City Council Meeting/Strategic Session - Regular Meeting

Ready here. Let's roll. Let's go. I'd like to call the city council meeting. City council for to you for 10/28/2025 to order. Roll call.

Houseman?

Here.

Berman.

Here.

Green. Here. Seaton.

Here.

Stamen.

Here. Would everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

The first item tonight under council discussion is the discussion of the city of Collinsville debt services.

Good evening, mayor and city council. We're gonna talk about the current debt service obligation and progress on the elimination of debt. Bonds are one of the city's most important financial tools allowing Collinsville to fund major capital improvements such as streets, utilities, facilities, public safety projects without placing the full cost of current year revenues. By spreading repayment over time, bonds help the city responsibly invest in long term infrastructure while maintaining stable operations and service levels. The city's total outstanding debt is 56,900,000.0 by year end 2025, a moderate increase tied primarily to the planned solar water infrastructure investment and the new Fire Station 2.

Despite new project financing, debt service remains highly manageable, supported by a strong debt service coverage ratio of four to one and a diversified revenue streams. Key debt retirement and reductions, 2020 general obligation bonds for the water sewer, final payment in in 2026, freeing up 1,400,000.0 in annual enterprise fund capacity beginning in 2027. Collinsville Crossing list bonds, balloon payment of 545,000 paying March 2025 bonds fully retired by 2027 easing long term obligations in the capital fund and several smaller debts. The ambulance, 2017 beat, general obligation bonds reached payoff within the three to five years, further improving annual cash flow. Debt service coverage remains well above GFOA, General, Governmental Finance Officers Association benchmarks reflecting excellent capacity to meet obligations and future needs, Fire Station 2, PFAS and plant upgrades.

And here is a list of the outstanding debt and retirement dates, as mentioned above. I'm not gonna read through. I don't think I think the council can see that. Some added things, the debt for 2025 is 9% of total expenditures. In 2020 is projected in 2026, it will also remain at 9% of expenditures. Best practices is 15% total expenditures. Questions?

So the solar projects are after the grants we received? Those are our amount? Yes.

So the solar projects we're getting the debts. We do debt certificates for those which is a little bit different but it is a bond technically. And that will be on later this evening as well for the wastewater treatment plant. But for the city hall Solar, Fire Station one Solar and Water Treatment Plan, we've already gotten the debt certificates for those. And to answer your question, Tony, yes, we get a big offset with the federal incentives and grants. And our intent is basically once we receive those is to put those right back towards the payment to minimize interest for them. So a lot of those projects have a six year or so return on investment and we instantly experience energy savings from each one of those projects. So we're pretty much ahead for twenty five years when it comes to paying those loans.

So I guess my question is the City Hall Solar that 578,300 is what we still owe after? Or are there funds coming for the state or federal?

There'll be funds coming for that one. So for the city hall 188% of the project was offset so really the city is paying 77,000 of the total funds there because of the federal tax rebate and those Illinois Solar for All credits. So those

numbers are much better than what we've That's liked

correct. Those projects just went online this year. So we haven't actually received the incentives yet because they went online in July, but we will be receiving those over the next couple of months, which again, they say that we received those funds, we're going put those right back towards that debt certificate payment.

Are those out of general fund?

Yes. The ones you see there specifically for City Hall and Fire Station one are General Fund or Capital Projects Fund, which is a general fund. But then also for the water treatment plant, wastewater treatment plant, those will be from Fund fifty two, which is the enterprise one. The

only question I had is the Aqua Park lease purchase.

Can you explain Yes, definitely.

So I'll take that one since I was here for it whenever we did it originally with Kimberly Korn. Those were upgrades we did with a group called CTS Group back then. A lot of efficiencies to the Aqua Park activity center, specifically with energy usage on the building, a lot of the exterior building improvements as well as some efficiencies on the pumps and mechanics of the Aqua Park itself. So there were things that really helped us as far as some of the issues we're having, inherited that asset from CARB previously to address those.

Do you recall when that was?

Around 2020, think March 2020 or so was when we were before counsel with the original agreement. I remember now.

It's just the way it was lease purchase up there.

Yes, the wording, I'm not sure, I can't speak specifically for the wording, but that's what it was related to. I think it also gave us access at that time prior, we didn't have access to the solar panel like it was offsetting energy costs, now we got hooked up where Kimberly and I can jump into a portal and see them on a kilowatt hours and all that we're getting from that solar panel. That was installed prior to the city taking ownership of the property.

