Town Council - Regular Meeting

Oh, except . Call the order. Meeting for the Normaltown Council for July 6, 2026. Please call the roll.

Mayor Koos. Here. Mr. Preston.

Here.

Mrs. Lorenz. Here. Mr. Byers. Here. Mr. Roberge. Here. Ms. Smith. Here. Mr. McCarthy.

Here. We'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. We have no public commenters tonight. We'll move to the omnibus agenda, items that will be taken with a single vote, unless a council member would like to pull an item for discussion. What am I missing here? Motion for approval. Oh, Ms. Smith.

Yes, I'd like to pull C, D, and E, but I promise to be succinct.

C, D, and E?

Move approval.

Second. Items considered on omnibus tonight are approval of the minutes of the public hearing of June 15, 2026, approval of the minutes of the regular council meeting of June 15, 2026, a report to receive and file town and normal expenditures for payment as of July 1, 2026, an ordinance authorizing an amendment to the license and residential lease agreements for 305 Pine Street having to do with Sprague Service Station, and an ordinance amending Division 8.7 of the Town's Code concerning tree maintenance. Please call the roll. Mr. Preston? Aye.

Mrs. Lorenz? Aye. Mr. Byers?

Aye.

Mr. Roberge?

Aye.

Ms. Smith? Aye. Mr. McCarthy?

Aye.

Mayor Koos?

Aye. Those items are approved. Item C is a resolution to accept bids and award a contract to Dendler Incorporated for the 2026 crack and joint filling project in the amount of $171,945.45. Move for approval. Second. Ms. Smith? Aye.

I pulled this item because I would just ask that if the city manager would please distinguish between the work that we have done that we outsource in a bid such as this and what our own town staff pursue in terms of patch and repair.

Well, I can't get into specifics, but I can say it's two different types of work, and our public works crews are out all the time with pavement patching efforts. I think, let's see, we do some street patching and crack sealing, but this particular contract is townwide, so our crews are doing two different things.

I believe you also were highlighting in your response to my query in the email that the bids are going out on projects that have further they're older and that our town staff are focusing on keeping maintenance on recent work to extend the life oh that is correct so this work like that down there will be doing if council approves this contract extends the life of payment I think generally four to six years okay I just wanted to get that on the record thank you please call the roll

Mrs. Lorenz? Aye. Mr. Byers? Aye. Mr. Robers? Aye. Ms. Smith? Aye. Mr. McCarthy?

Aye.

Mr. Preston?

Aye. Mayor Koos? Aye. That resolution is approved. Item D is a resolution to accept bids and award a contract to Rowe Construction, Division of United Contractors Midwest, for the 2026 General Street Resurfacing Project in the amount of $4,645,928.28. Second. Smith?

On this one, I was under the impression that the work on West College was part of the nine point some million dollar grant that we got, but you've informed me that this is a separate project. Is it covering a different section of the road, or what distinguishes it from that funding we had pursued for West College?

Two different projects, two different contractors. So the West College project that's been under construction out, you're talking about by Rivian Motorway? Yeah, that was a multi-year project funded by our funds, motor fuel tax dollars, federal earmark. This project is town-wide street resurfacing.

Okay, and you provided a cost per mile of approximately six hundred and sixty eight thousand for this work and For previous work and this one came in at six sixty one thousand So it appears that over the course of a year despite changing costs We've been able to keep Control of of the expense for the street resurfacing again.

Just wanting to get it on the record I do want to clarify a little bit there They're similar in terms of the cost per lane mile last year's contract to this year's contract But we don't usually Compare that that was in response to your inquiry of the cost per lane mile one year to the other every street You know has different needs and so some we're patching more some requires additional curb work things like that So we're not exactly comparing apples to apples on the specific lane mile work But I do want to clarify that it is similar year to year Mr. Byers

Aye.

Mr. Roberge? Aye. Ms. Smith? Aye. Mr. McCarthy? Aye. Mr. Preston? Aye. Mrs. Lorenz? Aye. Mayor Koos?

Aye. That resolution is approved. Item E is a resolution to award the bid for the Vernon Avenue Water Service Relocation Project to GA Rich and Sons at a total cost of $733,378 and approve an associated budget adjustment.

Move for approval.

