City Council - Regular Meeting

Pat, how are you? You're like in a summery outfit. Look at that. We don't have that many anymore of those.

I know, it's raining.

I don't know if I told you, my daughter just got engaged last weekend, and where she got engaged was actually kind of close to your backyard, right on the edge of Baker's Lake.

Yeah, I live right on the north side. Yeah, I know.

I was like, oh, my God, that's Pat's house. What the hell?

Still there okay. All right. I got 6 p.m. Is everybody ready? Everybody I Guess so

I'd like to call the Oglesby City Council meeting to order. Roll call, please.

Baldrige? Here. McCullinan? McDermott?

Here.

Moyle? Here.

Curran? Here. Commissioner Cullinan informed me that he, because school starts tomorrow, he had a meeting that went until at least 6 p.m., so I'm not sure if he'll be here on time. I'm not sure if he'll be here or just be very late.

All right, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Okay, number four, Mayor's report. A couple items here. One, I wanted to thank Congresswoman Underwood for the funding. Mac was kind enough, he put the check over on a nice easel there. For those that may have seen in the news media, she was able to come and present the check to us on Friday. We got maybe about 40 minutes with her. She's such a kind. I love hearing her speak, and I just feel honored to spend a little bit of time with her and things like that. So basically, for those that didn't maybe pick up on the news article, that is for our water line replacement that we're doing out on the far east side of town. So when we originally approached the Congresswoman, it was about, hey, what are we going to do? We got this $20-plus million replacement. wastewater treatment project and obviously that is such a large size amount of money for a town of our size. So her question basically was, what other things could I help with that might help offset some of those costs? And this was one of them. So this is a great program for this because, again, I want to stress that there's nothing wrong with any drinking water right now or anything like that, so it's brittle and it could easily be damaged and if it were to be damaged it'd be very expensive to fix so it is something that needs to get replaced and i believe later this fall we're going to be going out for bid for it and hopefully fixed in the spring so again that's a million dollars that we don't have to come out of taxpayer funds for the wastewater treatment plant so a huge thank you to her and she's also offered to help with other projects so we'll likely be bringing some other infrastructure projects to her as well so we can get some funding with Number two, Senior League Baseball and their representation of us nationally at the World Series. Again, they did a great job. I really appreciate them. Matter of fact, they have one of the players name is Aspen, which was based on ESPN. So he got a little bit more regular face time on national news because of that. So God bless them. I'd like to thank them for representing us in the area. They are going to be providing us a signed baseball. by the entire team that was out at the World Series there. I was just talking to some of the council members. I think I made a mistake. I thought we talked about a display case up here. Maybe either that was last council meeting or last council or it was something there. We have a lot of artifacts back in the old clerk's office that we'd like to see if we can possibly get a display case. because if we get a nice baseball like that, I'm not sure where to display something like that other than putting it up here for a few meetings. So we'll look into that. Looking forward to that. Number three, Municipal Band will play at the Dickinson House on September 9th at 6.30 PM. The Ice Cream Social will start at 5 PM. They are also selling t-shirts in celebration of their 85th anniversary. So please support them and check them out. Next item, two things, two events we got going on. September 5th through the 10th is Kingdom of Wonders Medieval Circus. It's down where the Funfest rides used to be. We're excited to see this kind of a new event. We don't know really what it's going to be about. Commissioner Balder is able to kind of coordinate with them and get it up and running. So we're kind of excited to see what that's going to be. So let's check it out. And then we will have another meeting since, but I just want to give you a heads up. Boots, Brews, and Barbecue is Saturday, September 12th. They'll have all the same fun stuff that we have. There's one thing that's new, though. There's going to be a cigar bar there. So Please check that out September 12th. The last thing I wanted to put out was September 8th is our next regular meeting. So again, there's four times a year that we have a three-week break in between council meetings. The unique thing about this is September 7th is Labor Day. So it's even more unique that this will be a 22-day break between council meetings. I don't know how often that happens. So nice 22 break. Everybody will be excited about that. So on that, hopefully we'll have a short meeting tonight and everybody will be happy. So that's all I have. Number five, public comment on agenda items only. Seeing that there's none, we'll move on. Number six, approval of minutes from the May 18th, 2026 regular meeting. 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 for May 18th, 2026 regular meeting.

