City Council - Regular Meeting

is 5:45. Linda, could you please give the invocation? Sure.

Hi, Council Mayor. Let's bow our heads. Dear Lord, we thank you and praise you, Lord Jesus, for all that you are. We thank you that you are the great I am, that you see all, you hear all, you know all, you are in all, you are through all, and you are over all. Father, we just invoke your presence here tonight. Father, we ask you, Lord, that everything that's done tonight will be done decently and in order. We ask you, Father God, that we would honor and and bless um those that are around us, that we will all look to each other and give each other the respect and honor that's due them. Father, we ask you to move in our midst that all things that are done tonight will be done for your plans and your purposes for this city will be done in accordance with your will, Father, and will help to prosper this city and move it forward in all that you have for it in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, Linda. Now, we'll officially call this meeting to order. Madam clerk, would you please take the role? Mayor Miller here. Elder persons. Clem here. Johnson here. Simmons here. Parker here. Stacy here. Shadel here. Sanders here. And Sers here. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance led by Alderman Shadel. I aliance 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.

Okay, just uh so you're aware, items six and seven are resolutions that are just slightly out of order, but we wanted to put them right next to the presentation. That's why it's that way. So we'll start with item number one which is the approval of the agenda. Is there such a motion? So move second. A motion made by Alderman Shadel, seconded by Alderman Sers. Uh Alderman Sanders.

Yeah, I'd like to um dismiss the approval of this agenda so that we can uh bring it up at another time. I think that uh anything that's on this agenda has not been approved by council and if council is not approving this agenda then there is no business and since we have not set in motion a meeting on this agenda to compre to even comprehend what this uh agenda is about as opposed to just uh traditionally going through the the uh old traditional format of following along that needs to that has to stop. That is my my recommendation that this agenda this agenda is dis dismissed and no other agenda is to be approved unless council approved the agendas and that uh we need to uh set a statute where we can meet talk about the regulation rules and the governing of this body and uh and if you need to uh get caught up on things to to uh assert yourself into what government and legislating body is all about, especially on the ordinance part because we got to be able to validate every ordinance that council submitted, not anyone else because ordinances are ruling areas of the of the body. And so this is my motion to have this meeting dismissed. All consent agendas to be dismissed. And if anybody wants to challenge that

as council, I'm talking about council where we have debated, talked about um these ordinances, adoptions, amendments, [snorts] and anything else that rules this community. This community is run by laws and governing and ordinances or bylaws. Those are the kinds of things that we have not [clears throat] uh put in place yet, but we're not going to keep flying off on the side playing uh flag football as if though uh everybody's on the same page and we're not all on the same page.

Okay. So, your motion are you are you I'm just want to clarify what your Can [snorts] I ask you what your motion is? My motion is for this meeting to be dismissed. That's what my motion is. Okay. Yeah, that's okay. So, we have a motion on the floor made by Alderman Sanders to It's not a voting matter. I can suspend I can suspend it. I can suspend it as well that we won't even have this conversation

of whether or not we going to vote or discuss this matter until council come back with his with his own agenda and not anybody else's agenda. And so we should meet and I thought we was going to do that at one point in time this year but for whatever but for whatever happened got set aside. [snorts] The mayor does not conduct council meetings. I want you guys to understand that she knows that the councilman's knows that until we get our head and put it in the right place, then uh we can uh we should be able to move forward. But far as governing is concerned, legislating is concerned, we have not even touched the half of it. It's not even the surface. And this has been going on ever since 1971. And if you want to ask me why 1971, I I don't have time to give you a a good a good history lesson at this point in time. But my thing is this has been going on since 1971 when they implemented something called uh home rule and then tried to fraud the people with robber rule. And and here's the thing. None of this that I'm talking about has been validated

or not been validated. Nobody can understand. Prove me wrong that anything that I said was already validated with the signatures of council. Council has not adopted anything and talked about it or collaborated on any issues of the of this business of the business of the city. Until we have gotten together and adopted anything, rules of laws and governing bylaws and ordinances, we we're not even half touching the surface. That's all I wanted to say. Thank you. Okay. So, we have a motion on the floor to dismiss all items on the agenda. Is there a second? That motion dies for a lack of a second. So,

like I told you before, now before you is the motion of approval of agenda. It wasn't Alderman Sanders, please stop. being out of order. If it happens again, I will call you out of order. Please don't do that. If you have the floor, you are welcome to speak, but you don't have the floor at the moment. So, right now, we have a motion on the floor. Can I ask a question? Sure. Who gives you the orders to to say just what you said? That's my job. No, your job does not stipulate that. You can't find that in print where that stipulates your job. maybe meet with one of the attorneys and talk about I know that I wouldn't dare do that. Why would I do that? Well, because you don't seem to believe me. No, because the attorneys is is people we shouldn't be believing at this.

Okay, let's get this back on track. Yeah. Well, I'm just saying your motion dies for a lack of a second. So, now before you is the motion to approve the agenda. Madam clerk, please take the role on the approval of the agenda. Oh, I'm sorry. I was prepared for a voice, but roll call is fine. Please. Shadel. Hi. Sand uh Sanders, I'm here. Your choices are are yes, no, or abstain. Yes. Sellers, yes. Plem, yes. Johnson, yes. Simmons, yes. Parker, yes. And Stacy, yes.

The motion passes 8 to zero. Item number two is approval of the minutes from the special meeting on November 17th, 2025. Is there a motion to approve? So move. A second. Have a motion made by Alderman Ser, seconded by Alderman Johnson. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. That motion passes. Item number three is recognition of service awards. Chief Good evening everybody. Good evening.

I have two uh service awards that are pretty substantial [clears throat] this evening. Uh the first officer was unable to make it. Um but I wanted to recognize him anyway. Um, Lieutenant Wel was hired on December 27th of 2025 and celebrates his 20th 20th year anniversary this month. Lieutenant Wel has served the city in a variety of positions including the mobile field force being a member of the ERT or emergency response team. He was also the ERT commander. He then worked or through all of those processes, he also worked his uh way through the rank as corporal as patrol and then was promoted to his current position, the operations lieutenant on January 16th, 2024. Uh Lieutenant Wel oversees the patrol division, including the K9 officers and the school resource officer. Lieutenant Wel works hard daily to serve the citizens of Freeport. Lieutenant Wel spends a majority of his time out in the community on the streets solving issues and fighting crime. Lieutenant Wel is a law enforcement leader who plays a crucial role in ensuring the Freeport Police Department provides professional service to the citizens of Freeport. Lieutenant Wel also does a great job organizing multiple department events including basketball and softball games wherein I apologize chief the police department usually wins. [laughter]

So we do thank Lieutenant Michael for his 20 years of service and for the fun of the softball basketball and his leadership. Secondly, I'll have Brandy Hily come up here and join me.

[snorts] Brandy Hilby took her oath to serve the citizens of Freeport on December 26, 2025. She celebrates 25 years this month. Oh wow. Wow.

Brandy has served the city in a variety of positions. Patrol officer, SUV detective, or special victims unit detective. Detective Hillby is an integral part of the police department. Her level of dedication to the Freeport Police Department over the past 25 years has been uh extraordinary and incredible. Detective Hillby often covers overtime shifts more than probably any other officer in the department. Detective Hillby has been acknowledged for a high level of productivity which goes above and beyond that which is required. Through the years, Detective Hilby has consistently participated in community events. She's well known by the community and draws quite a large crowd. [clears throat] This in particular when we do shop uh cop on a rooftop. Sorry, we have shop with a cop coming up too. Um cop on a rooftop. I happen to be at one of those and uh Brandy just kept getting more and more and more people to come and donate which goes to Special Olympics. Uh she's also uh raised awareness for that special Olympics during the torch run and she also helps with shop with a cop and she also um plays in the charity basketball and softball games that we often win. [laughter] Randy was the department officer of the year in 2023 uh and her quality of work has only improved. So for 25 years, thank you very much. Is a job well done and I'm glad to have you for at least four more. [laughter] [applause] [applause]

That was uh inappropriate. Mayor 25 years. That was inappropriate. Oh yes. You can't do that as an officer. [clears throat]

picture up here too. [snorts] Oh, Debbie. Oh, I was like, "Oh, Debbie." Oh, whole big family. Oh, nice. Nice, nice, nice. [laughter] should be on guys and girls. That's good. All right. That's awesome. [laughter] That's great. Look at just Yes.

All right. All right. [applause] That's nice. I like to see them young men. That's so nice. Okay, we'll move on to item. Um, Darren, can you look and see if there's anything signed up?

No. Okay. Then, uh, item number four, there's no one signed up for public comment. We'll move on to the consent agenda. The consent agenda is considered to be routine in nature and acted as one motion unless there's a member of the council like to have something removed for further discussion. Seeing none, the consent agenda. Yes. Alderman Sanders.

Um ordinance. Um I I have to look at the number on the ordinance. Do you know which item you want?

Yes, I do. I just got to make sure I get the right number for you. Okay. Throw something from the other to cook. Do you know? I said, "Do you know?" Yes, I do know.

Well, then are are you impatient? Yeah. Well, you shouldn't meet. Well, I am. We We are We are here to do the business of the people. You ain't not yours. Let's do business. Well, that's what I'm doing. Just give me Okay. Okay. Let's stop the talk. What which item do you want to have pulled? I might say all of them. How's that? If that's your pleasure. No, that's not what I want to do. Um, if you just be patient, like I will give everybody in here the same respect. That's what I That's what I expect you to do and that's what I expect you to do. If I give you the same Alderman Sanders, please tell me what item you want.

Yeah. Well, I I got agitators uh in my ear right now uh distracting me. So, I don't I don't care for agitators. Can I suggest you read them and we can still pull them after it's

Okay, I'm going to read it. Okay. So, if the consent agenda consists of approving and to receive and place on file the board and commission meetings from the from the joint review boards for the Bchard Hills, Downtown Meadows, West Avenue, and Lambroad TIFFs for October 25, 2024 is also for the municipal compliance reports for both the firefighters pension and the police pension fund ending December 31st, 2024. The Greater Freeport Partnerships Monthly Report, November 2025. The building permit report October 2025. Approval of the finance bills payable in the total of 2,200,5189 and payroll for pay period ending November 15, 2025 in the total of $670,21.70. Which of those did you want to be removed?

Uh 20 and 21. Uh, you have to be more specific because that's nothing that I just read. Well, I'm just telling you what number it is. You you um are you talking about did you say 20 and 21? Yes. So, are you talking about the fair gram agreement and the um land application for bioolids agreement? Yes. Okay. We're not on that. I know, but I'm that's what I'm telling you that I don't want on the agenda.

Okay. Well, it's too late because we've already approved the agenda and you voted yes to approving the agenda. So, they're there for discussion. I did not approve an agenda. You did. It was the very first thing you said you said here and the clerk told you you needed to say yes, no, or abstain. And you said yes. So, you approved the agenda already. Right. So with that, the consent agenda is as read. Is there a motion to approve? Some move. Second. A motion by Alderman Sers, seconded by Alderman Shadel. Discussion on the consent agenda. Yeah, I'd like to bring a point of order. Put a point of order in motion here. And uh

and the fact that uh uh you're rushing this thing, this agenda process processing going on. Yes, sir. Um, I'm I'm I want my councilman's to pause for a minute to think about what item 20 and 21 is doing because we on top of

Hey, uh, this this this has nothing to do with that. I call a point of order. If you don't understand what that is, then you need to look it up. My thing is the mayor just shot me down for consent of agenda, but I oppose that consent simply because I need to engage with the council in matters that is concerning the taxpayers of this city to not allow agendas. Uh, Attorney Zo would like to speak. No, he doesn't have the right yet to do that. I'm giving him the floor. No, you you can't do nothing. Well, your time his time is up. Your time's up. So,

your four minutes is up. You asked for a point of order. I'm the one who gives clarifies the point. How did you determine four minutes? I saw the clock running when I came in and it stopped and it now it's reset to four. Point of order neither at that time when you walked in. That was your time of speaking. Okay. I have given the floor thing with you. Uh, attorney Zidto, you do not dictate counsel. You are out of order. I'm warning you. If you do it again, what you gonna do? [clears throat] Actually, that's the third. It is done. That's your warning. Okay. So, please stay in line with council rules. Attorney ZTO has the floor.

