Plan Commission - Regular Meeting

Call please. Fediger here. Watson here. Kleinard here. Greening. Menty here. Peters here. Arthur. Carico here. Partridge here. Dutlinger here. Basic here. We have a please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good evening and welcome to the second meeting of the plan commission on updating the comprehensive plan. Any comments on agenda items from the public? [Music] Hearing no comments, let's move on to the approval of the minutes of the last meeting. Were submitted by email to all of the commission members. If there are no comments or any suggestions, additions I would entertain a motion to accept the minutes as presented. Make a motion to approve the minutes as presented. Motion by Park, second by second Peter. All those in favor I I Next item on the agenda is review of last month's presentation. Is there anything from last month's presentation on the demographics that we want to discuss and bring up before we move to the top? I do have one question. Would because of the um Hispanic population increasing, would this be available in a Hispanic version as well then or is that a separate order? That's something we haven't done before.

Okay. Any other comments? demographics. Hearing none, let's move on then to to tonight's review which is updating of the 2020 plan goals and pass implementation and I think prior to that or after that you want to present on the natural habit. Which way do you want to do it? natural hazards. Okay. And we'll have the representatives from the ICG present the natural hazards review. Kevin or Kelvin. Hello everyone. It's nice to see you all here again. Um, today we're here to talk about the natural hazards. [Music] Hello. I think you're there now. Okay. Um, yep. Today we'll be running through the natural hazard changes. Um, luckily there aren't really that many. Uh, actually only really two things. Um, I see that, you know, we have still in the clear natural hazard protection plan. Still I can't hear you. You can talk a little louder maybe. You guys are uh still within the natural hazards mitigation plan and um still really nothing new um elements. Uh really you will only see that uh two new mitigation strategies have been added um in the middle of the page. um would be six and seven um to participate in the development of a regional storm water management ordinance that will reduce flooding and uh protect lives, property

and the environment. Uh number seven will replacing or to replace updated sirens with new and purchase sirens for gap areas identified in the city um and to network sirens just other communities as well to have a better notice. Um that is really all there is to the changes um to the uh natural hazards. Um you see the multi-ensor precipitation is also changed just a bit. A little less rain. Um that is really all there is to the changes to that. Are there any questions? Looks like number six. Oh, it does. Yeah, you're right. [Music] Yeah, I don't see it. And then as the only other question would be if is this where you would incorporate like the city's plan for extreme temperatures like when they open up for warming and cooling centers. It's number two I think. [Music] And if there were some updates on what you're doing now that I I just see a couple typos. Okay. The first paragraph on the first page adopting the plan in looks like that needs to be filled in. Are you Did you mean to put a year there? Yeah, we'll put

it should be start and then on this second page the uh second to last paragraph. Um I would assume that that um update has already been completed. So maybe that needs to be the that paragraph deleted or rewritten or it was completed. Is that Yeah, it was completed. So it just says the 2020 N MP is complete was completed in summer and I'm sure we'll check on the date all summer by October. Now any one of these items that we have on here is worthy of further discussion. This is just a plan which lays out the detail the plan and uh if uh if we pick one of those items we'll get into it more into a lot more detail if you'd like to. One more addition. I believe that uh in the last administration they uh prepared a a communication plan in the event of a disaster hazard that might want to be noted on here. Okay. [Music] Do you This might be a little bit off subject, but the What are the requirements for heating and cooling centers? I don't know the requirements or if there are any regards to that. I don't know. So we would ask if we were going to if we were going to

identify emergency response group we probably know more detail what's required for that if there are any requirements if you have one you know what I mean you may just have a heating cooling center it is what you're able to do is what you're able to do yeah but there are some that say you have to have somebody on hand has to be open 24 hours of contact restroom facilities possibly shower facilities something I'm not sure what Any other comments, questions about natural hazards part of the presentation? [Music] Hearing none, Calvin, I think we should move on then. Moving on to the uh goals, strategies, and tasks. Um, we'll run through section chapters here. [Music] Um and we'll go through um anything that is updated missing or useful anymore um that you guys put on. First we have a public policy partnership with IBCC and other regional organizations. See that going the way you'd like it to? Right. under public policy. The first one is improve existing partnership with IBCC. Yes, sir. Yeah. My personal feeling about that is that we don't do enough as ICC. We're a college community and we should be taking advantage of the fact that we are a college community and find out exactly what they need in order to promote them as well as the city. Make that connection. We have Yeah, I would agree that should be maintained as a goal. maintain [Music]

uh you guys feel that you've been meeting the tasks as well meeting with them uh representatives [Music] uh meeting with annexation utilities and things like that recently. So those kind of discussions still not regular ongoing I think the goal should be to have the entire college annex area but goals maybe it's starting if you're not doing it now on a regular basis right even if it's quarterly twice a to start somewhere. Yeah. Would that be like at a land commission level or the city council level? Like where does that go? That's what I was going to ask. Who's responsible for that task? Yeah. I would think it' be more at the city council level because it's more probably more decisions that need to be made. They can be made. They're not probably doing too many changes as far as what they're doing. I think the city could set up a committee of some kind. We might include somebody from the council, somebody from one of the other commission or commission or something to set up a committee that would be responsible for the coordination with activities from the college. We'll work that into that task one rewarding. Right. Right. So on the second task, are all those organizations still in existence? IDC scenic Byway, are they still around?

Yes, they're Yeah, the Economic Development Corporation is still there, too. Correct. Yes. Heritage still heritage quarter still exists. Her Are there any [Music] others that would be involved with colleges? Basically, what we're talking about, well, I see the other regional organizations. Um, the only other one that comes to mind is um kind of falls in there is the Star Community Foundation Foundation. might be worthy to know in there. How many of these are the city actually involved in? Becky, I know IVAC and the Heritage Corridor. IVAC, uh, the Scenic Byway, um, the NCIE DC and Heritage and Heritage Quarter, all of them in some way or another. What is Starbra Community? is the visitors bureau. I think that's what part of the heritage. Are there any others? Anybody can think of Lasowl County. I mean, we work with their tourism department for funding and things like that. L County Board or something, right? Is there an organization outside of the county board? Well, there's a tourism community.