Second.

And on this one, I wasn't exactly clear, but it is only one four-inch water main that's going to be abandoned. And in my discussion with you, there's not any thought that there would be a need for a future upgrade since this segment of Vernon is all abandoned. already quite densely developed and there's not an anticipation of increased demand in the imminent future that would cause the new water main to be insufficient is that an accurate statement that is accurate correct okay thank you please call the roll mr robers aye ms smith aye

Mr. McCarthy? Aye. Mr. Preston? Aye. Mrs. Lorenz? Aye. Mr. Byers? Aye. Mayor Koos? Aye.

Excuse me, that resolution is approved. We have no general orders and four items of new business. Is the resolution to waive the formal bidding process and accept a quote from Traffic Control Corporation for the emergency vehicle preemption test project in the amount of $108,558 and approval of an associated budget adjustment? Move approval. Second. Discussion on this item. Ms. Lorenz.

Thank you. I have a few questions. You know, first I want to lead with a comment of appreciation that, you know, glad to see that safety is being explored. That's very important. I think the traffic signal preemption should make intersections much safer. less, you know, fewer conflicts and so forth. But I have a few questions that I hope you'll allow me to entertain. How will we determine if this investment is successful? And what percentage of a total investment for traffic preemption does this $100,000 represent? So kind of a two-prong question.

Sure, I'm going to ask Mr. Otto to come forward. Ms. Ganaraju's not here this evening, so Mr. Otto is kind of taking the lead on this action item this evening. So this particular proposal that we're talking about this evening is to address, I believe, four traffic signal installations on Rav Road between Parkside and Tawanda out of our 65 signals townwide.

It's a few more than that. I think it's about six intersections, potentially seven. Don't quote me on that. For some reason, I don't have that in front of me. But the overall percentage of, say, a system-wide, it's a fairly small amount. We have 65 potential signals. That includes IDOT signals that we help manage along with shared intersections. So it's a fairly... Less than 10%, I'd say, of the overall total of a system-wide implementation. So we're really looking to get an idea of how it functions, how much effort is required to install with our current systems, and how it functions with existing controllers, existing apparatus. Just understand the system. more so than actual response times. That'll come later. We'll be looking for improvements and feedback from our partners at the fire department, but this particular test project is designed to look at the equipment specifically, and what sort of implementation challenges will we have integrating it with the CAD, integrating it with our We have two different types of controllers in our cabinets and several different types of detection, so we want to look at how that all interacts. It's fairly complex, and so we feel before we invest in the system-wide implementation that it's good to take a look at how this works, what it takes for maintenance, what it takes for staffing, and understand these things.

And the second part of the question regarding what determines whether it will be successful.

A success would be that we have an understanding of cost, how much staff time, how much maintenance over time, and then we also have an understanding of implementation requirements. So what does it look like to plug the equipment into the controller? What are the complexities? What are the safety concerns that we have? So I think success is having a comfortability with the equipment and an understanding of does it actually work.

So my next question is do you expect meaningful results to impact fire response time or fire safety or whatever it is you're trying to get from a in the field perspective? You're telling me a lot about behind the scenes. I'm trying to get at what is success and what do you anticipate in the field?

we would anticipate understanding success based on a system-wide implementation. If you implement a 10% of your system, we would not yet be in a position until the next step where we implement the entire system to understand exactly how much response time we're gonna save as we put this on the ground. We don't, we understand from various partners that we've visited with, other communities, we've done a lot of research to understand that they have had success. And so we believe that it will be successful, but this is just the first step in a multi-step implementation process. So we won't understand the full impact. Will we see response time impacts on the railroad corridor? Yes. Will it be meaningful enough data to, Stamp it as a full success for a system-wide implementation. I don't think so yet But you know right now we're going to this, you know feeling fairly confident that it will be a success based on our research of Different products and our research with other communities that have implemented this time frame for this pilot. I We would anticipate a probably three to four month implementation phase for the test project. So three to four months to get the equipment in, implement it in our system, and get it going. And then probably three to six months of evaluation to really understand how it's working. It could be shorter than that. It could be longer. If we have problems or require modifications to the cabinets of the traffic signal systems, then it could be closer to that six month period.