You asked for a point of order, okay, about you wanting to engage with the council about items 20 and 21 that you do not agree that should be on the agenda. We're not on that portion of the agenda. The agenda, approval of the agenda was already done. Okay. And you, it sounds like you voted in favor of it. Now, the agenda item is the consent agenda. That's the only thing that should be discussed is the consent agenda, which is not what you're talking about. You're looking for approval of the agenda. That's a different item that took place already. They're two different things. Now, that So, now before you approval of the consent agenda, I need to be able to rebut what he just said.

We're talking about the consent agenda. I said a point of order, not a consent of agenda. I said a point of order and a point of order. No, that is that is not a motion. Yes, it is. A point of order is not a motion. You asked for a point of order. A clarification of the rules procedure. I just gave you your clarification. Okay. You madam clerk, could you please take the role on the consent agenda? Shadel, I. Sanders, no. Sellers, I. Clem. Hi. Johnson. Hi. Simmons. Is absent. Parker. Hi. Stacy.

You're abstaining. I'm sorry I didn't hear you. So, we have 1 2 3 4 5 in favor, one opposed, one abstensia, one absent equals eight. Madame mayor, who had the second on that? Iden. Shadel. Thank you. And the motion passes. Thank you. Item number six is the presentation of safe streets for all. Matt and Lexi.

Should I just dive into it or

Okay. Um, thank you for having me tonight. My name is Matthew Deerall. I work for Alta Planning and Design. Um and today we're just giving a presentation um in offering uh adoption of the Freeport forward um SSRA safety action plan. So I'm going to give a highle overview in this presentation um of what is in the plan um and then discuss some next steps and I also want to um introduce my colleague Lexi Petrella who was the associate um or assistant project manager on this and I am the project manager. Um, so I'm definitely going to cover the slides, but I'm going to kind of go quick um and then see if there are questions because I know um you all have access to the plan. Um, and I would love to hear any thoughts or questions that you have. Um, so overall, I'm going to give a highle reminder of the plan. I was last here in February also uh during a snowstorm except we were on the front um front end of it uh before we left. Uh and so just a little bit about why this matters. Basically, uh crashes that um are harming or ending people's lives are unacceptable and we want to prevent them. That's in a nutshell what we're here uh to talk about. You can see uh some data on the bottom. You know, large increase in crashes over the study period. Uh four of them were fatal. Um and then you know the more vulnerable users of the road um are at greatest risk. On the next slide or am I am I doing the slide? Let me check. Oh, I can do the slides. Okay, cool. Um so the safe system approach as I was uh discussing um is about identifying the items that are causing

the most harm on our streets um and working to prevent them. And so the overall idea is that people are going to make mistakes as they are walking, biking, driving around um our communities. We don't necessarily think that it's possible to prevent those mistakes from happening, but what we want to do is um make sure that those mistakes don't end or significantly alter people's lives. So that's really what uh this is about. Um and then so that that's basically our our framework. Um and then the four phases you can see here is assessing the risk through some fairly rigorous data and safety analysis uh engagement and then we took those two things together along with some policy and some peer uh peer city analysis and developed strategies that the city of Freeport can um tackle moving forward along with some specific uh projects which we'll get to in a second. And then the final stage here towards the uh end of the year has been drafting the plan that's before you today. I got the slide here. Um and so the the vision that we are articulating here is a city where everyone can travel safely and confidently. Um it's it's fairly simple um and uh something that we believe uh can happen. So I'm going to move into the engagement approach. Uh there was a significant amount of engagement effort. Uh we developed a transportation advisory committee. Um and I can share uh kind of the the names and um represent representation of that committee um towards the end if you're interested. Uh we had an online survey uh with an input map and we got a lot of comments on that. um staff uh Darren and Derek uh Fair Graham uh did walk audits of several of the corridors uh field field

audits essentially um of the corridors um that rose to the top uh to get a sense of what the issues are. Um and then we held an open house again last February um here in this room. Um so over 150 residents engaged uh which we always you know we always want more people um to engage but we um are pretty happy with that um in in Freeport. Um and there's a variety of ways that people were engaged um as as mentioned. Uh so speeding was a big thing that was one of the major um themes that we heard from a lot of people and then also just places where there are no sidewalks and places where it's tough to cross the street. Those were um those are big themes that we heard in engagement. Uh so ro the role of the TAC uh to guide each phase of uh development of the plan. uh they uh helped review uh the each of the analyses and the memos that uh we developed that are in the appendices um that are also uh before you uh and then helped us think through the locations and what the priorities should be. Uh one thing that we were excited about that we sort of added um as a part of this trip is an implementation workshop with the TAC tomorrow morning. Um and we look forward to that as sort of a way to say all right we did all this work to develop uh what what I think is a robust and interesting plan. Um so what are some of the steps that we can do uh right away next year even uh to get started on implementation um and then even look farther uh into the future. So data the data analysis was fairly robust um lots of different interesting outcomes. Um, I think the main plan is it's about 70 pages. The appendices are like 150. This was a big part of that. And I'm not going to go into all of it,

but I want to go back to what I think I said at the beginning, which is a lot of this is how we figured out where the most harm on the streets of Freeport are. And it's one of the um I don't want to say good because we're talking about crashes, but one of the interesting parts of this method, which is identifying where the most harm is on a relatively small amount of roads. So the map to the right, especially the red, you know, the the brighter colors, that represents about 9% of streets in Freeport that account for about 60% of severe crashes. So crashes that um end in um fatalities or people's lives being [clears throat] dramatically altered because the crash um was very uh serious. Um move on to the next one. And I think I said some of that here. Um discussing, you know, we talked about infrastructure gaps like sidewalk gaps, things like that. Visibility at night um is a is a big one that we heard as well. And then we looked a lot at vulnerable road users and usually we mean people walking or biking when we say vulnerable road users or wheelchairs or things like that. So moving on to the recommendations. This was an interesting one because uh the city of Freeport manages the city uh streets um and ID do has a lot of uh really busy roads in Freeport. Um and so we wanted to identify a specific subset of ID dot highways um that showed up on the safety analysis. And one of the big things that we would like to encourage you all uh going forward and the TAC agreed in our most recent meeting um is that coordination with ID do will be really important to sort of raise the profile of these corridors uh to see if we can get some safety treatments um in

the coming years. Um so I think that'll be a big part of the implementation workshop um tomorrow. And we also recognize that the city only has so much um power over uh these corridors. Moving on to some of the areas where the city uh does have control. School crossings uh was an important part of this process. And so we identified just issues as school crossings. Now these aren't going to necessarily be the major infrastructure projects. a lot of uh the issues at school crossings can be addressed through striping, signage, you know, things like that. Um, but it's important uh to note uh that that's something that we want to uh focus on just to make sure kids can safely cross the street and get to school. Now, I think this is the most uh interesting or high level uh takeaways of the plan is identifying the five priority locations. Some of them, most of them are corridors and then there's um an intersection and so that's Adams Cherry Empire and Walnut intersection uh Kanis Drive and then Stevenson Street and we can we can come back to that um in a second. And then beyond sort of the physical infrastructure projects themselves, we included some goals moving forward. Um, and I think the main takeaway here other than getting on uh getting the state roads on ID do's radar is just thinking about safety holistically anytime you can. So thinking about how you program projects in the CIP um how you approach grant funding or seeking grants. Uh there's staff training. Uh doing things quickly. So we call it the quick build um method of implementation using lower cost um but high value um materials such as

ballers, striping um movable items, things like that that can be implemented really quickly and see uh some safety improvements. Um because I think sometimes with with plans like these if all the projects are like five years out because we have to go write a big grant and then you know it's like it's like millions of dollars over five or 10 years I think you can lose momentum and so the quick build getting something done soon so people can sort of see the change is important and frankly can be uh fun and and keep people involved. And then we also included a safety action plan dashboard which is essentially a pretty interesting interactive website page that as you scroll down a lot of the really interesting findings will will appear and you can click and zoom and look at different maps and see where the crashes were, see the corridors that we identified um in a really interacting and interesting way. And that's a this is a requirement to have something like this is a requirement because transparency is really important and then also evaluation and tracking progress as you go is also really important. So this is something that the city can um up update um as as time goes by. There's just an example static example of what's what's on there. And again like I mentioned um in the website itself you can like zoom in on this map and and play around uh as much as you want. All right. So the implementation um road map I I think we have a fairly clear road map in the plan uh going from quick build to permanent um projects. There's some information on uh coordination again with the state and with with others. Um and then I'll also

note in the plan review period um o in November um we did add a couple other things on non-infrastructure items uh so dozens of people uh commented on the plan itself and most of them uh were more about getting the word out you know encouragement um trying to help people slow down you know things like that and so we thought that was a good uh finding from uh the engagement period the review of the plan and so we we added that uh to what's before you. So, what does adoption mean? I think the main thing is that it really helps. It's like the whole point actually uh is to make you eligible for federal grants to implement some of these ideas. So, that's the big one, but also it's just important because um there are a variety of strategies, a variety of ways that this can be hopefully useful for you. And so we think that adoption is helpful uh from that perspective as well. And then in the implementation workshop tomorrow, we're going to assign champions. And I think that's such an important part of this. Um I have a saying that if you have no champion, you have no project. And so basically a champion can be somebody that really like takes something, they own it, um they help make sure that it uh gets implemented. And so we hope to do that tomorrow. And then we'll also uh talk more about uh annual tracking going forward. That's all I have in terms of presentation. I'm very curious to see if you all have questions or comments.

Thank you, Matt. Uh we'll open it up. Does anyone have any questions concerning the presentation?

Darren.

Yeah, I just want to make a brief comment. So, I I've seen some of the comments um regarding uh you know, a safety action plan being a crime study. I wanted to remind everybody that this was grant dollars that we were received from IDOT to do this study. So, it's based on street safety of traffic, pedestrians, and bicyclists. That was the focus uh of this entire project. And that's that's why we came up uh with the list we did. And I also wanted to mention that our group um uh and the data kind of came together that the Walnut Empire uh intersection where the streets are offset uh has become kind of our number one focus of projects that we would like to get implementation money for. So the process, the way ID do works is in order to get implementation money, you had to do the planning study in order to qualify. Um, uh, Freeport, city of Freeport and the county are the only two municipalities I know locally that actually have have, uh, gone through this process and the county did receive some implementation money to do some some safety action, uh, items. So, it is a positive benefit to have done this and ad adopt the plan means that the city's support of us chasing the implementation money.