Are we are we suggesting we add the Star Foundation? Star Rock Community Foundation. There's no reason why we shouldn't have it. It's partially why we're here. Yeah. Star Rock Community Foundation Foundation Federation. We'll make it. [Music] Any others? What does uh the mayor participate in with the mayoral talk? Who puts that on? The mayor's meetings. They meet informally. I think they I was I was thinking it was put on by IVAC but okay I was just okay yeah that's fine any others I would ask the commissioner out there are there any others Is there a local ambulance or local anything? Well, the [Music] board experience this Okay. Any other regional organizations? Do we want to restrict this to regional or do we want to include something beyond regional in

this public policy? In other words, are there county, state, federal, um any kind of partnerships that we should be connected with? You could add in VCO Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity that covers this area. Department of Department of Commerce and Economic Regional Economic Development. Can we change that title then to something beyond regional? still because they break they break DCL breaks the state into like 10 or 11 regions. So it's the South County is part of one of those the north northwest region. If we had a more a more inclusive term like any appropriate organization or something like that that would say even you can go beyond the region some word that would sit there. Okay. Distract organizations. Yeah. [Music] Thank you. Okay, good. Anything else on that? What about the We Are Group. Yeah. Oh, there would be an appropriate organization. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Adam So if you you suggest we are ovals be like what would set us apart from like

the elks club and you know listing them as well. You're looking for another advocate if they you know I'm just thinking like we're we're a fraternal organization. That's what makes it and if you say appropriate organization that would mean anybody that Yeah. Right. benefit whatever the community is doing. Yeah. Well, I know. So removing. So if it's maybe not it's including but not limited to the following groups. Yeah. and try to think of other and there'll be other ones that come and go. Yeah. Yeah. Any other comments? Okay, we move on to um what is the task there about the Star Rock Country branding efforts on uh how do you guys feel like that's been going or if you have been what's that or if you have been you know marketing Oglesby you know as a kind of touristy destination with Star Brock you know we should be taking advantage of the fact that 2.4 4 million visitors come into this area and some doing something to attract them to to come to Oakland. It's got to be some reason for them to come here. And I, you know, I don't know how we connect with who whomever is putting that whole thing together, but I just looked through a heritage corridor. They put up those quarterly magazines, pamphlets, and I saw a lot of different towns along the INM canal and everything else had kind of little ads in there about their town and what you can do in there. That might be something to look at. And I don't know if we've done that before. I didn't see it occur on that. Yeah, usually you're in there. We we we normally are. I think that the last publication was during the time that we didn't have

someone doing that position, but we are in for other magazines for this summer and fall. Yeah, I don't want to get involved in too many details because we're the details will come after, but uh but you know, the object is to coordinate and take advantage of the Star Brock Country. Well, I mean, we we did last year start marketing ourselves as your Star Brock adventure starts here. Um we have banners that'll be going up in the downtown area. Um, we we try to use that on anything that that any ads that we're doing now, branding us that way. We have the Star Rock Golf Cars. I'm wondering if it's changing the branding to marketing. So whether it's like a tourism group like start my country scenic byway um MCI EDC that does marketing to industrial developments um intersect Illinois which is the cover of Illinois that does marketing for um the state for industrial development and the DCO red team. So we can we can tweak that to a little bit kind of do a little bit more of more of just marketing in regards to what we did before with that previous should should the goal be or the task be develop a marketing plan to take advantage of star rock country develop marketing plan that work with we're doing it. Yeah, it does. You guys are already doing it, so just continue and add on to it. And I mean, you're right next to Matson, too. It's It's a very nice park as well. Um, I have one thing. I don't know if it really falls under the public under there, but um or if it would fall under tourism or transportation later, but

definitely more directional signs for Olesby that are, you know, out by Star Rock. So, does it fall here? in here later. Is it I know I had it marked in three different ways. Mhm. Okay. Any other anything else under this part of the public policy task? Oh yeah. Um I guess we have uh you guys exploring the home rule formal government although that's next. Yeah. Under the first item there's nothing else. I thought you referred to section. Okay. So, we're done with that. I actually don't think home rule form of government is a proper family. It's it's called home rule, but it's not really a form of government. It's just a a print a policy that allows the uh city council uh to move funds around out of restricted funds. If they got too much money over here and they can't use it because it's restricted, then having home rule, you can move that money to wherever you need it. And that's that's going to require a referendum. But, uh, I would change I would leave that in there because I think it's a good thing for the city to look at. Home rule, has it been in for a while? Has that has that uh goal home rule form or a lot I'm talking former has it been in the plan for a while? Yes. Yes. This is this is the current this is the current undated like your guys' goals. Yeah. Was there a particular reason in the past that this was brought in or just your description of what it's u maybe like a safety net or something or ability to move funds around? Well, I

think the reason we brought it in is because we saw the towns like Udica and Peru, you have to be under 25,000 people to have a referendum. If you're over 25,000 population, it's automatic. You can do that. But if you're under 25,000, you have to have a referendum. And Judica, Peru are both home rule. Yeah. And so they're able to use that to their advantage, you know, in promoting the city and take care of what they need to take care of. So I think it's worthwhile to look at. I don't know if it's worthwhile to do, right? It's worthwhile to look at to see what the advantages and disadvantages of that particular I guess that's what I was looking for your definition explaining what I was looking for. It was not it was not defined in the previous plan, but it was suggested by some commissioners in previous minutes to specify home. That's how it was changed in 2020. Is this where you could add in explore changing like what form of government would work best for Oglesby? This would be the place. That Yeah, that was my thoughts too. I had notes on that like in this case we'd be better off changing that goal to changing the home rule strike from the government right and then the next goal leave that in there explore different types of government if that's what we want right so Jim is saying leave explore changing to home rule scratch out form of government test investigate the pros and cons of home rule your suggestion is to had a review of the forms of government to see which might be best for the city. Yes. And I would I would tweak that to say uh forms of government or posi positions

