not just our competitors in our industry, but we are competing with ourselves with Tessenrup. As I said, we have companies in Brazil, China, and India that can all make the same part that we can. Their cost of labor is a lot cheaper than ours. All right? So, this does help us to be competitive. All right? I'm not claiming anything that we're we're leaving. That's that's not what I'm saying. That's that's no intent of ours. That's not anything that's that's is on our minds, right? But this helps us to be

competitive against others in our industry and against our own sister facilities and other in other countries. Any edge we can get from um solar farm here and another one in the in the future that we're hoping to to accomplish that's going to be on our own property. This helps to bring our overall uh overhead cost down and continue to be competitive in our market so we can continue to do what we're doing. I'm also uh available for any questions anybody has. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Rand. David Striker regarding the special use permits.

Thank you very much. Uh my name is David Striker. I'm project council uh to Danville Lynch Solar 1 and 2 LLC. Um also happen to be the former general counsel of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Had a chance to work a lot with Vermillion Advantage in Danville. So it's great to be here again tonight. Um, I wanted to talk about really what a pleasure it is from a solar development uh perspective to be working in Danville in a city that has a specific set of criteria and ordinance. And you heard um Jonathan mention it, but this is the checklist that we provided to show how we met each and every one of the city's application criteria. And I think that the strength of our application was reflected in the unanimous ZBA vote that you also heard of. Um, so again, very proud of this project and proud to be able to present it here to you tonight. Um, we did also have a chance to go over the ZBA findings and as you notice, findings 3 through 11 were consistent with the unanimous vote. Um, we did have one question we just wanted to point out with regard to the negative findings for points one and two. um that we don't remember that conversation specifically coming up before the planning and zoning committee. But again, very happy to have a unanimous recommendation. Um also happy to be working here closely with decent crop. As I mentioned, I I come from an economic development background, have worked a lot in East Central Illinois and specifically in Vermillion County and know how important projects like this are to big power consumers, which you just heard about. Um, also very familiar with the mega sites and the vetted site program that you're in. I understand that there's 11 parcels in the area that are part of this. Just so everybody knows, these projects are only on two of those parcels. So certainly nine of those parcels will be available going forward. And also I think as you heard from decent crop that having power generation on site and the infrastructure upgrades that will go

along with this that will allow addition additional cheap solar power to come in will be an additional betterment and allow you to attract more heavy manufacturing companies that are going to create permanent jobs along with the tax revenue that you heard about that this project will create. the community betterment agreement that's very unique that this project will create. So again, we're really hoping that this sets the table for green power. It sets the table to allow the community here, Danville, to have a significant pot of really economic development flexibility to go out and market itself in this great site to new companies and also to be providing, you know, quality construction jobs while this whole project is proceeding. So again, like everybody else, happy to answer questions, but again, very proud to be able to get a unanimous vote from the planning and zoning committee, and I hope you found our checklist very user friendly to confirm that we're living up to all the criteria that you all established for us here this evening. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Deonte Brooks. Regarding tree maintenance on city properties, Evening everybody,

mayor, alderman. Um, something that has came to my attention um on city owned property on a lot of our vacant lots. There are a lot of a lot of dead trees on some of them. And due to climate change, we are getting more severe wind events, straight line winds throughout our region. And I want to want to ask you all, what is the city's plan to deal with these trees as they're falling and they're hitting people's houses and they're blocking roads and things like that? Could is there a way that we could handle it before they fall? And that's all I got. Thank you, Mr. Brooks.

That's all I have. Is there anyone else who wishes to address the council this evening? All right. Thank you. We have before you two uh zoning petitions. If there be no objection, since they are two adjacent part uh parcels for the same property or for the same project, I would uh entertain a motion to uh to take them together. Item 8A is an ordinance amending the zoning ordinance special use permit number 270. And item 8B is an ordinance amending the zoning ordinance special use permit number 271. Is there a motion for approval? So

second. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion or debate? Chairman, as we before we get started, if we if we may, I would like to have our planner Mumachang uh provide just a little bit of explanation for the information that you were provided as well.

Thank you, mayor. Um good afternoon, council members, uh audience, and all the city um staff present tonight. Um so, um all the aldermen and alderwoman, you'll see a packet um right in front of you with Lynch Road Industrial Site. So this is an information sheet uh that the city staff prepared in response to a lot of questions and concerns that was raised uh by the uh most of the aldermen regarding the special use permit for commercial solar on this Lynch road site. Um so you'll see uh basic information such as um this um is so this the purpose of this sheet is to provide um factual information to help the council make a informed decision regarding um these zoning petitions. Um just to give you brief information this um you'll see this um parcel that is uh proposed for solar is part of a large mega site that the city and vermill advantage has been marketing um for industrial development um for the past four five years. Um it just gives brief information about zoning information and incentives um that is um part of this site. Um on second sheet you will see uh more of a comparative um analysis based on so what a proposed solar would look like on a site versus an industrial site specifically a mega site. You'll also see um the benefit agreement and all information that the proposal our site is proposing and we have put together a comparable industrial industries uh within Danville um compared comparable to um size of this um this parcel. And the last sheet is additional information that uh DCO provided based

on the mega site um that uh we've been marketing it as. Uh this is just basically how many RFIs Vermill advantage and TCO has put together in the past 5 years. Um and if it does if this proposed uh solar does divide this site, how many um RFIs that um are avail were available for a site of 170 acres? Um and the rest is just the type and number of um industrial projects that has been initiated in Illinois in the last three years based on um how many job creation um what is the capital investment and what type of uh um industrial development. So if you have any questions we yeah we are happy to answer. Thank you.

