City Council - Regular Meeting

Did you bring your jacket today, Hillary? Okay, cuz I am put it in there. It is frigid. You got you brought a personal heater. I have my big long jacket as a blanket. I also brought my Detroit Lion stocking just in case. It's usually too hot in there. If anything, I do have a little space heater under my desk and I'll tell you what, that thing I have forgotten that I left it on and I come back and I'm like, "What the hell?" It's like 88 degrees.

Oh [ __ ] they got the TV. We got two minutes. That's all. That clock is going to throw us off. What happened to the clock? Oh, I was talking about it's not even close on the minutes. I'm not. No, you want to text it to me, I can put them in I can put them in for your report.

Yeah, it's it's off by like five minutes. broken. No, it's fine. I do need to update my slides. That clock's deceiving. We have like a minute. I like the clock better. You want you want to wait for an hour and five minutes

before we get started. Yeah. Yeah. The hour part. Give me one second though. I can get this in here. Yep. Yeah. You're an hour early.

I I was on it. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

All right, I got I got 6 PM. Are you guys Is everybody ready? Okay, we can wait. Just want to get the PowerPoint up there. PowerPoint we usually put up there. Is you going to kill? Oh, that PowerPoint. I was like, "Oh my god, death by PowerPoint." Let me know when you're ready. I'll have to reput it up. Anyway, uh let me pull my agenda real quick. Dilly.

Okay, good. Okay, everybody ready? like to call the Oglesby city council meeting to order. A roll call, please. Here please stand for the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Number four, mayor's report. Um, only got a couple things. Uh, first one, just want to give a huge thanks uh to the electric department uh for working the outage that we had on Friday. I know I've said this in the past. Um, when you have outages, you know, we're different than Amarind, right? You have people that are residents, friends, family members, they're going to work so much harder. Uh, it was a pretty miserable day. Nice and windy and cold, and they're up in the bucket trucks. Even bigger shout out to uh Peru. Uh Peru came uh gave us some help. At one point in time, I think there was six trucks down there. Um so it's really great to have great neighbors uh to be able to step up and help that. I know I said this in the past. I I like it when we can offer help to everybody else. I know we have less resources than other people though, but I can't thank our neighbors enough. Um I really appreciate that. So uh number two, I did bring up another item about code red. Uh, so I did have a couple people reach out to me that our code red system uh for signing up was not working. I really do appreciate that. I took a look at it. Um, and I noticed the link on our page wasn't working. So then I was like, that's strange. Uh, because I do know that a couple months ago there was a problem with code red, but my understanding is on IVRD that we talked about this apparently the problem was worked through, whatever it was. Uh but on Spring Valley's page, Peru's page, and um Udica's page, it was the same exact link and it did not work. So, we're looking at it right now. We're going to make sure we get the right link out there for everybody. Uh but I do appreciate when people reach out and let us know there's some issues. Um third item, same thing as well. I got I got one email and one text this morning about plowing issues and then I know that there was a call into city hall. I appreciate anytime somebody has a

concern with something, please reach out to an elected official. That's that's great. That's wonderful. But if you need help uh with something sooner than later, please don't forget I I guess somebody did call city hall and city hall was open at time so they got the help to them. But you can always call the after hours emergency number. That'll always get somebody for dispatch. Always be able to get somebody for help. I think the problem was there was uh since we had somebody retire, we were shorter person and one half of the street didn't get plowed. So easy fix. Uh but when you run issues like that, just make sure you reach out and let somebody know. Uh and then the last item is uh elections for primaries are tomorrow. So make sure you get out and vote. That is all I have. Uh number five, public comment on agenda items only. Seeing that there's none, we'll move on. Number six, approve minutes from March 2nd, 2026. Um we haven't had an issue in the last couple meetings. So if there's no additions, corrections, or modifications, can I get a motion to approve the minutes?

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. I'll second that motion. Roll call, please. Aldridge, I. Colin, I. McDermott, I number seven. Approve bills presented for payment in the amount of $154,643.14 if there's no additions, corrections, or modifications to the bills. Uh, can I get a motion? I will move that we approve bills presented for payment in the amount of $154,643.14. I'll second that motion. Roll call, please. Baldridge I McD hi I

number eight approve payroll for March 1326 in the amount of $70,62830 if there's no additions corrections or modifications to the payroll. Can I get a motion to approve? Um I will motion uh that we approve payroll for um March 13, 2026 in the amount of $70,628.30. 30 cents. I'll second. Roll call, please. You I number nine. Old business. A discussion and possible action on city dual metering code. Baldridge. Uh that's for Mr. Do you mind if I take it over?

All right. Uh this has been we've had the commercial, we've had the civilian. Um, we need to make an action to put it both as a commercial and the u residential. Um, I believe Pat, you got something written up or

Yeah, I did. Uh we had of course adopted an ordinance for residential dual metering back last fall I think sometime and the discussion was held at the last meeting to extend that same courtesy to a commercial enterprise but I took out language relating to swimming pools and things that I didn't think were applicable. So the ordinance in front of you allows for a commercial customer to request uh a second meter by filing an application with the clerk. Um, it'll be inspected by the uh plumbing inspector. Uh, the plumbing inspector is very aware about the back meter valve. Uh, I'm sure that he'll be looking for that carefully when he inspects it. But this just extends the same courtesy to a commercial or industrial customer.

