City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call this meeting of the Princeton City Council to order. Clare call the role. Mayor Avery here. Council Newman here. Here. McCall here. And here. Would you please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. We're going to go ahead now and go to public comment and then we will talk uh in just a few minutes to the folks here from Stamp Out Hunger. On public comment, we'd like to have you limit your time if possible to three minutes. your comments. It's available for you to speak at the beginning of the meeting as well as at the end. Is there anyone here like to speak to the council tonight during public comment and you get a chance to speak again at the very end. With that said, we'll go ahead now and we're glad to have them from every year. We've got the stamp out hunger food drive and it's going to be Debbie Van Cleave, Dave Me representing the Pa post office, Vanessa Hoffadets representing the Bureau County Food Pantry. The mic's on and feel free to go up there and give us a We enjoy this every year.

Hello, I'm Debbie Ble. I'm from the Princeton Post Office and we've been doing our food drive since 1993. Um, it's the National Association of Letter Carriers annual stampout hunger food drive. Um, it's grown to the nation's largest one-day food drive. um helping to build the shelves of our food banks and our food pantry um in towns throughout the United States. The need is great um and everybody can help. All you need to do is leave a non-p perishable food um at your mailbox. Your letter carriers will pick it up. We're going to be delivering we're going to be delivering cards starting um this week um and bags. Sullivan's every year has been donating their bags to um support our food drive. So if you leave them by your mailbox, a carrier will pick it up and then we have um volunteers that drive around town that help us. Um Dave Me is a big part of that. Um he's our retired um rural carrier that helps out every year and he's been a blessing to us. Without him, I don't know what we would do.

I know you're laying it off.

I like y'all. And then all the food is taken to the um Burough County food pantry and Vanessa is there to greet everybody. We unload our vehicles and um she counts up and weighs everything. Last year we did 8,690 pounds. We're hoping to go over 10,000 this year. And I'll let you talk about our premic. Um, but it would be great if everybody um remembers to fill the bag and leave it out for the carriers by we usually say like around 8:00 because we start working early so we can get done early and let's hope for a nice day. So, one thing to mention is we do want non-p perishable food items. Those canned items, boxed items, things in bags. Um, don't leave. One year we had a turkey out there. Great thought. Um but but we had to throw that away. So make sure they're non-p perishable food items. Pre- pandemic, our pantry is fortunate enough to probably be one of the top nationwide for our size thanks to our community. And we collected a record 31,000 pounds of food. So that was an amazing um accomplishment for the postal carriers and our citizens on both the city routes and the rural routes. Deb and I are very competitive. We would love to have 30,000 pounds, but we're being realistic. Um, 10,000 pounds though, just to calculate it, will provide 8,000 333 meals for people in our food pantry. That's that's a a quite a need for us um because we give out emergency food and we give depending on what people pick out um we give them food for 3 days. So if you kind of think about three meals a day for three days. Um so we if you're

thinking about that need the need is great. We served almost over 200 more households last year than we had in the previous year. So the need is growing and we really really appreciate the communities continuing to support us. We've been so blessed in so many ways to have the Princeton and surrounding communities that we serve support us. Whether they've done that financially, whether they do that through the Coastal Carrier Food Drive, organizations and entities that raise money and food for our pantry. I couldn't do what I do without that. So again, the need is great. We just are thankful to partner with the postal carriers because stop and think about the fact that these postal carriers are doing their routes and they're collecting food. So we try to have volunteers driving around to take that some of that burden off of them, but they're also many are taking those bags back to their vehicles and the roll carriers are out there picking those up. So when you're thinking about that commitment to this food drive, it is such an amazing endeavor that they have undertaken to help feed hungry people in our communities. So, if you want to volunteer, um if you want to drive a vehicle around and pick up food, if you'd like to come to the food pantry and help us as we collect the donations and what we do is we stack them up and then I will have volunteers in the subsequent weeks that will be sorting through all of that food um for expiration dates and those types of things and then we'll be getting that food out to people. So, reach out to myself at the food pantry. Um, 815-8756064. If you can give an hour, if you can give two hours, if you want to help driving a vehicle, you want to hang out in the pantry when the food comes in, um, we welcome that, too. If you know of anybody who has those students who need service learning hours, we will accept their assistance and fill out that

paperwork for them. So, again, we thank the postal carrier so much and the community at large. And what are those dates again for this? So what day is it? Oh, it's May 9th. It says coming Saturday. Saturday. I'm sorry. Saturday. Now, we know prom is Saturday as well. So people put your food out before you go starting those festivities. And I'm just curious, the things that seem like really are very popular that the soups, the macaroni and cheeses, or there things there, they say, "Man, if you're going to go out and buy something, this is the item we really think that people enjoy having."

