City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call this meeting the Princeton City Council to order. Clar here. Council member Newman here. Gomez here. McCall here. And here. Would you please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Okay, what we're going to do is uh I want to mention about public comment. Public comment is given at the beginning as well as at the end of the meeting. We'd like to ask you to limit your comments if possible to 3 minutes or less. Um we are also going to have discussion when we go to these ordinances as well. So, if you're here uh concerning those ordinances, uh if you're here for uh let's see here, we got the vacating of the street and we'll be discussing that. So, if you want to uh discuss that specifically, you can wait till we go to that ordinance. Otherwise, again, if you want to talk now public comment, otherwise we'll go ahead and move on to our ordinances. Okay. We'll go now to the approval of the minutes, please. move that we approve the minutes from our last council meeting on January January 19th, 2026.

Second motion and second concerning those minutes. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, cler call the role. Council Newman. Hi. SMD. Hi. McCalli. Hi.

And I. Now on to our invoices with city clerk Janet Henning. In the department of accounts and finances, we have $86,82516. Department of Streets and Public Improvements, $110,317.93. Department of Public Safety, $315,14967. and the Department of Public Property and Utilities $374,79941 with a grand total of 887,92.17. Mayor, all council members present have confirmed their reviews of the invoices and are now submitted to this position.

I move that we approve the invoices as presented. Second, we have a motion and second on the U invoices. Is there any questions or comments concerning? Seeing that clerk call the role. Council member Newman. Hi. Gomez. Hi. McCall. Iki. Hi. Pen mry. Hi. Okay. Now on to our first ordinance, please. Next on the agenda is ordinance 0-26-001, an ordinance vacating this vacating street. This has been tabled from the January 19th, 2026 meeting. So this is the first reading. I move that we advance ordinance 0-26-001 to the second reading. Second. We

have a motion and second. And concerning that ordinance, now we have uh uh Michael Zering from the uh our planning and zoning department is going to speak to us about that and what the recommendation was from planning and zoning. Michael.

Sure. Uh so the street section in question is the north northernmost section of Liberty Lane. Uh Liberty Village is here tonight. They've requested it. I'll let them get into more of the reasoning behind that. Our understanding is they'd like to build a maintenance shed and offices on there. Um the plan commission denied it because there's just a couple things up in the air and also Ian Cardosi is here. He may be able to speak on it a little bit too. He chair of plan commission. Um, we just aren't sure all that's going to take place on the project to the north of the high school. Um, I think at this point the land commission thought before we have any information on whether or not they can have access out to Sixth Street via some new land purchase or um, you know, what their plan is for ingress and egress, um, there was just too many unknowns um, to approve vacating that street. So, they passed it on to you as such. But I think it's safe to say, Michael, that we we will be discussing this street later down the road once we find out about the property north of memory.

Yeah. Yeah. I think for certain and I know people have some strong feelings about access to this. That's correct, Jerry. Your assumption that that is 100% correct. Um if we could um it is nice to have the planning and zoning chair here. Ian would have to add anything and come up to the podium. Yeah. Come come on up please. We appreciate we appreciate you being the chair for that.

Ian Cardosi. Um yeah we had discussed that the planning meeting kind of felt too much was up in the air really right now with it. And um we did mention and I think we're putting it on our next meeting minutes to um find out a different access for possible future development for the high school out to six street. Uh that was one of our concerns. Um but yeah, we just didn't feel at this time it was really something we should be not knowing what's going on with the north property. And uh my understanding they bought the west section of that field and there's still the north section available. So if somebody wanted to do a housing development or something, would that road become necessary? What's kind of thoughts on? So

was the um what was the recommendation as far as I know what was the recommendation, but as far as what was the vote? Was it unanimous on that vote from the planning zoning? I think there was one person abstained. Yes. Laura Gray abstained. Laura Gray abstained and I think one voted. Yes, Carol. I think it was Carol. Carol. Yeah. Okay. Very good. Yep. Okay. Any questions from the council question? I have a question. Yeah. I was out there and look at the lay of the land to that. There's a water man of the hydrant is the far northeast corner of that stub road. Yes. Yes.