Thank you. Mu um Alderman I'll open it to Alderman. So, thank you everyone for all of this um thorough information. Um I have a couple of questions that I don't think are addressed in the documentation that we received. First question is will um regarding the uh power being produced at the site will all of it be going to Tissen Crop or will they just be receiving you know an allotted portion of it and the rest be sold in the market? Mr. Roberts, if you or anyone from your team would like to come forward, please.

Thank you. Uh, Alderwoman Teague, good evening. Um, 40% of the power is what we're we're limited to export to to Syncrupt and it they'll receive a credit on their bill from Amaran with a discount on the electricity price that they pay. Alderman Tegan, speaking to Mr. Rand, uh, they expected it to be in excess of $100,000 a year and if they were able to combine the other project, their own solar project, that would have be additional couple hundred,000. their other solar project is somewhat contingent upon the passage of this. So, in some uh it's my understanding that this would save them approximately $300,000 or more a year uh in terms of their operational cost.

Okay. And then my next question is as it relates to the $800,000 of economic development dollars that are coming to the city, uh mayor, what is the plan for the use of those dollars? My thought was if they were going to be taking away one of our greatest opportunities or or limiting one of our greatest opportunities for economic development in this community that we needed some way to make up for that. Uh one of the things you all know is that oftentimes when new developments come they ask for incentive money. And while we do have some budgeted uh to the tune of around $2 million in our uh current budget um having additional funds is always helpful. So my my uh suggestion to the council would be and we would have to do a budget amendment for the receipt of this money would be that we put this uh for aside for economic development purposes to either help retain or uh retain existing business in the community or to recruit additional business.

Okay, thank you. Those are the only questions I have. Thank you, Alderman Teague. Yes, Chairman Core. Thanks, Mayor. Um, Mu, the additional incentives, would those be included with this project or would those not be on your first page, Lynch Road to Industrial Site available incentives, will they be eligible for those incentives as well? Um I believe uh they the petitioners mentioned during their planning and zoning commission they will not be looking seeking the enterprise zone property tax abatement if that if that's if I'm correct. That's correct. That was part of their submission. And so the sales tax edge and all that are are mute in this

but they can still they can still claim for it but yeah it's um their decision if they would like to. Well, I mean, if we if if it's a reduction in property tax, then we have no benefit in generating more property tax if if that's one of the incentives and they're eligible to obtain it. Well, their in their application, they said that they would not. So, I would expect that we would hold them and that they would comply with that agreement.

Okay. Um, and I've driven out many times trying to get in my mind exactly where this site was, you know, in relationship to the church and to town machine and things. And, you know, the map kind of shows it. Um, you know, this is a tough one. Um, I mean, the being kind of right, not down the middle, but you know, it take it blocks a large portion of a contingent development, but yet it still leaves quite a bit of a developable land. and the fact that Tiss and Crop is going to be able to benefit by 40% um plus putting their own possibly putting their own solar in too to reduce their cost which in turn benefits them and it makes us a more viable community to remain in. Um it's tough. I mean, I keep going back and forth and back and forth, but um you've met everything, all the requirements the city requested. Um you pass a zoning unanimously, so it would take 10 votes by this council to overturn um the development. Um

no, it's No, it's not a super major Oh, it's not a super majority. No, if they if they vote something down and we wish to pass it Oh, okay. then it takes well that with that theory but

but anyway um at this time um I've not been convinced not to support it. Um I I mean I I I wish the incentives were the community benefits were greater. Um but there they are needed irregardless. I mean money going to the Fiser is always helpful. Um, I joked with I can't remember was Eric or who. I said, you know, tell them to give us a million dollars a year for fire for new fire stations and

you'll have a bargain. But, uh, that's that's unrealistic, too. But, um, like I say, I at this time I I see no reason I can't support it. So, I appreciate your due diligence. Um, appreciate everything you've done uh in meeting the criteria. Um, and as Eric said, I mean, this has been been out there for 40 years. Um, looking for some type of development and, um, you know, perhaps if we were further away from the Indiana line, it it' be, you know, more of an opportunity for developing that. But when you know you can move a little ways away and cut your minimum wage in half, I mean it's kind of a kind of kind of tough. Um so in order you know if and I know Tis and Crop been going where they I mean they've been great partners over the years had many friends that work there in various departments and um so I will be supporting this. So thank you