All of those things, common things that you would have in your house, too. I tell people um snack items are something that we try not to purchase with our food pantry money. We're looking to try and do more nutritional things. So whether that's Pop-Tarts, granola bars, um those types of things, cereal is always a very popular item, peanut butter, jelly, um canned vegetables, canned fruit, all good items. Council, any questions or comments? You you mentioned that you serve 200 new households. Yes. How how many households do you serve total? How many? Oh, man. I I meant to write those numbers down.

Guess it, I guess. Yeah. Um, we we have households that are duplicated. That's what makes it a little hard because I have a program where people can come in each week. Um, it's close to 1,500 that we serve unduplicated. Um, and probably 3 to 4,000, you know, when you duplicate those numbers of households. And that that's three counties. Is that correct? Um, it's uh 10 10 communities. 10 communities.

So, we serve, you know, Ohio, Tiskawa, Van Orin, New Bethford, Loyal. Princeton's our largest community. So, yes. And I would say probably 85% of those folks coming in are from the um Princeton area followed by Tisa in Ohio are probably short, you know, a little bit after that.

And 32% of the people that come into our food pantry are seniors. So those households with people on fixed incomes who, you know, they're receiving social security benefits. So when gas goes up or utilities go up, their food needs increase. So we see that we see about 32% of those households. That's got to be quite a workout carrying all those cannons. Yes. Yes, it is. It's why we need young muscles. We got day. He said young go.

I think he's out of order. been out of order for quite a while. Dave's got a few comments. Dave, well, yes, jump right in there. You kind of remind me of Santa Claus. I thought very well. I I I am Santa Claus. I thank you for blowing my cover. Sorry about that.

That's fine. Uh, first I want to thank Debbie for what she does for this. Without her, this probably doesn't happen. The It's changed. And you know yourselves that volunteers are very difficult to come by. Debbie does a lot of work behind the scenes to get this going. And the food pantry is excellent. Now what's left for me? I also want to thank Burroughs Kyle Burroughs and Wet Carpet. They provide us with the vehicle all day long to to run around and pick these things up. The carriers themselves couldn't possibly do this. not be able to deliver the mail and then carry canned goods and and that kind of thing. So, what we do, if you want to help us, if you want to join us, anybody out there, I will be at the post office at 8:00 in the morning on Saturday morning. If you have a vehicle, if you show up, I will send you to an area. What what they described is that you're going to see food in a Sullivan site sitting on the front porch. go get it and put it in your vehicle. And we do that all day long until around 11 and then we go unload carriers and we take it to to the pantry. But my point is if you want to help, you want to help me 8:00 Saturday morning if you have a vehicle. Even if you don't, I'll I'll find something for you to do. Ray will provide a bicycle. It doesn't matter. We'll figure it out.

We have a gator. There we go. There we go. So anyway, that's my part and thank you very much. Super. Any other comments or we good? Okay, let's give them a round of applause. That's fantastic. Okay, now we're on to the minutes from council meeting, please. I move that we approve the minutes from our regular council meeting on April 20th, 2026. Second. Motion second. There any questions or comments concerning those minutes? Seeing none, cler call role. Counc member Newman. Gomez. Hi. McCall. Hi. Hi. M.

Hi. And on to our invoices with city clerk Janet Henning.

In the department of accounts and finances, we have $76,788.19. Department of Street and Public Improvements $185,559.32. Department of Public Safety $377,71410 and the Department of Public Property and Utilities 534,67589 with a grand total of 1,174,737.50. Mayor, all council members present have confirmed their reviews of all the invoices and are now submitted to this decision. I move that we approve the invoices as presented. Second.

We have a motion and a second concerning those invoices. Is there any questions or comments concerning that? Seeing none, call the role. Council member Newman. Hi. Gomez. Hi. McCall. Hi. Bleski. Hi. And me. Hi. Next on the agenda, we have ordinance 0-26-012 amending the city of Princeton land development code to require public hearings for final plat reviews. This is a second and final reading. I move that we approve ordinance 0-26-012. Second.