Okay, last question. It's a multi-part question, and I don't know if you'll be able to handle it or not because it's a little bit more operational, specific to fire, but I'll do your best shot, I guess, or somebody else can step forward. So what led staff to prioritize, of all the things we've heard about with respect to fire, the concerns about fire response, fire staffing, all the things, right? It's been multifaceted. What led us to pick this as our first step and what will be the future steps after this?

Well, I can talk to what led us to this point is hopefully this isn't a surprise to any council member because we've been talking for about, let's see, it's July now, so I would say maybe seven to nine months about this being one particular technology solution that can have significant positive impacts on improving response times for all public safety. not just fire, but police and fire ultimately. So this is part of our, I think even a smart city discussion we had late last year about using technology to improve operations. So this is why this is one of our first steps long before we discuss investing in Capital needs or certainly more long-term staff expenses that Once you hire staff you have them for 25 plus years. So this is a step to Address response times and as we've indicated For for a while our response times are within our standards. So this we believe will continue to to improve our response times for Fires primarily what we've been analyzing, but I know Police administration have been looking at their response times as well. So in in terms of our the other part of your question in terms of what happens after this test period, then I believe we look towards a complete contract with this particular vendor to address all the remaining signalized intersections, which will take time because some intersections are shared with the City of Bloomington and with IDOT as well as some equipment is shared with Bloomington and IDOT. So it does require more coordination.

Can you bring up another? I said that was my last one. I just thought of this one. I'll be quiet. You brought up about this particular vendor. We are waiving the normal process of putting it out to bid for reasons I understand. So we start as a starter with this particular vendor. Does that preclude us from doing a bid process later on should we expand?

Yes.

It does preclude us from that?

This action itself does not preclude us, but it wouldn't. This vendor is the authorized vendor for AI Glance in this area, so they would be the only bidder should we go through a bid process with the specs. It's a proprietary system.

And the only reason we would consider different vendors if we were going to change systems. Let's say this pilot or this test period turned out to be not what we thought it was going to be, so then we potentially pivot to another type of system and another vendor. That's highly unlikely based on the research we've had and since the city of Bloomington is using this and IDOT's familiar with it and our research with other communities that are using this has been very positive. So I would anticipate that the next time council sees this particular topic as an action item, would be of similar action to waive the formal bidding process and move forward with this vendor to expand to our remaining intersections.

Okay, I'll stop there. Thank you very much.

Ms. Smith?

I just wanted to highlight that in the packet and in my conversation with you in the email, The fact that this is compatible with what Bloomington is using does make it a prime candidate for testing of the system, and RAB Road itself does not cross jurisdictions, so we don't have to figure out how to coordinate with other municipalities or government entities that our emergency vehicles may be crossing in response to the time. So I think it's well worth doing it because I believe back in January when we were having some discussions, it was highlighted that communities that have implemented this kind of system have experienced improved response time. as well as for those of us who attended the open house at fire station number two in a conversation with the chief there that we've already seen improved response time to Mercy Creek with this location. So our response times are in a state of flux right now.

Further on this item? Mr. McCarthy.

Thanks, Mayor. This may be very short. I have some data processing, data storage, and security questions. Is that better handled by Ms. Guadarraju when she returns?

I could try.

Awesome. we'll give a shot it pretty straightforward nothing too detailed just so this talks about I'm assuming this is a cloud-based system that's correct and so processing or data happens someplace else yes I believe it's a cloud bait fully cloud-based system I don't believe any data itself is housed

at the town, although I don't know how that's gonna work as we integrate the CAD system, things like that. Those are questions that still have to be answered. Now you know where I'm going?

Okay, so this is to be decided or to be sorted as you're going through this process as well? Yes. Working out some of those data storage, data security type questions.

Okay, fair enough, thanks.

Will you call the roll? Ms. Smith?

Aye.

Mr. McCarthy? Aye. Mr. Preston? Aye. Mrs. Lorenz? Aye. Mr. Byers? Aye. Mr. Roberge? Aye. Mayor Koos?

Aye. That resolution is approved. Item 8 is a motion to initiate a zoning text amendment pertaining to various sections of the zoning code.

Move approval.

Second. Discussion on this item? Please call the roll.