like when we were talking about um we have those exploring um meetings there's brought up like a city administrator doesn't necessarily need to be a form of government. It could be appointed by the council and they have different rules. So I don't know if that would be a position or not a change in government. Are you better off to state it as review the current form of government? No, because I think we'd like to explore all of them. I mean will you re review the current form you wanting to exp you know other? Yeah. So then you're not like tied to determine if it's the best for doing that. Yes, I think that's Yeah, like something like that or and if you did say like if if you do keep home rule like I'd like to see this defined as I and maybe that's what you said comes later but you know like studies specific to Olesby day I think we learned that that's something very important and how it would be organized to explore another form or another administr ative cords. I don't know if you want to get too specific. I mean, he's got to investigate the pros and cons of home rule. That's kind of all-encompassing. All-encompassing. I don't I don't think this would be the the where where you would spell out having, you know, specific things like three meetings or or a study or that like that kind of detail, but investigate like that's kind of a broad term. Is it like to what extent government you know home isn't a form of government be a different couple different

is suggest another in there and that is looking at the different forms of government to determine whether or not what we have is the best form or is there tweaks in the current form of government to improve what we're Could we say something like evaluate the effectiveness of the form and structure of the the current government? Is that where this actually goes? That what we're talking about now would go underneath public policy though. I think so. That's a good way. So, we got to get some language on that. You understand what we're trying to do? Please explain to us come up with a draft of that you can look at. Okay. And added, right? So that one, what did you say again? Uh, evaluate the effectiveness of the form and structure of the current or existing government. That doesn't help. Yeah. That just says we're doing this one, right? right? evaluate the effective to you would come to a conclusion one way or the other and if it's not if it's not effective then you would think the next step would be to can you add in there to explore alternatives alternatives there you go all right you got that close Let's move on. Yeah. Moving on. Now, is that a task under the I'd say that's a separate goal. That's what I was thinking. Okay. Next goal is extending or sharing cost services with surrounding uh area communities.

um the strategy of reviewing the shared cost with the surrounding areas for the services. How's that going? I don't know if there's any at the time we wrote this, we were looking at the regional police station, all that. Y that goes away. So the only thing left and you may want to consider is because we have such difficulty getting paramedics and all this stuff, we want to have a regional ambulance service or something like that. And as far as fire departments and police departments right now, they assist each other in mutual aid, right? So that's already been addressed. So the only thing I can think of that would share would be an ambulance service dispatch service. We already knew that garbage. Is there any reason why the three cities collectively would get a better deal on trash versus each one negotiating separately? Can they do that? What do you normally what do you normally see listed there for like goals as as far as expanding city services or like what what do you mean for the shared cost? Well, I'll be honest. This is my first comprehensive plan I've ever worked on. But there are there are groups that do work together on we can look do some more investigating whether it's purchasing materials solve asphalt, whatever it might be to get a better sometimes even insurance that kind of thing. But let me find some more information that open. Well, we do have specify what you're

looking we go through the state of knowledge purchase. We go through state. So, we are part of a cooperative for uh all types of insurance. Um, I mean we we have some of those things going in now. Should I wait on it? I got it. But for example, what if one of our city vehicles for the street department breaks down that keep in there relationship? I I don't think we need that level of detail. That's just well not necessarily getting level but if you remove it then you might have a contract with it that says in the need of emergency service of some kind I'm not sure just because it's not a goal in here it's going to prohibit that from happening any so could it just stay like it is organizations come far and wide without having some Yeah. Well, probably. Yeah. Well, let's what? Let's not get, you know, bogged down on too many details. Yeah. But the uh the goal itself, I think it should stay. I think it should stay too. Should stay and continue as long as they're already doing it. Details can be worked out. Continue and expand. All right. Hospital. Next one. Hospitalidelity. Uh yeah, utilize the hospitality training. Uh getting the minor welcome wagon concept for new residents. Uh working with the IBC business program, hospitality trainings and business owners uh employees and others and then working

with for business employment skill teams uh central Illinois works and other permanent organizations for soft skill training with businesses. [Applause] Yes. Yes. Do we still have like a welcome wagon? I remember way back when they used to give out bags or bags of like with coupons and stuff. Yeah. And the businesses in it and stuff. Yeah, it was it was a while ago. I definitely would like to see all of those tasks stay. And um for sure for sure create the welcome new res. So we're all we all in favor of keeping that being known as a community work develop um community and growth for the businesses permit and process is being streamlined development bring community resilience into discussion for all aspects and development process. Have you seen that? Does anybody know what that means? I mean, what like against review permit development process? Haven't we done that? We've done it. That's the land development. That's okay. The uh review permit. We we developed the the land development code and it was adopted. Yes, that can be removed. The task

I'm not sure what the second task means to be honest with resiliency. I think it's is when you do have an emergency to where there's a tornado or flood or something like that. There are communities that um streamline their whether it's permanent process whatever it is to get things done in a emergency manner back there. That's probably part of that hazard plan that Jason put together. Is that something? Is that something we want to keep in here? [Music] It exists. I know that. I I don't know. The council's adopted. I don't know if I want it to be redundant if it's already been addressed. What and I don't know the hazard plan gets into the level. Okay. expediting the permits and stuff like that. Have to be careful expediting permits. Correct. Have to do the inspections, make sure that buildings are safe, whatever infrastructure is safe before you reopen instead of Yeah. Prioritize, but don't wave a magic wand. Right. But do we keep it in? I think it would serve a purpose to keep it in to say like periodic, you know, review and again review and update if needed. I mean, a hazard policy could change if needed. All right, let's keep let's keep it in. Number three, investigate public transportation needs. Is there anything

there that I mean I think ENCAT um I would say instead of investigate I think you're maybe work with the agencies that support I think marketing we don't know Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Uh B part that's but they I think they come over here. I don't know if they would serve us like you know if you call them I don't know if they would come here drop off people. I think I don't know how I don't [Music] say you include businesses in businesses and that residents and businesses. Okay, you got that Kevin in the previous one. First task under utilize hospitality training business. Okay. Anything else? Okay. The next strategy is the encouragement of the development of broadband. Is that complete? That's next. That'll be moving on to infrastructure. Um improve and upgrade the infrastructure, water, sewer, road, side rock, electric

community best possible services available. We have a 10-year capital plan for water and sewer and waste water. We really don't have anything for transportation, but that's restricted to funds available. And we know we don't get a lot in what we're built to do the best we have can with what we have. So I think as far as the strategy goes continue, we want to have something like that. Just uh continuing on the capital plant, right? Okay. Has there ever been, you would know, Jim, has there ever been talk about uh MO creation with the surrounding communities? We closest we have is our our federal funds are mixed with the group. Okay. Somebody else Spring Valley or No, I don't know if they're big enough. Well, I I think it's 50,000 and when you start talking Lasal, Peru, Spring Valley, Oglesby, Udica, you're probably not quite there. Yeah. Yeah. And that's too broad then at that point. Okay. Okay. So, are we done with that? Yeah. Yeah, it seems to go hand in hand with the task maintaining and updating the CI continue to actively maintain. Yeah. Okay. Developing the finance and mechanisms. You're constantly working on constantly working on that. They're constantly evaluating more tax for transportation. M is constantly trying to get help with the I39 overpass.