Motion in a second before we vote on that is a a second and final reading. And Michael Zerning explained to us the need to clean that up. And so that gives the public another chance just to look at things one last time through the planning and zoning commission. So with that said, call the role. Council Newman. Hi. Gomez. Hi. McCall. Hi. Sitki. Hi. And Mary. Hi. Next we have ordinance O-26-013 amending the customerowned solar generation net metering policy. This is the first reading. I move that we advance ordinance 0-26-013 to the second reading. Second.

Have a motion and second. Before we vote on that, we're going to have Jeff Mangri come up to the podium and just give us an overview about what we're voting on. Yeah.

Yeah. Basically, this is just a change in our policy that is mandated by the state. Um there's not a lot of significant changes. The biggest one being prior we used to require the homeowner have a million dollar liability insurance, but we cannot require that anymore. But we can require the installer to have that that insurance. Um the only other significant change is the uh the application is good up to a 25KW unit instead of a 10KW that stand. That's that's basically all the changes at this time. So again, that came was mandated at the state level down to the municipalities.

Yep. Okay. So we have no choice anyway. That's right. Okay. Very good. Thank you, Jeff. I appreciate that. Any other questions or comments for the council to approve on that? Please cl council member Newman. Hi. Hi. McCall. Hi. Hi. And mayor. Hi. Thank you, Jeff. Now, the city manager report, please.

In your packet, you'll find the police uh pension reports for February and March of 2026, as well as the firefighters March 26 pension report. Um, I have a couple of things I want to cover here. Uh before I jump into the to the last item there um on my list there for hires and promotions. Um just so the council is aware uh we host the business after hours uh in May. This year we're going to actually move it out to the water treatment plant. Um we were at the police department last year, fire department the year before. We're going to move it back to the fire department. Thought that's not a good idea right now. Uh, so we thought, you know what? Let's let's go out to the water treatment plant and Tony is going to be smoking the meat and um, uh, John's going to offer tours of the facility as well. So, um, that will be on May 21st from 4 to 6.

Uh, secondly, uh, at that meeting, they'll be announcing the homestead announcements for that. will be your your grand marshalss and the homestead theme. Uh the parade registrations are open for the Fourth of July parade. So if you've got a float or something that you're wanting in that, uh they encourage you to get your registrations in. Uh the magnets for the street concerts are up here on this little podium next to Kevin. If anybody needs one of those, the uh video has finally been able to get released. uh one of the bands that uh that we have coming this summer that we've tried to get for a couple years now, Tiger Lily Gold has some trademark stuff on their videos. So, it is the real Tiger Lily Gold and we have people ask that. So, um I encourage you to to get out there and see the video. You can go to the tourisms page to get that on Facebook as well. Okay, so back up to the new hires and promotions. As the council is aware and the public knows, we've had a lot of um adjustments, some new uh we've had promotions, people moving, and some new hires coming in. So, I want to kind of get bring everybody up to speed. So, for the new hires, uh of recent, we have Nick Orlando who's moved from cemetery out to wastewater as an operator out there. Um Douglas Golden has been move he's coming on as into electric generation as a maintenance operator. So, we're lucky to have him. He just started last week and he seems happy. He's very happy. So, uh, Walker Menel is actually just started today out at the water treatment plant. So, we're lucky to have him coming on. And starting Monday, May 11th, uh, Jessica Chase is joining us uh, as our HR HR payroll benefits coordinator and she's coming to us from the city of Lasal. So, we're blessed to have have found found her. Um Vlad steppen off.

Did I pronounce it right? Okay. Uh is also going to be transferring from generation plant electric generation out to the distribution uh facility as alignment. So he's going to be starting as an apprentice as well. So some internal movements but um also some new people coming in. Uh promotions. I wanted to cover this because we've had as people are retiring people are being promoted. So there's a lot of different changes. Uh Brad Steven is has been promoted to electric distribution foreman. Uh Mike Sailor as everybody knows Tikeke uh is now the lead lineman at distribution for electric. Um Eric Thompson is now chief operator for the water plant. And then we have John who is now officially the superintendent for the water plant. And then Elizabeth back here, who is officially just sworn in today finally, is now our our deputy city clerk. So, uh, lots of changes. Um, everybody's going through the transition smoothly. Um, and I just thank everybody for their patience on this. It's it's a lot. This is probably the most moving parts I've seen in a long time. And we still have probably three vacancies that are open right now that we need to get to get filled. So, um, we'll get there, but, um, a lot of movements. So,