Mr. McCarthy? Aye. Mr. Preston? Aye. Mrs. Lorenz? Aye. Mr. Byers? Aye. Mr. Roberge? Aye. Ms. Smith? Aye. Mayor Koos?

Aye. That motion is approved. Item 9 is a motion accepting the 2026 Town of Normal Strategic Plan.

Move approval.

Second. So the plan is in your book tonight. I'll just give a brief overview. I think the interesting thing about what we did this year that had differed from other years is that we had an incredible amount of citizen input in terms of what this plan should look like, what was important to the stakeholders of our community and the citizens of our community in terms of where we should be going as a community. As you all know, we voted on a series of priorities, and they're listed in your booklet on page 9 of that report. For people at home, That is on the front page of the town website right now with all the priorities. It's a pretty complex and fully incorporated document, so if you have interest in what that is, you can easily access that through the town of Normal.

Discussion?

Yeah, you brought up about stakeholder input that just jogged a question in my mind I knew one or two of the folks who did participate and They had asked me what they would hear From their participation or other plans to circle back with any of those participants. I

uh... that's a great question i think what we can do is uh... and i'll look at miss here i don't think we have communicated this directly to all those per test participants that were involved in the focus groups but we could certainly send an email with the link to the website and we are promoting it in our next normal now newsletter or we did or anything i think it's coming up in our next normal newsletter so will will Encourage folks to get on our website and take you take a look.

Yeah, I would like the idea of the email I think that would be very nice. You know you kind of have to Make sure that they felt heard if you ever want folks to to repeat this in the future And you know it might not be them But it might be someone that they talk to and be like yeah The process was really great and they got back in touch with me afterwards. I think that's just a really nice Please call the roll

Mr. Preston? Aye. Mrs. Lorenz? Aye. Mr. Byers? Aye. Mr. Roberge? Aye. Ms. Smith? Aye. Mr. McCarthy? Aye. Mayor Koos?

Aye. That motion is approved. Item 10 is a motion to approve an appointment to the Bloomington Normal Oshawa Sister Cities Committee and reappointment to the Connect Transit Board.

No approval.

Second. Mr. McCarthy, would you read those two appointments?

Certainly, Mayor. You are recommending to the Bloomington Normal Asayakawa Sister Cities Committee Ms. Angie Stegman. I hope I got that right. Ms. Stegman currently works as a library specialist at Illinois State University Milner Library, where she's been employed for 28 years. She's volunteered for the Girl Scouts as well as the Humane Society. Her interest in the sister cities committee has grown since she had a family member participate as an exchange student in the program. She has volunteered her time assisting the recent visit from the junior ambassadors from Japan and is excited to take a lead position on the high school to Asayakawa program. This segment will fill a vacant seat with a term expiring on March 31st, 2029. You are also reappointing Mayor to the Connect Transit Board, Julie Heil. for a new term that will expire on June 30th, 2030. Thank you.

Please call the roll. Oh, we need a motion.

I motioned already.

I have them. Okay. Mrs. Lorenz? No. Mr. Byers?

Aye.

Mr. Roberge?

Aye.

Ms. Smith? Aye. Mr. McCarthy?

Aye.

Mr. Preston?

Aye.

Mayor Koos? Aye. That motion is approved. Before taking a motion for adjournment, are there council comments or concerns? Ms. Smith?

I just wanted to highlight that our 250th celebration is not over in the town of Normal. On Wednesday the 8th from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Connie Link Amphitheater, the local chapter of the Sons of Liberty is sponsoring a reading of the Declaration of Independence. There will be a number of representatives from various community organizations, activities, as well as some elected officials. And last year, they planted a liberty tree adjacent to the trail, and the discussion following that led to this. And so I hope you can come. It is from 3 to 6 because there will be activities like face painting and other activities that the kids should enjoy. Mr. McCarthy.

Thanks, Mayor. I just wanted to point out and say a public happy birthday to our mayor. It's his birthday today. Happy birthday, Mayor.

Thank you. Question for adjournment.

So moved. Second.

Please call the roll. Mr. Byers. Aye. Mr. Roberge.

Aye.

Ms. Smith. Aye. Mr. McCarthy.

Aye.

Mr. Preston.

Aye.

Mrs. Lorenz. Aye. Mayor Koos. Aye.

Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you.