Okay. It's actually a good idea. I mean, commercial property has grass, too. Okay. Go around the room. Baldridge. Nothing. Austin, I was thinking about one thing regarding this. Um, prior to this meeting, there's not a need to distinguish between uh commercial and industrial, is there? Yeah, I think they're all commercial. Okay. You actually have manufacturing and business. You really So, I I think this covers both. That was my only concern. Business and industrial customers. Got them. I have nothing to add.

Nothing. I don't really have anything else. Uh, no. I think it's it's a good thing. I mean, like like McDur said, there's grass at commercial businesses, too. So, if people want to make their uh properties look nice, I don't see any issue with it. All right. There's no other further discussion. Can we get a motion to approve it? I'll make a motion to approve the city dual meter code. Second. Do we have do we need do we need to state an ordinance number with that or is it verif good enough? I don't think uh yeah the ordinance number I put on there was 1311-31626. That ordinance. Okay. All right. Uh there's a motion. Is there a second? Uh roll call, please. Aldridge.

Hi. Hi. McDerman. Hi. Mo. Hi. Hi. Johnson, there you go. New business a discussion and possible action on tag day requests. So, we had a couple more tag days come in. I think it's a, you know, it's a good thing. It gets an opportunity for some nonprofits out there uh to get seen uh which is another nice benefit and then they make a little bit of money as well. So, I'll go around if anybody has any comments. Austin. Um, no. No. Mac, all four. Rich, nothing. All right. Can we get a motion to approve the tag day request? I'll make a motion to approve the tag day request and I'll second it. Roll call, please. Thank you. Baldridge. I McDerman. I

B. Discussion and possible action on firefighter and LP athletic boosters raffle. Current. Um, so again, same thing. Um, I I can't remember what exactly the LP booster raffle they're doing is. I think it's uh I think it's celebrity bartending. I'm not sure. The firefighter one. It's probably the same similar with that. Um, always a good thing be for them to be able to make a little bit of money and stuff like that. So, go around the room. Anybody have anything? No. Awesome. Hillary. Nope. Mac, all four. Rich. All right. Let's get a motion. If we can get a motion to approve. I'll make a motion to approve the raffle. Um, requests, I guess. Second. Roll call, please. Waldridge. I. Colin.

Hi. McDerman. I I I C discussion and possible action on purchase of equipment tractors. Murman.

All right. Uh we I've sent everybody the uh about the tractor, the bid and everything. This is something we need pretty bad, everybody. Um we got parts that are falling apart while the guys are digging in the holes. Um, you'll see the list price is 273 237,977. The extended warranty for 5 years is 2260. Freight and dealer rep is 3,460. The US governmental discount will give us $67,87 off. Okay, this makes a new balance of $175,890. Now, this has already jumped $80,000 from last year. Everybody's got to understand this equipment is getting real bad. It's starting to fall apart. The other day, they were digging in a hole. The bucket just fell right off. Could have easily We had guys working underneath it. They turned around. Could have been easily hit vehicle, resident. We were just lucky that one time it fell in the in the actual dump truck. The other time it fell in the hole. Um I'm asking for approval to go ahead and buy this. It's $175,890, but we don't want anybody to get hurt or worse yet killed. All right. It's important. We need it. It's uh it's vital.

Go around the room. Balders. Uh, I remember discussing this before. We wanted some uh maintenance reports and such on there and I don't believe we've gained much money since then in regards to our budget. Uh, unless there's a pile of money that we found somewhere. They just got a $235,000 dump truck nine months ago. So, it's a lot of money. Awesome.

U, I can't speak obviously as to what kind of maintenance they do on it. Um, but I mean I think if it's Well, I I think from what it seems, it's pretty sorely needed and from what we currently have, um I mean, it's just simply probably not going to get the job done if the job needs to be done. And so, um, you know, uh, I don't know what specifically your appropriations look like this year for the streets department, but, um, it sounds like it's sorely needed and whatever we would put into, uh, the existing one would probably be pretty substantial as well. So, well, this has also got equipment that's attached to it that we're alone, we're renting out to other companies. They're coming in and they're doing the job for us because we can't do it. This this tractor's got it equipped on it.

Do you have a rough estimate of what it was saving us with those extra equipment? Yep. Got it all here. Well, it's on your sheet there. You didn't get it? I didn't have anything. Wow. Hold on. So, would this take away from the back truck $150,000? Maybe. It would. No, a year would be okay around the room. Hillary, you have anything?