chairman when uh Mr. Booker and Mr. Roberts came to us, I came I shared with them the concerns that I hear from people here all the time. Number one, you have some folks who just aren't for solar, period. Right? I say, uh, I understand folks concerns, but I think that that's unrealistic in the world we live in to say that we're not going to have any solar in our community. Uh, the second objection is that that it would be on farmland. Um, and again, I understand that concern. Um, but also I do believe it's America and people have the right to do what they wish with their land as long as it's not harming anyone else. Um, uh, and also we don't have any residential neighbors nearby, you know, um, and some of the other installations that are proposed throughout the county. I understand because people are going to have to look at them. Well, folks might have to look at them on to or from their way to work, but they're not going to too much otherwise for the most part. Um, another concern that I said is, you know, people always say, "Mayor, all these things come to town and we don't get anything from it. So, what is what is in it for us?" And so, when they said that they were going to um be providing power to one of our leading industries, I thought that's definitely a good thing. And then, uh, when Mr. Rand shared with me how much it would save them, I thought it would was good. But I have to tell you though, it still stung a lot to have one of our mega sites be bifurcated like this, right? U because uh as you all know, one of the biggest challenges we have outside of state climate with recruiting industry to our area is that we either have the acreage without the utilities or the utilities without the acreage. This is a place where you you could accomplish both. So it makes it a little bit challenging and that's why based on the questions that you all had and that we that we had we had Mumachu work with uh Vermillion Advantage and with the state with DEIO to see what kind of project interest have we had along around these levels. So I said, "Okay, it's great that you're

helping helping CRUP, but that helps, you know, a couple hundred employees. It helps a good business, but how is that going to help the general public?" And then that's when they came to me and said, "Well, you know, at first it was maybe we could do a little something for the library and the fire department, you know, a little bit of equipment or something." And I said, "Uh, that's not going to quite cut it, fellas." Uh, so then they came to us and said, "Well, what if we did this for the Fiser Theater?" And I said, "That's wonderful. The Fiser is great. it's the heart of downtown, but we would need to look further than that. And they came up with another proposal for a couple hundred,000, and eventually we were able to come where we are today. So, we made a a long stride, which I'm I'm proud of. Um, and again, if we're going to hinder our opportunity for economic development, pro them providing funds for us to help maintain business or to recruit business, I think, is a good thing. Um yes uh alderin uh

agree with a lot of the points uh that you made mayor and others have made as well. Uh and certainly uh you know we try to respect neighbors especially when it's residential. This is an industrially zoned area so you should expect to see things that are reflective of an industrially zoned area. Uh I'd like to publicly acknowledge and thank the Hannah family for the last 40 years of willingness to work with us as the city and Vermillion Advantage. uh to make this a possible development site. And and while you always hate to lose land, I have less of a concern with the splitting of the property because the railroad tracks already did that. You know, we looked at various projects. Nobody was going to build across those railroad tracks. So, theoretically, we're pushing the site a little further to the north, but there's still a lot of ground there. And and if we're ever fortunate to land a big one, we'll find the ground uh if that's necessary. There's other potential up north. Uh the other thing is uh the importance of satisfying a desire and a need of Tiss and Crup. I mean look at the investment they've made in this community. We've had some very significant losses in the in recent times and anything we can do to continue to support one of our largest and most successful industries we need to support. So I appreciate some of the other thoughts regarding the visual aspects of it. Probably not my favorite either. A lot of landscaping can go a long way to hide that. Uh but it is I agree with the mayor. It is a reality. Uh and we're better off to benefit from it than to see someone else benefit from it.

Thank you. Thank you. Alderman Cooper.

Just a couple of questions. It's zoned industrial. How come we need a special use for it? So earlier um in 2025 we did a zoning amendment to a zoning ordinance uh regarding the use the permit the permitting of solar. Um prior to that solar was permitted by right in our Illinois um sorry in our industrial districts. Um but based on a lot of um cuz we had a lot of um solar requests which was um questioned a lot during a lot of our um councils. Um so we uh we ended up um updating our Z uh zoning ordinance by making it special use permit for industrial or agg and um developing a new solar ordinance with a lot of regulations and um need for studies um uh to put for um any petitioner to come forward with um um request like this. alderman. Essentially, it was to protect protect neighbors, to protect our long-term investment, and and also uh just make sure that things are safe.

Okay. And I'm looking at this map, and this is just north of the railroad tracks. How close is it to the church? Wait a minute. If if you look if you look at the the map, Alderman Cooper, uh the little look look at the one that uh you received at your seat tonight uh with the blue bar at the top, you can see it more easily there. If you if you look uh where the 40 acre site is up just to the north the northwest of that at that bend, that's where the church is located. I think it's about a thousand feet away. I don't remember the precision. Yeah, the church is uh approximately about 1/8 of a mile from the railroad track. Yes, sir. Y

question if buffers needed between that church, keep it out of sight. Is that possible or not? I believe that would be possible. Yes, sir. I would probably encourage you to do that if it's passed. Um

other picture. Um just a question about the site area 40 acres and the site area 170 acres. I mean why are those highlighted for any reason or these are all part of the parcels of the original mega site. So altogether that's the 270 acres. Okay. But they're only the 66 is the only acreage. That's correct. The red portion. So that that would leave hopefully we could work with the with the Hannah's to find a good use of that other land. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Alderman Cooper broke up into three different sections, right? One of these Well, explain what you're doing. Some of this is going to tiss

Oh, the the power generated.