going after grants with more central and get the right economic combination to work. We'll add that develop finan pretty much all of those items are things that that we do on a regular basis. Right. We have still using GIS to update the so we are it's not high-tech yet but we are GI the mapping of the utilities right is there anything else under that area that you want to add? How do how do we um seek these grants? Well, because there's a lot of them out there. Okay. It's finding those. It's finding what are your projects and then finding the grant that will work with it. Yeah. There's a ton of grants out there, but they are so niche that they have to fit, right? And there's so many you can't go get them all. So, it's really finding out what do you want to do? what do you need to do and we work that way. Okay. I go from that we hear you know comes out funding opportunity. Hey, this works for you to do water sewer line improvement or whatever it might be. Once we get to the Department of Transportation figures out no, we don't need the dollar amount or no, we're not whatever specific criteria they have. Yeah. because some kind of these grants that other towns are getting. Well, there's so many out there, you know, where your information or is that

what you do? Like you pull that as needed? We care. We keep an eye out the program. We know we hear from the state and the federal government, but we don't have a service that we log into and enter information so that it tells you what it is. We also have an IM IML has a a grant um database that you can log into and look at also that it's part of our membership with IML. I was wondering would that be a task to add that we are members of those grant [Music] platforms? Probably the task to add is to hire a grant writing person or I guess that's what I'm getting at. Long story short is do we need to have that as a goal is to to look at a grant writer. I know that that that the council's discussed that and that would be as a as needed basis, right? The value. The other thing I know just not trying to but getting the grant is one thing. Once you get it, you have to maintain it and implement it in order so you don't lose it. Yeah. And that's part of We can only do as much we do with the staff we have. So we know we do we're always looking to investigate new ones. You hear about program but it's people say it's grand writing well it's grand writing and it takes a lot more time on the back end because that's while your grand writing is going to take you you may have 60 days to put it in maybe you've got four to six months to develop it put it in it's going to take two to three maybe four years implementation side to have somebody take care of that so like I know with meals like I'm signed up to

get the notifications from I I'm setting up for bringwatch.com and then there's another one that's specifically to Illinois. So like I put in like our needs and desires and it alerts me to opportunities and so I just wonder if that's worth building in here to maintain that type of I believe like the I do one Chamblins and Associates typically alerts us to anything that we might have um a project for which is good. I guess I don't want to feel like the city's at the mercy of being notified. I do want to be more proactive. Is that the word? Like that we have the like, you know, we're not at the mercy of waiting for NCG or for instance, if you put Becky in charge of that, she wouldn't necessarily know all the tasks that we worked with Mac on that. You need the people tied to doing the work. Yeah, they're already in the know for the grants available. I guess that's what the structure is in place. We just have to continue that, right? But is a is a grant writer a full-time employee? Okay. So, exactly. So, if they're not, we have to I feel like we still need to they have a more efficient way of So, so the city approved a $3 million grant. Yeah. money for their bridges [Music] coming. The city engineer contacted us. How did you know was available? We get the most of funding from the state of Illinois. This the city engineer gets or or you know city engineer or consultants for the city have that coming in and and NCICG does as well. When we get those, we send out a constant contact to all of

our contacts for the communities in the region and say, "Hey, there's we got two of them coming up. We'll be sending out this next week for parks and for state schools. If you're interested, then you call us and we'll be happy to to do that." But I know there's only that's only a couple of grants. We probably do, right? we because we see the need of what the communities have in the area and we do those programs, but we're always willing to look into a different program. If there's something that comes up that the city needs and there's grant for it, there's the call to look into it. I guess my thought is I know like I'm in receipt of grants available that I would have never thought of because I I scan the whole list and it triggers me, you know, like we received a Google Workspace grant. I know that's minimal compared to infrastructure, but I would have never known that was even something too, right? And the Google workspace is something that we wouldn't probably for you because it's not worth spending the time or money on us to write for I don't know how much the grant is, but when they're not when they're smaller, it's just the communities like communities that we work with write their own. Yeah. Well, I kind Why would we limit our Why would we limit I think she's just talking about the limitations, not that you'd have to have somebody write a small one details here that I think, you know, have one statement of some kind rather than all the specific details all of this works. So, is there a statement of some kind that would say u you know, keep an eye out for all grants? That's essentially what the It is. It is a task in there already. Yeah. So I think that's in there. It's just a matter of how how do you want in Okay. So that'll be more detailed later. Stay right in there like that. I don't think our job with this plan is

to get into the nuts and bolts of how to do everything step by step. That's their job. That's the council. and they have to they have to do that with the staffing they have available to complete those tasks or come up with a plan or come up with a plan for something else. Okay. So again, I don't want to get bogged down with too many details because we're supposed to be skimming the surface of all this. So okay, is there anything else under this strategy and the tasks? We got the M the C the CIP were involved with the road construction all those projects engineering contracts are under review all the time I presume and comprehensive planning that's all done so I think we're pretty much done with that that particular strategy how about the next one uh providing necessary public utilities and infrastructure to west side of interstate 39 for business retention and development it's been pretty well done isn't No, it's it's very lacking. We have businesses come in all the time and we can't provide them enough sewer. We can't provide them enough water, right? So, we discussed, just to give you an idea, we discussed we need a well on this side of town. We may need a water tower in the west side of town. And we may need those things, you know, if if you build it, they will come. Yeah. type of thing or at least have a plan in place so that when we come we say yep we got a plan for water towers coming right here you help us fund it with tip funds we're good to go type of thing so why do we say that Jim plan for and provide part of you got to plan for you have to

