Board - Regular Meeting

And also the difficulty of loss of a lot of plantable ground for the property that is designated as our small garden near the VFW post. And trampling of that property to get the pathway even installed. And I didn't say the thing about functionality. With the curve, which it sounds nice across the garden area, that's not a good function for access between Pulaski and the RTA platform. In the winter, nobody's going to want to do a little scenic turn through the parkway. And then I'm concerned about the safety of the path behind the Public Works building as it leaves a gap of view for police and just a lack of view from public for having a safe transit through that area. And also, just the whole use of the money going toward this thing, personnel and supplies, but even the 10%, which we're obligated to, This kind of construction is very expensive, and I think that 10% is going to be significant. And also, where are the other funds coming from but the government offices and we the people? It's still our money being used for space. this pathway. And I think it's poor use of David's time and assessing the project and also the time and supplies for preparation of documentation, those beautiful pictures we had and the multiple pages of blueprint pages. And it's poor use of the council's time and the office staff for preparation of these various documentations. And also just, it's diverting the attention from other very significant needs of the community, such as sidewalks around the Comar School area for the safety of the children that live in that area going to school. and also removal of the foliage in the creek through the village, and the garbage, which is a very much necessitated expense. So the proposal, and I don't know if it's in stone, but of the path of the Federal Aid Highway, it does not serve a purpose nor functionality for our village.

Very well done. Thank you. This was precipitated many, many years ago, mostly by RTA. Writership was very good back then, and they wanted to create a better, shorter path from Pulaski to the platform. They thought it would encourage people to walk to the train instead of drive their cars because, you're correct, there is a sidewalk here that takes you down there. Not everyone wants to use that. That was the whole thought process behind the whole thing. I'll defer to Engineer Plata if you have any more about this project.

Yeah, I did want to mention that with regard to the funding specifically, the funding is allocated for the project.

It's government money, 14 years ago.

Right. Some of it's a few years ago, some of it's more recent. It's not a situation where if the village decides that they're not going to do the project, then we can allocate the money for some other projects. Then it just goes back to that federal government agency, and they reallocate that money to whatever they want, and it's in all likelihood to be reallocated to some other community, some other project. So it was money that was allocated for the village of Midlothian, a project right here in town.

So... But the funds that we're receiving are designed for this exact project, these types of walking paths and easier access to metro and public transportation. That's what this is all started from.

Who's doing the snow removal?

Public works would have to do it.

They got nothing else to do. Do we have the equipment for a six-foot path just to go boom right down the whole thing?

Not necessarily, but we have the snow blowers.

Oh my goodness, that'd be awful for you guys.

Go ahead, Rita.

Again, about this sidewalk. You're going to put six feet of concrete through the rain garden, much less the disaster that that makes. It's not like they just lay down on a little slab. It's fine. We all know it tears up all along the the side of it too, so you're going to go through green space and turn it into a concrete jungle. And people who are going to work, anybody I know, they want to get to work. They're not looking to meander along a path. They want to get to work. Originally, that was set up to go behind the trees, like along the fence line through the rain garden. That was the original proposal for that. And this was pre-COVID. There's not even that many people taking the train now as there used to be. I think it's a total waste. It's a destruction of green space that I don't think should happen at all. And it's not necessary. It's not needed in that spot. And a six foot slab of concrete, something that's that wide, is gonna take up a lot of space in that garden. Granted, it's not all that big, but it's a nice place to have and there definitely are activities that go on through there. And I think concrete is a really bad choice.

Well, the portion to the closest to Pulaski as it's going through the rain gardens is going to be those permanent pavers.

Vegetation goes through permanent pavers?

No.

Unfortunately, it's not designed to have greenery.

It's just such a bad idea to do that through there. Like I said, originally the thought was that it would go behind the trees and next to the fence. Like, It wouldn't be through the middle of the garden. It would be along the side, along the back. And again, I don't think going behind the public works building is exactly a good idea. I mean, it just doesn't seem to fit right. Not for what it's taking away from. And I don't think there's the traffic for the train anymore that there used to be, what, 14 years ago when this was applied for? That's a long time ago. Things have changed.

Anyone else want to talk on this matter specifically? Yeah, kind of. Kind of, okay.