July it says May why does it say May is it just so it should be July 18th right I apologize I should have caught I should have caught that when I was reviewing it here July 18 we got Okay. August 3rd. There is a motion. Can we get a second?

I'll second.

Roll call, please.

Baldrige.

Aye.

McDermott.

Aye.

Moyo. Aye. Curran.

Aye. Number seven. Approved bills presented for payment in the amount of $701,900.01. So a lot of that is based on it's our payment for, I believe, the electric bills and stuff like that happens. So that's why you get an inflated one like that. If there's no additions, corrections, or modifications, can I get a motion to pay the bills?

I'll make a motion to pay the bills in the amount of $701,900.01. I'll second that motion. Roll call, please.

Aldrich? Aye. McDermott? Aye.

Loyal?

Aye.

Curran? Aye. Number eight, approve payroll for $86,776.04. If there's no additions, corrections, or modifications, can I get a motion to approve the payroll?

I'll make a motion to approve the payroll of $86,776.04. I'll second. Roll call, please.

Aldrich?

Aye.

McDermott? Aye. Moyle? Aye. Curran?

Aye. Number nine, old business. A, discussion of possible action on $8,000 IML budget Cullinan. Cullinan's not here. I'll just go around the room if anybody has any comments or anything like that on it. Moyle?

I hope you guys bring back lots of information. This year I won't be able to attend. I did look at the proposed meetings that are going to be done, and I assume that the chief had already looked at it too. It doesn't look like there's a high amount of public health and safety classes, so even though they had the opportunity, they're not going either. So if you bring back anything, that would be great.

Okay, excellent. Mack?

Well, I'm looking forward to it, and hopefully I can bring back the possibility of some more grants. Let's do it for Oglesby, right?

Richard? I appreciate the opportunity to go. I will also be going only Thursday and Friday night, so keep those down to that.

Yep, excellent. Actually, Coleman did give me one comment to say. What was the one comment? What did he say? As said at the last meeting, IML stuff will be reimbursed after the event this year as opposed to prior like last year. So that's his comment on it. My thing is, you know, there's actually some, usually I don't try to go, I don't necessarily get there on Thursday for some of those ones, but there's some really good ones in Mac. I'm told you can make it for Thursdays. There's some really good ones actually on Thursday afternoon. It's tough for me to get two days out. So it should be good. Looking forward to it. I think in the budget number, we have less people that are going, so it's less than it was last year. So if anybody has anything else on it. If not, we can get a motion to approve the budget for it.

Make a motion to approve the budget for it.

I'll second.

Roll call, please.

Baldrige?

Aye.

McDermott?

Aye.

Moyle? Aye. Curran?

Aye. b discussion possible action on on johnny facade grant current um okay so uh this is for the um liquor store actually oh i'm so bad we didn't check one thing on that did we ever verify if they get paid in the rears after they send their receipts in or if they get paid upfront it is after receipts okay um so this one the the board looked at it and they they approved recommendation for it uh the total amount that could be reimbursed is like 45 000 but the grant max is out at 35 000 so they recommended for the total of 35 000. the question i had was i wanted to make sure that we weren't giving them the money before because there's still a question out there with the building permit process that they have to make sure is they gotta get something signed off either by a structural engineer or an architect of record I believe is that correct correct so but the good news is they're not gonna get paid until they get everything approved anyway so I think it's a good thing should be a huge liquor store should and they should update the building quite a bit which will end up getting our money back and in tax dollars at some point anyways. So we'll go around the room.

I think it's a positive thing to move forward on a project, but it's been a little bit delayed. As far as the facade grant, I'm just curious because I was approached by someone else who was looking at using it. Is there a cap of how much per year? Do you know what it was allocated for?

So it used to be. We had more restrictions on our facade program when it was, before it was just TIF only. It was TIF only location and we changed it, I think at the beginning of this administration, to where it's now all of Columbia and all of Walnut and it doesn't necessarily have to be in a TIF zone for that. And I don't believe it's associated with a specific set amount that we have appropriated for it.

Okay.