plan for develop a plan to provide I think you I think you leave it I think you leave it as planned for and provide. I mean that should be the goal is to provide those things. Correct. I mean those right and there are things transportation wise that people don't know the whole west side you there's only one way in and out that GTI loss complex right and we need another road we have to get the part transportation to bless that because route 251 is a freeway and that's access is prohibited without god bless you my son from the state alone so well that kind of needs to be taken care of and get that established so that when people come and say, "Oh yeah, we got we got cool air fly out for X on 251. So could you just make the first task extend city?" Are we done with the electrical? Are we okay with electrical west of 39 or is there something else that has to be done? Well, the electrical we have the substation expansion going on. It's almost closer to Rich. This is for to IBCC it says yeah we'll provide necessary public intelligence instructor for the west side of the state. So, so that's we got We don't need that, do we? Well, I was thinking they meant the whole area to ICC, not just specific. Do we need any more electrical extensions out to IBCC? Well, except if some business comes in and wants to take a load of some kind, you know, you you work with them on that. Can we update it to say city utilities since Jim would like to see stoing water take out electric? Yeah, my whole point was I think the electric was pretty well taken care of and it's got to be an

overall big plan for everything. That's why I'm suggesting the utilities making it it would be assess current capac assess current capacity of infrastructure and plan for potential business attraction. So remove the first t. Yeah, get rid of the first one. Yeah, I think it's a little bit redundant, you know, and just make that second one assess and plan. Okay, sorted on that. Anything else? I think we're done with that one. Um moving on to uh improve, upgrade and create community facility structure to provide resil police facilities. You want to speak to that? There's some improvements that need to be made there. Um, so we should leave it as a strategy then. Yeah. I'm not quite sure on jail actions. Do you know was it just because they have to take all the way to improve the current jail? Well, or because they have to take them all the way. This was back when we're talking about the regional police station where everybody was going to take their prisoners to us out wherever. So I don't know about the task whether it still needs to remain or do we broaden the task but but I mean the strategy is the task right the strategy yeah so without the task I think you just leave the strategy you want to continually assess it anyway don't you

I mean it should be in strategy options strategy. Could that be true for both police and the ambulance? I mean, if we're looking at how to get rid of police departments and emergency services emergency response emergency services facilities facilities, I think just emergency Okay, moving on. Uh, preserving the historically facilities like upgrading Dickson house or finding an alternate use to the old firehouse. We continue to do that. We just did a new bathroom in it. Put new roofs on it. I think in those last five years figure that will stay then um yeah we want to continue to upgrade and maintain the whole [Music] area you guys might have knowledge on this as my constituent why the firehouse was still deemed unsafe in order to build a new fire department. Well, they they couldn't house all the equipment they wanted in that building. Plus, it wasn't very accessible to get

out of there the way it's located there in the residential area. That's why a decision to build a new building down there was made. And the building's pretty old. And there's there's safety concerns at the level of it's occupied by lots of people training and stuff like that versus it's occupied by a guy going in pulling a pickup truck and losing. So that level of safety we're probably okay for, but having half a dozen dozen people in trying to do training probably not. So the park park still uses it, right? I would say at one time everybody got too old. So, do we want to find an alternative to use for the old fireplace? I just removed the task. They already did. We've already found we've already [Music] there was a suggestion on what time to make it into the historical museum, which is the next strategy, but that building would require too much to be done to it. Yeah, I think parking is a problem there for any public type thing. We still want to think about the possibility of it historical. museum of some kind. There are communities in the area that have been very successful, but there's Tisco has a very very successful city, historical museum and historical society. Spring Valley has a pretty nice

feel. We don't have anything that that preserves the past of old. Do we have a a group of people that are willing to do that work? Well, that's the problem. You know, the Oglesby Historical Society was housed in the library for quite a long time and all that detail that they had, all the old pictures and publications stored down at the library. The historical society expanded. In fact, the last thing we did was the the centennial book, you know, holds me, our old town. And after that the people again started getting too old to be active. But it would be nice to have a historical society. I you know I think you can always leave that in as the possibility of creating. I is it realistically a city responsibility or or an endeavor that that the city our sides can take on? No, they can't. It took me my guess is it's not the city doing it though. County municipality like there I know it's not located here but to preserve our history. I mean well let's just let's just not get bogged down in detail. Do we want to have an historical museum in the city? Is that something the city would like to see pursue? If not, can we leave it in there? We can throw it out there. I would think that's where you start first before. But is that a city function? Is that even a city initiative? That's what you just said. The city

would support it, but yeah, but that's not it's not city driven. city won't create. We don't think that should be part of the I just think it should be taken out. We don't do that. I don't think it's a city initiative at this point in time unless the a historical society is formed and has interest in finding space and then at that point in time becomes a potential city. Unless a city wanted to buy, right? and say here somebody right just remove remove it the entire the entire strategy moving on parks and w here um we have creating more activity oriented places uh for residents and visitors we vision parks plan um scoring funding options for grant programs changed on that a little bit but some going there's a couple tasks that are probably complete on here okay have is that first task assess each park and identify needs has that been done I'm not sure if that's been done you got any for that but that's for something. So it's a it's a continuous thing all the time. The first we did second second was further further west further west. Okay. lake on the west side and that's where you could put a nice parking lot

and have some access from that west. Okay. So, I think we keep that in there. I would add the west side of West. It does say that. Okay. We are taking recommendations. you know, as far as land code requires set aside for parks and stuff like that, we kind of got that kind of stuff taken care of. So, well, I have a question. If it can be individual, so when they were doing like the grant for Lehigh Park, my thought was the tennis court park for kids is very, very outdated. Yeah. And as a parent, if I had children, depending on their ages, I don't know if I'd want them going all the way down to Lehi Park to have the most updated, you know, play equipment. I'd like to see some things done in the in the little neighborhood parks. Well, that's task number one. Oh, they said but if you wanted to individualize it like if you wanted something specific and I think the smaller parks are kind of important for the neighborhoods. So we looked at tennis court improve improvements and basketball court improvements and some just new stuff down park. So that's that's part of that whole thing. So it's

already planned. Is there any plan for grants? I know that um the residents across the highway across 251 that there are several there that have approached the city and expressed an interest in having a park there. That would be great. Yeah, because there isn't one. Well, that's all that's all part of the task is each park. Well, that's not a park. So, there would be I would say that would be another separate task. Identify areas for further development. There you go. That's good. Parks on the western portion of the city. Yeah. Or somewhere else. You never know. Or even south. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Don't narrow it down to the west side. It could be other places. Uh, Creekide Creek. It has an area designated, but the park hasn't been put in it. responsibilities for that. Yeah, they don't fill%. So the ones on the west side of town were exempt from that. Yeah. Why was that a deal? Deal. They must have donate the land because we approached the developer owners because there's them do it. There's there's dozens of empty lots there. How quickly they develop maybe the city says, "Hey, we want lots 15 and