I my cons obviously those sound like pretty significant equipment concerns and I'm really concerned somebody's going to get injured. That's something we got to make sure that we're not putting ourselves at risk for if we do move forward with this. Do you have intentions of retiring the current one? Get it out of here because I would hate for while we're waiting. How what is the lead time on this? Well, this will take about two weeks to get. Um, there's two different types of payments. One is a five annually payments of 31,880 800 31,88844 with this one sub payment of 48,720.

So, the other one is I guess explain that to me. Are you leasing it or are we purchasing it outright? Well, we'd be leasing it. We'd be making payments. Okay. Okay. So, that's that was my after five years we don't it Well, this was my two pay off. So, when we talked earlier about this, we talked about the obviously we need we can't have a piece of equipment that's unsafe to operate, you know, and and we need it. We use it practically every day. So, we need to get one. That's bottom line.

I remember us talking about this though, Mac. Uh, and I thought you had a really good idea of of looking at an option of leasing one instead of an outright purchase because, you know, when we purchase it, we're required for all the maintenance for it and these things have been costly over time. I am kind of curious what is a lease option that has all the features, all the maintenance, everything included. If we divide that out for the number of years that we paid for this massive cost, I'd be curious how close they are to each other. Um, if the lease is cheaper, then we should probably be looking to sign a long-term lease and we just put that in the appropriations numbers. If if it's at the same level, I think you still lease it because you don't have to worry about the maintenance stuff on it. Someone's going to take care of all that for it. If it's a little bit more, that's where I think it's a debate that we need to kind of talk about. And I don't know, I I you just sent the email on it. I haven't had a chance to look at it. Do you have a lease version versus a purchase outright version? He gave me these papers here, but I didn't copy them because I sent out the email.

Well, the email came out. I think it What? First thing when it came out. Oh, well, this is I don't have it. So, this says five annual payments of 318.88, a balloon payment at the end for 48720. Well, that's still buying it though. When you say balloon payment or you trade it in for another Oh, there wasn't an option to lease. I thought we were looking at an option to lease one. There's not one this time. So really, we're looking at So we're debating one option that we absolutely need is what I'm hearing.

Yeah. And then you turn it you turn it in five years. You actually pay a lot more for that. I'd be curious to know how much more because we have maint I mean we have stuck lots of money in this thing over the years just to update the maintenance. And what I hate about that is not only that we're paying more for the maintenance, but then there's the outage times that we have that it doesn't work. So that's why I'm like, if there was a lease option, what is that cost comparison? I don't know what you're talking about. Okay. All right. The quote says governmental lease on it, though. So

so it's basically either so it's a lease with option to buy is what we're getting. Yes, but it's not a lease I guess. Do we have the option to lease another one then at that to make sure they're turn. So the balloon's the residual I believe. Okay. Okay. Well, I I don't like that we don't have a lot of decisions to make because I think we we need one. If this is the only option we have, Pat, let me ask you this. I I know there was some things that we're supposed to do if we go above our appropriations that we're supposed to look at the appropriations ordinance. Is that something that we would need to activate in this case?

Um, you know, it just depends on what you're going above. You know, if the items are all in a certain department category, you don't need to make any motions to move things. Otherwise, we kind of look at the end of the year and you in one place and hire in another place, we do a permanent transfer to cover those shortfalls. Okay. Just just to throw out on the table here, there is an electric truck that they will no longer service due to the the age. So, if we're in the buyin shop here, let's keep that in mind as well. Looking at 200 something, thousand there as well. What electric truck is there? The oldest one they have in their fleet down there. We got a new one just recently though.

I understand there's an old one down there that they're no longer work on. It's it's not able to be certified any longer. So, I didn't know there was any extra money or would have said so before. No, I I don't I don't like not having options. I really don't. Um, but if there's not a lease option, Well, that's this is what they're calling the lease because that took five years in. Do you think it's a lease? Well, he said there's Okay. They're giving you 500. Does Yeah. So, so under this lease option at the end of five years, we could either pay it off or we turn it in and get another truck.

Really would like to see this job and you leave it sitting right through 500 hours and Yeah. Austin, can you pull that off your computer up on the board? Standard warranties 12 months unlimited hours full machine standard warranty extended coverage 420 60 months 300 3,000 hour powertrain, hydraulics tech, whatever that means. This is what it says. I'll pull it up. Yeah, if you could pull it up on the board, they explain it to cover all maintenance on it. Right. That's what it says for warranty and coverage right there. The repairs unlimited hours.

How long is the lease that we sign then? Five years. we get the first year 10 semianual payments of 1578779. So really the expenditure would be like $32,000 a year. That's what it says. Yeah. I really would like a little I mean again I haven't even reviewed this document. I'd like a little time to see it. Did it just come in today?