Well, yeah, but it's not totally. Hi. Hi. Okay. I remember when this grant went through. It was 14-some-odd years ago. The only thing I really am not happy about My understanding, it was supposed to go, you know, where the trees are and then the bench. It was supposed to go behind the bench and then up along to Pulaski and then hook up with the other walking trails. And then the color. Not fond of the color. But, you know, why... Do they have it going through the garden, not behind the bench and then along the trees behind it?

It was supposed to have a scenic portion of it with permeable pavers.

Right, right.

Again, part of the project is water, you know, trying to...

Now, I do like the idea of having the lighting, the posts, are they going to put electric in them so that we can plug into and have more electricity there? Because that, to me, is a plus, especially over there. Maybe they can throw in sprinkler systems, too. I want to also say thank you to Public Works for all your hard work. I've driven around the village and it looks like an absolute war zone. So you guys have really, you know, and a lot of people are complaining, but it's out of your control. It's Mother Nature. I mean, so, you know, don't get upset at them. Just consider the source. And that's it. Oh, we had a really good beautification meeting last night. And it was, Izzy mentioned, you know, got up and said a few things. And one of the things she talked about was National Night Out. And she had a lot of fun. And she was so busy playing, she forgot to eat.

Oh.

So when we were in route home, I heard, but I didn't eat. And I was like, what? But that was that. But she, you know, she had fun. So thank you to the National Night Out crew that, you know, put on a really, really good event. That's it.

So thank you for putting this together and thank you for the comments and All I have to say is that the funding that we received is designed specifically for this type of thing.

We don't need it.

Then we lose the funding and it goes to another town.

Fine.

Well, if I could say something too, Mayor? Sure. So I wasn't here when this whole project started, you know, in 2015 or 14, whenever it started. But I can tell you now, one of the positives to this is what we're doing with economic development. So currently we have, I didn't get to read the whole thing. I have it all printed out, David, but I do have some questions for you. One of the things that we're doing right now in our downtown area and with our TIF districts is we are trying to connect our commercial areas with our residential areas to bring people into our commercial district. Currently, we have a project going on with a streetscaping project on 147th Street by the Metro Station. We also have some actions pending right now to clean up some of the dilapidated buildings here on Pulaski Avenue. And we have a number of businesses that are putting a lot of money into businesses right along this corridor to be able to bring more business in. I think it would be, for today's use, I think having something that ties in this section to the metro station, especially if ridership is going to continue to increase like we've seen, people getting on and off, people being able to walk around and enjoy Bartolini's, all of the businesses that we're building up on 147th Street, and then coming over here to look at custom cars that are being done, having a showroom. across the streets that we're hoping to build up. I think that, at least from my perspective, what that vision might have been many years ago has definitely changed. But is it something that makes our community more accessible to our businesses and our community more available to be able to get there by walking? I think that's a good thing. We know parking is not easy to come by all the time on 147th or Pulaski. This just gives our businesses another opportunity to get customers and get people to commute to and from bikes, walking, things like that. I do agree, I'm not as thrilled with going through the rain garden as I would be if it went behind the rain garden like it was originally intended. And that was my question to you, David. Is that something that is negotiable where we can still kind of look at that and see if maybe putting it at the back end in that tree-lined area where it ties to versus through the center and tears up the grass and the rain garden that we already have. By going forward, are those options that we can look at?

Yeah, we still have the option to move it around a little bit. That was the whole reason I did a presentation for you guys last week. Sorry I missed it. Yeah, I'm glad it resulted in some good discussion on the project.

And the other side of that is what I've learned with doing the economic development and with handling grants now is these grants come around once in a lifetime. If we don't take advantage of it and get the infrastructure that may tie part of our community together, we're probably never going to get the opportunity to do it again. So that's part of the reason that, in my opinion, I'd like to see some changes in that path, but I do think that moving forward with trying to continue to build with Lothian, accessibility is really important.

Okay. Any other public comments?

Mr. Mayor, trustees, all public officials.

I actually, this I can hand out later. This I don't feel like discussing during the meeting. I don't want to waste any more time on what we've already discussed for the public meeting. My question's actually a lot sillier in comparison. Is there a way to purchase a flag of Midlothian? Like, is there any way that I can get my hands on, like, my own flag? ... ... ... ...

I don't know. I guess, yeah, that's what we're looking at. And then how do we, how do we regulate its usage? Correct. Do they offer them? He could go to the flag company that we use and, yeah, buy a flag.