16 so we can build a park or the ones that are adjacent to as far as north got the river south got east got all you got okay just to help me understand this I don't mean to take much time but how can how can these tasks be in there when like we don't even like we don't know if our parks department is has enough employees to take on another park like how can so that's part of the assess part of assessing the needs So that's where I get confused. Forgive me. So if that if a need for park was going to come up, it would have to come into the plan commission because we create this document. No, this is this is a guy this is a vision for the city, right? That we're developing that then we we basically turn over to the council to implement review and come up, you know, is it a good idea? And they have to look how we pay for it, right? They look at all those things. The city looks at the resources that are available and decides whether or not they can act upon can do that. But what we talk about what Dave brought up is there are no parks on the west side of town. All those residents out there would sure like to have park just consist of a basketball court or something. You can playground equipment, whatever. So there's a need out there for a park because they can't there's no sidewalks, there's no bike trails, they can't get to court, they can't get to they can't get to Lehi, they can't get So Angie, the first task to me speaks to the parks we currently have. parks.

Yeah. So that's why I'm saying either we amend that one to include that parks that explore new park locations or whatever or we put that as a separate task. My suggestion would be make it a separate one. I I would think so too. But yeah, make it a separate one. Assess the need for additional parks. Yes. Yeah. In underserved areas. Yes. There you go. Not necessarily the west end. It could be anywhere. Okay. Kevin. All right. Down to the next strategy then. Uh develop paths and trails for walking, biking, and other recreational opportunities. So, the city has applied for grants, investigated grants, layouts of routes for sidewalks and stuff like that, and they haven't found anything to hit a home run. They are looking at those For instance, on the on the north side of Walnut Street at Bank because of bank parking lot. Yes. Can't get across. So, we're limited to the south side. You get across the south side. Now, you're into property owned by the mobile home. Got my station. So, there's all sorts of things we have to do. We're trying. Yeah. And looking at the That's a project. Well, I got another one. Is the uh has anybody talked to is Boozy? Who owns the railroad line crosses the river? Has it? I mean, it's used like what once a week? No, they use it continuously from January, February, and March. Okay. Ship in cement and stockpile whenever

they're planning out. I'm just thinking of when the park expands, you you have a a pretty big opportunity to have bike trails kind of going from&m canal Star Rock area in and include our town um which would bring a lot of traffic. I can add thinking about that in the in the olden days back in the 20s Park Glenn was a destination. There was a hotel down there. There was a general storage on there. The railroad came in. People came in. They got off the train. They walked across the swing bridge and they went to Deer Park. Now that whole thing would be developed as a whole. Yeah. Committee, right? No, I I I agree. I understand that it does it doesn't include that but um we have the INM canal that has a lot of biker you know bike traffic on it and then that runs to Udica and the Udica has the path that crosses the river now and so you know to complete that circuit it would be and there was a plan drawn up and relied on South County doing something somewhere else in South County so our path We're going to pass to Sure. until we get that cooperation. Are you trying to say to like connect to the new expansion like put that as a task? Yeah. I I just happen to think there's a railroad bridge there that that's existing and I didn't realize it was that that used, but yeah. So, I think the overall goal here is to try to

take advantage of the parks. Sure. somehow tie in either walking pants or bike pants or something like that. You got to dream a little bit about I guess the point I was trying to make was we are trying to pass we've been trying to pass unsuccessful. Do we have should continue do we have a comprehensive bike path or bike plan in at the city? We gosh probably 10 years ago there was an effort coordinated by the county to create a bike path that went through Starve Rock from Ottawa through our community. The city invested in our portion of it having it designed and ready to go. But then I'm not sure exactly what happened. It just died. I just know when we come in uh sorry state comes in to to build projects we're looking you know for like shared use paths and things like that. We're looking for the cities to have, you know, on paper a comprehensive bike path for instance, so that they are, we know they already have a plan developed and that we can tie into that with, you know, we have a plan instead of building sidewalks that go to nowhere and will never go anywhere. Those kind of things. And I don't plan. Yeah. Well, we want a concept. We want to somehow put language in there that we want we want this to be discussed. I think the language the language is there. Yeah. Well, isn't number one first done? I mean, wouldn't that road going down to the boat launch be considered connecting and now just going to that? Yeah, that first task is done. [Music] camera. Is there a path through there? I

thought there was a path that goes through. I haven't used it, too. Well, there's just just off the part of part of the golf, but those stairs need a lot of work. And Rich and I walked it what, three months ago. And any kind of path, we made our own path to try to get more. It was okay. It was work. rough. Oh, okay. And anything anything we build will probably have to be ADA compliant stand. [Music] This is on the west side of the park. Unless you take up the entire [Music] west side. I was thinking more like where you know where this G is on the west side, right? A path from there down to the boat range. Yeah. And you're saying that that's that terrain is not compatible with ADA. So, one thing that I would like to maybe add is a walking gap down over at over Vermillion. That's the South County high because the amount of people that are constantly jogging on that road and walking it and also it's my understanding that when state expansion comes that there's that that also will connect us you know to Udica better because isn't there something something happening on the other side of 71 as well eventually going to so then that would help connect that for pedestrian walking biking all that. Well, you don't want He said the dream. The task here is us out your outside city. Okay, so that would involve so

there would be no like coordinating. Okay, we're getting down to a lot of details. The task should be to try to develop the best bicycles and walking paths that we can to connect with Star Rock. So, you know, the whole thing, you know, some kind of a comprehensive plan that would, you know, make some kind of sense. Do we want to um just some wording on the last task there? Uh work with Illinois or IDNR um development of the recently acquired park property. Do we want to say Mat expansion or something more? This is going to be around for 10 more years. It's not going to be so recent kind of thing. Yeah, we just changed that. Mat expansion. [Music] But what about the property? Well, what about the quarry? That's that's considered the map as an expans. Yeah. And the city has been working. So, okay. So it already happened. So is there anything you want to take out of there? Real estate trails doesn't exist anymore. You know, there's actually another name for it. All right, let's change this to whatever name it is. Okay, moving on. I don't want to go beyond, you know, I said two hours originally, but let's just plan decide how how long we want to [Music] we're not uh maintaining and developing uh existing park spaces. Isn't that already kind of in the first we have the first task in the first strategy kind of says that and then we already did the