Yes, sir. So under Illinois state law, a project of this kind, we a community solar project can only sell up to 40% of our power to any one uh I think it's one power customer. So one entity. So uh we usually what we do is we sell 40% to one large customer, 40% to another, and then 20% to a third. Um so that might be Tissant Crook, another large energy consumer, uh a smaller energy consumer somewhere. Uh at this stage of the development cycle, we don't actually usually have uh our we call it offtake. Who's going to buy the power nailed down? You know, we get a little bit further, we start construction, and then we start looking around. It's almost never a problem to find folks to take this power because you get a discount on your power, but who doesn't want that? Um so right now we have uh you know, we've been in advanced talks with TIS and to give them the maximum amount from both projects that we're allowed to. So 40% of each project there are technically speaking two projects.

So I assume they committed to it. Uh I I'm not sure we have anything. Yeah. So we haven't signed an official contract on it yet uh or the power purchase agreement but it is our intent that uh barring this is all passed through. I mean the 40% certainly helps our business to reduce our overall cost. So it's our intent to proceed with it. We have a big wind storm like some areas you've seen with these sort of panels where they've been scattered all over the place. Who's responsible? You guys are all responsible for that. We 40 years.

Yes sir. So we are uh owner operators for the next 40 years. We fully intend, our business model is based upon owning this site and other sites of course that we develop, but this site for the next 40 years, maintaining it, and if anything were to break, if any of the panels get damaged, I believe they actually do quite robust sort of wind resistance tests. But if any of the panels break, we are no longer making money until such time as they are fixed. So, we have a strong incentive to fix those as soon as possible. as far as weeds or any upkeep on the property, you're accept all that responsibility I assume to also.

Yes, sir. Yeah, we sign uh with the state. I think we actually already have signed it. It's called an agricultural impact mitigation agreement, an AMA, which uh is meant to protect the land for future agricultural uses. So, it has uh weed control uh and maintenance um rules about what kind of spraying you can do on the site, making sure that we plant pollinators, retain top soil, this sort of thing. But included in that is a commitment to I believe we have to mow by statute at least three times a year. And does this affect the farmland in any way?

It does. It is uh a as I understand it an improvement in the farmland. Uh over the course of the project's life, we plant uh ground cover. The solar panels only cover about uh 35 to 40% of the land between all the other space that's used. We p uh plant native grasses and pollinator friendly crops. uh in the rest of the the site and leave them there for quite some time. I think in um the packet that you all received on oh goodness which page is it? Um yeah, page nine. It's like this. You can see the fellow holding the the roots there. uh long my understanding is and and we have an engineer can answer in more technical detail that uh having uh plants that have a a long-term developed root system and the reduction in the sort of repeated turnover and treatment of the land that happens with you know sort of alternating between corn corn and soybeans uh does improve the the quality of the soil and uh the the impacts that the solar panels have are very limited. They're mounted on steel beams that are sunk into the earth. So when the project is decommissioned, we take the solar panels away and recycle them. We pull out the beams. You do a little discing and and it's ready to farm.

This is not toward you, but Logan or somebody over there across the street. You've got a solar farm also not too far from this. How many acres is that? And did we have anything to do with that as far as the city council or anything? No. No, that was be that was before uh city council approved the change to special use permit only. That was one of the last projects that was a permitted use by right and industrial. I think that's about 20 or 30 acres by memory.

And alderman some of the reason why we requested changes too was because we had a few issues with site maintenance and stuff and because we didn't have anything ordinance, we didn't have a way to um to manage the problem and now that we with this we do. Yeah. I'm glad we are. And I think they've met all the answers to that. Yes, sir. Alderman,

something came up that actually leads to a follow-up question for me, which is by developing this project um would we then would the power produced then be available to any manufacturing or any industry that might develop on that 170 acres? I think I know the answer, but Go ahead. Go ahead.

I was going to say, so I've spoken with Amron. I asked the same question uh of Amron. Um they basically said that isn't quite how it works. uh it it can work that way and and depending on how their grid is set up in this specific location for the remainder of the mega site, the 170 acres to the south, they can't they can't make that power available due to I don't know why they basically said reliability of of solar farms and that type of thing. They don't they don't make it available. uh however it it could potentially whether they be the 170 or even the 40, right?

Yeah. So cuz my because Amaran doesn't rely on the power savings.