So this may be redundant. I just want to make sure I'm tracking. This is 9% of like our fire

The debt service. So the the the that's the total outstanding debt. So the debt service of the interest and principal payments, that's 9% of our total expenditures for '25 and it will be the same in '26 including the additional funding for, firehouse too.

And the ceiling for where we want that to be 15%. This is truly probably less than 9% because the grants. So we're Yeah. Yeah.

Once you once you because you 4,900.0 or 4,900,000.0 for the 6.5 that we're talking about this evening. So that's a substantial reduction in the outstanding debt for that solar panel at the water sewer plant. So, it'll go down. My goal is in the next couple of years to get it down to 7 or six. So, you know, we're gonna be aggressive about repaying the debt and and keeping these debt this debt service low below 9%.

But with the grants already factored in, we are below 9% then. Correct?

Yeah, but I didn't calculate it with the grants or the tax credits or anything. That's just pure debt service. And I think that's a conservative approach.

We're in good shape financially as far as paying our debts and as well as the ability to take on more debt down the road. And that's that's relevant right for Fire Station two. We know we're going go out to get additional financing But obviously more recently here with PFAS, we have capacity in our enterprise fund to make sure we can fund those projects. In addition to the fact that there's other opportunities out there to help us fund those improvements like the state of the Baltimore.

Any other questions or comments?

No, David took mine.

Okay. Nothing else? Okay. Next item.

Next is speakers from the floor.

Speakers may address the council on the terms of ordinance number 4,765. Time is limited to four minutes per speaker. Please refer to the last page of the agenda for specific rules governing input. This is a time where anybody can speak. So is there anyone on my left side of the room that would like to speak? Anyone on my right, since they're all city employees? Probably not. Okay. Next item.

Comments and announcements from the mayor.

I just like to put a plug in for the trunk or treat and what a success I think that was. I don't know, maybe you already mentioned that. But was, I heard a lot of comments about it. Was very well received by the city. And probably goes without saying, but everybody, it's gonna be a nice night, Friday night, so just be careful. Careful with the kids out because I think there'll be a lot of them out Friday night.

Kudos to Jed Robbins, he organized the trunk or treat, the city did this A year in Woodland lot of departments participated in local businesses and service clubs. We appreciate everyone coming out to be

a part of Good. That's all I have.

Comments and announcements from the council members?

Being none, next time.

City staff.

Okay, thanks mayor. Members of council wanna have Kimberly Corn coming up and talk about some programming in the park.

May your statement and members of the council. This is your friendly reminder. You only have four more days left to vote for the yard of the year. It's one vote per Email address and the votes will remain open through the October which is Friday night. So, it'll close at 11:59 and then hopefully at the next city council meeting, I will have, yes, the next city council meeting, we

will have the yard of the

year presentation to be able to be made. The Halving House decorating contest is happening right now. We had the CAB go out and judge. So, we will have a judge's choice winner but then we will have a people's choice winner as well. So, there are videos uploaded by the homeowners themselves on our Facebook page.

A reaction to the video is what's going to count towards a vote and that will remain open through the thirtieth at 04:00 and then we will award our judges and our people's choice for the Halloween house decorating contest. I believe we have at least 12 houses signed up that have sent the videos into And we had 15 sign up for the whole program. So we're pretty thrilled about that. The town looks great for Halloween. And then coming up this weekend, we have the Booze, Kooten, Boogie Barn dance on Saturday night at Willoughby Farm. And then the following weekend, Friday night, will be our annual Bonfires and Brews program. There is no preregistration necessary for the Barn Dance, Bonfires and Brews.

We encourage preregistration. Thanks, Kimberly.

Appreciate it. Next, have Troy Turner, our public works director, come up and give a couple updates on some the projects we have going on in the city.

Thank you, mayor and members of council. I just wanted to give you an update. The city hall generator, after a very, very long time on this project is finally up and operational. It went into service on October 14. So everything works.

So now that in case there is an issue, we have backup power at City Hall and we can run off natural gas. As part of this project, the total cost was $245,900 and the city received a $15,000 grant from Madison County. It was an environmental grant, so helped offset a little bit of the cost. But this will allow us to help make some more efficiencies with the IT in the IT department and some other things coming on down the road. Another one is, this is kind of a, I guess, big deal for us because we were the only Madison County community that got a grant through the local project funding grant.