Thank you, Alderman Johnson. Yeah, I read through it and it's quite an intensive uh study that was done and so thank you for all the work that you did. It was a lot of work and recognizing the areas that need to be um fixed. I did was curious to see if you did uh include possibly um ages of people that were in the accidents or if they were people that lived in the city of Freeport or not that were involved in the accidents. I don't know if that's something that was included or not in the study. Uh so directly connecting with people who had been in

Yeah. In accidents, you know, you had the number of accidents. I was just kind of curious those people that lived in the city or the age group that it might have involved

for the all the accidents as well. But um also I I know that the city's been very good lately or has had a better relationship with ID do. So I have no doubt that this will help implement some more of those dollars coming in uh to correct the issues that are here in the city. And um I do know also that and we all know that the um the intersection of of um Park and Stevenson there did have a lot of work done on this summer. There's more to do but it it's just you know we can see the improvements happening. So um that's much appreciated. So thank you for all your work and I believe that it'll go forward and free definitely will improve and be better and safety especially for the kiddos at school. Thank you.

Happy to hear that. Okay, then let's move on to the adoption of resolution 2025143. Madam clerk, could you please read this resolution adopting a safety action plan as a part of the city's participation in the US Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration safe streets for all grant? Thank you, manager. [clears throat] Uh yes. Uh, I would like uh council to support this moving forward so we can uh move forward with the safety uh uh safe streets for all grant. Is there a motion to adopt? Move. Second.

A motion [clears throat] made by Alderman Clem, seconded by Alderman Sers. Discussion on the resolution. Alderman Stacy. Yes. What is this going to cost the city? [snorts] Darren, at this point, nothing. Uh this is strictly going after implementation money. So adoption of the plan doesn't cost anything. Just gives us the ability to chase grant dollars and bring them back to Freeport. Okay. But still even through ID do they only pay a certain percentage and we have to pay a percentage back in return.

Um it depends on the grant and each one's different. A lot of times I do grants are 8020, but it depends on the specific grant and which dollars you're chasing, but true uh implementation money. So let's say I'm picking a number because I don't know it off the top of my head, but let's say that the Walnut Empire intersection would cost $2 million to renovate, straighten out, make safer. Um, and they went to an 8020 match uh to do that. If if that wasn't the case, we would never be able to afford it as a city. But this remember this is just about adopting the safety action plan, zero dollars, right?

But when you when you commit to adopting this plan, then you have to accept all that comes with it, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Well, each it whatever those pieces are will have to come before council. This is just the plan to get us going in that direction. That is correct.

And and I'm shocked that West and South Street was not even on that map because you've already said it's nothing they could do with West and South for people crossing and this and that. So, uh, West and South was, um, in the ID do corridors, but we just received the HIPPA grant to address the sidewalks in that neighborhood of what was it, $2.3 million. And I will uh give Matt and Lexi some credit because we had early data on the ID do corridors that they shared with us that we were able to share with IDOT as part of that grant submitt showing that that area was in need of having sidewalks which helped our grant application to get the the his received. So, I think honestly we've already seen a benefit from the study even though it wasn't 100% complete because the um if you if you went back to the map, the ID do map that anybody looked at it, a lot of our heavy crash data locally surrounds the ID do corridors, especially near the traffic signals.

Yeah. Any further discussion on the action plan? Madam clerk, please take the role. Shadel, I. Sanders I Sers I Clem hi Johnson I Simmons I Parker I and Stacy no the resolution is adopted 7 to one.

Thank you. Item number seven is the presentation of the draft of the 202628 strategic plan. Derek [laughter] Good evening everybody. Thanks for having me tonight. I'm excited to share this plan with you. I um have talked to the the folks that were a part of the planning process a couple times and and even shared this in some of my emails to all of you that um when I think back to the very beginning of your strategic planning journey, I think this was back in 2017 when you did your first plan as a city ever. Um, and you look at some of the things that were in that plan. Some of those things are still in there, but um, that plan was a lot about really basic blocking and tackling. Um, figuring out how to start repairing streets. You're going to see some highlights in here about how many streets you've repaired recently. Anyway, um thinking about it was a lot about tree removal and home demolition and and those sorts of things. And I think you're going to see a different story. Some of those elements are in this plan, by the way. There's still more to do. Um but I think you'll see a different story in this plan. And it's been exciting to see Freeport

um continue to work a plan and get things done and check those off and make a new plan and continue to um have success. So looking forward to walking you through that. I'm going to hit highlights. I won't read this to you. Um but I will uh walk you through the plan so you can get more familiar with it. Um tonight we're just uh reviewing this draft. Um so the plan itself has components. Um a little bit of an about page here. uh a vision for what Freeport should can look like in 20 uh oh good 20 240. Um and uh a mission statement as well. Sorry, I clicked the wrong button there. There we go. Um and so these reflect uh where the city's going. The vision statement is literally written to be uh like a person, you know, visiting Freeport and and uh seeing here's what they would see. Freeport is a destination of choice. So they they wanted to come here, right? Um our innovative city boasts a thriving businessfriendly economy with vibrant and safe neighborhoods. Freeport supports an abundance of educational, cultural, and family oriented experiences for all residents, including visitors. uh our community is connected, accessible, and welcoming and there are opportunities uh for growth for all. So that's the vision. That's where we're trying to go. Each plan walks you towards that vision. Um and then your mission statement is about how you work as a city, as a city government in particular. This is a plan for the city government to execute. uh citizens and partners and other folks will have, you know, roles to play, but at the end of the day, um it's owned by the city of Freeport proper. Um and the mission is to strive to improve the quality of life

for all residents living and working in this community by maximizing opportunities for social and economic development while ensuring an attractive, sustainable, and secure uh environment. So, um that's sort of the basis for the whole plan. Everything is about making those things happen in this plan uh at least incrementally right as we go along. Uh it's organized into priority areas. So you can see here um these these priority areas are this pretty much the same as last year. We did change I think uh neighborhoods and housing has a greater emphasis on on neighborhoods and the idea of building strong neighborhoods. Um, and uh, I think the rest might have stayed the same as we go along. Um, so they just help you sort the plan and and bring focus to each area of the plan. I'll hit highlights of of each one of these as we go through uh, the plan. Um, the first one is uh, safe inclusive community and you just took a step to help make that happen by uh, uh, passing a safety plan. Um, some highlights here. When it when we looked back at the last plan, uh, some of your key strategies in the last plan were police department staffing, um, the idea of adding a social worker, um, the idea of, uh, improving the use of technology, um, increasing the, uh, the diversity of the of the force so that it better represents the community. These are all ideas in the last plan and you can see in these bullet points a lots of those things have happened. Um you can see a lot of technology in that third bullet point and uh and then improvements to staffing in the second bullet point there. So just some highlights from the last plan. Um main strategies as we look

forward are uh continuing to work on the police census um and and fire department census, right? the number of staff we have and building that strong team to keep the community safe. Um deploying more technology, looking for areas to continue to use technology. You've been having some success in that area. And um and then continuing neighborhood watch programs and and some of those those ideas as well. So those are um all part of uh the overall plan here as it relates to safety. And you can see every also oops I went too far. Um you can see every section also has targets and milestones. So we're not just saying uh what we hope to do. We're actually outlining exactly how you can measure whether it happens. Uh and uh and you'll get regular updates on on how that works. So for example, you can measure the police force census and demographics. Uh same with the fire department. um looking at response times, grant dollars that are coming in, things like that will help you know if you're on track with this section of the plan in neighborhoods and housing. Um like I mentioned, this features a little bit of shift to thinking more about how neighborhoods uh can become stronger overall. Um and yet some of those those basics that are you've been working on in your neighborhoods are showing up here. So, um, if you look at progress, uh, 422 trees, that's that's a tree, you know, more than every day being removed. And, um, planting 150, uh, to still, you know, keep we want trees in our town. We're just had trees that were, uh, you know, not not having a a good time and need to go away. So, um, working through

those. Um, home demolitions as well, still showing up. we're on track continuing to make progress in in cleaning up neighborhoods that need that support. Um so those are things you've accomplished in the past. Looking forward, we're looking at how do we support refresh Freeport even more? Uh expanding that that cleanup program and incentives that help homeowners uh and and landlords um take better care of their property. um continuing enforcement and other supports to improve rental property standards. Um the a big one there in the middle is completing a a development of a downtown master plan. Um so looking at the downtown as a whole, this is successful in cities all over the country. Um, you know, by having a plan, just like you just heard in your safety plan, by having this plan, it helps you attract funding and developers in this case and and other partners to help you uh continue to build up your downtown. Um, so those are some of the probably the highlights uh inside of this page. You can see the targets and milestones are also very clear as well. So you can look over the course of the year and say, well, how are we doing? is are are people using refresh report? We have a target of 200 participants by the time we get to the end of 2027. You can ask how that's going. Um you know rental properties being registered, external funding, tracking dollars that are coming into the city. Um you know some of you are thinking about well what's this plan going to cost? Well, if you bring in a half a million dollars uh to support external funding in the city uh to help take care of uh demolition and bright and blight work that you're doing. Um that makes a big difference. Those are dollars that are coming from outside in the form of grants and not coming from taxpayers here in Freeport. Um those are examples of the kinds of

things that we're we're measuring in each area. Uh another category is quality communication engagement. So this is about how the city communicates uh and engages with citizens overall. Um in the past you had goals around improving bilingual communications. Actually started we created a a plan during that period and launched it um and and actually started producing some some bilingual communication tools. Um, we also launched quarterly newsletters in the utility bills. Um, using water notices in multiple languages, those sorts of things. Improving road construction and public notification. Uh, improving the use of your Facebook page. I follow your page and it's uh pretty interesting to see um, you know, the information that's happening about, you know, a street closure or a street improvement that happened or celebrating something that the city accomplished. So these are all part of the communication strategy as is this plan by the way. So if your citizens want to know, hey, what's the city going to do for me in the next few years? They can flip through this. It's you can see it's easy to read. Uh it's uh regular language for the most part when we can. We try not to make it too technical. Um and in a pretty quick read, uh a group of citizens could understand what the city's goals are. Um so gives gives a lot of really clear direction about what's going to happen. key strategies in this category going forward. Um continuing to build on um bilingual uh communications, uh continuing to participate in events and being out and visible in the community. Um creating a dashboard uh to help you see. So you just saw an example of a safety dashboard. uh we're planning a uh dashboard that would let you see at a glance how you're doing on some of the

most important things that you're working on in any given year. And you know, maybe that dashboard gets updated quarterly, for example. Um so those are some of the highlights in this area. You can see targets and milestones here. I like to look at those because it's kind of, you know, if you're not sure what's going to come out of the strategy, you can always look at the target and milestone and say, "Oh, okay. I see we're going to have more. we're going to count. We're gonna have more bilingual communications or we're going to have a dashboard complete and being utilized quarterly at a meeting. Those are tangible things you can look for and see if they're really happening. All right, next one. Reliable, strong infrastructure. Uh the next couple sections are um you know core to your budget, core to what cities do at city government level. Um, you know, people rely on city government to make sure their sewer and water and garbage and sidewalks and roads, you know, the first things people think about when they think about city government for most people. And this section is all about that. So, uh, you can see a lot of progress in um, in the past here. Uh, and you'll see even a bigger list of things coming up when we turn the page. Um, but you know, if you just tick through this one, for example, um, you've had the Adams Avenue reconstruction, an 11 million, uh, project there. You've got five mi over five miles of water main, almost four miles of sewer. Um, about the same number of um, linings in in the sewer lines, the lead service replacement. you guys are leading um many cities in the state in terms of replacing lead water lines. Um so 1,92 lead services replaced and and a few