so this organizational chart is really new faces. Um, uh, we're losing a lot of knowledge. But I I tell you what, the the candidate pool that we've gotten for the last posting that we've put out has blown the mind. So, oh, and then we yours, too, Jeff's got to move on that one, too. So, um, but yeah, we got we were blessed with the candidates that we've gotten. So, and some of them really interviewed so well that we wanted them to think about applying in some of the other positions, too, because they're just really good candidates. So, any questions? That's great. Okay.

Okay. And I got to stay away from the the mayor of Lasal then. He's going to be after me. Don't record that on paper. Um, okay. you know, when we do think about quality people as they move up the ranks and I I would just say, you know, the folks back in the back row there, the water department, um it's uh John has done a tremendous job and and he's going to do a great job mentoring. He's done that all from day one. John's the kind of guy that he likes to get in the the those trenches when there's a water main break. He's down there wrestling the alligators. I always say, "You got somebody that can fill in for you?" And he goes, "Oh, oh yeah." I said, "My guys can do the same thing." But you enjoy getting dirty, John. We hope that you still do that because on a Saturday or Sunday, it's nice to have some old uh the old dogs out there and but Eric, we know that you've been mentored well and you'll do great. So, we got a lot of confidence in you. We we you know, as we have these people come through for the last time in Princeton was the fiber optic. I mean, we think how many more fiber optic companies we have. This is the third one. And the first one they hit every about seemed like Friday about 3:30 they hit a water man or a water service invariably. the this last group, they've seen more professional than the first two. And I and that's not an endorsement for the mayor. I would just say this should be it that we shouldn't have any more fiber optic counties coming through cuz you were done. That's it. We're going to call it good. So again, thank you for the people that got promoted up to the new positions and for the uh the people that came off the street for those those new hires.

Amen. Just want to say something. You realize this is recording too. So nasty lady. Okay. Well, anyway, I think we're we're okay. Don't worry. We're good. Not going to ranch out. I appreciate that. I I I the mayor of uh Peru and Sally get along good with those guys. Um okay, so with that said, thank you Teresa. On the the mayor's report, um I asked Jeff Mangri to stick around. He's going to give us an update and come up to the the podium, Jeff. So we're working with engine number eight, and you're just going to back up and tell us when that engine went down and where we're at as of today with engine number eight, which is our largest generation engine at the plant.

Yeah. Uh just a little back history, September 4th, 2025, we had the catastrophic catastrophic failure on that engine. Um we were actually operating off timeline, so we ended up losing the whole town that day. But um since then, uh there's been a little movement. Um if you guys remember, we were looking at that block down in Florida as a replacement. Well, that kind of fell through. So we moved on to option B. as we were moving forward with option B, which is to cut out a section of that that block and then get a replacement stitch back in is what what they call it. We're moving forward with that. But since since then, we found out that Florida might still be back on the table, but we're still moving forward with the other one. Um, and the the point of no return will be once that block is at the company that's going to stitch it back together, once they have it, that's that's it. I mean, that's that'll be the repair. So, it's it's still slow moving, but it is moving. Um, the hope is to have that engine back online by the end of the calendar year. That's kind of what we're looking at now. Um, but I do have a little good news to report tonight. Engine one that we've been working on this winter is back up and running. It's not in service yet. We hope to have that done here in the next couple days. And we're doing our our breakin now where you run it for a little bit and then make some checks, run it for a little bit. We had it up on about 3/4 load today for for about an hour. So that's that's good. So hopefully in the next couple days we'll we'll get that that inservice run done and it'll be back in service.

Great. Okay, council. Any questions about pension rate? Okay. So, you'll keep us posted. So, literally no matter what that block has to be taken apart and off and this and physically that block is how big? Just give us an idea. I mean, I've seen it, but tell us about as wide as this room as this room and about as tall. Uh, no, because it's in actually the block is in three pieces. So, the the piece that's coming off would probably be about the the height of this bench here. And for the community, this is an extremely expensive process. It is to get this thing done. Thankfully, his insurance is covered at all. Oh, wonderful. Yeah.