Yeah, I got it this this morning. Well, I'll put it forth to the council what you want to do. I don't I mean I I don't like we don't have options to consider necessarily. Um I mean it's something we need. We need but I mean technically we can make that argument for every department. Yeah. But I also I mean I kind of question what the alternative is if we don't make a purchase. I mean probably to what would Lance I mean what would you think it would cost to if it was even possible to fix the existing one we have it probably cost 30 some thousand right like I'm sure it probably needs that much work

I think I don't know how much

service That place changed ownership. That place changed ownership. All they knew. They send them out. They send them to your I would feel more comfortable if I knew like if there were money in the budget now that we're looking at 32. I want to know how off are we? Yeah. Well, yeah. I don't know what his appropriations was for it, but um I mean ultimately I mean if it was if it's if it really is a necessary sort of thing though, you can still you know you can but again only going to be spending $31,000 in a given year. It doesn't under either one of these proposals. One of them is run the risk of it

semianual payments of 17 something. The other one is annual payments of 31 something effectively working out to the same amount. Do you know how many vendors we attempted to try to to get options from two? Is there is that pretty much all there is for government options or is there was there more than that? Yeah. Yeah. Good relationship with cat. Uh alter. Okay.

It has all the attachments that we need. Good. Right there. Still going to be paying that. I mean, how much do you think the savings will be with that jackhammer in comparison to what it's costing us to back it out now? It's not going to save us much time, is it?

Government So on the average, we're still going to be paying for the vac truck situation the same 150 a year. Yeah. I I I wish I had a little more time to kind of review these or or at least look into like how much the maintenance uh for like every time we've had a call mainten uh to come because it's a feature we don't have. That'd be a good thing to know as well, what kind of money we save on that. I'd really I I feel a little more comfortable making the decision knowing a lot more options um or at least knowing what the costs were. Um I know this has been going on for a while though and you you do need an answer. So I'll defer to what what is your what is your recommendation?

I think we need it. I don't know. I don't want to see anybody get hurt. I don't want anybody or worse. Well, in that case, I think we need to make sure that we can approve it because we got to make sure that we have enough room in our our appropriations line item till we can legally approve it. Otherwise, I think we have to do a an ordinance modification mid year, I believe. Not to, Jason. You don't believe so? No. And I think you probably got plenty of fluff in here, appropriation ordinance. All right. From my memory of it. I mean, I don't know what you've spent so far, but Austin's got a pretty good hand on it. Okay. Heading into the year end here, I know we have a significant amount of fluff. I just want to make sure we're doing because Rich makes a good point. You know, we approve this thing.

Now, the department has another need. you know, what what do we do? This one is directly safety related, though. Um, I mean, if it's needed and we've done the research and this is really the only option we have, I don't know what else there is to do. I don't want to be spending money on things that we don't. So, Lance, what happens tomorrow? You need a backhoe. What are you doing? Lance won't go near the hole. My concern is, okay, even if we approve it tonight, we have two weeks. If it's that dangerous, I don't want anybody using it. Well, we we have the option to call other like for example, we can continue to call McLinies for everything. That's it's pricey. Like when they come in with that what was that thing? Back truck.

The mini hole. Yeah, the mini hole. Yeah, back truck. Stuff like that. I mean, there's there's things that we can call for services, but they those cost us. How much more would it be for Molini just to come and and use their backhoe? Or are there minexs? I mean, do we have to have one? Would it be just as who does the the street department does? Just use the last because I think we have two of them, right? We have one We have one of We have one in the electric department as well, but that one's about just as bad as my understanding. Right. It's even worse. I think that one was the junk one from the last time. This guy's got a new one.

Yeah. I mean, we obviously need one. I don't like how we are, you know, we technically should have appropriated for it. Um, but I mean, if we need it, we need it. I don't know what else to say. I appreciate you looking at the options we had. I I wish we had a little bit more data here, like looking at how much we've spent on on mleies that we wouldn't have to spend with this that kind just to have some price comparisons. I'm not sure the hammer Okay. So, you're saying it just makes it more efficient because it's bigger and the government is giving us

But at this point though, we'd be calling them for the back hoe entirely though because we won't use that one, right? Well, the the existing one you'd still use that just use it Friday. Yeah. Yeah. Use it for salt. Make sure everybody's away from it. I get you. I respect that. That's not my department. Whatever they want to do with it. load salt with it. That way if it falls part falls off, it don't have to worry.

Well, end of the day, is there any other questions anybody has or anything about any technical stuff that we have or or finance stuff? I I really wish we had multiple options here so we could debate what we think the best option to go is. I see two options, right? We either don't buy something and continue to find out how to figure something out or call somebody in for help when we do it or we make a purchase for an item because I think that's the only item we really have is this this long lease with option to buy, right? Is the only one. Um I don't know. I don't want to be the guy to make it. It's it's your department. What's your thought? You you recommending that we make the purchase? I recommend that we uh make a purchase on tractor. Okay. Okay. Safety. And

anybody else have any other questions on that or get a motion to to to vote on it or anything else you want to talk about? It's a lot of money with a little facts. Let's say that again. It's a lot of money with little facts. I mean, well, I mean, the other I I do agree. Here's the other thing that sucks. This is one of the four times a year that we have three weeks between council meetings. We could always come back for an emergency session if we wanted to get more information. We could do that if we need to. So I can get Chad up here and an emergency session and have him talk to us. Cool. Chad, what other what other piece of So Rich, what other piece of information would you like to because I agree there's

I don't know what this is going to save us if anything uh if there are any other options possibly a better lease or I really would like to know like how much we have spent like what what did we buy the it at? What have we spent if we bought it 15 years ago? what is the amount of maintenance that we've put into it for 15 years? You know, divide that out per year. Um, what's wrong with it right now that is is it possible to be fixed? If it's $20,000 and it'll last another 10 years, that that I don't know. If it was my money, I'd be looking

I feel like we spent 30,000 the last time to fix it and it only lasted like I don't even know how long it lasted. But that is But Rich actually does make a good point. If we can put 20,000 in it and it makes it go another six months, it actually carries us to appropriations time. So it's a discussion.