more to finish up in in when we turn the page you'll see that um you've got new wells online. So these are these are you know big time uh infrastructure projects. Wastewater treatment plant getting $5 million in external funding. So again, uh, $5 million in external funding means funding that you got a grant or some other source to give Freeport money that so the taxpayers didn't have to pay for that portion of the WA wastewater treatment plant. Um, and you'll see all the way through the city uh does a pretty uh pretty terrific job of bringing in external dollars. Um, another one is uh internet. So you've got um a second internet provider committing to put citywide uh connections uh throughout the entire city for internet. So you'll have a redundancy at that point. You won't have just one provider. Um these are all really important for your growth in the future. So that's what you've done whole page almost. Um and this is what you're going to do. Um so it's a packed page. I'm not going to read all these to you, but you should spend some time thinking about all of these. Some highlights though, um doubling the funding for residential matching grants. So you've been offering citizens a $1.50 uh a square foot to help them replace sidewalks, you know, with a match and you're going to double that to $3. Uh and it fits inside of your budget. Um executing the street improvement plan. So, continuing to work on streets to the tune of 17 and a half miles of streets being paved on average over the next five years. Um, that's total over the five years. Um, so that'll be uh a big impact. Um, [snorts] partnering with ID do, you've got um ID do support coming and and uh if you kind

of go down, I think I have that in here where you can see it. Well, maybe it's on a different page though. Anyway, um kind of, you know, related to the safety, but also just uh partnering with ID do on those thoroughares to draw in dollars to help you um repave those streets as well. Not not just make them safer, but make them smoother, too, so when you're driving by, they they feel better. um lift stations again, water treatment plants like that, you know, there's a long list of infrastructure projects um that you've got in the pipeline there for the next two to three years. Um and again, that's in the next two to three years, by the way. So, this will be a lot of lot of action here. Um targets and milestones to pay attention to. Um miles of street paved, right? uh how many dollars of external funding are we bringing in to support this so we can offset the cost to our citizens. Right? So those are key targets that we'll be measuring and tracking and and sharing with all of you. Um completion of lift stations and storm water basins and things like that as well. So, lots of infrastructure, economic development also a big function of the city and again um eating up two pages in your plan. So, um last over the last few years um you've had land acquisitions um you've developed a pocket park. um you've gotten uh site readiness grants and um launched a campaign to help attract and retain workforce in the community. Just a few highlights, right? It's not everything that's happened. Um too fast. [clears throat] Excuse me. So, um here, this one focuses on uh a few

categories, but it's all about attracting and growing uh business or making sure the infrastructure exists for that to happen. So the greater Freeport Partnership drives a lot of your economic development efforts. Um you we want to some of the goals are related to improving retention uh and and growth of existing businesses. So a big focus on that obviously attracting new businesses if we can.

Um expanding retail uh you know in and around the Meadow Shopping Area, building on that $13 million investment that's that's happened in the past. um creating a five-year economic development plan for the airport. So, you know, the airport's there. How do we leverage that? What can we do to to have that become an economic driver for the community? Um these are these are just some of the highlights I'm just popping through. You can read through these more as you go. And then, you know, so if we do all that, so what, right? Well, you should have more businesses retained. You should have more jobs in the community. And these are things we can track and see if we're making progress. For example, um shovel ready sites are some of the infrastructure things we can do to help an industry or a business relocate or move here. Um obviously the airport plan being done. Uh and then you know if you want more workers, they've got to live somewhere. So um are we developing housing and and tracking that in in the course of our economic development efforts? Next section is about how the government works. Um, so everything from what these city council meetings are like and how people can engage in them. Um, and how they actually function to, uh, how the staff, you know, delivers the water bill and whether people understand it and can pay it on time, right? So, and everything in between. There's a long range of things in between that go into the city actually being a responsive and efficient government. So, um, the first thing that we highlighted here in progress updates is the amount of money you've been able to bring into the community. Um, I'm not trying to do that. [laughter] Um, over the last uh, few years. So, $83

million in grants and forgivable loans.

Um, right. So, forgivable loans are loans that if you execute them the way you're supposed to execute them over time, you don't have to pay them back, right? they essentially turn into a grant. So, $83 million of grants and forgivable loans have been secured over the past five years from outside the community and that's gone to streets and fire and police service, water and sewer services, fiber optics, neighborhoods, etc. Um, that's pretty incredible and speaks to um government efficiency. You know, the other side of that is either that work didn't get done, you didn't get the streets and the fiber, etc. or the community paid for itself, right? Whichever. So, I'd rather have the $83 million if I'm living here. Um, partnership with Fair Graham has has secured $47 million. So, they come and report to these meetings on a regular basis and you're like, man, how much are we paying them? Well, you're not paying them $47 million. I know that. So, you're winning uh with Fair Graham. Um, Surf Internet is going to invest uh 15 or invested $15 million. That investment secured. So, these are all dollars that the city and ID do, this is what I was looking for earlier. Um, the partnership committed for $3.5 million for overlays in Stevenson and Lincoln and Walnut and Adam streets, right? And I could read all these to you. I just want you to see uh the impact of these dollars and the focus that the city has on bringing them um in terms of progress from the past, right? But looking ahead, you got to keep doing that. So, that game's over. new game looking forward. Um, continuing to build on that, increasing forgivable loan and grant programs to maximize pay taxpayer dollars, a key strategy. Um, improving collaboration and using technology to increase efficiency inside of how we work as a government, key strategy. Um, staff development, succession planning, so we've got good talent running and supporting this city.

um helping the the council all of you um be more prepared and um and and be involved and engaged um is a key strategy as well and uh hopefully you'll all engage in that as well. So targets and milestones, how much money and [clears throat] grant can we bring in? Are there staff development plans in place including succession goals? Is that city dashboard I mentioned established so we can share information and you all can see how things are going? And those are some of the key things from that section. Uh connected accessible community. Um another focus area in the plan. Um this is connection meaning all kinds of things. Transportation um primarily but you know trails, biking, walking, how do you get around? How do you stay um get from one place to the other? or how connected are you? So, big focuses here are around accessibility. How can we continue to improve accessibility? How can we continue to improve um walkability and and being able to bike and you know hop on a trail, those sorts of things for recreation, but also maybe even just to get around town better. And then um can we also explore um how to increase maybe even public transportation? Right? So, those are the key strategies you see there. by the way, you've been making progress adding ADA ramps and and getting that ADA transition plan in place um in terms of uh that sort of accessibility and then targets and milestones. Sorry, below the screen here. Um tracking that, right? Are you building those those bike and pedestrian ways? Are you getting funding to support that? um were you able to make route

improvements um to pretzel city and then are we making the city more accessible by um hitting our target with uh ADA ramps. So those are all uh measures of this portion of the plan. [laughter] Sorry, excuse me. Next section is um all about public private partnerships. Um, cities don't operate in a vacuum and they don't get the kind of things done you're getting done without uh being uh having both public partnerships with, you know, state agencies, etc., but also private partnerships with um nonprofit groups and and even individual businesses in some cases. um some of the progress you've seen in the past um you know the yield program connecting students to opportunity um high hope freeport and and faith leaders for peace partnership to uh address violence you couldn't be doing that on your own right um so those are just a couple highlights in that section um and if you get to the next page um lots of strategies here around partnership, continuing to expand and and deepen the partnerships you have um around all kinds of categories whether that's with ID do engaging youth in a youth council is is a concept in this uh plan and then looking at health care and park districts and you know senior resources and um you know the list goes on here of different partnerships that you can strengthen and uh try to impact the results you're as a community um with the city, you know, either taking a lead or being a convenor of some of these partners often. So, you can see targets and milestones around are we able to increase opportunities like like mentoring or new services or healthcare

services um or park district experiences etc through these partnerships. So that's that section is about and then uh I think this is the last section if I recall. Um vibrant arts and culture experiences. This is something that um was not in your first plan. Um and neither was partnerships by the way. Uh or maybe if it was it was very small in the first plan. So the idea that you can get more done with partners or that you can um you know attract and and retain people in your community through vibrant arts and culture has been something that has been building momentum as uh as you've grown uh as a community and um re in recent progress the arts and culture commission was formed and that led to the sculpture sculptor I can't say that word today sculpture project I did it um you know, which is a pretty cool amenity for your city. Um there's a speaker uh that I like. Um she she actually lives in um Oaks, North Dakota, which is a town of 600 people. Um and she speaks all over the country about how cities grow. And one of the things she talks about is this idea of amenitizing. She made up that word. It's not a real word. Um amenitizing your community by having things like sculpture or more coffee shops, right? Or um more things to do. This idea that amenities actually make people want to be in your city um more and more. And so um you guys are implementing that kind of strategy that uh we're seeing working all over the country. Uh, so it's great to see you leading on that. Um, looking forward, you've got an arts and culture commission, which is great. Um, now, how can they start driving events? Maybe

they could outline an arts and culture district. Um, arts and culture districts can be used to attract funding and support to have more arts and culture uh, events and and amenities in your community. Um, so those are all the kinds of things that are in here. Riverwalk development, um, cultural festivals, those types of things are all in this. And we would measure it all, right, to see if it's actually working. We're going to keep doing things that don't work um or don't seem to make an impact. So, you know, not only how many events you had and who came, but did they make an economic impact and and how much was that, right? So, you can see, is it helping businesses grow in and around the arts and culture district, for example, if you form one? um those kinds of things that you'd be able to measure in the future. So um these are some of the awards you've gotten over time. Just highlighting those in the uh document this time around. This is all of you. You're familiar with who you are. I'll leave it there. Any questions or

Okay, we'll open it up for discussion on the presentation. Okay, then let's go to the adoption of resolution 2025 144. Madam clerk, could you please read that resolution approving a strategic vision and goals plan for 2026 through 2028? Thank you, manager. Uh, thank you, your honor. You've just seen the uh the presentation on our future strategic plan as we move forward. Um staff requests you uh move forward with the resolution to uh accept the strategic plan. Is there a motion to adopt? Some move. Second.

Motion made by Alderman Sers, seconded by Alderman Clem. Discussion on the resolution. Madam clerk, please take the role. Shadel, I. Sanders, abstain. Sellers, I. Plum, I. Johnson, I. Simmons, I. Parker, I. and Stacy. No. And the resolution is adopted. One, two, three, four, five, six. Six in favor, one opposed, one abstentia. Thank you, Eric. Item number eight is the second reading of ordinance 202561. Could you please read this fiscal year 2026 appropriation ordinance?

Manager Buer. Uh, thank you, your honor. Uh we have uh gone over the 2026 appropriation ordinance and staff recommends moving forward and approving it tonight. Discussion on this ordinance. Madam clerk, please take the role. Shadel, I I'm sorry. Sanders, no. Sellers, I. Clem, hi. Johnson, hi. Simmons, hi. Parker, hi. And Stacy, no. The ordinance um passes 6 to2. Item number nine is the second reading of ordinance 202562. Could you please read this? City of Freeport tax levy.

Manager Boyer. Uh thank you, your honor. Just to recap, uh the city will be keeping the tax levy uh level uh or no increase uh as of last year and staff request moving forward with the uh 2025 city uh tax levy. Discussion on this ordinance. Madam clerk, please take the role. Shadel, I. Sanders, no. Sellers, I. Plem, hi. Johnson, I. Simmons, hi. Parker, I. And Stacy, no. And that ordinance passes 6 to2.

Item number 10 is a second reading of ordinance 202563. Could you please read this? Freeport public library tax levy. Interim Director Myers.

Thank you. The city council adopts a separate levy for library operations each year. In 2023, the library reduced the levy levy request for Medicare liability insurance, unemployment, and IMRF in order to spend down prior reserves in these areas. At the time, we were informed council that these rates would need to increase when funds were exhausted. The equalized assessed value for the city of Freeport has decreased by $105,04 over the last year. Due to this decrease, any additional increment from rising property values is not available. The other alternative is to increase the tax rate. As the 2023 levy was decreased previously in order to spend down reserves, the library would like to increase the tax the rate for 2025 paid in 2026. The library may increase their tax rate, but only to an amount under 5% of the previous level. Based on this information, the library's levy request for 2025 paid in 2026 is $1,114,500. This increase would generate 52,500 more in property taxes from last year. Property taxes make up 84% of the library's income. A house valued at 100,000 would see an increase of $6 in the library portion of the tax bill. City staff recommends adopting the ordinance.