There were one or two in St. Clair County, but they awarded us $1,300,000 on Summit Avenue, came out really well. We got told we came in $300,000 over the engineer's estimate. And then later that week, we were told we got the $1,300,000 grant. So that more than covered the $300,000 we were over on the estimate.

Over here, I've also listed the other funds that go towards this project. We've got 794,000 in STP. Madison County committed $221,000 and then we got an MEPRD grant for around 165,000. For this project, we are going to hire a consulting firm to do the construction engineering. We just don't have the staff available right now. Plus some of this grant money is tied to construction engineering, so it's a use or lose it. And right now our total funding is expected to cover more than our total construction and construction engineering. So we would rather hire somebody to do that than leave money on the table. So just wanted to give everyone an update on all that.

So can you tell me what STP and MEP are? So I

probably should have done that. So STP is a federal it's federal funding. It's surface transportation program. And ours is sub allocated urban. So they have that and they have sub allocated rule.

So we're in an urban

area. MEPRD is Metro East Parks and Recreation District. It's a trail grant. So it will cover a large portion of the shared use path. And then Madison County, when there's federal funding involved, they will help match the cost that goes towards they'll match the local portion of construction for the project based on the original funding agreement.

And when we got notification of this, and I think Troy said that, but it wasn't money we're expecting. That's the nice part about it. So it was a nice feather in the cap for that. But glad to see we reap some of those benefits. Now that's something you've had to apply for though, wasn't it?

Yes, we did. Okay. It was the last minute when they gave us like they sent it out and by the end of the week well, had then they had a webinar on it and by the end of the week you had to submit the application. So we submitted three and we were happy to get one. So we I just brought a local public agency funding agreement for Summit Avenue to counsel. With this grant, as soon as IDOP prepares it, we will have another local public agency funding agreement to include this amount of money so that way we can use it.

One other question. The construction engineering $200,000 but the plans have already been

Yeah, the design's Okay. Yeah, we've already, I mean, we've already got the project bid out. We've awarded the bid, but now we've got to wait we've got to wait for IDOT to give us a local public agency funding agreement. That way we can get the construction engineering on there and then also the we can get the funding agreement together so they will pay their portion.

So that just frees up your staff to having a construction engineer out there frees up some of

your staff.

It does, but then we've got Clay Street that will be starting around that same time and Clay Street is what we'll have our staff working on. It'll free them up for about a month because there was going to be a month overlap where a month time period where we only had one project going on, but then we will have the Clay Street pedestrian improvements. It looks like it's going to start up in March hopefully. We're going to work with our contractor to try to work that out with all the events we've got coming up this summer.

It's been a busy year for construction. It was really, really needed and it's going to be nice when it's all done. Yeah.

It's and it looks like it's going to keep on continuing.

Okay. Thank you, Troy. Appreciate it. Okay. Next, have Chief Warm come up to talk about an event coming up with the animal shelter and some guidelines for Halloween trick or treating.

Thank you, Mayor Stamen, members of city council. We got a couple plugs for you this evening. The first, as many of you guys know, we've been looking at a variety of ways to improve the services that we've been providing both at the Warren Billhart's Animal Shelter as well as the Animal Control Division for the past several months. Of those improvements have included, for us, looking at a variety of ways to collaborate with outside organizations. Born out of an idea from Lieutenant Keith Jackson, who's doing a great job addressing some of those issues down at the animal shelter.

We're gonna be holding a multi shelter animal adoption clinic on Sunday, November 9. The hours for that are gonna be 11AM to 4PM at the Gateway Center. In this event, we're going to be collaborating with Partners for Pets, Metro East Humane Society, as well as the Madison County Animal Care and Control. The neatest part about this though, you know, Keith had a great idea. He reached out to a professor of his at McHenry University, solicited the help and collaborated with marketing students who contributed their talents in planning, promotion, raffle organization, and volunteer services.

And our hope is, if this is a successful event, we'll be able to build on that success in the future and identify ways to make it bigger and better next time. So that's the first thing I wanted to plug. And then as the May mayor indicated, Halloween is this Friday. I got a clip. Halloween is this Friday.

We just wanted to take a moment, remind everyone of the official trick or treat hours, which is six to 9PM on Friday. We also wanted to pass along some safety tips to ensure everyone has a safe and enjoyable evening. Those tips are gonna include just remaining visible. We recommend kids wear reflective clothing, carry flashlights, glow sticks, things of that nature. We encourage them to use crosswalks and sidewalks whenever possible.