I don't know what office I have in my head, but I don't know.

Is that advertising flag? They're imposing? I think so.

Okay. Advertising flag imposing. All right. Thank you. Don't abuse it. Don't abuse it. No burning.

No burning. Anyone else? Other time?

And now I'll close the floor for public comment and move on to the next agenda. Number one, approval of resolution 260812A, a resolution for the improvement under Illinois Highway Code, section 260003900SW. This is a resolution appropriating $103,000 from MFT funds for phase one engineering and phase two engineering related to a new sidewalk project along 143rd and Kenneth. Construction will be funded by a Safe Routes to School grant awarded to the village. Number two, approval of resolution 260812B, the resolution of the Village of the Littleton Cook County, Illinois, approving a license agreement for the construction, operation, and maintenance of the sidewalk. Number three, approval of resolution 260812C, a resolution amending resolution 260325C. Number four, approval of the license agreement for the construction, and maintenance of the sidewalk in the Lothian. Number five, approval of the July 22nd, 2026 board meeting minutes. And number six, approval of the list of bills. Is there any item any trustee would like off of tonight's consent agenda?

When you're two and four, apply to the sidewalk from 149th, is that right? Or is it just four?

It's for the state routes, the school route by Colmar School.

Two is for the Kenneth? For the safe routes?

One is for kind of the safe routes. Two and...

The two and four are both for the project that we just... Okay. So I'd like to remove that from the consent agenda if possible.

Which ones?

Two and four.

Two and four. All right. Anyone else? Then I'm looking for a motion to approve to mention sent agenda without items number two and number four.

I'll make a motion. I'll second.

Any discussion? Roll call please, Burt Muskell.

Trustee Crawley?

Aye.

Trustee Johnson?

Aye.

Trustee Judd? Aye. Trustee Kilgore?

Aye.

Motion carries. Thank you, sir.

And at this time, I'm looking for approval of Resolution 260812B, a resolution of Village Monolte in Cook County, Illinois, approving a license agreement for the construction, operation, and maintenance of the site.

I'll make the motion. I'll second.

So, I think this needs more discussion before we pass it, that's all. I mean, if we want to do it and how we're going to do it, I agree with the comments about the direction of the path and I also agree with the comments that provide greater accessibility to downtown which I think is important and I think bikes or walking we should encourage. I really do but I think it needs a little more discussion before we pass number two or number four.

Then I will ask Trustee Crowley to amend her motion to table this item for a future date.

David how much time do we have to pass this?

So at the end of the day, what'll happen if you don't pass it tonight is we'll be moved from, currently we're scheduled to bid the project through state letting at the November 6th state letting. Regardless, a contractor's not gonna get started on that right away, so in the grand scheme of things, moving it from the November state letting It'll probably wind up being a January state flooding. I don't think it has a massive impact on construction timeline.

So when would we need to get it on the agenda for approval to get it on January?

That'll probably buy you another, I would say, month, month and a half.

Oh yeah, hopefully we can do quicker than that.

I'll amend my motion and ask to table it if we can ask for it to be on the agenda for discussion and approval within the next month.

Yes. Trustee Johnson, will you amend your second?

I will amend my second.

Thank you. on the tabling of this resolution.

Trustee Crowley?

Aye.

Trustee Johnson?

Aye.

Trustee Judd?

Aye.

Trustee Killaly? Aye. Motion carries.

It's on the agenda for approval, so it has to be voted on one way or the other. So at this time, I'm looking for a motion to approve the license agreement for the construction, operation, and maintenance of the sidewalk in Milwaukee.

I'll make a motion. I'll second.

Discussion.

Please table this also.

Same thing, yes. Do I have to say it all?

I have to ask you to amend your motion to table this item.

I will amend my motion to table the item. Do I have to ask David all those questions again? Yes.

Trustee Johnson, will you amend your second? I will amend my second. Then we'll call please Clerk Bosco for the tabling of this item. Trustee Crowley.

AYE. TRUSTEE JOHNSON. AYE. TRUSTEE JEBB. AYE. TRUSTEE KELLEY. AYE. MOSTLY KELLEY. IT'S ALMOST LIKE DAVID HAVE A LOT OF STUFF IN IT.