Thank you. Discussion on this ordinance. Madame clerk, please take the role. Shadel, I. Sanders, I. Sellers, I. Clem, I. Johnson, I. Simmons, hi. Parker, I. And Stacy, no. The ordinance passes 7 to one. Item number 11 is uh this will be a motion to abate all real estate tax levies for repayment for the general obligation bonds. Madam Cler, could you please read Ordinance 202562 through 72, please?

Ordinance 202564 is to abate the 2025 real estate tax levy for the repayment of the general obligation bonds series 2013a. Ordinance 202565 abates the 2025 real estate tax levy for the repayment of the general obligation bonds series 2014b. Ordinance 202566 abates the 2025 real estate tax levy for the repayment of the general obligation bonds series 2015a. Ordinance 202567 abates the 2025 real estate tax levy for the repayment of the general obligation bonds series 2016. Ordinance 202568 abates the 2025 real estate tax levy for the repayment of the general obligation bonds series 2018. Ordinance 202569 abates the 2025 real estate tax levy for the repayment of the general obligation bonds series 2019a. Ordinance 202570 abates the 2025 real estate tax levy for the repayment of the general obligation bonds series 2020. Ordinance 202571. Ordinance to abate the 2025 real estate tax levy for the repayment of the general obligation bonds series 2021. and ordinance 202572 abating the 2025 real estate tax levy for the repayment of the general obligation bonds series 2022.

Thank you manager Ber. Uh thank you your honor. Uh the the bond abatements have been discussed at the committee of the whole and also first reading at the last u council meeting and staff request city council approve the abatement ordinance. Discussion on these abatements. Madame Clerk, Alderman Stacey. Yes. Um, are these payments made through the tiff districts that these uh obligation bonds fall in? No.

Any other discussion? Madame Clerk, please take the role. Um, I'm sorry. Did I'm sorry, Michelle. Um, Director Richtor, clarification. Can you put your microphone down, please? Sorry, Debbie. Um, there's, let's see, I think there's only two. Yeah, on the memo it segregates that there's two um bonds that have portions of them that come from the TIFFs.

And what numbers are those? uh 2015A has a percentage because that one's divided up among the TIFF, the general fund, um storm fund and sewer funds, and then also the downtown tiff um bond 2018 all comes from downtown. [snorts] Madam clerk, please take and the the 2015 a was what? Which tiff? downtown. They both from downtown. Yeah, they are. Yeah, they're both from downtown. Madam clerk, please take the role. Shadel, I.

Sanders, no. Sellers, I. Plum, hi. Johnson, I. Simmons, hi. Parker, I and Stacy, I. The ordinances 64 through 72 are passed by a vote of 7 to one. Item number 12 is the second reading of ordinance 202573. Could you please read this ordinance authorizing the sale, recycling, donation, andor disposal of certain personal property owned by the city. Tonight we have equipment stored at Alberta's airport. Minister Ber.

Uh thank you honor. We had first reading at the last city council meeting about uh surplus inventory at the Albert airport and staff recommends moving the ordinance forward uh for destruction or sale. Discussion on this ordinance. Madam clerk, please take the role. Shadel, I. Sanders, hi. Sers, hi. Clem. Hi. Johnson. Hi. Simmons. Hi. Parker. I. And Stacy. I. The ordinance passes 8 to zero. Item number 13 is the first reading of ordinance 202578. Could you please read this?

Ordinance amending chapter 1020 streets generally section 1020.13 erection of banners signs etc to prohibit the placement of signage on any city street alley or public way. Thank you Director Heimerdinger.

Thank you madame mayor. This city staff planning commission and building commission are working on cleaning up zoning codes and ordinances as it relates to signage. Chapter 1020 section 13 was evaluated by the planning commission and a public hearing was held during their Thursday, November 13th meeting to discuss the changes. The planning commission has recommended moving it to council. Um I'm going to read the current ordinance and then afterwards I'll read the modified what we are um discussing tonight. So the current ordinance reads as follows. No person shall erect, fix, fly or maintain any banner, sign, flag, advertisement or other such device regardless of its height over and across any street, alleyway or public way except with the prior approval of the city manager. No, the modified ordinance is as followed. Uh, no person shall erect, fix, fly, or maintain any banner, sign, flag, advertisement, or other such device regardless of its height upon, over, or across any street, alley, or public way within the city. The prohibits prohibitions of [clears throat] this section shall not apply to the installation of any signage or maintenance of any banner or decoration by the city, nor to any signage erected by another roadway district within its own right of way. Um, as you can see, these changes do not alter the idea behind chapter 10 20 section 13, which is that signs are not allowed in public way or right away. Instead, these changes bring clarity, ensure fair treatment, and address necessary signage that is permitted to be in the public way and rightway by the city and other roadway districts within the city of Freeport. Staff in the planning commission recommends moving to a second reading of this ordinance.

Thank you. Is there a motion to move this forward? So move. Second. We have a motion made by Alderman Shadel, seconded by Alderman Sers. [clears throat] Discussion on this ordinance? Thank you. Item number 14 is the first reading of ordinance 202579. Could you please read this? Fiscal year 2025 reappropriation ordinance. Thank you, Director Richtor.

Thank you. At the end of each fiscal year, the city council amends the appropriation ordinance to take into account necessary revenue and expense adjustments. I do have several to read, so I'll I'll try and be concise. Um the memo identifies each of the changes and along with the um ordinance there was an exhibit A in your packet which represents all of the changes um numerically. Uh so we have made um adjustments to several of the state revenues based on actual receipts from the Illinois Department of Revenue. sales tax increased by 323,000. Home rule sales tax increased by 200,000. Um, however, special use tax reduced was reduced by 245,000. I'd like to explain this just a little bit. um special use tax. You might recall on your personal income tax, there's always a line that says, "Have you bought something in another state, but you wish to pay tax for it now on your income taxes?" That's special use tax. Um this has from the Department of Revenue now been rolled into our regular sales tax line item. It's not going to be separate anymore. We've saw a dramatic decrease in those revenues this year because they're just rolling them into the sales tax line item. We receive each of these items separately from the Illinois Department of [clears throat] Revenue. Uh we've also seen re reductions in the areas of electric and natural gas. So there's been adjustments there. And also cable television tax. Um the city um does have a tax on cable television.

However, um people are now moving personally moving away from um cable and they're streaming. They're just getting internet only, that kind of thing. So, we're see we have been seeing that over these last few well several years. We've slowly seen reductions to cable television tax. Um school resource officer. um our agreement to provide a school resource officer was reestablished um late this past year um as we didn't budget for it. So it has been reestablished and so we're um we receive a portion of the salary um to the city. Um we received several small grants. We don't usually um budget for these grants as we don't know they're coming in. So we received grants for tasers. Um we received uh grants for the AED units that we purchased in the spring. Um uh COME Ed gave us um support to the streetlight um program uh 35,000 and then also PD um is receiving a retail crime grant for 9,000. Um a couple other things quickly that we're we added uh revenue um overweight oversight load permits. Um that was new this year. We've added a new ordinance. We're tracking that revenue separately. Um airport grant. We increased the amount of funding coming in for airport grants. We're receiving residual grants uh grant funding from a couple projects that they're finishing up. the um roadway um is one of the grants um that we're and the fencing grant that we're still receiving a little bits of money. They're just about wrapped up. Um spiller fee, we never know if we're ever going to if we get spiller fee unless an incident happens and so we had a hazmat it's incident. Uh we're able to bill

wherever that happened at um to recoup the cost of the materials that were used to clean up that incident [snorts] and insurance proceeds. We generally don't pro budget for insurance proceeds as it's really unpredictable but this year we received some insurance proceeds due to the police building and the HVAC electrical issue that happened over there. On the expense side in the general fund um you'll see that we've added in the smaller funds um we had additional costs in our medical insurance as our pool uh required additional funds to be part of the terminal reserve. It's a little bit complicated, but we're part of a pool. We need to um have funds in um in reserve with them. And they had increased that a little bit. It didn't affect the big departments. It only affected the small departments that only have one or two employees in the department. So, you'll see that throughout my memo. [clears throat] Um finance department, uh increase of $300 for overtime due to tight turnaround times and holidays and vacations. uh increase um to bank fees, decrease in other technical services um and an increase to computer software. This year we added the new AP automation module in our financial software. So that was just a switch from one line item to another. Uh legal department, we did have to do some increases in this area. We had two bargaining unit contract negotiations this year. Um and then we have a increase to our outside legal uh government buildings. We've had um kind of the opposite to the um insurance proceeds on the PD that we had this is where the expense line comes out of so out of government building. So we had to increase the expense line item where we also increase the revenue line item.

Um we had to in government building we had to increase the capital outlay for the storm windows. We thought this wind this project was going to be substantially completed last year. So we that sometimes happens you know and this happens with grants as well is where you think you're going to be 50% done with that project but you're only 25% done by the time the year ends. Um so we have to make uh small adjustments for those types of things. Um, in the airport, we've decreased the airport management expense slightly. Um, we've decreased the contracted building repair and maintenance. Um, because we are significantly able to reduce the amounts of the cost to fixing the hanger roofs out there. Um, and then we increase the cost of the grant projects. So I this is another situation where we increased the revenue and we increased the expense they counter um cancel each other. Um cemetery we had some other technical services we needed to adjust for street lights. Um these were two big projects. Um well we added street lighting um per one of our resolutions earlier in the year. And then we also added um lights and I I might be corrected here. It had to do with the ID do corridors or downtown lights I think is what it was where this is where we got um um grant funding back um through um ID do uh community development we decreased non-bargaining wages due to the departure or departure of the community development director and we had some open time there and we had an open grants manager position. We increased um consulting services to assist with grant compliance for housing rehab grant.