How does that impact the positive of building on that? I painted the rightway. Well, that's we didn't know where the utilities were. That that was one of our concerns too is like what utilities were planned there for the city infrastructure. There's quite a few unanswered questions. The basement would still remain which is where our water lines are. Yeah. But one of our concern where they wanted to build a building, you know, not having a building plan or anything, right? I mean that's going to limit where they would build too. And I don't know if storm sewer or anything goes through there. We didn't we didn't get that far with it because there wasn't a lot of planning.

So if they had all this information, all the diagrams of everything, water lines, electricals, plans of exactly where it's going to be built and everything else, would that be approved? We'd have to see it. So I I think Yeah, I think you're really in the infancy stage on the whole area right there. So that's yeah, there wasn't a lot of information together. So

um what we're going to do then if there's any other questions that we can always ask Ian more questions we get to the market. So we're going to do if you don't mind. Thank you for that. We appreciate that. Now what we're going to do if anybody's here that would like to speak concerning this uh vacating the street uh for or against it, we'd like to have you come up and just state your name up to the uh podium, please. Good evening. My name is Misty Spy and I'm the developer of Liberty Village and the owner of the property to the east of Little Siberia. And I'd like to thank you all for postponing this meeting on my behalf so that I could be here for my husband's passing. So, thank you for that. Um, I just presented you with a packet and in this is a letter written to the mayor and the council members from one of our homeowners. In this letter, she expressed her concern regarding potential traffic through our retirement community if Liberty Street is not allowed to be closed off. She mentioned that she moved here expecting a safe, quiet retirement community. And this has always already been challenged due to the competitions and the traffic at Little Siberia, not to mention potential event traffic and daily traffic from the new sports complex. When Mayor May responded to her email, he spoke of how he and his family installed sidewalks in their parkplace subdivision and somewhat even marketed his product to her, saying that the sidewalks are the safer walking experience. I've included in your packet a couple of printouts from May Mayor Maby's family business website where he can confidently say that he offers a quiet, familyfriendly, and serene area. I have over the last year been aware of the mayor's development and I hoped he could see things better than most with

having this development experience. After reading his response to Carol's letter, however, my legal counsel feels that it may be difficult to separate his mayor role from his passion for his own development. And they've asked suggested that I ask Mayor Mabry to recuse himself from any further discussion. I will leave that up to the city council members though on what you think is best as I'm going either way because I feel I do have a good working relationship with Mayor Mavery, but I think we can all agree that there is a slight conflict of interest in the two.

Keep going discussion. So, as you are aware, almost a year ago, we started coming to the mayor, the city council, the school board, the city manager, the planning and zoning directors, and others for assistance with our issues caused by the people attending events and practices at Little Siberia. We've expressed issues with parking, speeding, littering, driving through the grass, etc. And we've taken many steps to try to lessen the burdens, and we've asked for assistance repeatedly, but we feel that we have not received much help. The one thing that did help was when I, as the developer, allowed the school to paint 140 plus parking spots in a designated grassy area for competitions, which I really don't want to do for multiple seasons. I don't mind helping out, but this cannot be a long-term solution. I do want to make sure that people know I'm not against the school in any way. I think this sports complex will be amazing an amazing asset for the city of Princeton, for the school system. It'll be a wonderful way to continue to cultivate future athletes and continue to make Principal Sports a name to be proud of. I know this complex will also be great for our seniors. I'm happy for and proud of the school for their opportunity. However, I would like to reiterate that the streets of Liberty Village Retirement Community are just not a safe way to enter and exit the school's new land. Independence Drive is a boulevard with one-way streets that are only 19 ft wide. Liberty Lane comes off of Fifth Street, which is only 50 ft wide. There's no way these roads can support the significant amount of daily traffic that would be traveling to the sports complex. And we already have trouble with traffic to Little Siberia. And if you add an 80,000 square foot sports complex to the mix, the streets of our retirement community will be inundated. That is also not to mention the event the event traffic and even the amount of heavy equipment and materials just for the construction of such a complex. How are those trucks, school buses and heavy traffic going to drive safely drive through our senior community? There were a couple comments made at the