ALL RIGHT, MOVING ON TO TRUSTEE BUSINESS, TRUSTEE JOHNSON.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. LAST WEEK, WE APPROVED THE RESOLUTION FOR THE WATER water rate increase that was brought to my attention. There was a typo error, so on this week's My Business, I am looking for a motion to approve an amended water rate going from $11.54 to $11.56. That's on page three, and also there's no other changes related to the sewer line or related to the other charge, which was three dollars. So those have not changed. I'm just looking to get approval to increase our water rate by two cents. I'll second.

Any discussion? Roll call please, Clerk Moskowitz.

Trustee Johnson. Aye. Trustee Crowley. Aye. Trustee Judd. Aye. Trustee Killamy. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you, ma'am.

Trustee Jackson.

I have nothing this evening. Trustee Killamy.

Thank you, Mayor. The Keep Midlothian Illinois Beautiful Committee is meeting next Tuesday in these council chambers at 2 p.m. It's an open meeting. Everyone is welcome. If you have any comments about how to beautify Midlothian or recycling or questions about recycling or anything else, how we can make our town look a little bit better. You're more than welcome. It's basically open comments, so we encourage anybody that wants to come to come. The agenda is going to be posted tomorrow, and you can look at what we're going to talk about, and we hope to see some people here and give us some ideas. And that's all I have, Mayor. Thank you, sir.

Trustee Crowley?

THANK YOU, SIR. FIRST ON MY AGENDA, I TALKED ABOUT THIS A FEW WEEKS AGO, IS I'D LIKE TO MAKE A MOTION TO APPROVE ORDINANCE NUMBER 2188. THIS IS AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE I, CHAPTER 21 OF THE MUNICIPAL CODE, AND THIS AFFECTS OUR BID PROCEDURES. THIS INCORPORATES OUR HOME RULE STATUS AND BRINGS US UP TO DATE ON BID PROCEDURES. I KNOW I HAD A NUMBER OF PEOPLE THAT REACHED OUT TO ME. DID ANYBODY HAVE ANY OTHER QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS? all right wait i made a motion i guess i need a second sorry i'll second don't worry about it any other discussion roll call please court moscow trustee crowley aye trustee johnson aye trustee chad aye trustee killley aye motion carries thank you uh next on my agenda We do a lot of tabling tonight. Next on my agenda is I had the discussion with the Allied Republic Service. This is our new trash contract. I am going to ask that we table this motion until next week. Our attorneys are working on language for the, for lack of a better word, franchise agreement that we're entering into for our multifamily homes for the Village of Midlothian. As I said a few weeks ago, there's some key points to this contract. Instead of a continuous 10-year contract, this will be a five-year contract. The benefits that we have been able to work out with Republic is there will be no rate increase for the first two years. After that, three, four, and five have a 4% per year rate increase. The other benefit is currently we are paying, I think it's $1.13, don't vote me, a month for E. recycling, that is all the electronic recycling, that will now be waived. We will no longer pay for electronic recycling. It will be free to our residents with the service. So that is one huge benefit that will be a savings in addition to no cost raise for the next two years. The other portion of it that we will be moving towards is going into what it's called, I'm not sure why it's called this, but it's called a franchise agreement where we will require a multi-unit residential buildings to all use one contractor. Currently that is Republic and they will be giving them a discounted rate. That will also give us continuity. We can also make sure as a village with some of the areas that we're seeing an increase in garbage that we have, that we make sure people have garbage service and that these multi-family units are providing the correct size for their buildings and things like that so the garbage isn't skewing over into the residential areas and quite frankly not keeping the both end of the road beautiful. That is the, those are the big portions of the contract. The contract is on our agenda for people to look at if they wanted to take a look at it. Mayor LaRue, myself, Trustee Coley have been involved in this since December of last year. And if anybody has any questions, feel free to reach out to one of us. But this is the best contract that we have been able to negotiate. I know Mayor LaRue has talked to other garbage companies to try to see if we could get it better, and I'll let him speak to that. But I don't think we've gotten anywhere close to what Republic is offering us for for this new contract. The other benefit is it does give us the opportunity in five years to consider going forward with another five years without negotiating a contract at those price increases. So it's something we have an option for that we don't have to take, but at least it's an option.

Look, Moscow, can you check the record and regret my memory that she was going to table this discussion tonight?