That's a question we could because it's usually paid from the TIF, which is a separate fund anyways. But that is a good question because it's not required to be paid from the TIF anymore. So the good question would be, what if you're going to put $50,000 worth of improvements and it's not from the TIF, it's coming out of the general fund? Actually, that probably should be a line item in the future if we're going to do that.

Now, I don't remember if there was anything in the appropriation ordinance for that, Jen, do you?

No, I think it's under, it had been made out with TIFs, so I'm assuming that it's just all, it was all in the TIF before we didn't have.

And this one would be covered in the TIF area. So like an example of one that would not, I believe, let's say somebody was going to do that, the old Two Brothers location. If they put in one for there, I don't know if that is necessarily in a TIF zone. I have to look at the map again. It might not be.

I don't know either. I'd be surprised if it weren't, but.

But it would be covered by the facade grant since we took that out, but then that means that funding would come out of general funds. But now we've extended Walnut Street. So I believe since we've expanded upon the TIF area, even the new Burger King, the old Burger King, where they're looking to bring something, that should be included in the TIF as well then or something. Because, yes, I have heard that there's at least two more packages looking to come, so I'm excited about that. Anything else? Nope. Mac?

Well, actually, this is part of the question that I was asked to bring forward, which is C. I'm glad to hear it about the facade and process and everything else. People are wondering about the time frame and everything else. Well, the other that ties into what I was going to discuss was... appropriations and variances they were worried about the time frame but i guess we'll talk about that later okay did you have a specific question in regards to this one for time it's just like time frame unless you're asking how long it's been a very long time we were hoping this would be done last people were uh asking about that and everything so i don't know it could be included in to what i was going to bring up so that's fine whichever okay we can talk about it then but if it was related to this one we could talk about now if you'd like Well, that's just that they were worried about the application permits, the variations, the facade, if there was a certain time limit on it or anything else. I was confronted by about three different people, actually four, and they were all asking the same question. Is there a time limit on the applications, the permits or anything? Is there a certain time to where they cut it off? I mean, do we have to get it processed at a certain time?

What's a building permit is issued, you mean, or how long it takes the permit process? I know this permit process has been overly long. We were hoping it would be something resolved last year. I don't know if that's a, I mean.

I think Jim and I know that it's 60 days for the body, not the board, but the body to hear this.

Plan commission.

Those are map amendments. I don't know that there's a time limit on variance requests. We certainly tried to get them done. It's been complicated, Matt, because we didn't have a zoning administrator for a long time who undertook those things. Jim's hit the ground running since the last meeting, and they sent me three requests, so we're trying to keep them moving.

I remember, so just speaking of the timeline for stuff, I want to say it was well over a year ago that they had, I don't know if it was design review or plan commission that met on the concerns, like, for example, the parking lot size and stuff like that, and they made recommendations back to get that kind of approved.

The design review met in July of last year.

July of last year. Yeah, it's been a very long time. And my understanding is that's the last little piece that they need. Yep. Yeah. And another thing for the timeline, I think I mentioned it or another one, the owner or whatever had some kind of family emergency problem they had to deal with out in Tennessee for a significant number of months, which put the program in delay until just a few months ago where it started back up. So, Rich, anything? No. Okay. So one of the things, and I know we talked on the phone today about this, Pat, I feel, and I might be wrong, but I feel like the facade grant, the ones that we've done in the past, we ran something through Herb's office first. Did you ever have a chance to look at that if that was the case?

No, I saw your email to Jen. You didn't talk to him, did you, Jen? No. I mean, I can reach out to him. I just think that Herb's office would be the one to put the stamp of approval on whether it's TIF eligible if you want to take the funds out of the TIF because they have

Yeah, well, I know we'd use TIF funds for this, but the reason I say that is I thought about this. We had the JRV, the Joint Review Board meeting last Thursday, and I looked in that thing that had the summary of all the TIF projects and stuff like that that we did, and in those were all the ones that we also did with uh this kind of program in the past and that's what had me thinking i'm trying to think in from like four or five years ago i think when we approved it at the council level i feel like it was some kind of documentation that came from herb's office so i think we maybe we're doing around this past year we probably should have done that we approved it and we can still approve it tonight that's fine though but i still think it has to go through herb's office um because they have to document it properly for the tip yeah i think you can approve it Okay. All right. I think it's a great thing. Again, this whole program that we designed, because it's money that goes directly into the new building and stuff like that, it raises the property value and the city gets its money back eventually. So if there's no other discussion on it, if we can get a motion to approve the Anjani facade grant pending the TIF administrator approval.