planning and zoning committee meeting that I was unable to attend. One was that our sub to the north would be used for future development as well as the school. But I do want to point out that Liberty Lane stub only goes directly into the new school property for the school. We don't see how this stub can benefit anyone except the school. And I did just want to say that for the record. Another comment that was made by one of the zoning board members was that when he purchased his home, his street was not as busy as it is now. My response to that is he's not comparing apples to apples. Did he buy his home in a senior living retirement community? Did he pay 100% for the development of the land and the infrastructure as I did. I do want to mention that Lori Mason from our office met with Michael Zering and Teresa and gave him information from our engineer on some possible solutions for entry and exit to the school's new property. If there's anything that I can do to help achieve any of those options, I would be more than happy to help. Maybe acquire more land or make the school's burden less financially, I would be happy to do that. any way that's a solution to keep traffic off the streets of Liberty Village and keep our homeowners safe. So, in closing, I asked that the city of Princeton allow us to vacate Liberty Lane stub to the north and build our muchneeded maintenance shed there. We were asked at the zoning meeting why we had to build it there on that lot. And the answer is the short answer is that's where I want to build it. I I don't mean to be smart, but I want to make a barrier to the sports complex. I want to make a barrier to the traffic and the lights and the noise. And I want to continue to offer a safe and serene and quiet retirement community just as I promised our seniors when they chose to build there. Some of them have used their life savings to build their dream home here. And I'm going to fight hard to offer them the safety and security that they deserve.

Thank you. Thank you, Misty. And certainly we can have you step back up if you need to. Um, is there anyone else who would like to speak on behalf for or against the vacation of the street? Yeah, I think I spoke at the last board meeting about the importance of just identify yourself.

I'm sorry. Fol TJ Dolan, former teachers of in Mandota. We got decided to come to Princeton because it's a beautiful community and we knew how well uh Don would take care of us and you know that's why we're here. But we're here as senior citizens and we loved the kids because we were teachers all those years. But we want to feel safe as we as they already always have had us feel safe working with Don and talking to him about why we want to move here and stuff. And it's a beautiful community and and we love where we're at and you know all the amenities that they have for us is what we want to stay with, you know, and as teachers we feel uh our heart is out to our our students and our the people that go to to school. But it's time for us because that's where we are right now. We're in a senior community and we want to stay that way. We want to stay safe. You know what I'm saying? Because she she's talking about all these cars driving fast and you know, you're going out to your your uh mailbox and you see all these cars and they're just speeding like crazy. You know what I'm saying? So, we don't want to have to witness that. You know what I'm saying? We want to feel safe because that's how they made us feel safe when we came here and they still continue to do that. And we want, you know, your people, your input to make us continue to feel safe.

Thank you. Anybody else like to speak, please? All you have to do is get up and just say your name. We're easy to get along with tonight. I think we're easy every time. We have confidence. Anyone else like to speak? Anyone else?

We're going to be voting on this in just a moment. I'd like to make a quick comment if I could. So, um, and you council members can jump in with some additional comments if you like. Um, we we do take this very seriously and and the thing that as, uh, Council Member Newman said is, um, we're going to get another chance to look at this. So, let's say that if tonight it gets, uh, voted down, the vacating of the street, whatever the high school decides to do, we'll go first to the planning and zoning commission for their approval, and they'll look that all over. And that those meetings are open to the public. So, anybody from Liberty Village can be the president. those meetings. At those meetings, then they'll grill the high school over their uh traffic flow plan and what they're doing for fire protection and how it will impact the neighborhood. And you folks here tonight will have the same opportunity to speak to planning and zoning. Planning and zoning then will make a recommendation. Now, they may not make a recommendation that same night that's presented. They may tell the high school to go back and work on some things to tweak it and come back again. So, it could take a it could take a process of three six months of of going back and forth with u with a set of plans because if it's going to be a big project u because we're concerned about not just traffic but drainage because anytime we add more uh pressure to our city's water and sewer lines especially our sanitary sewer and our our storm sewer lines it just can create some challenges in the rest of the community. So, the point being is it has to go through the process of planning and zoning. then it comes to us and again just like tonight you have the opportunity to speak for or against it. I would like to bring up one point here if I could. Um and I will abstain tonight in respect uh to Misty's concern but I'd like to read what I responded to the uh the Gervitzes um and I believe are they present here tonight? Very good. Yeah. Right. So, uh, when they talked about their concerns over this project and the impact that it had signed by Scott, uh, R. Scott and Carol Gerbertz, I wanted to make sure that