I do want to table this because it's not ready but I did want to keep repeating what the contract is, because this is a big part of what all of us pay for garbage services, and we're all really concerned about it, and I want people to have every opportunity to voice their concerns or opinions or things like that. So, I will be taking this. Do I have to do anything to take more? I mean, I got some more stuff here, guys. This is what happens when you let me be off for a few weeks in a row, okay? Next on my agenda, I do have a quote to replace our two clerk and our two TAC officer computers. This is a total of $9,463. That is for four laptops, four docking stations, four monitors, and cables that go along with that, as well as setup for these computers. This is a budgeted amount. And I think I just have this on there for discussion, right?

Yes, just for discussion.

So if nobody has a problem with this, I would ask that it be added to my agenda for next week for approval. I think I have something else here too, don't I? Oh, Baja. So, as I've been talking about for the last month or so, we have been working between the building department, myself, our attorney, and Engineer Plata on a redevelopment agreement with our new Baja Auto Group and I see they're here today. Thank you guys for coming. I'm sorry there's not going to be a lot to discuss because it's one of our larger redevelopment agreements that we've had to do lately so we're still working out all the mechanics and language. But thank you for coming and showing your support to the village and thank you for coming here. I sent everybody a late email with a lot of revisions with all of the information for our redevelopment agreement. I did talk to Trustee Killaly, Trustee Jett, and Engineer Plata. We do have some more revisions, just, you know, legal ease and terminology to be able to do that i hope to have that done um within my friday so once i have a final draft for the board i will send it out i will also get a copy to baja for your review um but i think we're close so the property looks amazing um a lot thank you you've been a great partner so far you've i know taken a number of us through and shown us what you're doing The painting of the building looks good. We're really looking forward to working with you guys in the future and being great partners. So thank you very much. So I'm not going to vote on this tonight, but everybody should have by now all of the documents that I've been sending out. Once all the revisions get updated this week, I'll get them out to everybody else. And if I don't have any more, I'll send it to you guys so you guys can look at it and see what we're approving.

Where's Baja at?

140, the old Tasker Ford. Old what? Tasker Ford. The old Bill K. The old Domino.

The old Gallo Ford.

The big car dealership.

I hope everybody's driven by it because it really does look amazing.

We are very sorry to have you in town, so thank you for everything you're doing over there. I know it's a lot of work, but it's going to be worth it in the end, right?

It looks nice.

It's really good. Are you done now?

One last thing, sir, and then I will be done. I had a lot of time off. That's what happens when you give me time off. The last thing is probably the closest to my heart. I first need to thank my co-trustees, Trustee Killaly and Trustee Jett, as well as the Community Policing and Safety Committee for National Night Out. As everyone knows, it is an event that is very close to my heart and I'm very possessive of. But this year, my family decided a year ago that they were going to take a vacation on a cruise with my siblings, and without me thinking about what day it was, I committed to it, so I was not able to be here on National Night Out. There were a lot of tears, a lot of yelling, a lot of texts back and forth, but between the police department, my co-trustees, and our community and policing committee, wow. I don't think I could have done better myself, and that's a huge compliment. I got the pictures of the night. I was very proud. You guys did not disappoint. You guys sent me pictures and text messages the whole night, like you promised. So I was really, really proud of you guys. And You know, I think Jean said it, this event gets better every year, and it's only because of the community that we serve and the community that comes out to support all of our departments. It's historically nationwide for police, but as everyone knows, our community has turned it into supporting our village. Police, Chief Delaney, best police department out there, can't thank you enough. Chief Rita. Chief Rita, are you there? I can't see you. I heard that getting kids wet was a huge success. We're going to have to work on that again for next year, sir. Superintendent Sperry. Thank you for everything. I don't know what we would do without you guys, as well as the rest of the departments.

Everybody has a hand in this.

Our building department, our finance, our front office, they all do so much work to make this event fantastic. If you haven't been here, we definitely have the best National Night Out around. And so thank you, everybody, and thank you again to you guys. I want to thank you. Mary, this is going to be hard to believe, but I am done for the night.

to further her comment about how much she missed it. She was in the middle of the ocean on a family cruise and she was face-tagging, trust me gentlemen, and walking around the grounds. She had to show her video, right?

So, thank you.

You guys did a great job.

Alright, can I move on now? I think so. Moving on to the department heads, Chief Rita.