And then we also decreased education, training and travel for 9,000. Police and fire. There are just a couple um changes there. Um with fire, we needed to increase the fire pension contribution that by 50,000. That amount's determined by our actuary. Um and we have to um per our agreement, our bond agreement, we need to increase that. Um we need to pay what the actuary says is due each year. Building department uh increase in health insurance expense and an increase in plumbing expenses inspections. Animal control uh we had a significant vehicle repair that we needed to cover. Um animal control is just one person very small department. So this was kind of a outlying expense um that wasn't anticipated. Um hearing administration was also increased due to increased hearings um for rental registration uh landlord rental registration and then interdep departmental. We had some other smaller uh increases in technical services, increase of postage due to postage rate increases, and also an increase of $12,660 for real estate taxes. And those are on the 5G cell tower properties, which we're working on trying to get that alleviate alleviated or reduced. Um, moving on to neighborhood housing. Uh, we have um a increase in real estate taxes of $600, increase to land property acquisition for property um being to be demolished and then a decrease to demolition expense. Healthc care fund. Several accounts needed to be adjusted in the healthcare

fund. This is where all of um the payments for our medical insurance um come into and we pay the bill out of uh bulletproof vest bulletproof vest grant. Um we had a slight increase um because the city has a city percent a 50% match. Um so we had to increase that a little bit. Um let's see. A lot of these are small. I'm sorry to keep going on and on. Um, uh, ES ETSB 911. This is a new category for us. We just started receiving these funds. We keep them tracked separately as they're for the 911 dispatch center. um we have found through the past year that we just needed to expand the number of categories to track expenses in 911. So that's why there was a change there. Um let's see. U we've made changes to the EV charger uh grant because we're anticipating um that to be fully funded. Um the let's see the library fund any changes in the library fund were reviewed by the library and the board approved their changes. Um I'm going to let's see the Lambroad tiff kind of skipped down just a couple to the Lamroad tiff. Um, I decreased the amount of reserves needed in 2025 as the walnut lift station project will not be completed in 2025. Um, so this is another one of those situations where we have to make an

adjustment at the beginning and the end of the year depending on how far that project is along. [snorts] um slight changes to West Avenue and Meadows TIFF. And coming on the last page here, um street improvement fund, I've increased the sales tax revenue by two 295,000. That's based on actual sales tax receipts that the way that they're coming in. and also reduced electric and national natural gas ta um taxes as those receipts are dropping. Um but the the big thing I wanted to that we have added here was the um project on 18th Avenue both the expense and the revenue um as this will be paid by the solar company I don't remember their name but um that will that project is a wash we will bill the the solar company for that um expense and then I did pro project to use the carryover fund funds in the street improvement fund of $1 million and we do have that in the fund. Um and that's kind of due to the um the vioaduct um and the status of where that is. We thought we'd be further along last year at the end of the year that's kind of taken a little bit longer. [snorts] Um and finally, um just small changes in the water fund and sewer fund. Um I did decrease the grant revenue in the water fund for 8 million just cuz those projects aren't quite here yet and those re those revenues aren't coming in yet. That's for um the water treatment plant number

12 which is still in the beginning stages. I'm sorry to be so lengthy. Is there a motion to uh move ordinance 202579 forward? So moved. Second. Oh, Linda. We have a motion made by Alderman Shadel, seconded by Alderman Sers. Discussion on this ordinance. Item number 15 is the first reading of ordinance 202580. Could you please read this ordinance adopting revised hanger lease form? Manager Boyer.

Uh thank you, your honor. As uh everyone's well aware, we've uh changed the lease agreement last year. Um several of the uh tenants brought forward uh some concerns about the language and uh we're adopting the language that they've uh requested the change. It is in um paragraph 6 repair and maintenance. So essentially it changes it essentially means the city's responsible for the electricity um the repair of the electricity in the hanger and also um uh see and the outside uh uh premise. So with that being said fairly minor changes. We're just trying to do our best to work with the um with the the current tenants uh to accomplish uh their concerns. So um there are currently seven unexecuted hanger leases which we're working on. Some of these are the related to the small portion of the wording for the leases and the current uh lease uh places the responsibility on the lease for maintenance of the lease premises excluding the roof and hanger door. Uh the electric and concrete and uh roof hanger door these all need to be changed uh moving forward. So staff recommends uh moving forward with uh this uh ordinance um for second reading.

Is there such a motion? So move a second. Motion made by Alderman Shadel, seconded by Alderman Johnson. Discussion on this ordinance. Alderman Stacy. What were you saying about the electric portion of this? Uh it's the wiring in the hanger was originally not included in the mechanicals and electrical responsibilities of the lease. So we're including the electrical um within the hanger. So now the city is responsible for all electrical work that needs to be done at the airport.

Well, it basically consists of some simple lighting circuits. So they were just wanting to see that included in the lease moving forward. And was that included in the budget? Yes. $4 million. I hope so. Just Sure. Manager Boyer, these were things that we kind of covered anyway. We've just now memorialized it in the lease. Correct. We didn't really add any responsibilities. We're just clarifying what the city will do.

Absolutely. This a clarification of what we always intended to do. It just hadn't been in the previous lease agreement. So, uh, Alderman Stacy. So, okay. Um, Miss Anderson, by you saying that, then you're saying we were covering stuff and committing oursel to stuff that we never even agreed on or never even knew about. Sure.

Not necessarily. It's like saying the original lease said we will take care of items one and two and we always did take care of three, four, and five. It's no different. Now the lease lists items 1 through five. Okay. So when we redid the lease cuz we redid the lease image like a year ago. Why didn't it say all that then? That's a very good question. I mean, think things come up. You know, the landlord takes care of certain items and it's

just, you know, you're going you're going to maybe your lease says the landlord's going to take care of your gutters, but it didn't mention the downspouts. Well, your your renter wants downspout listed in there. I mean, it's it's just kind of obvious things that should should be listed, right? Like concrete. Yes, absolutely. [clears throat] That was a very simple example, right? So staff recommends moving this on a second reading. We have the uh the first and second to move forward. Um item number 16 is the adoption of resolution 2025145. Could you please read this resolution establishing a ceremonial sister city relationship with Litz Pennsylvania? Thank you manager Ber.

Uh thank you your honor. Uh Freeport's recently developed a growing connection with Littis Pennsylvania. Uh they share many similarities with Freeport, the German heritage, strong downtown activity life, and a well-known pretzel identity. Tim Connors has served as the informal local ambassador to Lidditz and has proposed the city consider a ceremon ceremonial resolution establishing a sister city relationship. Uh the mayor of Litz has also expressed interest in moving forward with this partnership. Um, a sister city designation uh would recognize the goodwill already formed between both communities and the purpose is simple. Build friendships, share ideas, celebrate shared heritage and look for opportunities that strengthen both cities. Uh, possible areas of collaboration include tourism, cultural events, youth activities, uh, historic preservation and resident engagement. Uh, this action is ceremonial. It does not commit the city to program staffing or funding. Any future activities will be voluntary. communitydriven and brought to council if they require approval. The next step would be a joint statement of friendship and continued communication with litz. There's no direct financial impact. Any future costs would be evaluated separately. Staff recommends moving forward with the resolution establishing a sister city relationship with uh the city of Freeport um and the borrow of lit Pennsylvania.

Is there a motion to adopt? So moved. Second.

The motion [snorts] made by alderman Shadel, seconded by alderman Sers. discussion on the resolution. Alderman Stacy, I don't know if you, City Manager Boyer, done your homework, but I didn't mine. And I don't see what we have in common with this city. Um, it consists of about 9,700 people. Asian non-Hispanic 2.2%. Other Hispanic 1 55%. White Hispanic 2%. Black or AfricanAmerican 1.1%. White non-Hispanic 89.8%. Really, other than a pretzel, what do we have in common? If we're going to be joining something, I think it need to be something that we're compatible to. And while we're on this, I would like to make a motion that this topic be removed indefinitely.

Well, there's a motion on the floor for this to be removed indefinitely. Is there a second? I'll second that. The motion made by Alderman Stacy, seconded by Alderman Simmons. Discussion on removing indefinitely. I have a question. Sure. Is it just because of the nationalities or or or what is it? What do we have in common? What do we have in common with this city?

Well, would you mind if I answer that? there there's a lot of shared roots here of the German American heritage. There's a lot of shared pretzel which is really about craftsmanship and the tradition that both cities embrace. This is about um a resolution that encourages the practices of exchanging ideas in business, arts, culture and tourism. plans are actually uh we're planning on moving forward with different aspects through the GFP to uh explore cross promotional uh events, heritage tours, uh collaboration, branding efforts. They they have the the oldest first pretzel factory. We have um uh discussions of bringing them here for sale. There's there's actually it's much greater than just we don't have a lot in common as far as population.

They have their stuff together. Oh boy, do they have their stuff together. We the one that don't. We're the ones that don't. Uh Alderman, but if you feel they have their stuff together, why wouldn't we want to work with them to get our stuff together? That's what I can't understand. If if they have their stuff together and you feel that they're doing they have their stuff together, we don't. Right. So that we're not even in a place to even consider joining forces with this little rich.

Yes, let me finish. But evidently, they must feel something. The reason why they want to sister with us, I mean, if they were so good at what they were doing and and you feel that they're so great and they got their stuff together, they're saying, "Hey, we'll help you get your stuff together." Well, they only saw the side of the neighborhoods, too, but it's not. They didn't see the whole Freeport. They saw the downtown. There's more to Freeport than downtown. Let's look at the whole city. Well, they loved what they saw. So, of course they did. Before us is the removal of this indefinitely. If there's no more discussion on this particular motion. Madam clerk, please take the role on uh Yeah, I I I second it.

I don't need a second. Well, she she made a motion, didn't she? Yeah, I already have a second. She seconded. Okay. Yeah. So, if you could please take the role on the removal of the sister city. Uh, ordinance Shadel resolution Sanders. Yes. Sellers, no. Clem, no. Johnson, no. Simmons, likes that. That was an I. Parker, no. Stacy, yes. The motion fails. Three to five. Of course it does. So then before you is the passage of the resolution. Any further discussion on the resolution?

Madame clerk, please take the role. Shadel, yes. Sanders, no. Sellers, yes. Clem, yes. Johnson, yes. Simmons, hi. Parker, yes. Stacy, no. And the resolution is adopted 6 to2. Item number 17 is the adoption of resolution 2025146. Please read this. Resolution approving a capital improvement plan for 2026 2029. Director Richtor.

Thank you, your honor. As our community continues to grow and evolve, it's essential that we plan carefully for the maintenance, replacement, and improvement of our public infrastructure and facilities. To accomplish this, we are proposing the attached capital improvement plan, which is a long-term planning and budgeting tool designed to guide investments in major community assets. Um, a capital improvement plan is a multi-year roadmap that identifies and prioritizes major projects such as road repairs, water and sewer upgrades, public buildings, and other infrastructure investments. It outlines what needs to be done and when it should be done and how much it should cost and how it will be funded. It is important to have a capital improvement plan for strategic and transparent planning, efficient use of resources, financial stability and predictability, accountability, and supporting economic development. Attached is the city of Freeport's capital improvement plan for years 2026 through 2029. Each of the items identified will come before council prior to purchase. You are not approving the purchase of the items at this time. This is a living document. It's fluid and will change yearoveryear as it reflects the city's changing needs, priorities, and financial realities. Uh changes to this plan are necessary as projects are completed, delayed or rescoped each year. Designs are finalized or costs are clarified. Budgets and timelines will need to be updated. Construction costs change requiring adjustments to project budgets. And new regulatory requirements

may create new infrastructure needs or technology changes which can make older projects obsolete or asset condition changes. Each year the updated plan will be presented to council requesting adoption. The strategic plan alignment is responsive efficient government and staff request approval of the resolution adopting the 2026 through 2029 capital improvement plan. Is there a motion to adopt? So move second.

The motion made by Alderman Shadel, seconded by Alderman Clem. Discussion on the resolution. Alderman Stacy. all these things that says um pending loan pending loans like we're going to take loans out for all this um or are they the ones that's already out there? Those projects um I think it's mostly underwater and sewer is where you're looking. um would be IEPA loans. Um but if I remember if I'm looking at this um all of these are projected out a year also. So um they are pending loans, but like I said, it's fluid. You know, if we come across a grant that's going to pay for it or we're going to get some forgiveness or something like that, that will change. We're not locked into these loans um at this time. IEPA loans have to come to council.

But if we agree to do the project and we don't get any money in, then we're locked into that loan.

Yeah. But I we wouldn't start a project without knowing where the funding is coming from and approval by council with these dollar values. And please, the years 2026 um are budgeted in the budget that was just passed this earlier, 2026, 2027, and further out. Those, you know, that's our those are our goals. Those are, you know, the the projects we have that we know we need to get done, but it it funding sources may change. Hello, Miss Stacy.