every council member got a copy of that, and you did. So, when responding to her, and I want to just read this gift, uh, it says here, um, I responded within, I think within a day. Thank you. I presume you sent this to all the council members because at the time, I didn't know if that she had or not. I certainly want the residents to be safe. One area we need to look at is having sidewalks on at least one side of the street. When my family developed Parkplace subdivision, we installed sidewalks on one side and it has proven to be very wellreceived and added a safer walking experience. We will discuss your concerns at the next meeting. Thank you, Ray Mabry. So, I did reference my subdivision that we built. I referenced the importance of sidewalks and I referenced the fact we put them on one side of the street which Liberty Village does not have any sidewalks out there. So my concern was that maybe down the road Liberty Village would consider adding sidewalks for the safety of their residents and that's because it's proven to be very successful for us in our subdivision. As the city's been moving forward with uh adding sidewalks, we this past year we added sidewalks going out to Zering Park just on one side of the street and it's been very well received and we we appreciate the value of sidewalks. So I will abstain tonight uh out of respect for the concern over any conflict of interest, but I wanted to explain what I what I'd written to. Uh with that said, is there any additional questions from the council members tonight? Any questions or comments? I think that we're so early into this in the early stages here. We don't really know what the high school plans are.

We don't know if we're going to be a construction entrance form. We don't really know. Um I don't think they should use that Liberty Village for construction entrance, right? But I am concerned about the infrastructure that's around there as far as you mentioned sewer lines and uh water mains. Any thank you, Don. Anything else from anyone? Okay, so we clarify how we're going to uh on this vote tonight. So, um a vote for no means you are not going to be vacating. You do not want to vacate the street, right? Correct, Teresa, how that's worded. Go ahead.

No, you're right. It is correct. Yes. Okay. Very good. All right. I do want to say though, I think it's important that we preserve the dignity and the whole idea and the concept of this being a retirement community. These are special groups of people. This is a special neighborhood in Princeton that no other part of Princeton has anything like this. 55 and older and and it's just unique and I don't think we want to introduce, you know, a barrage of traffic into that community. But I will I will vote no tonight because you're right, it is very early in in stages. But know this that if this thing does come down to whether we want to expand that road, I will keep it from happening.

Jerry and I appreciate that and I would agree in the sense that also we would encourage the high school to look at alternate ways to get in and out of their absolutely including Sixth Street was which we've been bringing up to them. Um, and uh, and so with that said, is there anybody else would like to speak before we vote? I think I think before you vote, I think you're correct on that, Jerry. But if the high school came up with an alternative entrance to that and not using that, that wouldn't be imperative that you would need to put your office shed right in that location, would it?

I'd like to make a barrier to the whole complex. I'd like to reduce the sound and the noise and the lights. I'd like to not just a shed. I have plans for fence and everything. Like I You want You want to screen it off some completely on that side? Absolutely. But if we successfully made that road a deadend road where traffic could not be going in and out of the sports facility, wouldn't that be a satisfactory solution? No. Okay. So your your your shed could go there, but it could probably also go somewhere else on your property

as Yeah, the shed was just to really kind of keep that barrier and and so I don't think those lots will have much value in that corner with all that complex behind. So I was trying to find another use for this lot. But I'm sorry, I should have stood up.

Oh, that's right. No, no, I see a point. That was that was one of our biggest concerns too being that being over there from the sporting fence and everything. I the traffic down there and I know we spoke to you know the chiefs in here too about concerns about emergency vehicles when all that traffic's there and stuff and that's one of the things we were looking at that's why we set out to sixth street on the planning side too to keep that traffic out of there so you guys do have safety and stuff. So I I would I'm in agreeance with Jerry on that. We probably have a hard time passing allowing that as a main entrance into that school because it's

there's a lot but even just any entrance is just kind of a a burden to our seniors also. But Jerry, I appreciate you very much and I appreciate you asking that. I do really work with the city to as long as that road's closed. I mean, I don't have to put a shed there, but I was trying to make more of a a barrier. Oh, no. It was clear that you just want to block that road. I mean, that's that's I want to block the road. I want to block the sound, and I want to block the lights. And I think we get it. I think we'll know more maybe as this thing unfolds with the school. I appreciate that. You're welcome. Misty, have you had any contact with this with the high school the past 30 days? In the past 30 days? No. When did Andy reach out?