dog park. So take that. [Music] Oh shoot. That should still be under the first goal or first strategy, right? I don't know. Okay. So, this may be the I don't want to go backwards, but this may be the where you putting that. We can leave maintain well let's say get rid of the word existing right so maintainist obviously make it develop develop and this is where we put in those maybe the well what about the first thing we talked about on the west side you know developing new new park spaces existing assess the Next point is acquired. Yeah. They're all like kind of the same thing. Yeah. Okay. We want this water feature in the pool to be something that we think is practical. I think we probably need to develop a plan for the pool. Like we need to just make sure we keep the pool going. Well, that's what I'm saying is like a plan to either maintain or or replace or whatever it is it's going to take. Discussed providing5 to $10,000 a year. Okay. We did that last council meeting. They were in the last 60 days. So, I have this task marked as kind of done because it does say or at another location. And I consider Senica Square Fountain a water feature that they did create after this.

So I would consider that one done unless you want to specify the municipal pool to have one. Were you thinking like a splash pad or something? Yeah. Wasn't there some discussion about that Austin? About when we were discussing the pool maintenance requirements that a splash pad or some kind of fountain for kids to play in at the pool. I don't remember talking about that. It seems to me I remember So the water feature they're not talking about. So can we clean up that splash? So can we call it a splash path instead of a water feature? Just just a fountain is a water feature. Interactive water. That's a disaster waiting to happen. Verbage verbage. Which are we on? Second one or second one on second multiplex at that time. Mr. I think he was very interested in some sort of sports complex on the west side of town along. That would be nice. just but city of Peru has also now developed plans for a multiplex. You saw that plan, right? Yeah. I mean, it's elaborate. It's almost like the Burnham plan for Chicago. Yeah. So, are we keeping that or should we get rid of that? Hey, we're dreaming. Okay. And I don't think you you don't think you should take it out. Well, it'd be great if we got it instead of brew, right? So, well, the city I think I'm speaking out

of the the city was approached by somebody wanting to develop something from that west side and the mayor and some other folks met with them to discuss it. So, to see if maybe doing their thing, but somebody else might want to come in do something. That's right. I think we leave it in then. Yeah, I agree. It's not going to hurt. I know develop the area with with the shelter. That make any sense? Yes. Makes sense. It needs to be done. Inventory equipment and assess safety. I don't know exactly what that means. That's a long range goal. Don't you do that every day? I think it probably come out and it it fits better under the first strategy anyway with the existing parks. Even the municipal swimming pool with the shelter is an existing park, but whatever. I don't want to go backwards. I don't know. I guess just real quick, I guess the way I think that is like when you're doing the inventory equipment is like stuff that you would rent out and like I feel like it could be worded differently so that I think at the time the playground reward that equipment. But you should be doing that any Yeah. There's regulations that cover the safety and all that stuff. Okay, we'll keep those tasks then. Um, moving on to the next goal, acquiring new land and utilizing the existing land

for active passive recreation. That's what we incorporate that somehow into that language park area. We either keep it separate or we stick it into that. [Music] I just think that like there needs to be like basically two strategies like the maintaining and exist uh maintaining and keeping up on our existing parks and then identifying new spaces, new paths. And there's there's basically just two strategies here and then you list tasks and combine them all kind of clean up this whole whole section. It all blends together. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. currently in the tasks of the plans for parks development and signing old land an area. Knowing what I know, Richmond area time, but I think that second task needs to be eliminated eliminated because we time after time we found is just not safe for anybody out there for employees. Oh, the landfill one. The landfill one. I think the sands that used to get lost with the D9 truck. Anyway, I don't want to dwell on the That's a good story. Okay. Do we

want to cut this off? Do we want to continue? Are you keeping the native plings in park? We're there right now. The tasks that include I think that can be a task in when he when he re when they reorganize everything just kind of put that as a task. We can comment on what the land comes out. We continue to look to see if there's anything we can do. Prairie restoration. It's not saying a park. It's saying for a potential prairie restoration. That's that's still a viable option. It kind of is a restoration, isn't it? We go sprinkle some prairie se the sunflowers out. But then you're going to attract people out there and you don't want that. Yeah. Not just I think still just keeping keeping it as a prair restoration. Well, I think you could plant them over on the west side of McFed. Sunflowers. Sunflowers. Yeah, that would be kind. Yeah, I like that idea. That's a great idea. for your boat next time in your line of low blossoming trees right underneath the power lines right in front of the the old land so nice apple just not there notice trees yeah won't be in our lifetime but they'll butcher them eventually Yeah, they come all the time on our property. They still won't if they're going to

tangle in their lines. That's [Music] So, we feel good about keeping these tests in or are we getting rid of the priority? There you go. Can I make one more s suggestion that I think this is something that Rich wants to see done is um to uh look into ways to create more parking spaces for our parks, especially Lehi, right? I I know that Rich has been trying to come up with a plan for more parking and I think it it probably really is important to be in here. Yeah. Isn't that in there? Yeah, but as a task expand parking maintain and develop existing parking space. Well, we should make a parking space. I thought there was somewhere it said I thought I saw that too somewhere. It might be in a different but we want to make sure we include continual look at developing more parking space down here. we could have more functions where people could have to park over. Okay. Um moving on then strategy into regional park development uh being a planning new So it's okay to leave that one for me. It's enough of a focus. You say that they're trying very hard to be part of that plan and I hold arms except they need something from us.