My problem with all of this is that we have so much so many irons in this skillet. We got so much already started and so much that you're planning on to get started when this that we've already started is not even finished and complete. And I just feel like it's just too much. It's too much. Any other discussion? Madam clerk, please take the role. Shadel, hi. Sanders, no. Sers,

I. Clem, I. Johnson, I. Simmons, hi. Parker, I. And Stacy, no. The resolution is adopted 6 to2. Item number 18 is the adoption of resolution 2025147. Could you please read this resolution authorizing the write off of uncollectible water and sewer balances aged seven years and older. Thank you, director Richtor.

Uh [clears throat] thank you, your honor. Uh the write off of utility balances is necessary when a resident's balance is considered to be uncollectible. If the balances are not written off, the city will carry an accounts receivable balance that overstates the amount of outstanding customer balances. By writing off the accounts yearly, we more accurately reflect our financial position. Despite efforts to collect these outstanding balances, we propose to write off all balances prior to July 1st of 2018. At this time, this would leave seven years of balances on the books. The proposed total to be written off is $75,55646. Please note, we are able to track prior balances that have been written off in our computer system. If future utility service is requested in the name of an an account that was previously written off, we will collect prior to new service starting. The resident is also required to pay a higher deposit on the account if an old balance was not paid. The strategic plan alignment is responsive efficient government. Staff request approval of the resolution to write off $75,55646 of water, sewer, storm, and garbage receivable balances at this time.

There go your 50. The detail of the write-offs is con contained in exhibit A. Um, and I'd also like to point out at the end of exhibit A is a total amount of revenue that was taken in in FY208 per our audit report was 11 million, a little over 11 million. And so at this time we're writing off um 682% that's less than 1% less uh of um balances at this time.

Is there a motion to adopt? So move second. Motion made by Alderman Shadel, seconded by Alderman Clem. Discussion on the resolution. I just have a um yes, Alderman Sers. I just have a a quick question. How long are these um residents names? How long do they stay on the list to you know if they want to come and re um apply for water sew or whatever? How long is their name on there? Is it on there indefinitely or? Um at this point it's indefinitely. We just switched to a new computer system 5 years ago. Mhm.

Um but even the old the the old stuff from the old system kind of came over. So um we we actually we have access to the old system still. So a long time. Okay. Good. Alderman Stacey. How many of these are businesses, landlords? Um I'm going to pick out one I pulled out. Bankers Trust Company of California. Why do we even have Banker's Trust Company of California owing us $485? Because they house um it was foreclosed on.

Uhhuh. Foreclosure. Property foreclosed on. Yeah. The mortgage wasn't paid on the property. It went back to the bank.

And so we tried to charge the they would be considered the owner at that time. and our CIP um charges on the water and sewer accounts. At this time, I would like to point out back before 2019, there were five years of CIP charges that would go on an account even if the water was turned off. That was changed to one year in 2019. So, if you're there, you know, there's higher balances on some of these accounts because those CIP charges stayed with the home for 5 years. They don't stay with the home anymore for 5 years. It's only one year.

Okay. Would you please take landlords that landlords that um have water in their names? Um are they on this list? Are we allowing landlords to get their bills paid? And I I didn't go through and I don't know if every single one of these is a property or a landlord. Is that something that can be easily determined through all this technology system that we have?

We we did go through this list and make sure there were no active accounts that we could transfer these balances to. Yeah. But can we can we through maybe I need to be asking the gentleman at the back. Can we determine what is landlords and what is the people, city manager Ber?

Uh we can definitely discuss it. Um right now uh just moving forward with the write offs. Uh we'd like to move forward with this one and we can carry on that conversation um outside of a meeting. I think it kind of comes back to director's point of none of these names are active. So there if that's the case there none of them would be landlords right now with that bill going on. Well, we'll see because I don't like being blew off with this. And I just know from last year and the year before when we went through all that list that landlords were getting over like fat rats. And I don't know if it was buddies, friends, I don't know. But I just know that they still had apartments and their name was on the list because it had been outstanding for seven years.

Director, I I guess I just would like to make sure you know that we do not choose favorites in the water department. I have never been ordered by any of my superiors to do write [clears throat] off any balances because someone is a landlord. Um I'm not I'm not that I I would also I would just like to continue. We did check every one of these to see if they had an active account currently and if they did we moved it to the active account. So we did look to see if they're active. Now, after seven years is my understanding, you can't um I can't take them to court after seven years.

Um but I do try to collect and we collect several lots of dollars for someone who maybe was here in the community, left a balance, and now came back again. We look everybody up when they come in. We ask for maiden names. We'd look them up to um um to see if there's an outstanding balance prior to setting up service. Madam clerk, please take the role. Shadel, I. Sanders, I. Sellers, I. Clem, I. Johnson, I. Simmons, I. Parker, I. And Stacy, I. The resolution is adopted 8 to zero.

Item number 19 is the adoption of resolution 2025148. Could you please read this? Res. Resolution approving agreement with fair to provide consulting services for landfills 2 three and landfill 4. Manager Boyer.

Uh thank you your honor. Uh as as we all know uh we own several landfills. Uh all of them capped but have legacy costs related to monitoring for contaminants and uh that will go on for quite some time. So the city of Freeport has um an annual engineering requirement for these uh services for 2, three, and four. And as part of the Illinois EPA protection uh closure process, the engineering contract is required uh for the IEP mandated re routine sampling, lab analysis, and various reporting and upkeep of landfill and leeate system. city approves a required landfill engineer contracted for the annual needs of the three uh city-owned dumps we already discussed. Fair is the licensed Freeport landfill engineer and their environmental team specializ in landfill monitoring and closures. Fair has been the landfill engineer since it originally closed and this contract requires significant landfill sampling lab analysis leech system upkeep and reporting which an Illinois licensed engineer must perform. This 2026 contract reflects an increase in the IEPA required sampling parameters and the cost of professional certified lab testing. A contingency line is set up for unforeseen regulatory work mandated by the Lee 8 system issues, i.e. we've had various concerns with jetting or cleaning and monitoring those um and other uh EPA permitted uh directives. These items can only be approved u for addition by the city manager may and uh funding for this annual landfill engineering agreement is included in the 26 budget. Staff recommends uh city council move forward with the landfill engineering contract with fairground.

Is there a motion to adopt? So move second motion made by alderman shadel seconded by alderman sellers. Discussion madam clerk please alderman Sanders.

Yeah. Um, I'm listening to all of this, but um, who's hiring um, Fair Graham? First of all, I'm not asking a question right now. I'm just going to, um, um, bundle it together, couple it together, so so I'm not cut off. Uh, I'm making my point. uh when hiring fair to do this study this analysis reporting and everything you say it goes to the EPA or some organization some uh agency and uh what we haven't discussed um you're bringing this to us but we haven't uh talked about the cost assessment of all of the studies that is being done for this particular project. I I don't have no problems with it. It's just the fact that uh we have not heard any financial report study estimation cost or whatever to even do this study. Uh what I'm what I'm wondering is and I heard I heard uh director Ber spoke that he was making that decision. He don't make that decision when it comes to making reportings unto council. Let's get that straight. If anybody does any reporting agencies or estimated cost financial budgeting and everything like that, that has to pass through council. Director Boyer brings us up to date of what the discoveries are to talk about it with council and then council has the the leverage to debate that issue and

then come up with other kinds of alternatives or conclusions not just know one individual. That is a council's responsibility. [snorts] I I don't mind it as it's coming forth, but I'd like for it to be exposed unto council where uh we have a clear understanding where this particular project is moving uh and how it's going to be financed and things of that nature. So, I don't have no problem with that. It's just that how it's being presented on the floor as if though we have to accept it immediately today without having a having a chance to debate it or discuss it before we even come to these types of meetings. So that's that's my problem. I don't know what what the astronomical cost is going to be like for a certain project just like any other project. We just can't throw that thing lily out there in the sky and say, "Well, this is what we want to do." And things of this nature without coupling it with a cost. If there's a cost, if there's a grant uh brought with this uh project, then let it be let it be known to the council that we can uh look at it from a different perspective. And and that's all I wanted to say on that. So that's that's what that's what I'm getting at. I don't want any I want things to be continue to be transparent transparent right now so we can see where the dollars are flowing who are receiving these dollars and uh what kind of a timetable to get these projects done and and that's what I'm looking at right now. I don't have no no argument with any agency long as they're getting the work done. But I just like the fact that it needs to be made uh made brought to council before any decision making is being made and that's that's the way it should go. I have we have we have uh

people never mind I won't criticize nobody in council today but that's it. That's all I wanted to say. Well, Alderman uh Sanders, you are correct. It's not the city manager's job to approve it. It's his job to bring it before you. Yes. and it's your job to approve it or not. Thank you. I know that already. So, uh Darren, you have something to add.

Yeah. In the in the packet today, every cost for the services was outlined specifically by unit price. It's established by a unit price. The only items that could be added are contingency items that are unknown at this time. So, the permit's been issued. So, we know what the requirements are. if some condition changes during the calendar year that EPA directs us that we have to do additional sampling or you know god forbid something happens out there that you know a sink or uh something extra happens we have contingency money that is only placed for that to address emergencies and it can only be approved by the city manager through this contract above and beyond what is already listed. So that will come back to you as an emergency authority just like everything else that we've done. But every every cost center is identified in both at each landfill individually and if the line items don't get used, they don't get charged.

Okay. Thank you. Um, I will also like to tell council that um uh Jake uh which is uh our landfill uh manager, the the guy that does the sampling and runs the testing, he went above and beyond this year for the city. We filed numerous letters with the EPA to reduce sampling at all of the landfills trying to reduce this contract and save the city costs because we know this is an expensive contract. Um, we have several letters back that they've denied the reduction in sampling, but we did that at no service cost to the city, just trying to reduce the cost because lab sampling is getting extremely expensive and is probably close to 50% of this contract cost alone.

Thank you. Thank you. Madam clerk, please take the role. Shadel, I. Sanders, hi. Sers, I. Clem. Hi. Johnson. Hi. Simmons. Hi Parker. Hi. And Stacy. [snorts] I did not hear you. Abstain. Abstain. The resolution is adopted. 7 to zero with one abstensia. Item number 20 is adoption of resolution 2025149. Please read this. Resolution approving an agreement with Fair Graham to provide Alberta's airport storm water inspections and reports. Thank you, Manager Boyer.

Uh, thank you, your honor. The city-owned uh airport is required to have quarterly inspections and annual reporting for required storm water pollution prevention uh by a licensed storm water inspector and professional engineer. Uh again, Fair Graham has uh brought forward um and has assisted the city for several years on this and uh we would like to uh bring that before council. The total cost of the um the uh program is $7,300 and uh staff recommends moving forward with the storm water inspection reporting um project. Is there a motion to adopt? So move second.

Motion made by Alderman Shadel, seconded by Alderman Johnson. discussion on the resolution. Madam clerk, please take Hold it. Mayor, you're moving a little bit. You got to pause for a minute. You got to pause, mayor, because I I'm pausing to see where my colleagues are on this. Okay. Alderman Sanders, did you want to speak? Is that Were you asking for the floor? I'm speaking to you directly. That's who I'm speaking to. Okay. Do you want to use No, I'm talking to you directly. I'm not posing a question in regards to the Okay. I I'm I'm the chair. If it's if it's silent, I can move things forward. If you have something to add in discussion, then add the discussion before you rush the the discussion. Would you like to add something to discussion? Yes, I would.

Okay.