We he did reach out. Um unfortunately that's when um Missy had unfortunate events in her family and has now passed away. So the timing was not right now to meet. So no that has been postponed. We haven't had any.

Okay. And I don't have any kids or grandkids in sports but then the uh little Siberia complex will kick off here in about another 60 days 70 whatever it goes into full tilt again. So hopefully as an interimm that the dialogue can continue with the high school on something temporarily to keep everybody and I know our police chief's very willing to work on any kind of traffic control things like that. So you've had good dialogue. I mean you know our chief you got his phone number and so whatever we need to do to keep it a safe area until we come up with a a permanent uh solution to the the challenge.

No, I appreciate that and you've been great to work with too. But I I I'll I've decided, you know, I'll do this for another season for sure. Allow the parking in our grassy area. The only thing that would prevent it is just, you know, if it's muddy or something like that and we're going to have some issues, but um but I'll try to accommodate again this year for sure. I just don't want them to think that's a long-term solution. Absolutely. We we get that hopefully continue to dialogue then with these entities.

Any other questions or comments from the council? Um, I would say I kind of in a sense of traffic. I know how to feel. I live right across from the high school. Um, there's no parking. There's a lot of times where I come home and they're parked right in my driveway and I can't get in. Um, I'm usually very patient from time to time. I just wait a little bit and tell them I got to get in. They look at they look at you like you're crazy even though you live there. And a lot of people know I did that, but they just s they just sit there. And I was actually going to email the school, but at the time I wasn't I wasn't very happy and I didn't think my email would have sounded very well.

Called down for a couple minutes. Exactly. So I really understand your frustration and you know, I will say with something that Jeremy mentioned, it's not something that's they're not going to say told you depending on the plan. That's why I asked Yan Kados over there if you guys had brought anything else besides just what you wanted to build there. You know, I understand the sound barriers, balls, or something to keep from that. Um, but I mean, we'll certainly work with some kind of layout, but uh, you know, I just knew I just knew it was a barrier at this point. I didn't have a lot of planning to it.

Yeah, I understand the peace and tranquility. We're just early into this Okay, with that said, uh, we're going to then have a third call the role. Third call role. Council member Newman, no. No. McCall, no. Maya, Epstein. Okay, thank you for the dialogue, everyone. Um, if you'd like to leave or you can stick around, we'd love to have you stick around for the rest of the meeting, whatever you'd like to do. Go ahead now with our next ordinance, please.

Next on the agenda is ordinance 0-46-00002, an ordinance to propose the approval of a business development district region development plan and establish a date for a public hearing. This is the first reading. I move that we advance ordinance code-26-002 to the second reading. Second. Motion second. Now, let's see. We're going to go to Michael's Zering on this, right? Sure, please.

Hopefully, most of you are aware, but maybe there's some other people in the room that aren't. Uh we are moving to establish uh what's called the business development district, which would utilize sales tax to um basically incentivize people to keep doing business here, um come do business here or expand the business here. There's also other um eligible expenses that we think will be very um positive for the community. Um so this ordinance you have in front of you uh is part of the necessary steps we need to take to do that. It establishes uh the proposal of the business development district and then after the meeting on the 17th if it were to be adopted we can move forward with the potential adoption process of the BDD. Um any other questions from anyone? I know I asked you earlier today about feedback from the first meeting. Have they compiled some of the feedback from the people that were in attendance at the meeting?

We we're still working on that on that compilation, but I will be sending it out soon and making it publicly available. Yeah. So, tonight we're not making any decisions on the amount of sales tax that would be implemented. That is not on discussion for tonight. I mean, we can discuss that tonight, but we're not that's not being voted on tonight. Correct. We're going to have more time for the public to give us input as council members. They they will need that information by the time we go to publish on February 25th. So, what say that again? On February 25th, that's when we will publish the notice of the public hearing, which is March 16th. All right. Um, so it

Well, we're not going to we're not going to agree on the amount of the taxation by that meeting because that we have to know at that point that we're proposing this Friday. Okay. All right. Okay. So, we still got about two and a half more weeks here for public input. Uh, three more weeks. Yeah.