Amaran does not rely on the power savings. I can understand that and I had that conversation with Logan recently. However, in terms of anyone looking to develop a site who has a high amount of power usage, if they approach Soltage, you would be is it possible for you to sell power to them um at a later time? Because if I understand based on what Mr. Bowser said uh or Buchet, I'm sorry, mispronounced your name. Mr. Buchet said earlier um 40% is going to Tiss and Crup. another 40% could go to someone else and that someone else has yet to have been identified. So if someone else said, "Oh, you know what? Now this site becomes really attractive to me because there's power nearby. Could someone else potentially buy power from you?" Not saying that you might not already have it sold by the time that happens. I'm just theoretically

the answer to your question is yes. Okay. We and it we can the way this community solar works I I build projects all over the state including some quite a few that are in Vermillion County. So we have other projects any project that's in Amron service territory could serve an industrial client's needs and we do work with businesses in Illinois all the time on that front.

Okay. Thank you. And I want to um comment on what director just said and then also just express my opinion on this. Um and it is my understanding based on conversation I had recently um with uh Mr. Kron is that Amarind doesn't count it because you have to the way that Amar counts power does not account for solar right it's not that solar can't be used in any other facility but that the way that Amar counts power as it relates to availability and usage they never account for solar in that is that an accurate explanation uh assessment of your explanation

yeah that's basically my understanding is they They don't bas the way I was asking the question to Amron was hey if it's saved from not being used at Tisen corrupt does that make it available at at this at other sites here and they basically said no that's not how it works in generality. Yeah which is about the power usage of our entire region. Correct.

Yeah. which is I want to make sure that I'm adding providing clarity because that was not the question that I was asking but it is pertinent information because the question that I was asking was about the power production at the facility and if the power production at that facility could be used at another facility because only 40% is going to tiss which leaves 60% still available but they could still sell that 60% elsewhere and it could make a site that's been waiting for use for 40 years potentially this is all speculation but potentially more attractive to some industry who uses a lot of power. So that that's my thought on that. My my al additionally my thought on this is I'm planning to support this for a variety of reasons. number one because planning and zoning who does much more detailed vetting than we do in this meeting um obviously passed it uni um unanimously. Secondly, because the Hannah family has been waiting and diligently waiting for 40 years for some Superman manufacturing or some other industrial facility to come swoop in um bearing the cost of that for over 40 years and that has yet to happen. And it seems to me like if we are trying to wait for something else to show up that we might be waiting in vain. A bird in the hand beats two in the bush. And so it makes more sense to me to be able to capitalize on what's coming in here. Um especially considering that they are not planning to take the tax abatement that there that is available with the enterprise zone. Um so we still rem retain the tax dollars. We also get additional incentive. The land is able to be used and the Hannah family has every right to do whatever they want to do with the land that they own. It's

their right as land owner. What we have the right to do is say, does this meet our requirements for a solar project based on the ordinance changes that were made last year um regarding solar in indust light industrial and a zones and so having met all of our requirements in my mind I can't see a a justification for why we would not approve this because if if someone who meets all of our requirements isn't approved, then then you're might basically saying you should never have solar in the city of Danville. And so for those reasons, um I plan to support this because it just makes perfect sense to me. And I know the amount of time um that Saltage has spent on this project. they've been um in the community for a while and reaching out to us for a while and so they've done their due diligence diligence and they've done their homework which has not been the case for many of the solar projects that we've had in our city. And so to me this shows that Danville is open for business and ready to do business particularly with those who adhere to the standards that we set for what we would like to see. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. Yes, Alderman Butler. And then now uh yes, uh it all sounds good and it seemed like to me that uh you know there's several pay people that will be benefiting bid and fitting uh for for the solar panel and you know especially to the family. Uh I just have some concerns about though not big concerns. Now, uh, if the church ever want to buy some land, is there any expansion room for them to expand uh toward the uh the solar?

Alderman Butler, there there's uh there's they own a lot of land yet that they could still build on, and there also is adjoining land that could be acquired as well. Yeah. Okay. Okay. That that's for for the church, I'm Yes,

I'm talking about the church. Okay. And as well, uh, you know, I appreciate the 447 jobs that's being created, and I'm hoping that, uh, that some of Danville, uh, men's or or women's will be able to, uh, work with the solar as well. Now, my my last question is is that you said the 40% and then uh, uh, Sister Tig, you know, capped on the other 60%. Now the solar panels can only produce 40% at a time. I mean is there something to control the percentage that is being delivered?

Alderman there's this and and does the power company get the other 60% in the meantime? There's there's a the state law that says that there's a cap on that you can only provide up to 40% of your power to one source. So they're still providing 100% of power just only 40% of it can go to crop. Uhhuh. Yeah. So otherwise then the other six 60% is being stored. Well, no it will be available for other users. It'll be sold to other users. Yeah, it will be. But in the meantime, it's not just the four% would be going to Tis and Grub Grub.

Gentlemen, I'll defer to you. When we build a project, it takes a lot of capital and we borrow money from banks to build the project. And when we're going through the underwriting process to show them how we will pay it back with the revenue, the first question they ask is, are you 100% subscribed?