We also encourage children to only visit well lit homes and then never go into the homes of strangers. And we beg all motorists just be cognizant of kids that might dart out into the roadway, drive slowly, and just be on the lookout for kids. And just have fun. We hope to have a safe Halloween in Collinsville.

Thank you, Chief.

Appreciate it.

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

All right. Next item.

Next item is the consent agenda. Item one is motion to approve payment of bills for the period ending 10/17/2025 in the amount of 2,000,002 million $442,647.95. Item number two is a motion to approve the payment of payroll for the period ending 10/10/2025 in the amount of $828,216.29. Item three, motion to approve minutes of the 10/14/2025 council meeting. And item four is an ordinance declaring personal property owned by the city a surplus and authorizing the sale.

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

Motion to approve. I'll second.

Motion by Furman, second by Green. Roll call.

Houseman? Yes. Furman?

Yes. Green? Yes. Seaton?

Yes.

Stamen?

Yes.

Next item under new business, item one is the ordinance authorizing installment purchase agreement for solar array at the wastewater treatment plant and providing for the issuance of debt certification 2025.

The presentation be given by finance director Mark Miles. Thank

you mayor and city council. The city has been working with GRP Wegman in relation to investing in renewable energy for the critical critical facilities while taking advantage of various incentives and tax credits. On 08/26/2025, the city entered into an agreement with GRP Wegman for the installation of solar panels at the wastewater treatment plant. The subject ordinance secures a short term financing to the fund to fund the project. Total financing for the wastewater treatment plant infrastructure is 6,500,000.0.

To construct the infrastructure, the city must utilize financing to pay for the construction upfront and on receipt of the, upon receipt of the incentives and credits will pay down the loans early and capitalize on the low out of pocket cost to the city for annual energy savings to be realized over the next twenty five years. The project has an estimated five point nine year payback with 76% of the total project cost to be offset with incentives in addition to operational cost savings to reduce utility expenses on the city's largest energy consuming facility. Staff recommends approval of the subject ordinance.

Council also have Sean Flynn here this evening as well as our bond counselors if there's any technical questions about the debt certificate as well.

A reminder, a question because I forgot and a reminder the lease has already been secured.

Yes, that's correct. So also in that August 26 meeting and what kind of took this project a little longer than the other solar projects. If you see there the site plan on the right hand side, that's actually an IDOT right away. And we did to the Mayor's point execute an agreement with IDOT that is in effect which I believe is a ten year lease agreement that can be renewed to utilize the space for that. And the reason we were very particular about not using any of the current ground on the existing footprint of the wastewater treatment plant, this is we don't know what type of standards might come down the road in the future where we might need the space. So we felt the best place to put the panels to offset energy costs would be the right of way that Iodine owns to the right hand side. Any

other questions or comments? Being done, motion to approve. So moved. Second. Motion by Houseman, second by Seaton. Roll call.

Houseman.

Yes.

Fuhrman.

Yes.

Green. Yes. Seaton.

Yes. Stamen. Yes.

Item number two, ordinance authorizing the purchase of an ambulance from American Response Vehicles in the amount not to exceed exceed $410,221.

Presentation be given by Chief John Balo.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council. In front of you tonight is an ordinance the purchase of a new ambulance.

The

with an order delivery date of expected of between nine hundred and a thousand and eighty days. It's taking that long just to get a simple ambulance anymore as we found out with our last ambulance purchase and how long that one took to get. So the current ambulance is a twenty sixteen with over 160,000 miles. We rotate the ambulances from frontline to third out to reserve and that's the reserve unit that would go out. We did let bids in accordance with the city policy and mailed and mailed to seven vendors and we only got one response back and it was from Americans Response Vehicles.

Because I wasn't I'm not comfortable with just one bid, I wanted to make sure that we were getting the right price for the city. I did reach out to Maryville and Glen Carbon who recently they have an ambulance on order. They haven't received it yet. And so Maryville's was 324,000, Glendale Glencarbin's was 349,000. The difference is neither one of them have the patient power load system.

The system that's built in that raises the stretcher up and brings in which helps keep our firefighter paramedics back and some IT equipment. So when you remove those out, we're very comparable with pricing what their increases have been. So the plan is to purchase a Type one Ford F-five 50 just like our other two Aimons, four wheel drive through it's via American Emergency Vehicles through Emergency Response Vehicles, the representative. We'll be trading in that twenty sixteen ambulance for a total purchase price with a trade in of the $41,000,221 And you can see the pricing over on the slide. The cost of the ambulance plus the discounts from manufacturer and all those plus the trade in and then purchasing also a six year warranty which is working out very well with the other two A loans at this point.