Yeah. For public input. And I want to encourage we'll discuss this a little bit more here. the public should be contacting their council members and discussing this with them. Um, and I'll just start here. Mike, have you had anybody respond? I mean, we've had a little on the sales section, but I feel like that once we've kind of explained everything, the conversation seemed to be a little better. I think it's just overeducating the public and that was our goal this whole committee was to overeducate everybody. We didn't want to look like we were slipping something under the rug or anything like that. We needed to make sure everybody was educated and understood what it was. Um, yeah, I think it's been positive in general. You know, a lot of these businesses are like that means it can help it can help me online. Absolutely. You know, it's about our retention as well. It's not just about bringing new business into town. That's retention as well. So,

very good. Thank you, Jerry. How about you?

Uh, I just had one resident who talked to me and was a little uncomfortable with our tax rate if we went the full 1% reaching nine, which is similar to Peoria, and they thought that might be exorbitant. And it makes us less competitive with Lelu and other communities and to their way of thinking they might take their business elsewhere. But frankly when I go somewhere to buy something the last thing I I didn't even look at tax but it is what it is but yet it is a concern and I think we need to at least be sensitive to that. So, and and they thought that maybe some of the business owners may feel that they're at a disadvantage because they're now collecting 9% instead of maybe the 8 and a half or whatever might be in Lasal Fruit. So,

you have one person specifically reached out to you one. Yes. Okay. All right. And let's go down to Hector, please.

Personally, nobody's reached out to me. I've talked to some people about it. Uh I've also heard a lot of the comments from the community as well and a lot of them basically stated that if it's going to be like that then they would rather go somewhere else which is one of the things that I talked about the last time okay the gas is going to go up this is going to go up and for for a lot of us that may have a great job a good salary is not a problem but not everybody's in the same situation And a lot of times we fail to realize that from everybody. And what's one reason why I've also said is like when you're spending money, it may not seem like it, but you are. This is the community they live in. This is where they're paying taxes and things. So they may not be disabled as some of us are that's really going to hurt them. Um we don't think about that.

Thank you, Hector. done.

I've only had one person reach out to me and their concern was the rate of the tax. Also, um they're concerned about that. Also heard about people shopping over the east because of it. Um it is a concern. You look at our downtown, it's changing drastically. It used to be a a place where you could go get anything that you really needed, washer, dryer, um lawn mower, and we just we're losing some of our business down there, not because they're poorly run businesses, but because the business owners want to retire and there's no one to take over from their business, which is unfortunate that um we're seeing more more closings like that. Um but no, the only one that reached out to me only had one, which is kind of concerning. I was hoping for more feedback than that. I really haven't. But it was the same thing. It's a little little high on the tax. That would be different if the county could drop us off, you know, like in a year and a half. That would be a whole game changer if that happened.

The jail time. Mhm. I also think that you've got two different factions. You've had people that are nervous about the 9% taxes, but what they haven't really learned yet, and to Michael's point, is they don't know what benefit they're going to receive from it and what this community could look like and be like if we get this system, this service off the ground. Correct. So,

and and one of the things that excites me a little bit about it, not the taxes that excite me about it, but one that excites me about it a little bit is the fact that, you know, if we have cataloging of all the businesses and what is available square footage wise and what's currently available for sale cuz so many of the business we have right now, they're quietly for sale, but you don't know they're for sale unless you drive by them or acquire somewhere where I think if you had a database of that, that could be really helpful in taking care of some of the empty store plugs that database is forming based on some of the work that Hometown Consulting is doing. So, yeah, it's definitely part of it. That that that part of it is probably the one part that I think is very important.