To a maximum amount of 35,000.

35,000, yep.

I'll make a motion to approve the Anjani Facade Grant up to 35,000 subject to the TIF administrator approval.

I'll second that motion. Roll call, please. Aldrich.

Aye. McDermott.

Aye.

Moyle. Aye. Curran.

Aye. 10, new business. A, discussion of possible action on city credit card name change cullinan. So this is not one of the items he gave me anything on, so I don't know what he was trying to say about that. If anybody has any comments on anything, we can either table it for the next one.

I assume he's trying to put the right people, because we have some retired people still on the credit card. That's what I assume his intention is. I don't want to speak for him.

Yeah, that's why I wasn't sure what because I assumed we talked about this in the past I thought that's what we were doing. So I don't know what the update is.

I feel like that's pretty reasonable Yeah, how long does it take to put like our department heads on there?

Did we not authorize that in the past

You have, but if there's a name change, you just have to authorize that separately. Or like when we gave Steve one last meeting, you just have to authorize it so the bank has something that says that people are allowed to have the city card.

How many do we need to change?

I think probably one for me and just the first office.

Okay. And we need to vote on that at a council level? Yeah. Okay. Is that what we want to do? I mean, I don't know what else he was talking about. We can either do it or we can table it. It's up to you guys.

Maybe we should table it until Austin's here so we can clarify it for sure.

All right. If someone wants to make a motion to table it.

Motion to table.

Second.

Roll call, please.

Baldrick?

Aye.

McDermott?

Aye.

Moyle? Aye. And Kern?

Aye. Easy day. All right. Hey, so my thing says C is the next one. Is that correct? It's B. Okay. All right. I want to make sure there wasn't an item I was missing. Okay, B. Review all permit applications received and variances requested given to the city for the August 2026 up to the date of the council meeting McDermott.

Like I said earlier, it kind of falls into the same deal. I think we discussed it already. I mean, I don't know what else you would have on there.

Was it just one you were talking about? Because I didn't know what you were referring to this week.

There was a few different ones. People were asking about the application permits, the variances, and the besides.

uh how long does it take and what's taking so long and should we i was wondering should we keep track of that or whatever i mean i thought there was a folder that we have access to that has all those kinds of things in there under council isn't there something are you talking about like from like a citizen putting in an application how long it takes for them to get their right that's what they're asking they're asking variances permits and it's very simple um it kind of depends on what it is if it's something fairly easy we can do turnaround in a couple days yeah three to five days but if it's something where we have to get either burton or mount jim involved in it's going to take a little bit longer but we try to get it done in three to five days from the time if it's something simple a new roof or a deck that isn't wanting anything it's just any on things that are um not usual and customarily it has to go through other people so that would be a matter of however long it takes for that mac is your question related to how we were starting to get a backlog going because we didn't have the zoning administrator yeah i guess that's what they were talking about was how they put in permits or something and it's taken so long and everything else

My understanding, Jim's been hitting the ground running. Well, I'll let everybody else talk first if they want to go around. Richie, anything?

No.

Hillary? So my understanding is Jim's been hitting the ground running on a lot of that stuff. There's probably some items we'll start seeing. Like I think there was another short-term rental that somebody had put in for and all that stuff. And the zoning administrator needed to go through that first and stuff. So hopefully soon, I'm assuming there will probably be some things that we'll start seeing. Is that probably it?

We should have two short-term rentals in the next meeting. Okay. Yep.

And I responded to you on those, Jim, but in the last couple hours, so you might not have seen it yet. Yeah, you'll see it in the morning.

Thank you, Jim. So I think that's probably, that might be what you're talking about, some of the backlog issues we've had in the past and things are moving along now. Did you have something else, Jim?

Okay.

I appreciate that.

I just want to put it out there. I don't want to ever be the reason why something's getting delayed. So if there is something, I would come to a special meeting. I don't know how everybody else feels.

I think we've made that clear a number of times.