So it will be funded through the twenty twenty seven-twenty twenty eight capital improvement funds. There will be no ambulance payment, no payment at all until the ambulance is delivered in the 2027. With the delivery date and with the agreement they would not deliver. We cannot and will not take delivery before 2027 to fit with the budgeting process. So it's the same basic concept as we used last time. And I'd be happy to entertain any questions.

So how does that price compare to the one that took four years to get?

Well, there's been significant price increases.

That's what I would think.

With the last one that we the 2022 that we just received in 2025 we had an option within that contract that agreement to purchase to order another ambulance at it was like a 3% increase. So it's that actually saved the city a lot of money because the prices shot way up. We also have that option placed in this one with a 4.5% increase and we have up to a year to purchase that if we sort of desire to do that. But yeah, there's been well over $150,000 increase since we ordered in 2021, 2022.

So is this the same manufacturer as the other the previous two you purchased?

Is. The same manufacturer. They'd be sister trucks, so to speak. And ultimately, what my plan had been by the time all this comes down I'll probably be retired but to do to have the fleet of vehicles so that we can do a remount and then remount would come in and use the box, bring in a new chassis and save a lot of money for the city.

So we're only getting 9,500?

I'm sorry, sir.

We're only getting 9,500 for the trade in from the 2016?

Yeah. They're really not worth much.

And it's not worth holding on to if that's all that it seems like it's not it almost not be worth it. But I don't I don't know nothing about ambulances.

Yeah. Well, 2016 with a 160,000 miles and no these miles on ambulances in police cars, fire trucks are go fast, stop quick. A lot of those, there are a lot of start stopping. So they're really hard on the engines. We've had a lot of repairs with that one. We expect we will have more with the we have a sister truck to that 2016 it's our third out. So in order to keep with the rotation I would not suggest that we hang on to that one.

Any other questions or comments?

I'm just curious when do you anticipate that we might be seeing a fire truck purchase across our

desk? Well, it's a great question. We have been work we worked on the fire engine specifications and they are up for bid right now. So again and that one is a four year build out. Used to be twelve months and so I'm hopeful that we might be able to bring that for you before the end of the year so that we can place that order.

So we can get it before 2030.

Maybe a little more. The prices of public safety everything has gone just absolutely sky high.

What has caused the delay that for it to be four times what it used to be? I mean, I understood it back when COVID was going on. Everything was delayed, but why now? What

So what we're told is, yes, COVID started it. Then we had the infamous chip that ran every single vehicle. And because of those delays, it caught that they were still taking orders and they it all backed up. And then during COVID, factories had to lay off personnel and so when they went to rehire people they already had other jobs so there it's a it's a variety of items.

Are there as many manufacturers of apparatus as there used to be is

there I'm sorry?

Is there much competition with apparatus? Mean you don't see used to have like American or France and all this stuff, but there doesn't seem to be as many manufacturers

as there used to be.

So there's still on the fire truck side seven or eight manufacturers. There's always that was top group and then those that try to make a fire truck and those usually go out of business fairly quickly. But you may recall that the REV Group purchased a lot of the fire truck manufacturers and ambulance manufacturers. And there's been Senate hearings on just that because of the prices increased, the delay in getting things out. And so that itself has started to limit some of those. But there's still about seven or eight.

Okay. Okay. Being Thanks. No other questions, I have motion to approve.

Motion to approve.

Second it.

Motion by Fuhrman, second by Green. Roll call.

Houseman. Yes. Fuhrman.

Yes.

Green. Yes. Seton. Yes. Stamen.

Yes. Thank you.

Item three, ordinance authorizing the execution of the purchase agreement between the city of Collinsville and Wild Game Properties in relation to the sale and redevelopment of property located at Number 8, Gateway Drive.

And presentation be given by assistant city manager Jessica Sharp.

Thank you, mayor Stamen, members of the council. Before you is a purchase agreement for a city owned piece of property as mentioned at 8 Gateway Drive. This is also known as the former Gateway Fun Park. So the city acquired this property back in December 2021. We purchased it for $1,000,000.

The reason we acquired it was it was a large, attractive, vacant use in the core of our hospitality corridor. And the site is roughly six acres with a 13,000 square foot building. That is the fun park picture there. That is an old picture with the signage still on it to the right. There's an existing parking lot of about 203 spaces and several outbuildings, a maintenance building in the back.