We want to make sure information and resources are available to people interested in investing in Princeton. That's the main goal to improve the quality of life and bring good jobs. And and then I think sometimes you don't want to let things get so far gone that you end up having say Lel Street, you've got that thing up there, not falls with the city. Um the building falls in that you know. Sure. Those are easy to walk away from that. It's better to take care of things before they get too far down. Exactly. It's about being proactive. I have two things if I can add real. Um

obviously you see a lot of comments on Facebook or however do you want to go into the comments but um a couple things that came to mind today. We're talking internally about this and Janet made a really good point. Um and it's another way of thinking about this is this tax, this fund, I'm going to call it a fund one does not benefit the city's pocketbook. And I think that's the misconception. It does nothing for the budget that I'm working on. It is purely to go back into the businesses. And that's one thing we want to make sure that the community understands. Secondly, um a big point of this, as I was thinking over the weekend, is we do not have anything like this that we are able to give back to businesses because we can't do that as a as a government body. we can't use property tax money to give to a a business to upgrade their, you know, whatever. Um, so this is another tool. This is actually about our only tool that we could use to do that. Um, so just just to keep that in mind otherwise we don't have a whole lot. I mean, my constantly,

but the the big point is that it's not there to fluff the city budget at all because it's not going to do anything for the city budget. So,

good points. And I think another thing that, you know, we've talked about too in the past is the city's never really been big on incentivizing people to come to town, right? And the competitive markets we have around us, we have to become that. This allows us to do those things, right? So it it is a big part of economic development as well as retention and helping not the business out and put it right back into it. So I think that's very important with we've got a main street that five or six places have closed in the past year and a half, two years. We don't want to go back to the early 2000s when that was just dead empty storefronts. it does know that we need to be able to invest back in that conversation as well.

And to go along with Mike said there um about what we've done in the past for track record as far as incentives. Um we've been very careful not to offer incentives to like for example Aldi's coming to town. They did not get any incentives. Uh when the Beckers we appreciate they're building the two new gas stations or convenience stores the past 10 years. There was no incentives given to them. No incentives to Casey. So we really work to keep a level playing field so we don't jeopardize by giving somebody incentives and not the person that's already been in the trenches. But when we get down to our main street north and south, we're dealing with mom and pops that need some help. And they got some storefronts that could be hundreds of thousands of dollars to get repaired. And uh we're not going to mention specific places, but places that we've enjoyed, you know, being in those businesses for years, those those storefronts. And so, uh, there's some big masonry projects that are going to require some two and three story buildings to be really given some serious work. So, um, Michael, thank you. And let's do this if we could. Is there anybody in the public that like to uh make some comments about this ordinance? Anybody? Yes, Geraldine, please come on up. Why we're not using the microphone? And I guess I'll have to speak louder. His name is Geraldine Woodley. I was handed some papers from um somebody about the meetings. She knew nothing about what was going on with meetings. She would be out of town and ask me to come to the meetings. So I continued investigating. I have signatures of people that are not happy about the tax. I also have businesses that are not happy about the tax. There are several businesses wouldn't even sign because they didn't want to be intimidated because they did sign. No, I'm not

interested in this tax. And of course, I met one man who said okay with the tax. All the rest of the signatures I have here say no, we don't want it. And I don't think there was enough information because I did go to stores. Some of them did not get the papers about the meetings and when they got them, they were not told what it was. And you know where those papers went? In the trash. So, you know, it's only me doing this, but I did have some people helping me get signatures. I can continue getting signatures because I know there won't be a referendum. And all the people said, "No, if we can, can we do it minimal?" And the other that they questioned, how is that money going to be used? I'm glad you said what you did, Teresa, because some of the things you read in that brochure, that paperwork that we did get, some of it sounds a little iffy and as far as what we interpreted after reading it. So, uh, you know, I mean, when the meeting was, he was comparing us to Peoria. Let's compare us to Lasal, Peru. There are enough people that tell me they're going to go to Por to Peru to buy gas, so they're going to go shopping there. And I think who really didn't like this are the restaurants. When you read that little article that was in the paper, consumable, well, that means the restaurants. And sure, it doesn't sound like much if you're only buying something for $40, Mr. Mayor. But when you're spending $400 or $4,000, you're better off going someplace else where you're going to save a little bit of money because that does add up. That's almost 10 cents out of every dollar, which for those of us like Hector said, for some people it does affect them a lot. So from the people I've talked to, that's what we have to say. Thank you.