Thank you, sir. That's hard to follow. A couple quick things. Last reminder to the residents, this will be our last month that we're going to offer the free smoke detector program. We're going to end in September, so give a call to the firehouse.

You get on the list. They're getting back to us.

Okay. Yep, we'll get back to you. And just call the firehouse, let us know, and we'll have the guys come over and install them. One per floor, single family house. And then the only other thing I have is thank you to all the other departments for helping out in the last couple of storms. It's been quite adventurous, to say the least. But we have a great team in this village and all the police and public works helping us get through all the chaos. So I appreciate all the other departments helping.

That's it. Yes, sir. Keep doing it. I don't know if I could possibly speak on anything that she didn't already cover for me. We did hear about Hurricane Sandy coming through the . So we got her on video right away, so we put a stop to that thing, and all went well. But I echo Fire Chief's sentiments about the storms, and we had a great team and good communication. Even the comms were down with the dispatch center, but we did a great job of communicating with each other to get everything resolved. Hopefully get it cleaned up sooner than later. So that's all I have, sir. Thank you, sir. Superintendent Swanson?

Yes, sir. This might be long. I'm going to try and keep it as brief as possible. But I just first want to echo again, thank you guys for everything you do. When we were out here clearing away, All the debris, trying to get the streets opened up. All we heard was silence going off the whole time. But no, seriously, a big huge thank you. And first of all, I'd like to say, or second of all, I'd like to say our hearts go out to everyone who suffered with all the tree damage and all the property damage. It's just gut-wrenching to see a tree laying on the side of your house. And we're working diligently to remove as much debris as safely as possible. We have our whole staff is out for cleanup efforts. And workers are staying until 8 o'clock every night until we get caught up. I want to kind of describe how we do things. Once we start getting the phone calls, usually come from the police department or fire department saying we've got a tree block and a whole street. Those are our priorities. We've got to open up the streets first in order for the emergency vehicles to get down the streets. That's first and foremost. After that, then we shift our focus to dangerous situations where limbs are still hanging in trees that could fall and cause more damage. And then we go to, I'm getting ahead of myself, and then we go to ones that are blocking driveways, limbs that are on a house, limbs that are on a car, things of that nature. And then once we finally have all those kind of dangerous situations under control, then we start moving to just cleaning up all the piles that people put out in front of their houses. So normally we only pick up the branches from parkway trees, but because of this emergency situation, we're going to stand it out. If you have trees in your backyard that fall over, pull them out to the parkway. We'll come by and get them. It's going to take a long time, so please be patient. Also, just to give you a little background information, in 2024, we trimmed 101 trees and removed 34 trees. In 25, we trimmed 77 trees and removed 27. And so far in 26, before these storms hit, we trimmed 30 trees and we removed 13, which I'm sure the removal number's gonna grow quite significantly after we get all caught up and start evaluating all these trees. We'd like to remind everyone that the mature trees in town give a lot more benefits than a new tree. It's always easier to say, why don't you just take this tree down and plant a new one? It's the amount of the canopy that a large tree has and reduces the heat in the summer. A larger tree soaks up so much more stormwater than our young tree does. Larger trees improve the air quality. Our village's CRS rating is always higher with mature trees. And believe it or not, property values go up with a nice mature tree. Last thing I'd like to point out, I know everyone's going to be calling and saying, you know, how come this is taking so long? We don't really have a dedicated forestry division, so right now all our efforts are going toward cleanup, but before these storms hit, If we have guys available, we put them on trees to get caught up with all the requests we have for trims and removals. But if there's an emergency comes up, a snowstorm or a water main breaks and things of that nature, we have to put the tree trimming work on the back burner and we go forward with the emergency stuff. Once we get caught up, then we go back to tree work. So I'd just like to let everyone know that we're not as big as cities like Schaumburg and Naperville and Homewood that have a dedicated forestry division. That's all they're doing. But we do have the spring and fall branch pickups yet going on. They're one week in each quadrant of town. The fall one will begin on Monday, October 5th in the northeast quadrant. So anything else, just please call Public Works. We did put something out on Facebook, a nice thing that kind of echoes a lot of things I already said. I know obviously some residents are wondering if the power, the last report that we have, uh states that 78.9 of our residents have been restored with power they're still out of service about over a thousand residents still are without power but they're working hard and that's combat so that's all i have sir thank you sir i was going to wait to my business to say something but it seems like you should follow up with this conversation here uh first of all first and foremost thank all of you all your departments