It is zoned HP 1. That's our hospitality district. And while we had various ideas over the years for use of this site, none of them really came to fruition. And it is currently used as a staging site for our parks and maintenance crew. So they use this for office space, break room and storage in the back.

The agreement which I'll get into the details here on the next slide does propose for a redevelopment of this with an actual entertainment use. So something that's very befitting for the hospitality district and restores this underutilized space that we have here in town. So the proposed use, it is with developers known as Wild Game Properties. And they are planning a restaurant which will feature wild game entrees. They are planning for some traditional foods as well so everyone can find something they like to eat there.

They'll also have arcade style games inside the building and then restoring some of the outdoor recreational activities. As you can see in the site picture to the right, there was a go kart track, a mini golf course, a pond or pool that was used for bumper boats, and batting cages, and maintenance building for storage there in

the

upper right corner. Staff does believe that this use is complementary and very compatible with what we have surrounding, including our existing aqua park and the Gateway Convention Center. So the redevelopment agreement itself comprises of a fifteen month lease with an option for the developers to purchase at the end of that lease or earlier if they are prepared and ready to do so. The purchase price will be $1,000,000. And the intent is to allow the developers to get access to the site and actually make improvements.

This building needs a substantial amount of improvements and build equity into the property so that they can obtain the conventional financing they need to meet that $1,000,000 purchase price. There are a couple of incentives also requested in this agreement. One is a reimbursement of up to $100,000 for repairs that are called out in the agreement, but specifically HVAC and other code compliance items. And those reimbursements are to come actually from retail sales tax that's generated by the development itself. So it will not come from general fund.

Also we've excluded food and beverage So it will just be the retail sales tax from that development. Developers are also requesting real estate tax abatement and staff is recommending doing that following the Discovery Enterprise Zone schedule which is 100% of the incremental taxes. So once it the improvements are made and it gets a new assessment, the increment from the previous assessment to the new one, the city's portion, 100% will be abated for seven years. Year eight, it will reduce down to 70%. Year nine, it'll be 10%, and then year 10, it drops off.

The city has no ability to abate taxes for any other taxing body, but we do have good working relationships with many of them. And so we're happy to give kind of a warm handoff to those other taxing bodies. But again, we can't make any promises for that. And also, as you can see in the picture to the right, we have a couple areas highlighted in purple. Because our parks and crew or parks and recreation maintenance crew is using this location, They don't have anywhere else to go right now.

So we are actively pursuing options out of Woodland Park for a maintenance building which will come back before council of course as well. But in the interim, our staff will have access to these areas highlighted. So in the upper right corner is that maintenance building and the former batting cages area. We will also be using a small storage shed. I think a portable shed you can buy at Home Depot. It's located directly behind the primary building. We have baseball league equipment in there. And once the summer league starts up, we'll take that out. We will not be bringing it back here. We also will continue to produce some waste.

So we're going to need access to a dumpster and then we've requested access to 10 parking spaces. It doesn't have to be those 10 highlighted here, just kind of floating spaces. So during the construction that we still have access for our staff to get in and out. That is the highlights of the agreement and the arrangement. I'm happy to take any questions that you have.

Any questions or comments for Jessica?

I just think it's a great project.

We've talked about a lot so yeah.

Yeah, we've had. Okay.

All right, a motion to approve. So moved. Second. Motion by Seaton, second by Houseman. Roll call. Houseman.

Yes.

Furman.

Yes.

Green. Yes. Seton. Yes. Stamen.

Yes.

Item number four is ordinance authorizing the mayor to execute a contract to purchase residential property 611 West Main.

Again, assistant manager Shirt.

Thank you, mayor Stamen, members of council. This ordinance is for the purchase of a property. This is located 611 West Main Street. This is in the heart of our uptown corridor. And as you can see on the map, it is a generally rectangular shaped piece of property about 9,000 square feet. It is currently zoned b two. The property has a single family. I think it's a one and a half story home on the front of the lot. And then at the rear of the property, there is an existing nonconforming accessory dwelling unit. I believe it was a garage.

It's been converted into a studio apartment. And, again, existing nonconforming does not meet any of our current code requirements or zoning requirements. So this property has been of interest to the city for quite some time because of its proximity to the Didi Collins house. So the picture in the upper right hand corner that is actually looking east, the house is the white one there that you can see. And immediately to the east is the Collinsville Mini Mart, the Phillips sixty six here in uptown.