Yeah. Well, he was also saying that that's a stretch. What year is it? 99. I have what's appropriated for 97. I have the appropriations ordinance here. Do you know how much spent so far for everything? Well, I don't know exactly what we spend off the top, but this is actually what we've appropriated for streets at least. Um, so I mean vehicle maintenance, I don't exactly know what you'd be pulling it out of here, but vehicle maintenance we appropriated pretty minimal probably kept a lot out. That's where it would come out of and it could be shared between departments. Yeah,

it's probably used in the water department, I would assume. Department or water because we probably put pay more than maintenance than just the 7500 a year on top of it. Yeah. Well, so that's another option. Okay. We could do 200,000 in capital outlay for uh well that's permanent improvements so it says but so the options I think I'm hearing from everybody is we could do nothing. We could purchase it or we could try to get more information and then make a decision. Well, what's the council want me to do? I don't want to see anybody getting hurt.

I mean, I I don't think it's popular to spend the money, but I just again I I just we're going to be finding ourselves in kind of a precarious situation. Um I mean, I know we can call Molinies or whatever, but I mean this is I said the back hose used every day in the streets department. Yeah, it's about they don't use for one thing, it's another.

Yeah. And then we have a a major issue, major water man brick or something like that. I mean that I don't know. The infrastructure is already pretty old. I I I don't know. I I mean I I get it. I I kind of do I get the more information thing. I would have liked to have had more information and uh perused it before the meeting, but it just kind of seems like to me at least it it does seem like kind of an emergency expense. Um but trust me, I don't I don't like spending money either, especially when it's not mine.

I taxpayer money is important. I mean, I don't have a problem spending money if it's what's necessary. The concern I have is I like I don't like making a decision on things that I I I don't know. Like I don't have the facts of how much maintenance we've spent. I don't know. Um my understanding is I guess for the part that would have to hit through the the concrete that's actually a relatively low amount if we found the numbers out for for what that was we spent on the cleanies. But I mean just having all that information I I like having information in front of me to be able to make a decision. Um, so unless you want to come back uh in in a few days to do it once we have our information, wait three weeks.

I believe another option would be uh instead of a bomb getting thrown at us tonight here and making a rash decision. There's a possibility to rent monthly from most uh companies around here. I'm pretty sure that was an op. Was that an option? Did we look into that? That's what I thought monthly, weekly, whatever. Well, then I think we should get that quote because if it's a rental and it has all the maintenance and stuff included forever, um I'd like to know what that cost is. Not going to do it forever. Whatever the length of the Whatever the length of the rental agreement is month at a time. I'd say we rent it for a month. Give us a chance. That only cost a couple thousand dollars. Give us a chance to Did you look at how much a a rental offer even a month would be?

Be over 2500. I can't No, it's not. It's like 25 grand at the most. It's 2500. 25,000. 2500. Sorry. 2500. Yes. Then I I think for 2500 you should I think I think we go that route then. Even if we do end up spending a little bit more, I you know, at least we have our ducks in a row. So I I think that's a good idea, Rich. I I would recommend if that So that was another option. Well, it's it's a it's a band, but it's a temporary time. It's a temporary option. You can you can only do it for themselves. The safety issue. I think we need something now. Well, if it's a safety issue, you can have it tomorrow. I mean, you could call now. They'll deliver.

Let's do that. If it's 2500 bucks or if it's close to that amount because I guess you don't if you don't have the right amount, let's do that. Get us through the next month. It'll give us opport opportunity to look at our options, at least know all the financial pieces and be able to make a more sound decision. I think that's sounds good to me. Then I'll do that. All right. Anybody else have any discussion on that? Yes, sir. Oh, that is April 11. uh April 11th, we'll have a meeting. We have one meeting. We have we have a regular meeting. So, so we got a regular meeting before then then. So, okay. So, in other words, I would recommend if you want to make the Well, actually, we don't have to vote. I think if you How long can you sign the month rental agreement for just being a month? I can go down there.

In that case, you don't you don't need any council approval uh for anything then. So, what I would recommend is do that. Uh but then with the idea that we're going to have a lot more information uh to look at uh for the next meeting because we'll have to make a decision by then. Does that sound fair? Hopefully. And again, I'm not blaming you if it came out today, but maybe maybe not getting the email 10 minutes before the uh council meeting. So, we're reading documents on the fly. Okay. Yes, sir. For for me, they want the maintenance and they want the uh what what's the cost in the last year, five years, 10 years? What when was it bought? How often are we buying these things?