So I just don't want to be the reason why something's not happening.

You know, that's a good point. I don't want to go off the subject here, but we do have 22 days for our next meeting. It's one of the longest ones we have. I know we did talk about having a special meeting. I know you two were going to try to get together and look at some long-term potential plans. like you said if there's a need to have a special meeting we absolutely can do that especially if there's like if we miss if we miss a cut off even if there's two weeks between meetings and all of a sudden hey this came in yesterday we didn't get it in yet okay well yeah if it's really important to somebody especially if it's going to be a business developing absolutely let's uh let's do a special meeting if we need to so All right, anything else on this topic?

Absolutely. Special meetings, if necessary, let's get them done.

Okay. C, discussion and possible action on Clenard resignation current. Okay. I don't like how that's written like that because it makes me think, people are probably thinking like we just appointed him. So, no. Do you hear me? I didn't wonder when I saw it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's had enough of it. I probably should have, you know, that's my fault. I probably should have said. Yeah, okay. Dear Mayor Kern, given my recent appointment as zoning administrator, I must resign from the Oglesby Plan Commission. Also given that I was a member of the design review board because I was a member of the plan commission, I must resign from that board as well. Be advised that my resignations will result in two vacancies on each of these boards because there were vacancies already. These resignations are effective immediately. While it is not necessary due to my position with the city, I intend to resign from the facade committee effective September 8th, 2026. You need to appoint a new chairman of the committee to replace me at that time. I am very proud of the work these boards have been able to complete while I was a participant. I will make myself available to assist them in any way should they need it. Respectfully submitted, James K. Clinard. So my only two cents with all of that is I'm always super appreciative of any time somebody volunteers on our boards because that means we're having citizens that want to be engaged. They want to take their personal time to try to benefit the city in a positive way. I really appreciate that. And I even really appreciate when it's people that have a significant expertise in that. So with this, if anybody went to some of the plan commission meetings or design and review board stuff, you'll notice that Jim Kleinert, while he is a member of those boards, his expertise has a lot of advisement that he puts out because of his background as an engineering and things like that. and plus just knows about our building codes and all of those kinds of things. So him moving as zoning administrator, he might be pulled from some of these boards as an actual voting member, but he's still going to be somebody that is now officially advising them from a zoning capacity yet. So I appreciate all of that. And then there will be a couple boards that will be open here. So we'll go around the room before we accept the resignation. Anybody want to say anything? Go ahead.

Thanks, Jim.

Thanks Jim and anybody out there in the public that's willing to help the city it's appreciated we got spots available I agree with Mac we need to get some people here okay with that being said can I get a motion to accept his resignation from those aforementioned boards

I'll make a motion to accept Clonard's resignation from I didn't write him down do I have to name the boards zoning planning design and review and then the facade committee design and review no it's plan Commission design and review and facade I'll second that motion all right roll call please

Aye.

Moyle? Aye. Correct.

Aye. Okay, so what that means is there is spots available for plan commission, design and review board. Facade committee might be up to two. There's one thing I've got to check because one had Becky's name behind there on the one I just noticed. It said economic development. So I don't know if that means that she still has the seat technically or if there's going to be two spots available for it. And then under park board, I know it was blank, but I'm really sure that we appointed somebody. We're going to verify that one, but I think we did appoint somebody to that. That just didn't get filled in. So we'll have at least plan commission, design and review, and facade at a minimum. If anybody is interested in those boards, please either reach out to me. You can either send me a letter, an email, or the clerk's office of their intent, and we'll get that in front of the council, and hopefully we can fill these boards. Thank you. Okay, that being said, number 11, public comment on any topic. Wow, this is going to be a short one. This is crazy. All right, number 12, Commissioner reports. Commissioner Moyle.

So I am going to read some statistics from July. I didn't do it last meeting, so I know you all have been anxiously awaiting. So for the police department, we had 118 traffic stops, 38 citations, three traffic collisions, 22 new cases, nine cases closed with an arrest, cases closed by other means, seven of them, informational cases, three, and we provide 451 extra patrols, which include business checks, house watches, park checks. For the ambulance, we had one transfer, one mutual aid, one mutual aid given the last one was received, so one of each, one ALS intercept, seven calls in district, 43 in town as a result of 911 for a total of 54 calls. lastly for the fire department there were 29 calls in total eight were auto aid and mutual aid six rescues five wired down wires down four activated alarms two vehicle accidents one gas leak one vehicle fire one wash down one lift assist of 20 of those 29 calls 13 were in the city limits seven were in the district and nine were out of the district So through July for the fire department, that brings the call total to 189. That's all I have.