that look for you guys when we have tourism um participating with other marketing organizations or outlets. This kind of brings us back to the policy talking with about you know Star Brock and everything kind of a duplicate of some of the things we talked about earlier. It's it's a different topic. I think they just whether or not people want to keep all those tasks still there. I think all three tasks are probably okay. Uh then moving along uh to the actively participating the Illinois River Road byway, which you said is no longer is that no longer a thing? No, it is actually um the council uh voted to approve our um joining that last fall and we're right now we're in the process of working on creating um a video that'll be played on their website and uh we're working with them to market our events. Keep it on there. Yeah. Yep. Seems like tasks are also being on there. Um good uh encouraging hotel lodging development restaurants advertising materials to state city local organizations to develop to improve existing festivals activities from tourists. So we always be doing a lot of those things. City is

continu. And I think whenever somebody reaches out about big restaurants and stuff like that, we get right on it. Give access. Is there anything we want to add to that? Anything you want to add take away? That's more it's not a city, right? That's it. You're not you're not building it, right? They're they're coming in and asking you that's what you'd like to do is provide the need for additional providing the data to know whether your counter So then when they come asking for information Yeah. you've already got it. Okay. So it's it's having the data prepared. We have something like that commission has well we we have worked with a developer in the past. We did reach out to a hotel developer probably about six or seven years ago and they actually, you know, we worked with them. They did a study, just a very preliminary study to see if it would be support, a new hotel would be supported in the area. And at that time, the numbers didn't look good enough to them. But, you know, there's always that possibility that if we had a bunch of money lying around, we could do another study again. [Music] have so much interest in the area. And when do you do that? I'm talking about when the park is expanded and there's a canoe launch and there's an ATV park or

whatever they're talking. Do you wait for those to be pretty firm and then you put those in the study? I would say you you'd wait till those kind of those details firm up a little bit. Well, maybe we could add it as a task. to uh at some point have a study done. Part of that is being involved with the planning with DNR, right? On when they're going to be doing this, right? Right. Getting a timeline and Yeah. Right now they have an idea. Do they have funding? What's that? Is there anything we want to add or keeping it in? Encouraging development tourism associated amenities for location campgrounds towards implementing recommendations study. What is the Roger approach study? Just as that the city had a group come in evaluated what two day presentation at IBCC or something like that one day for sure and gave us ideas right some of them didn't make sense they didn't like all the signage we had start rocking out there said you got too many signs to stay on the trail stay on the trail stay on the trail we all know we have 400 signs Yeah, but they had some good ideas, too. They had ideas like it's it's actually available on YouTube. Like there's three or four different

parts. It was a very interesting study and a a great experience for our community. I thought the same thing. Um, I think that Cabo showed some of his not not specific to Oglesby, but he has other branding things that are available to to anybody to view, but this was specific to our community. Spent a week in our community and then uh presented some ideas when they did out. For sure. as far as camps. Yeah, not really all that feasible. Yeah, but if they're not uh providing RE RV parking or something like that, then maybe that's an avenue where we can get, you know, some We're taking out that first one. Well, I I would say leave it in because you don't know what amenities they're going to provide that or they're not going to provide that we we possibly could tap into. I agree. [Music] about halfway through. Sounds good. Okay. Encouraging sustainable growth uh and quality housing to meet current residences identifying the housing growth for the needs for growth in the community. um affordable housing senior housing force the building codes for quality

housing. So we just restated all our bills that that task is an ongoing task should be on affordable housing. We're not control that house prices. Do what you can. You do what you can, right? Encourage the senior housing. I suppose you can still there. No, there's a way to get into STO group. So, what you're going to have to do is like that is find somebody who builds that house, hey, come take a look. So, what you really need to do, right? Well, I think we should encourage just leave it. There's some things coming. Is there anything I don't know if I like affordable or appropriate housing for our demographics or kind of just housing? Housing. Yeah. Because even like some of the subdivisions that we have in town with all these empty lots, there something we could do to promote. Well, we have the program where if you start building a house, it's part of your property taxes collected by the city. I was unaware of the house last year. Right. October, October. Gotcha. So, how do people know about Yeah. I don't know about that. Do realtors know about that? Yes. Yes. Okay.

We had the think big thing where where we gave the information to all the devel uh Okay. real estate agents who were selling lots and we contacted the people who own lots in the city um like the bigger like Creekides owner and stuff like that and let them know of it. that maybe promote our program better. Promote new home. Well, encourage encourage promote. It's Yeah. word synonym here. Yeah. I I would say I would say take out affordable encourage housing development. an improvement to be honest with you. I don't know how you do it. Well, encourage all housing, right? That's what I'm saying. Housing development. Oh, I guess this next strategy is encourage maintenance of existing housing. So, yeah, you got to have it myself. Even though those changes affordable housing um encouraging existing uh housing codes up we adopted a property maintenance code. So do we need to put instead change adopt to enforce? Yes. [Music] How about encourage enforcement of encourage enforcement of Yeah, I like that.

How about DCA? DCO application and we should hear in July or August maybe. We hope we're open. Department of Commerce and Economic Devel. We want to continue. We want to continue to to investigate the city's eligibility. Right. Investigate to apply for continue to apply for strike that first test. No enforce in moving on the housing code enforcement construction properties and renovations housing stock in the city. So we have a new building inspector little more aggressive past ones. So we're doing a lot more inspection I think construction and other things going on to see. So that's anything in there. I mean all of it's all of it's good. Yeah. Plus the minimizing dead ends is it. So the last two are addressed by

code, right? Okay. Just reinforce the land. Yeah. Maybe add that as a task. Land development. All right. Okay, halfway. Oh boy. I appreciate your goal to improve. I think we're calling I think we're calling it postpone. on the agenda here. Well, we got the we have a future meeting date on the agenda. The 11th would be the second Wednesday in June. It's ahead of any of the funest activity. So, none of that'll be going on yet, right? Doesn't start till the Funfest is the 12th. Yeah. Yeah. Can we do it the next week? Yeah, I was going to say the 18th. Can we do it the 18th? Next meeting would be May or June 11th. 18th. Can we do it the 18th? Do we want to do it the night before the class? Is that what we're saying? Well, I was worried it was going to be too hard on the city. Becky saying she's going

what's June 11th is better for me than the 18th, but that's just me. 18th 17th is a Tuesday. I can make that. 11. Let's leave it at the 11th. Any public comments? 12th start. Hearing none. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Second, seconded by Vinegar. Any discussion? Yes. Hi Thank you very much. I was still looking. I thought I'd read it in there, but maybe you know what our next one is transportation. Yeah, I guess so. Huh? Because it said uptown business district.