When was it bought? How much maintenance have we put into it every year? Divide that out for the number of years. That's how much we spent on it per year. I'd like to know what about if there's a rental agreement. Is there a long-term option for a rental agreement that has everything? I mean, and the answer might be it's way more expensive, so we don't do it. But at least we have I I feel the council needs to have options when you're making decisions with taxpayer money. Okay. So, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll go ahead go down there and rent it for a month. Within that time, we'll hash everything out. We'll get it situated. That work? I think that works. So then official action would be just to table this to the next meeting then. Can we do that? I'll make a motion to table it until the next meeting. I'll second. And I'd like to put it on the agenda, please. Jen. All right.

Thank you. Roll call, please. I Good discussion, everybody. Appreciate that. D. discussion and possible action to refer issues to ambulance board as needed. Moy, I'm gonna kind of I didn't put this on the agenda. You didn't? No, I'm gonna I'm gonna

I I did I I did ask to put it on. Uh but I thought maybe you came in because you put your name on it too or something. So I I can talk first about that. That's fine. That's fine. Um so so our ambulance board is now full. We we have that uh appointed. We have had some issues with it. U matter of fact, we're not the transfers. So what what the board is we'd like the board to sit down and talk about options and and there is no limit to the number of options that are out there. Um because that way they can provide the council with some selections of what they think they can narrow it down. There's again just Lasal Peru Oglesby alone have three completely different options of how they do their ambulance service. And if you go out towards even further to Spring Valley, uh, Menota, Streer, they they're all like forms of it, but everybody's different. There's not one set solution. So, what might work in one city doesn't work for another. And that's why we have a board to kind of sit down and talk about options and and give us uh opportunities, go around the room, Austin.

No, but I'm always supportive of making use of our boards. Is this something I guess I didn't know if we needed to put it on the agenda to refer issues because isn't that what their purpose of the board is? Yeah, but but this way it force it it's us telling them officially to meet about something like that. They can meet on their own. So since I've been in they have never met um is there already a chairman? I don't know who was the chairman. The the previous chairman was uh was Jim Nobel who who didn't he didn't want to stay back on which is fine. So when they have their first meeting, this isn't one of the ones in our ordinances that we appoint a chairman. I don't I don't believe it is. I don't think so. I think it's elected from the board.

Yeah. So most boards when they meet for the first time, they select their own chairman or something like that, unless it's specific to our ordinance. And if I have that wrong, then then we'll fix that. Uh but yeah, so they'll meet once and then pick a chairman and then sit there and decide how many meetings they need to have. Okay, Mac. Well, I think we ought to let the board discuss it and see what they suggest. Rich, nothing. All right. Can I get a motion to send this over to the ambulance board? What would the motion be? To uh refer to the ambulance board uh to discuss future options. Something like that.

Uh okay. Okay, I'll make a motion to refer future um options for the ambulance to the ambulance board. Okay, I'll second. Roll call, please. Baldridge. Hi. Colin, I E. Discussion and possible action on purchase of reclosure for Phoenix substation in the amount of 25,824. Aldridge. Yeah, I lost my sheet here, but uh it's for I believe the Phoenix station here. Um, yeah,

it's something we're going to need here to finish out that job. It's I believe for the um second feed coming into that one or something. I can't remember what it was exactly, but it blew out in one of the uh storms. We got our insurance paid that back, I believe, and we just thought it'd be a good idea to put on the agenda and make sure that was transparent with the 25,000 on the road. Uh, no. Paid for by insurance. That's the key word. Hillary not It's paid for by the insurance. You said the magic words. I have nothing else to add. You like to make a motion. Make a motion to pass the purchase for a reclosure of $25,824. I'll second that motion. Roll call, please.

Aldridge. I

F discussion and possible action on board appointments. Uh so we talked about this. We actually have two boards that uh we have one for park board that need to be filled and then our 125th committee that we are going to be standing up uh be five names for it. So um we did talk a little bit about them and we had some uh people that we reached out to uh that that wanted to step up and we really appreciate that. So I'd like to make a nomination for park board to be Sarah Egan. uh for the 125th committee to be Wally Markwat, Doug Mcmanis, Amy Arthur, Connie Henry, and Karen Watson. Now, keep in mind with the 125th committee, there's a lot of other people that talked. They they said they didn't have a lot of time to do it uh to be on the board, but they want to help out. I will say with an event of this size, there's going to be a lot of people in a lot of hands that'll probably be part of helping out. Uh but this is just for the board that'll sit and kind of meet and discuss like, hey, how much money should we be putting towards it? What do we think we want to do? That kind of stuff. I'm sure they're going to tap lots and lots of people around the room. If anybody else has anything else to add

Hillary, nope. Mac, no. Waldridge, nothing. Can we get a motion for those appointments, please? I will make a motion that we appoint all the affforementioned people to the affforementioned positions on our boards. Good word. I don't hear that enough. I use it a lot. I like it. Did I get a second? I'll second. Roll call, please. Hi Colin. Hi McDer. Hi Mo. Hi. Hi. I want to use that so bad in my vocabulary tomorrow. Jason, can I ask you to repeat the 25th? Amy Karen Wallally. Who am I? Wallally. Doug Mcmanis, Amy Arthur, Connie Henry, and Karen Watson. Thank you.