So they they will want the people that we are selling the power, they they'll want to see the contracts associated for 100% of the output of the project. So right now we're negotiating with Tiss and Crop on 40%. And we hope to, you know, expand negotiation to include other businesses or possibly residences and um but for us to finance the project with the banks that will loan the capital that it'll take to build it, which we're very good at. Um it it will have it 100% of the power will be committed to customers if that helps. But it is generating 100%, right? Yes. Okay. 100% of the power that

comes out of it will be going to a customer. You're right. Okay. But only 40% goes to Tiss and Crow. Yeah. Tiss. Yes, sir. And so the other 60% will go to another business. Well, and we're limited at a maximum total of 40%. So, usually it's most efficient for us. 40% 40% 20%. Three businesses signing up to the power is standard. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I think I can handle that. Okay. Yeah. Thank you, Alard.

Yeah. Mayor, I I'm not a authorized spokesperson for the Second Church of Christ, but I attend there and I worship there. And uh knowing the layout of this, the church is just growing beliefs of bounds. I mean when I started it was 1,200 people then it went to 15 1750 18 1906 you know in attendance I mean it's unreal and I think the uh uh people there are a little bit concerned what's going to happen what are we going to do you know and like I said I'm that's not official from them but anyway uh that farm ground is worth lots of money that's good ground I'm not opposed to the second site the 66 acres. I'm not opposed to that, but I'm opposed to the other because it will landlock the church in

Alderman. This is only for the 66 acres. So, this is only the red the parcel that's outlined in red. That 44 that 40 acres is part of the larger uh mega site that we've been marketing to folks of 270 acres. So, that is not part of this project. That will remain separately. I'm sorry.

Any further discussion or debate, chairman? Um, I'm going back to the Aqua Solar Project. Um, some of you were on the council then and we did not have an ordinance for solar or anything else and of course that went just above Horseshoe Pond. A lot of trees and things right in the middle of a neighborhood by the hospital and things. Um, and I don't know e what I mean that project there's been no complaints, no issues. It provides 100% power for because Aqua did it on their own. Uh so they they can use 100% of the power they produce for that facility and they're pretty much electric independent on on powering that whole that whole plant. So it's very important for businesses to be able to find a way to offset the cost of electricity especially large uses or large users. So, I mean, I think it's going to be a win-win for for Tissen Cup, and I don't think they'll have a bit of problem getting rid of that other 60%.

I agree. All right, Madam Clerk, roll call, please. Alderman Butler, yes. Detoy, no. Pashard? No. High Totower? No. Johnson? Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. Thank you. Okaane. Yes. Poor. Yes. Streing Pickering. Yes. Teague. Yes. Lewig. Yes. Jones. Yes. Orange. Yes. Cooper. Yes. 10. Yes. 10. Yes. The motion carries.

We have before you the uh payrolls of March 6th and March 13th. Is there a motion to approve those? So move. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion or debate? Roll call vote, please. Alderman Detoy, yes. Pashard, yes. High Totower, yes. Johnson, yes. Okaane, yes. Poor, yes. Pickering, yes. Teague, yes. Lewig, yes. Jones, yes. Orange, yes. Cooper, yes. Butler, yes. 13, yes. 13, yes. The motion carries. You also have before you the vouchers payable of March 10th and 17th, 2026. Is there a motion to approve those? So move. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion or debate? Roll call vote, please. Alderman Pashard, yes. High Tower, yes. Johnson, yes. Okaane, yes. Poor, yes. Pickering, yes. Teague, yes. Lewig, yes. Jones, yes. Barnes, yes. Cooper, yes. Butler, yes. Doy, yes. 13, yes. 13, yes. The motion carries. At this time we will receive our public works committee report. Chairman poor.

Thank you mayor. If there's no objection like to take 11 A and B together. Um they're both programs dealing with the ceiling programs. Resolution 11A is awarding a contract for bid 7095 2026 scape seal program. Resolution 11B is awarding a contract for bid 796 2026 seal code program. Again no objection. like move to spend three and ask your approval of both A and B. And I'll need a second. Second. Questions. Okay. Roll call on 11 A and B. Alderman High Totower. Yes. Johnson. Yes. Okaane. Yes. Poor. Yes. Streing. Pickering. Yes.

Teague. Yes. Lewig. Yes. Jones. Yes. Arns. Yes. Cooper. Yes. Butler. Yes. Doy. Yes. Pashard. Yes. 13. Yes. 13. Yes. Thank you. 11C is a resolution amending the fiscal year 2526 budget to reflect the increased IDA and half for grant amounts. Uh move dispense read and ask for approval and I need a second. Second, questions. Okay. Roll call, please. Alderman Johnson, yes. Okain, yes. Poor, yes. Pickering, yes. Teague, yes. Lewig, yes. Jones, yes. Orange, yes. Cooper, yes. Butler, yes. Doy, yes. Pashard. Yes. High Tower. Yes.

13. Yes. 13. Yes. Thank you. If there's no objection, like to take 11D, E and F together. They all deal with demolitions. Um D is a resolution awarding the contract for bid number 791, Downtown Danville Demolition Project 124, 128 North Wal Street. 11E is a resolution awarding the contract for bid of 772, downtown Danville demolition project 605615 North Vermillion Street. And 11F is a resolution toward a contract for bid 793 downtown demo demolition project 125 129 and 131 North Vermillion Street. Again move three and ask for approval and need a second. Second. Second.