our whole village staff to help firefighters helping a senior lady get the generator. I'm going to start crying. A senior lady getting the generator out of the car, unboxing it, and getting it started for her. A police officer came over and helped Rita get her generator going. I was right next door. The stories I've heard is just incredible. I'm proud. So, stop crying. These storms are very violent. We all know that. They're getting more and more violent every time they come through. And it's not just the wind, it's the rain, the amount of water being dumped on us. It's tragic. So, I'm asking everyone to please help your neighbor as well. Public works is out there busting their butts, 12 hours a day. Please, if you have a senior neighbor, go help them out. It's not that hard. I have a nephew that came over with a chainsaw. He helped me out with my limbs. So there's always someone out there. Please help your neighbor. That's going to help us out as well. It's going to help all public works as well. So getting it to the street, that's the biggest thing. If you are able to cut up into smaller bundles, put them by the curb, and Republic will come and pick them up. Four-foot sections, small bundles, they'll pick them up. But again, as Superintendent Swanson said, this is going to take a long time. So bear with them, bear with us, and we're here to help. So I think I've got it around the time. All right, cool. I like that cry all the time. I'm very proud of this time. I get excited.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you to you guys as well. I know this is really tough. This has been a crazy storm season. Mayor LaRue's words there really reminded me that it does take a village to come together and show resilience in these kinds of situations. I hope the people out there are willing to be patient and allow Superintendent Swanson here to get some sleep. I'm gonna make a hard turn here because I have an announcement. I'm gonna try to keep it as quick as possible. So with this most recent batch of IEPA funding for lead service line replacements, we submitted two different funding nominations They released a draft plan back in May showing the Village of Midlothian getting $2.75 million for lead service line replacements for a phase three project that affects the same project area that the phase one project was in that Cal City just wrapped up. So we didn't get everybody done there. There's more money allocated now for another project there. Between the time period of the draft plan and the final plan, we were able to actually convince IEPA to allocate another $3.5 million for now the phase two project area that is just starting up right now with Stepbrothers working over there. So with two different grants, both around the three million range, we're going to be working quickly to try to bid these as fast as possible and just to keep up with the timeline that IEPA requires. We're projecting that probably all of the lead within those two areas is going to be done by the time these two projects get wrapped up. And then we've just got a little chunk of the village that is over on this side of Pulaski. kind of around like 149th and costner so great news it'll it's a really big help especially with mandatory replacements starting up next year in 27 and it's kind of put the village in a really good place with regard to this stuff that's all i have thank you sir Director Redmond?

Just one item tonight, Mayor. The fiscal year 26 audit is underway. We're making great progress. The partner from Crowe will be on site Tuesday for a community meeting to give everyone an update. That's all I have tonight, sir. Okay.

Attorney Cutt? Okay. Thank you. Under my business, I have a, I'm looking for a motion to approve Steve D'Onofo from Addison Law Firm as the ethics officer for the village of Midlothian.

I'll make the motion. I'll second.

Any discussion? Vote call, please. Vote call, please. Trustee Crawley?

Aye.

Trustee Johnson?

Aye. Trustee Jett? Aye. Trustee Killamy? Aye. Motion carries.

One last thing about storms. I have been spending my days on the phone and emailing and texting with not only ComEd to increase their maintenance program with the trees around the service lines, the primary lines. That's one of our biggest problems. As Superintendent Swanson said, we have a Many, many, many mature trees here that have grown to 60, 70 feet high, maybe higher. So that is one, and I have been in contact with our county begging them and imploring them to expedite a declaration of disaster area that will open up funds from either state or federal levels to help us offset this cost that's going to be a massive amount of money to get this all cleaned up. So just not sitting there at home on my chair watching TV. so if anything comes up I'll let you know I did receive a call back from one of our County reps or commissioners they are working on assistance programs but bottom line is the biggest deal is we need that that assessment done quickly and that declaration done quickly So that's what we're doing. All right, I'm done. Clerk Bowski.

I have nothing to answer.

Thank you, sir. Seeing as there's no further business to come for the board, I'm looking for a motion to adjourn.

I'll make the motion. I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. All opposed? The ayes have it. Meeting adjourned. Thank you all. Thank you.