And that does not have a a chairman associated with it. Wall-ally was the chairman 25 years ago. He said he's happy to be on the board, but he doesn't want to chair it. So one of the other four they can discuss uh who they would like to do that. So um and then the next thing is G discussion and possible action on 125th committee appointments current. So same thing um you know we before next summer I mean you have about one year one year and three months left necessarily if they are going to do it in the summertime. So uh the sooner they can start meeting to talking about this I don't know how maybe they're only going to meet once a month for now and then as they get within six months maybe they're going to meet weekly. I don't know. Um, my thing is though, I just want to send it over to them uh so they can start meeting and then coming up with some ideas for like either budgets or what kind of things they'd like to do and then come back with recommendations to the council.

Anything else on that? No. Hillary, no. Mac, no. Rich, no. All right. Can we refer over to the 125th committee to stand up and start having meetings? I'll make a motion. Um, we're looking for a motion to refer stuff to them. just just for them to stand up for the first time and start having their meetings. Stand up and meet at the first time. Okay. Uh I'll make a motion uh that we direct the request request uh the 125th committee to meet uh and get started on planning for I'll second.

I'll work a little bit better on figure out what I'm recommend for a motion. I hate to throw you a messy one, but appreciate it. All right. Uh motion to second. Roll call, please. Aldridge. Ian, I number 11, public comment on any topic. Seeing that there's none, uh, number 12, commissioner reports. Commissioner,

I only have one thing tonight and it's an extension of what I talked about at the last meeting. Um, we were not able to get our, um, it shifted over or I guess not our IT, uh, our part of our IT. We weren't able to get our emails and uh stuff migrated over to Office 365. Uh after the last meeting, there were some issues uh with licensing, but I've been assured that those have uh have been smoothed out and so we'll be looking to make that transition early next week um with information to follow. We'll make sure everybody up here gets their login as soon as possible. Um I have been working on um especially network solutions what we have right now uh for cloud storage uh especially public facing is maybe less than ideal um if you've checked our transparency tab on our website there is something that happened where uh it formatted everything in pink and also like Chinese Mandarin Chinese and I don't know how it happened but all of our files were like in that and I was like what is going on here and there's been some issues with uh with cloud storage u with uh network solutions and so office 365 uh I think will smooth that stuff out. I've been working on um if you go to our website actually um and you look at the city council page. Um one of the things you'll notice and this is a just a really minor kind of frivolous thing but I think it'll make lives a lot easier at least in the office. Um but uh we uh so there's kind of like a a backside to this website of course an administrative side. And what we do is we um well historically stuff has been uploaded directly um to the website um as opposed to to like a a central repository that the website directs to. And so we started changing that with network solutions. Um but again network solutions their cloud stuff has been

kind of questionable. And so what we're going to do actually um is uh for maybe we'll make like links uh to the year 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023. And then you'll just click on it uh and it will pull up the uh sharepoint uh the one drive um thing. I I had a hard time figuring out exactly how those two things are different because the one drive goes to shareepoint and whatever, but it doesn't really make a difference. Um, but it will take you directly there. And in one file folder under one year will be the minutes, the bills, and the agendas for each of the meetings. And so they're all kind of in one central spot as opposed to kind of what we have here. This what we have here isn't necessarily bad, but I definitely do think getting the stuff on the cloud uh will be uh much more beneficial. So uh I worked on that. Um, today I came in uh not to toot my own horn, but I came in at 8:30 uh and uh until 12:30. Uh I put in it really shouldn't take that long. Uh but it it does. There's just a lot of moving stuff all the way back from 2015 was there. This goes back to 2014, but I was moving stuff from since 2015. Took me four hours to migrate stuff. It was it was kind of uh tedious. Uh but uh nonetheless uh that will be done um soon. And then also, I've talked to the council about this uh before, but um we have a lot of stuff that's on our F drive, which is stored locally. It's not on the cloud. Um a lot of stuff that I think would be uh good for council members to have access to or even city employees to have access to. Um you know, something as simple as like a mileage form, right? I think city employees should be able to not have to come into city hall and ask for that. they should be able to, you know, just pull it up on uh the cloud and just print a copy out and you know, you know, I think it will make stuff a lot easier. We do something very similar to that at my school. We have kind of a little I think they call it the Husker hub or something like that where you can just go to and you can print off whatever you need. That's kind of what I'm looking to

do here. And also as far as information, sharing information with the council, you know, our our building permit spreadsheet will be in there. And um you know, uh the the building slashproperty maintenance slash whatever complaints will be in there. And so um just one central repository for everything. I mean, they always say don't put all your eggs in one basket, but that's kind of to a certain extent what I'm doing. But you know, Microsoft, you're generally pretty safe. They only have outages, you know, not not super frequently. Uh, but they have a lot of big bigname corporate government clients. So, um, but that's what we're working towards right now. Um, and beyond that, it was kind of long-winded, but beyond that, I have nothing else. So, thank you, Commissioner Mo.