Yeah. But the point of the matter is give let's let let everybody else chime in. You know, it's not just a a oneoff thing here. Um I wanted to table this or suspend this thing, but I'm I'm just going to table it for now because uh my colleagues are not in a is not on accord with anything that we're discussing tonight, especially in areas that's costing millions of dollars. The concern should be millions of dollars that should be concerning folks to evaluate and study why it is that we're considering adopting any of this thing without consulting with council and talking about it. We talking millions of dollars right now at this moment. We're moving into that area whether we know it or not. and uh and if and if we can uh if we can uh debate that, discuss that, see where we at financially with it and where the financing is going to come from, these things need to not be rushed through council. Uh so anyway, I just wanted to stay on topic about the uh whole way that we're processing this and uh and how we come to [gasps] the the data or the project of testing storm uh storm and water out at the Alberta's uh airport. Um and why and and what brought that what brought that matter up? What I'm saying is if there was no problem out there uh and it's and it definitely doesn't describe as a problem that I'm looking at. What

is it? What is the implementation of this study? Uh have we had a problem out there with the storm and sew or whatever the case is that we're looking at? Has there been a problem that uh prompted city manager to look into the these matters? Uh what did we discover? Was there a discovery uh with the storm and water uh uh program on this on this item? Was there issue there? Uh that issue should be brought to the council where we can understand why it is that we're uh hiring someone to do a study if we have not even talked about the study and the reason why that study should be even relevant at this time. So my that's that's what I'm trying to do. That's the reason why I've tried to pause for council to inject their viewpoints and as as well as my own. So my thing is are we engaged to just let things happen? That's that's that's my point of view of things. But

okay. So you're you want to make a motion to table. Is that correct what I'm hearing? Uh no I'm not going to table this. I thought I would but I'm not going to do it. Okay. And just for a point of clarification, we're not talking about millions of dollars. We're talking about $7,300. I I know on that particular one, but I I said as we go along, it's going to get into the millions. You didn't hear that part. So, Darren, did you want to floor?

So, this is a storm water inspection. It's required by the EPA and the airport due to the jet fuels that are used out at the airport. Um, there's nothing suspicious about this. This is an annual contract that we do every year. It's time and material. And usually, this is worst case scenario. It's usually much cheaper than this by the end of the year. It depends on if there's anything found in the water or not. There hasn't been anything found for the last year and a half to my knowledge. Um, and we do quarterly inspections. You have to do a wet inspection and you have to do a dry inspection. So, and the paperwork's all reported up to the EPA and to the airport managers. The better job that they do at the airport, the less work needs to be done. Thank you.

Madame clerk, please take the role. Shadel, I. Sanders, I. Sellers, I. Clem, I. Johnson, I. Simmons, I. Parker, I. And Stacy, I. The resolution is adopted 8 to zero. Item number 21 is the adoption of resolution 2025150. Please read this. Resolution approving an agreement with Synagro Central for the loading, transporting, and land application of bioolids generated by the city's Hancock wastewater treatment plant. Manager Boyer.

Uh thank you, your honor. Uh the treatment plant uh wastewater treatment plant as a byproduct creates uh two end products. One of those is clean water and the other one is um bioolids. Um the bioolids is a solid matter. After it's gone through the treatment process, it has been dewatered and stored in a bioolid building at the wastewater treatment plant. Once the storage area is full, staff call a contracted hauler, Synagro, to land apply that bioolid. Uh, Synagro contracts and coordinates with farmers in the area so that the bioolids can be land applied to agricultural fields and used as natural fertilizer. Synagrow is then responsible for keeping records and contracts with the participating farmers as well as records on the amount of fertilizer that it applied to each field on which days and where the bioolids came from. laws regulate the amount of bioolids that can be uh field applied uh within specific amounts of time and Synagro keeps all the legally required documentation and provides quarterly reports that staff then use to complete and file additional EPA reports in the compliance and in during our our permitting process. Synag services are a key component of keeping the wastewater treatment plant running efficiently and effectively maintaining regulatory compliance. The contract between Synagro and the city of Freeport is set to expire December of 2025. The new contract ensures continued compliance with our national pollution discharge uh permit and bioolid land application is a special service. It's very difficult to find qualified bio um bio application companies. Staff solicited bids from four Midwest companies that perform these land applications and no one else submitted a bid. This is required for uh as a prevailing wage service for the municipal uh for the municipality. Uh the current contract was signed to set expire in December.

The original contract price was $4699 a cubic yard for an estimated 3,300 cubic yards. The amendment would adjust the price to 48.21 21 per cubic yard effective uh January 1st of 26 through December 31st of 28 when the contract expires and staff recommends uh moving forward with the resolution to approve Synagrow uh for plant or holage of uh bioolids. Is there a motion to adopt? So move second a motion made by alderman Shadel, seconded by Alderman Sers. discussion on the resolution. I'm coming, mayor.

I I'm looking at you. Yeah, I'm coming because I'm, like I said, I wanted to pause, let my colleagues chime in and see where they're at. That's what I'm trying to do. Be respectful. Alman Sanders, did you have some discussion? Yeah, I do. Okay.

I do. Um well anyway how by any chance uh manager Ber how many people are contract I mean how many employees working for center to do the uh to do the hauling for the city of Freeport and who's who is uh maintaining [snorts] uh the move the the program who is who's taking care of the whole project and are these people staffed at the city waste treatment Um, Synagro is a private entity that is contracted for services for land application of bioolids.

Okay, give me more. You You're leaving things out. Give me more. I I I don't know how many people work for Synagro. Yeah, it's more than that. There's no There's no way there's no way I could know what their payroll is or how many people work there. And you can't know how much we're paying them for the for the year of their services. uh that you didn't ask. No, I didn't. But that's the reason why I'm trying to encourage you to give more detail. All right. 48. Essentially, it depends on our waste wastewater. Um, essentially we're talking about our averages 3,300 tons per year at 7846.

Director Richtor has some I do have a number for 20. In 2024, we paid Synagro 123,000. this uh so it's last year. Okay. So, how long have we been in business with this contractor? Very long time. Since I've been here, we have So, we put the bid out to four other places. We only got one bid back. Okay. [clears throat] Okay. Darren.

Yeah. So, one of the issues with finding waste haulers is um people that spread bioolids contract fields. And if they contract, they you know it's hard to bring a contractor from a long ways out of the area to contract land around here to spread it and then do all the paperwork requirements. And uh I believe Cynagil they've done it for at least the last eight years that I know of, maybe longer. They've done a great job. Um part of the uh cost here uh that has really um changed things is the prevailing wage which the state weighed in on it and said this is a prevailing wage function and we must do certified payrolls for this job. That's changed the spreading business and it's put a lot of the small haulers that would have ever thought about doing this out of business.

Second question.

Sure. Um how much? Well, um, Director Rick Richtor already stated how much per year, uh, that this service is costing the city, but what what financial obligation does this organ uh, this contractor have with the city when it comes to financing chemicalbased uh, lab, chemicalbased uh, for solids and things of this nature for the production for putting that that solid let out in a farmer's field. What does it cost the city? We you talked about how much it costs for them to be contracted. How much does it cost the city to buy the chemical or do we provide the chemical to help this uh the this the state of uh bioolids to to be formulated to be put out on the field. That's cuz that's a cost within itself, you know, uh throughout the year. So, I don't I don't know. I know it's a cost factor.

You're uh the city has all the chemical costs in our own bids and it's part of our process. They just haul the bios. They rent the fields and they spread it. That's their service. Okay. So, and it's by the ton. So, because our tonnage changes.

So, now we we're talking about the chemical that actually creates the bioolid. Uh that's the cost. How much are we spending to do that? Uh for contractors to come in to make sure that these solids make it out to the field. It takes a chem takes chemical uh uh uh material to create this hope this type of form. For that uh do we have a cost factor for the chemicals that are going in there? because that's that's a major cost to trans to transform uh sewage into bioolids. You know, that's a that's a a serious change in a financial ch uh impact on the uh sewer department or the city itself.

Darren, it has nothing to do with this contract. So, it's No, not the contract. I'm talking about the chemical base for the haulers to be able to haul it. city has to be able to break that solid break it down to uh uh so it can be um hauled. What chemicals are we what what kind what chemicals are being financed to do that and how much is it costing?

Well, like Darren said, that has nothing to do with this agreement. So, if you have questions concerning the agreement, let's get back to that. Is this uh Alderman Stacy? But I'm I'm with Alderman Sanders on this. There is another fee. And what is that fee? Uh, attorney Zto,

if I think I'm understanding the question right, and so I'll pose this as a question to you, Darren, because I think they're asking about when the chemicals, right, to create the bioolids, right? That's our normal treatment process, right? Our normal waste treatment process the end result is this bioolid or through our normal treatment process. Now it's just a matter of every time we treat waste there's always going to be this residue. What do we do with that residue? Cineagrow hauls it away and spreads it on farm fields. Okay. So it's our normal treatment process anytime we treat sewer waste. So there's nothing that's our that cost is the cost of us treating waste. Madame clerk, please take the role. Shadel,

I. Sanders, I. Sellers, I. Plum, hi. Johnson, I. Simmons is absent. Parker, I. She's here. Oh, and your vote. I. Parker said I I. And Stacy. I. The resolution is adopted. 8 to zero. Sorry about. Move on to department head reports. Uh, finance. Uh, nothing your honor. Thank you. Community development. Public works. Nothing tonight. Thank you. Fire. Thank you. No report this evening. Thank you. Police. Nothing from the police department here. Thank [clears throat] you. Library.

Nothing. Thank you. And uh it Thank you. City manager. Nothing tonight, your honor. And I don't have anything to add either. So move on to council announcements. Alderman Shadel. I just would like to thank all of our city employees, police, fire, and street department especially for handling a very trying weekend in a very fine manner. Thank you. Alman Sanders, nothing. Alman Sers, nothing. Alderman Clem.

Uh if I could, Mayor, uh Chief, uh at [snorts] our uh neighborhood watch the other night, it came up about the shop with a cop and there were some people interested in giving and we passed the information on. Is there anything that you can tell that if somebody wants to give how they could contact you guys or or who would be the person?

Sure. So, uh, we'll be doing shop with a cop on Saturday morning. We'll be taking donations anytime, uh, particularly this week. Um, donations can be made to the Fraternal Order of Police. That's who, uh, ultimately funds the shop with a cop. So, they can come down the police department and give it to, uh, dispatch or any officer really that's available and they'll turn it over to FOP and it goes straight to the the kids. So, appreciate it. Thank you. Welcome, man. Johnson, nothing tonight. here. Alderman Simmons, old man Parker.

Um, just a couple. One is the shop with a cop is a great program. We've been doing it for years and it's good. The other is I want to just echo what Alderman Shadel said about the uh employees for this past weekend had to be a whole. So, thank you Stacy.

Yes. [gasps] um to the many calls and constituents who called me pertaining to leaf pickup Tuesday night and Wednesday. I did the best I knew to do. Um, I don't know where we go from here because now the leaves are in the snow. And I do wish we could have been more productive Wednesday with the leaves being picked up in areas where they had never been touched. However, they were already flipped over to snow plows. So, I don't know, city manager boy, how many phone calls you received. You gave me permission to give them your number, and I did. But I don't know where we go from here come spring because the leaves, they're going to be there. Okay, move on to public comments. Tommy, I wanted to tell you uh you know about uh Woladi and Freeport S&T buildings. You know what they're going to do with it?

No, not yet. Oh, and to know you do a good job and so is Stacy. We want to tell you uh I I got a new house at the at the solar program in Freeport. Good. Good time. It's good. And uh I want to tell Tom Quinn, he does a good job of all them in in Freeport and he knows everything. Thank [laughter and snorts] you. Any other public comments? No. I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. Some move second. We have a motion made by Alderman Shadel, seconded by Alderman Sers. All those in favor? I I opposed.