And the bottom picture is looking to the west and immediately west is the advanced driving school. And And then you can see green space and the Deeding Collins house. We have in the past talked about an uptown event center. And so acquiring this property does help preserve this particular block and also remediates that existing nonconforming use in the back that we really may not be able to otherwise cease that use. So the intent for this property is to demolish those structures and return it back to green space.

We have talked about maybe even installing some native planting or a community garden. But until something comes forward, it will just be green space. And the purchase price is $70,000 plus closing cost, which should be somewhere around 2 to $3,000 And if there are any questions I'm happy to answer those.

I don't know if it's I guess to bring up the possibility of the adjoining property owner. Do we want to discuss that or hold off on that?

We can probably just touch on it a little bit. There is a potential opportunity to do a lot line adjustment and sell off some of this property to an adjacent property owner. That would also bring down the total city investment and help expand. It would be with the council mini mart next door. Their drive through is pretty tight, so it would help provide a little more space for them.

It'll be a nice enhancement to that property if we're able to make that work. And that sounds promising. Other questions or comments? Being none, I have a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

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

Yes. Furman.

Yes. Green. Yes. Seton.

Yes.

Stamen.

Yes.

Item number five is the ordinance authorizing a contract to purchase proper let me try that one more time. Ordinance authorizing a purchase contract for 126 Collinsville Avenue.

By Travis Taylor.

Thank you, mayor and members of council. So to continue our trend with property transfers this evening, I bring to you 126 Collinsville Avenue. Tonight, what is before you is a the execution of a sales contract for a private owner to come in and purchase property that is owned by the city. The city be city came into ownership of 126 Collinsville Avenue in 2023 after a few years of working with the owner on a variety of property maintenance issues. The property owner unfortunately passed away and the heirs working with the city decided to just transfer the property to the city allowing us to mitigate property maintenance issues and potential nuisance issues for the neighbors.

The city then before the property owner's passing, we did some cleanup on the exterior of the property for some items. And then in 2025, we worked with PuroClean and cleaned up the interior of the property to prep it for potential sale or reuse in some some fashion. That cost was about just shy of $10,000 in total between the PuroClean, cleaning of the interior, and the city's previous sunk costs on storage of some items for the previous owner. Tonight, we have an offer for purchase of the property at $79,000. We've listed the property at $80,000 a few weeks ago.

It has been shown about five times and what we have heard is that the general state of the house is such that it will require someone some significant investment in heating and air upgrades. The flooring will likely need to be replaced and some other miscellaneous issues that are that are present with

the home.

We've got some pictures of the interior of the home that you can see overall. It's got good bones. It's got some good appliances. There's a lot going for it. City staff's very happy with the offer. The owner is looking to the property owner is looking to purchase this property as is. Waive all inspections. We have completed an occupancy inspection. We'll hold the owner to completing that occupancy permit out after the purchase is made. I think that's all I've got for you. Happy to answer any questions you might have about this property. Closing would be about mid November And again staff supports the proposal.

I just would like to add a few little things to it. I think the city, your department did an excellent job. This was a problem property that we heard about a lot. But you did an excellent job of abating those issues down there, working with the owner. I know it was difficult at times but it kind of plays into this, the one we just authorized purchase of.

Occasionally it takes the city to kind of step up and resolve some of these issues. And unfortunately sometimes that purchasing it. But the ultimate goal is going to be to enhance that property and the adjoining properties. You guys did a great job on this. So I think we've used that purchase power wisely and the enforcement tools wisely.

Mean just did one out in Collinwood right around from Tony's house. It's unfortunate we have to but occasionally that's part of the deal, what the city has to do. So I'm glad we've done it and I'm glad we're getting to this point on it. Other comments? I have a motion to approve. So moved. Second. Motion by Seaton. Second by Houseman. Roll call.

Houseman.

Yes.

Fuhrman.

Yes.

Green. Yes. Seaton.

Yes. Stamen.

Yes. Thank you.

Item number six is the ordinance authorize authorize the mayor to sign a professional service agreement with Oaks Associates in the amount of 36,000 for a planning study for the extension of sanitary sewers in the Common Wood Subdivision.

Presentation by public works director Troy Turner.

Thank you again, Mayor and members of the council. What we have before you is we received an IEPA planning grant for unsewered communities. We applied for Collinwood. The max we were allowed to receive was $30,000 So we were awarded $30,000 from the EPA. As you can see right here, the area outlined is an area of Collinwood that currently is unsewered so there's no sewers in that area.