Um, do you want to put the PowerPoint up? I don't know what order you have it in. I have three things to talk about. Oh, I thought it was a I forgot that I did that.

Okay. So I am going to present we are Oglesby's first responder of the month for March, Jess Cord. He um joined the Oglesby Fire Department on February 4th, 2010 and over the past 16 years has demonstrated tremendous dedication to the department, the fire service, and our community. Throughout his service, Jess has earned numerous certifications and continues to expand his knowledge and leadership within the fire service. Some of his certifications include advanced techni technician, firefighter, fire apparatus engineer, rope operations, hazmat technician, company fire officer, fire investigator, instructor, and EMT basic. Outside of the Oglesby fire department, Jess serves as the fire brigade chief for the SEIC Ottawa facility and also teaches multiple classes through the Illinois Fire Service Institute, helping train and prepare the next generation of firefighters. this month is sponsored by H Heartland Bank and I'm really excited to announce Jess. And I did want to also point out um in talking to someone in the community, I don't pick the responders. They thought I do and I really don't have any business. This is the this is nominated by the department heads. So, I think that's important to clarify that they're recognized by their supervisors for their great work. The other thing I wanted to bring up was Thursday, April 2nd, the Dickinson House is going to have another seminar at um for public health and safety. This one's sponsored by Oglesby Police Department and it's going to focus on scams and how to protect yourself. It's free admittance. It's an hour and no pre-registration required. So, and thank you to Zoe and Sherry for making the flyer. And then lastly, I just wanted everyone to be aware the Cook County swiftwater rescue team will be training at the canoe landing um with the fire department 8 a.m. April 9th through April 10th at 8 a.m. During this time, the boat ramp and the parking lot will

still be available, but that's what you're going to see activity down there. So, that's what it's all about. All right. Thank you, Commissioner McDerman.

All right. The uh Well, I guess I could start off with a good note. We received a half a million dollars for the Columbia sewer separation project. Um, we received the letter. It should be coming any time. Uh, the wastewater treatment plant is going well. It's they're on schedule. And um, I'd like people to understand, please, we are short-handed with the street department. I apologize for the streets taking longer to get clean. The guys are working hard. They're doing what they can. Uh street department applications interviews will start next week. If if I can get some this week, I'll work on that, too. I will get the uh information needed for the tractor and we'll get that going. I will go down there and I'll rent one as soon as I can cuz safety first, right?

All right. Go ahead, Rich Mitch. What do you got,

Commissioner Bald? Um, as everyone's noticed, the electric department had some major wind damage on Friday out at the Becks there. Uh, with the wind knocking down many poles and snapping four main power poles, including two switching poles at the intersection of West Walnut and Marquette Street. We're very grateful for the Peru Electric Department when we called for mutual aid. They sent seven trucks and multiple linemen over who worked with our electric department to help put things back together quickly. Thank you to the city of Peru. We are still working on some additional wiring damage to the Marquette stop lightss as the underground wiring that feeds the stop lightss was also damaged beyond repair. This intersection will function as a four-way stop again or until repairs are completed. Please be careful when going through this intersection and uh I don't have anything from park. So that's all I have.

All right, number 13. Council final comments. Uh I don't have anything but go around the room if anybody has anything. I have nothing. Mac, no. Rich, I just I just want to add that that was illegally placed, but you go right ahead. Okay, we can talk about that if you really want. We have an ordinance that says anybody can put anything on the agenda that we do, but the mayor does not the agenda. Yep. I don't have anything else. So, uh, executive session number 14. Do we have a need to go into executive session because I know like our our I sent some stuff that

Okay. All right. I Okay. Number 14, executive session for collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or the representatives for deliberations concerning the salary schedules for one or more class of employees. 5 LCS120/2C2 discuss the purchase or release of real estate 5LCS120C5 the employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees 5 LCS120/2C1 discussion of minutes of meetings lawfully closed 5 LCS120C21 um can I get a motion to go into executive session session trying to help you roll call please ID I I current

I and there's no planned actions after executive session. Thank you much everybody. Have a great night. Yes, sir.

Oh my goodness. It is still light outside. Yes.

I've had a hard day. Long What are you going to do with all this time now? Oh man, he's got to work. Sucks. Just think how long he's working when we're couple hours later. Here you go. I appreciate Wait till you set. I don't want to be disrespectful. I'm going to zip here. Uh, back in open session. Roll call, please. Baldridge, here. Here. here. Moy here. Here. Uh, number 15, adjournment. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Second. Roll call, please. Bald. Hi.

Hi. I We are adjourned. Thank you everybody. Have a great night.