Okay. Questions? Alderman Ars.

Uh regarding the specifications is is the city covering dump fees andor are there any additional charges that will be in addition to these amounts? So the way uh these three bid packages were assembled uh were to make the contractor initially responsible for the dumping fees, it could be re-evaluated at a later date. Um to be quite frank, the the the strategy was to since they're brick buildings, see if they could get creative uh to stay out of the dump. So, um, the the specifications included the contractor dumping to to the landfill, the brickyard. Yeah.

The No, but the only other thing is I hope we have some other big ones coming too. Rick's Furniture and TH Sch Snider and some of those I assume they're being worked on. Yeah. One other thing I'd just like to make a note of. So, the one thing that's not included in the specifications currently that we know will be coming is and that's because we're basically needing to get uh from a structural engineer standpoint, they wanted to get the building pulled away so that they know how to seal up the building to the north. So, there will be an addition coming there. Whether that's a separate contract or a change order to this one yet to be determined. So hold in

on which one is this? 11 F. I noticed that the lowest bid um is struck. Curious to know. It's a clerical error on their end. I do not believe they're bidding on the right structure for that. They called and requested withdrawal. Okay. Yeah, they pulled it. Okay. Thank you. Cooper, you know, we ended up buying this building, that uh fitness building because it was unsafe. Yeah. What are we doing with Heartland Fair or Heartland building across the street? That thing's pretty close to being in the same situation.

Thankfully, it's not as bad. It's It's not as bad. It It is not as structurally as bad. The roof has not gotten to a condition that we're aware of of being condemned yet. Um, but we're keeping an eye on it. But, you know, are we gonna get into the same situation where we're going to be buying this building and demo it, too? I mean, that's a concern. The building I I am unsure of the tax status of that building. Um, and so, uh, I don't know if anyone will be doing anything to that building.

It's it's stuck in a revolving door of property taxes because nobody wants to take the liability of the structure. Okay. Are we as a city, are we doing anything we can we writing it up for a bunch of violations? Yeah, everything that we can do in our legal power right now is being done uh on that on that structure. I am personally babysitting it. Well, it needs to go. I mean, that's downtown starting to look pretty good with these two buildings being gone. Hartland building needs to go, too. That's I just hope we're not going to be stuck with it and then we're going to be tearing it down.

If we can avoid it. Well, agreed. Albert. All right. Did Did I hear Cooper said something about the Adam building? No. Uh building the old Alderman. Yeah. Okay. There. So that Adam build that when we had a contractor uh or engineer go in and do his assessment. I mean whatever become of it.

Yeah. Alderman Butler, I'll speak. It's been a bit since I've visited the report. Um initially we just wanted to see the cost differences between demolishing it and rehabilitating it. Um, the consultant came up with an 8 to9 million rehabilitation assessment to get it back to its current state. That's not even considering getting it into the current building code of accessibility, energy code, etc. Um, there are other items we're investigating to make it more feasible for redevelopment. Um, but we have no developers interested in the property at this time. we

and so we're just holding on to it until it it continued to deteriorate or what? The city of Danville does not own Oh, so we don't own it. We do not. Um we're truly just we investigated it with the permission of the current land owner uh to see what the feasibility of redevelopment was, trying to save it. And so we're still making contact with the with the owner to see what he's going to do with it. I he he will not be doing anything with this structure. Um he's he's also not paying the property taxes on it, but at structures that hold such great liability, right?

Sometimes it's smart for the taxing bodies to not accept that liability, meaning the um Vermillion County trustee. Okay. Anyone else? Okay. Roll call, please. On 11D, E and F. Alderman Okaane, yes. War, yes. Pickering, yes. Teague, yes. Leadwick, yes. Jones, yes. Lawrence, yes. Cooper, yes. Butler, yes. The Toy. Yes. Pashard, yes. High Tower, yes. Johnson. Yes. 13. Yes.

13. Yes. Thank you. 11G is a resolution awarding bid number 794 for environmental remediation of properties on North Vermillion Street and North Hazel Street through the US EPA site cleanup grant and amending the fund 704 budget for fiscal year 2526 and fiscal year 2627. Move to dispense reading. Ask for approval. Need a second. Second. Questions. Okay. Roll call, please. Alderman Pickering, yes. Teague, yes. Leadwick, yes. Jones, yes. Lawrence, yes. Cooper, yes. Butler, yes. Doy, yes. Pashard, yes. High Tower, yes. Johnson,

yes. Okain, yes. Core, yes. 13, yes. 13, yes. Item information. Mayor, that concludes our report. Thank you, Chairman Poor. At this time, we'll receive our public services committee report. Uh, Vice Chairman Pickering. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, 12A is approving an application to the office of the Illinois Attorney General for the fiscal year 27 organized retail crime grant. At this time, I make a motion to dispense with the reading and ask for their approval. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion or debate? Roll call, please. Alderman Teague, yes. Lewig, yes. Jones, yes. Arn, yes. Cooper, yes. Butler, yes. The Toyo Toy, yes. Pashard, yes. High Tower, yes.