But it's big money. I know. It is a big way to work. Yes. Any other questions? I was just going to ask, as far as the one in Florida, obviously it's it's an old block that will work to replace this one here. Um, how what do you think as far as how serviceable is it? How how good is the actual block? The block itself is in is in fine shape and it's a direct replacement. It's like a sister engine to the one we have. It's the ideal fix, but they're just not deciding what they want to do. It's just taking them forever to make the decision down there. Okay.

Okay. Thanks, Jeff. Thank you, Jeff.

Yes, appreciate that update. All right. Um, what we're going to do is um I always encourage the council if you've got something that we could put under positively Princeton uh keep that in mind. I am going to be working with Pioneer Hybrids. Pioneer is celebrating their 100th anniversary. They started out in De Mo Iowa 100 years ago um in 198 1926. Um and u then they moved to Princeton and that was about 87 years ago they came to Princeton, but they're celebrating 100 years. And we have two facilities. They're they're a quiet little company in the sense that they have a production facility which is out there by the interstate that we see where they bring in the the corn and it's processed. And then they have a research facility which is north of town by about four miles out there on Route 26. We drive right by that. So there's people full-time employed at both those facilities. We're going to get a soon we're going to get a representative of Pioneer to come and give us a a little history about Pioneer. Looking forward to that. We can celebrate with them. Um on our old business, we always kind of pass over these. We're still working on the ebikes and electric scooters. Waiting for some um dialogue from the state of Illinois on that. And the THC of beverage is the same thing. So, we're going to pass on any action on those. Is there any new business before the council this evening? I think. Okay. Is there any additional public comment from the council or from the the audience?

Oh yes. Yeah. This is exciting. Oh yes.

Not as exciting as Okay. First of all, we have to gear these down to ultra short people. Um I am other things involved with the Better Fishing Association. And this coming week uh on Saturday after you have left your uh staples out there for your mail carrier, I'd like people to entertain the notion of grabbing their kids, grandkids, anybody between the ages of say four and 16 and drag them over to the uh Baker Lake where we are putting on our 26th annual Baker Lake Fishing Expo. Um, I've been involved in this for probably 20 years now. Um, more than one person decided that they needed younger blood 20 years ago and uh, basically wrote me and my husband into the uh, project, which it just kind of was a good fit. Um, for those of you that have not been there or drugged your kids here, um, starting at 9:00 in the morning, we have a series of nine various stations in the park. Um, each one teaches a different aspect of fishing uh, to small children. We have representatives with the IDNR that come and they will bring great big fish and they're in a swimming pool so the kids can get up close and personal with you know what's in the lake. Um, we have another gentleman that comes up from southern Illinois and he'll bring frogs and snakes and, you know, other nasty little creepy crawly things that I would prefer. He, you know, far away, but little kids seem to be attracted to that kind of thing. It's a wonderful day

for the kids. It's completely free. Um, kids come in, they sign in, we kind of collect who the kids are, where they come from. They'll get a little um card and as they go through the various stations and the people running the station uh tick off which ones uh they bring it back to the registration. That'll be a free prize for them and it's good for also a hot dog and soda and chips. Uh all of it is free. You know, we're more than happy to feed whatever parents come along with their little darlings. Um, yeah, I'm a really lousy public speaker, I tell you. But I'm encouraging uh anybody with kids to come out, join us. And we are also, as well as my fine friends with the the food pantry, anybody with high school kids that are looking for service hours. And uh you know we're in the the final uh death throws for those that absolutely need them in order to graduate. You know I can give you anywhere from 6 to8 hours but we'll be there. You know anybody with kids, grandkids it would be a wonderful day in the park if mother nature cooperates.

All right. Thanks Beth. I appreciate that. It's my pleasure. And Baker Lake is beautiful. Every chance to get over there, what they did was just the past 6 months, they took out the asphalt walking surface. They probably been there for 30 years. They put a concrete surface all the way around. Very, very nice. So, really first class. Thanks, Beth. Okay. Any additional public comment for anyone? Otherwise, we're going to go ahead then. Jerry, if you would, please. Yes. I move that we adjourn our regular meeting this evening and reconvene for our next city council meeting to be held on Monday May 18th 2026 o'clock at city hall. Second motion second. Cler call the role. Council member

New Iki hi and mayor. Hi. Thank you for attending and feel free to stay and talk to your council members. Thank you.