But Collinwood was developed in such a way that it could be sewered in the future. So the plan will be covering Lemon Tree Court, portions of Lemon Tree Court, Lemon Tree Lane, Maple Leaf Drive, Peachtree Trail, Raintree Trail, and Ravenwood Drive. So this is a tool that'll help us get to a point where we could eventually apply for a construction grant from the IEPA. Those go up to $5,000,000 They were supposed to have awarded one or had one out towards the end of June of last of this year but they have not put it out yet so we're still waiting on that. As part of this, we're gonna hire a consultant to go ahead and do the planning study.

We don't have the resources to do it in house. We reached out and got a quote from Oates or a proposal from Oates. They did the last one up in Sugarloaf. They're very familiar with the process on these. They came in with a price of about $36,000 or up $36,000 and we had this in the CIP for $42,000 for this year. So if there's any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer.

Questions or comments?

Troy, would this also look at planning for the areas North Of there to easily sewer those should that area at some point decide to come into the city?

So we are going to make the plan so that we can extend to them in the future but we can't the grant won't pay for going outside city limits unfortunately.

What are the dots on the map?

The dots on the map are manholes. Sorry. That's just our mantle structure numbers.

What you see in green there David that's where our existing sewers are at. So everywhere in that purple area north of that is on private septic right now. So the green lines in particular there that's where we currently have sewers running to service those properties.

Any other comments or questions? Being none, motion to approve.

So moved.

I'll second it.

Motion by House and second by Green. Roll call. Houseman?

Yes.

Furman?

Yes.

Green? Yes. Seton?

Yes.

Stamen?

Yes. Thank you.

Item number seven, ordinance amending the California code in relation to door to door solicitation on private property.

Presentation will be given by you, city clerk Wasser.

Mayor Council, good evening. Thank you very much. This ordinance would amend title five by adding chapter 5.46 to allow for a door to door solicitation. Currently, the city does not permit solicitors to go door to door on private property. That prohibition has been challenged and doesn't ultimately doesn't prevent solicitation from occurring within the city.

So this ordinance would establish a policy, application process, a background check, licensing, and restrictions. As you may recall, we spoke about this ordinance in detail at the August 12 council meeting. The only change in sits then would be adopting a $250 application fee and the ordinance would go into effect January 1. I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Any questions or comments for City Clerk Wasser?

Am I in

the way

Should we wait?

We

could probably get a motion but we'll probably have to wait for the vote. Mayor something which we're

just You

probably thought we were going to talk about this again.

Well, to give time to City Clerk Wasser and Chief Boren put a lot of work into researching this. I appreciate the time they took. This is something we get a lot of inquiries about in our community and we feel we're following suit with other communities that have been in a similar situation to outright ban it But because that was legally challenged, we feel like this is the time to go ahead and put guidelines in place. So there is assurance. We do plan on sharing this information if it is approved this evening in the next edition of the City Scoop as well as getting information on the website for going about the registration for anyone that is doing door to door.

One quick reminder too, we also structured this ordinance in a manner where it does not affect non profits. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, groups like that will not be subject to this. It's specifically just based on the businesses that are for profit that we're looking

at. Correct.

Any other questions or comments? I know there's been a lot of talk about this throughout the city. A motion to approve.

So moved.

I'll second it.

Motion by Seaton, second by Green. Roll call.

Hausman?

Yes. Fuhrman? Yes. Green? Yes. Seaton?

Yes.

Stamen?

Yes.

Next, closed session.

I have a motion to the constable go into closed session to discuss in accordance with five ILCS1202C regarding number one, appointment employment and compensation discipline or performance of employees. Motion? So moved. Second. Motion by Furman, seconded by Houseman. Roll call.

Houseman? Yes. Furman?

Yes. Green? Yes. Seton? Yes. Statement.

Announcement. What's it? Oh. There you go. Okay.

No, just to see it. Okay.

Yes.

Just a quick announcement. Okay. Our next council meeting is actually going to be held on Wednesday, November 12 because the Veterans Day falls on a holiday which is the normal second Tuesday of the month. So we're gonna have it on Wednesday the following day. And then last is adjournment.

Okay. Motion for adjournment.

So moved.

Second. Motion by Green, second by House, and roll call.

Houseman?

Yes.

Fuhrman?

Yes.

Green? Yes. Seton? Yes. Stamen?

Yes. City Councilman, City Council for 10/28/2025 is adjourned.