Johnson, yes. Okaane, yes. Poor, yes. Pickering, yes. 13, yes. Thank you. Uh 12B is accepting an award from the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board ILSB for the fisc year 26 law enforcement camera grant. At this time, I make a motion to dispense with the reading reading and ask for their approval. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion or debate? Roll call, please. Alderman Lewig, yes. Jones, yes. Arns, yes. Cooper, yes. Butler, yes. Doy, yes. Pashard, yes. High Tower, yes. Johnson, yes. Okaane, yes. Poor, yes. Pickering,

yes. Teague, yes. 13, yes. Any items of information from public service? Um, items of information. Um we our meeting will be next uh Tuesday, March the 25th at 6:00 in these chambers. Thank you, Mayor. That concludes our report. Thank you, Vice Chairman.

Items of information for the good of the cause. Uh one that I would reiterate for everyone is that our uh our Jaguars are in the Sweet 16. They're playing right after this at 8:00. So, if you can go out there and cheer them on. If they win tonight, they have one more game Friday. And if they win that, then we'll be in the championship game. So, uh, go go go Jaguars. Uh, we had a great cleanup. I meant to mention this earlier. I want to thank Keeper Lane County Beautiful. Um, Katie Auster and Elizabeth Cannon, uh, who helped us organize that. Steve Lane, former staff member, always has does a great job with that. Uh, and, uh, we had a number of our own staff member and Alderman Cooper and Pickering out there, too. So, thank you guys for coming to help clean up. It was, it wasn't as cold as it has been, was it Katie? Zoe, thankfully thankfully it wasn't ridiculous. Are there any other items of information for the good of the cause? Yes, Mr. Butler.

Yeah. Yes, I have one. And uh I'd like to congratulate uh uh Autumn Tig. And you know, for a job well done, they were winning first place. And you know, I asked her earlier there for Dan said, you know, kind of teach me some moves. Congratulations. Congratulations. I hate I hated that. uh the symphony, the 200th anniversary celebration where they were premiering a new piece we had commissioned was at the same exact time. So, I'm I'm going to pull all the nonprofits together here soon so we can try to work on calendars and make sure we don't compete with each other on those big days. So, any other items of information for the good of the cause? Yes, Alderman Jones.

Um I wanted to give a big shout out to um Lionhe Heart Wrestling Intense Wrestling Club. We went to state this past weekend and we had five um attend state and we had three that placed um one place fifth, one place second and one place fifth. So it's a big shout out to the girls that placed and everybody that attended state. Great. And on top of that note, I think one of my little nieces was in that as well. Yeah. Uh says right. Yeah. Yeah. She she end up uh making it to she lost one well one and lost two so she got put out but she made it to state.

Yeah, I know she did. Emry Wright, uh Lani Cruz, Tyrone Wright, Leia Jones, um and Jakira Noise. Noise. Noise were the five that made it to state. Yeah. All right. All right. At this time, I would entertain a motion to go into close session under section 2C1 to discuss specific employees and under section 2C2 to discuss collective bargaining matters and salary schedules. Is there a motion to do so? So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Um, Madame Clerk, roll call, please. Alderman Butler.

Uh, yeah. Okay. If I don't want to get kicked in the shins, I'm going to have to say uh yes. The Toyo Bashard. Yes. High Tower. Yes. Get Johnson. Yes. Okain. Yes. Core. Yes. Pickering. Yes. Yes. Lewig. Yes. Jones. Yeah. Arn. Yes. Cooper. 12. Yes. 12. Yes. We are adjourned to close session. There will be action taken afterwards.

to return to open session. Second. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Same sign. All right. You have before you resolution 15 uh approving a collective bargaining agreement between the city of Danville, Illinois, and the Danville Firefighters Union, Local 429. Is there a motion to approve? So move second. It's been moved and seconded. Um is there any dis before there's any discussion or debate? Um as we discussed in close session, I I would recommend that you vote no on this contract. Madame clerk, roll call, please.

Alderman Pickering. Yes. Wait, what about discussion or debate? I'm sorry. Is there any discussion? I No one raised their hand. Is there any discussion or debate? We'll call vote. Alderman Pickering, yes. Teague, yes. Lewig, no. Jones, no. No. Cooper, yes. Butler, no. Doy, no. Pashard, no. High Tower.

I'm going to abstain because these young men and women put their lives on the line daily to protect us and I believe there's no amount of money that could take care of them or not. So, I'm going to abstain because I'm not real happy that we're going to knock them down. I I don't believe in that. Thank you, Alderman. Alderman Johnson. Yes. Okain. Yes. Poor. No. Five. Yes. Five. Yes. The motion fails. At this time, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. So move. Second. It's

been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. Any opposed? Same sign. We are done.