I'm kind of curious. What does cases closed by other means mean?

Good question.

It just might not want to move forward.

Oh, okay. Closed because of no more. It's not moving forward. Okay. That seems kind of strange. By force. Mac. Well, first of all. Sorry, I apologize. I usually give somebody their title, too. Commissioner McDermott.

I apologize. Sorry. You're fine. First of all, I'd like to give a big thank you and deep gratitude to Ms. Underwood for presenting this to the mayor of the city of Oglesby to check for the amount of $120,800, a grant that I received. and to all those who were present at the time when she was here, JP, Chief Marcus, also the clerk's office for making sure everything was set up to make her visit inviting and pleasant and productive, and the detailed information that Ross was available to give her. things that Curran and I don't know. I also need to let everybody know that I was informed today that we got another grant for $40,000. It's a water grant. lead service line it's from mapping and GIS so we're moving forward getting more grants and like to inform people that there's concern about the internet on Facebook is what's said and everything else just remember that when somebody says something on the internet or Facebook it's a lot of personal and their own beliefs it's not necessarily true or false either way all right I would suggest if you have concerns or questions you would ask somebody maybe in that department or anything you could ask myself Rich Hillary Austin even Jason find the facts first

Thank you and have a good night Thanks Commissioner Bulger I'm pleased to report that our new Oglesby community map has finally been installed at the boat launch this project provides residents and visitors with a clear and attractive way to find our parks recreation areas local amenities roads and other points of interest throughout Oglesby the finished installation looks great and as a welcome addition to the boat launch area we also had a great turnout for music in the park at Lehigh we estimate approximately two to two hundred fifty people attended throughout the evening The weather cooperated for nearly the entire event, with only a light sprinkle coming toward the end. The response from our residents was extremely positive. We received many compliments about the event, the location, and the overall atmosphere, along with requests to do more events like this in the future. It was great to see so many members of our community come out, enjoy the music, and spend time together. Lehigh Park is a beautiful asset for our community, and events like Music in the Park are a great way to showcase what Oglesby has to offer while giving our residents an opportunity to enjoy it together. all in all music in the park was a tremendous success i want to thank everyone who helped make the evening possible everyone who attended and especially our residents for coming out and supporting a community event i look forward to building on the success and finding additional opportunities to bring our community together at our parks also with the circus they got a hold of us you can view promos at the kingdom of wonders.com there are no animals that was a question that was asked and we've due to the size the area and the holiday they've asked to extend it from September 5th to September 10th because more of an opportunity for our community to enjoy this and we've also received their insurance with all those be added to it so there's no problem there that's all I have thank you I didn't know about the promo videos do we want to see if maybe we can have our events people put some stuff on the city Facebook page if there's links to that possibly sure excellent

I don't have anything new from so I don't have anything from Austin unless he was gonna walk in the door so number 13 council final comments put this back on there in case anybody had any last minute by the ways on anything they wanted to chat about anything I don't have anything Hillary, do you have anything? Mac? No. It's not going to put that back on there, Jason. Are you going to violate ordinances again? It's more than 90 days per the ordinance. All right. Number 14, executive session, but I believe we do not have a need to go into executive session. Is that accurate?

I don't have a need.

Okay.

I have nothing.

In that case, we are at number 15, adjournment. Can we get a motion to adjourn?

I'll make a motion to adjourn.

Second. Roll call, please. Alderman. Aye.

McDermott.

Aye. Moyle. Aye. Anger.

Aye.

hi we are adjourned we'll see you guys in 22 days unless of course we need unless we have a quick meeting on something else absolutely wow 33 minutes three minutes nice happy birthday for her that's great you guys going to dinner anywhere or that you don't know you you probably couldn't plan for dinner because yeah you don't know what's gonna happen

Because we had a tree fall down.