So if I can ask out of curiosity, how how did you present that to the businesses if you didn't have all the information? Did you just present to them that hey, they want to go to 9% tax? I'm asking what you how you presented it. Well, I got papers. So I came to the first meeting. There were four. There were six people at the first meeting. Yeah. I stayed to see at the second meeting I saw four people come in. Michael told me there were 12. And then I was at the third meeting. And those are the I mean at first sure I wasn't at all the meetings, but I did go I in fact I was here when we had city hall when we were talking about it. So I had more information than those people.

Yeah. I was just curious how you presented it to those businesses. Well, I told what I found out any information. Okay. And let's face it, how could people come to a meeting? The first thing they found in the newspaper was after the meeting. There wasn't anything else in the newspaper. All of our meetings are posted online. They have to be by law. They're posted online. We put a lot of social media out on this town hall and the other stuff. We've had a lot. Michael can attest to this. I put on I don't know what social media because everybody I talked to did knew nothing. If it was on Facebook, I'm an old lady. I didn't. And the city running for 23 years. I hate to tell you, I'll be 110.

But it it was posted. That's I just wanted to be clear about that. It was posted. Michael, you could probably go where we post everything. Yeah, we enter it on Facebook everywhere. It's on our website now. We've been encouraging people face to face to come engage with us. It's been our agendas for a month or so now. do remember about multiple people go on that stuff. We can only explore some of the avenues. Well, I think you know if the people get the newspaper I think that article should or some article should have been in the newspaper well before

if I could interject then if we could then if you could give Michaels the names of those businesses that did not get information I think that'd be an opportunity for us to educate. No, no. They've already I I've given That's why I took extras in those sheets. Well, I think they'll verbally explaining what we're doing versus a handout would be very helpful. So, would you mind working with Michael and giving him the names of those businesses and he'll pay a visit to those businesses and I as mayor would be glad to pay a visit to those businesses as well. I'll talk to them first. So, if I could, you said there were some that refused to sign. No doubt.

And I think this is one of the reasons why she's saying that because all of a sudden you want to go down there and you want the names. Um, sometimes like people in general, they feel that it's going to be retributions for certain things because they don't agree with something. So, I mean, the one guy that signed today said he's never he's never done that in his whole life and he's 72. Well, we we certainly don't want to be intimidating our citizens and we want to be, you know, I don't think don't do anything like that. We never have. We never will. We're all available. That's why I started the meeting by asking what feedback you've received. That's why this is a public meeting and I encourage people to call the council members the next two weeks.

So, I think this is proitive. Everybody said I have one one person reach out. That's always been our problem. No matter how much information we get out there, we do not get enough people to talk to us directly and we get kind of an overview of what they think is going on. We got a fair shot, right? I mean, that's it's happened a lot and years have done this. So, and I know these guys have dealt the same thing. I mean, if the woman hadn't handed me those papers, I mean, I don't go on Facebook. I'm sorry. Well, I understand that. I'm not. And that's how I first found out about the meeting. But as far as intimidation or anything,

we have a population of what 7,000 plus and we had 60 people at our meeting at Metro Center. I mean, those are the only people that had an interest in what? Yeah. But most of the people that were at the meeting, I mean, I was there and a lot of those were part of the chamber, weren't they? I don't know. I think it was a tremendous cross cross-section. There was a lot of people retirees a lot of retired business owners Gary Bruce for example like that a little bit of mix of everything. It was very impressive because some of us spoke to some of those people and that's why they ended up

and we so we appreciate you doing that. I again I think if you go back to the folks and if they if they would consider having Michael talk to them um Michael's would be a great I'd be glad to talk to him and and spend time on that. So, well, from what I saw, I mean, I hate to take up your time, but wasn't there supposed to be some kind of discussion about this? When are you having a meeting? I think if that appears somewhere that they can come and listen and talk. So, our next council meeting, we can discuss it again at the next council meeting because again, tonight is discussion. So, and come to that there's another meeting. Well, there's in March there's going to be a public hearing, a public hearing.

Well, we we need the comments before then. Right. Right. To establish the range. Right. But still, there's only so many ways we can communicate to the public if there's a public meeting. Uh I would agree if if there was an article in the BCR prior to that, that would be even more helpful. I mean, I know dealing with that paper sometimes. Oh, it's it's we have that problem with everything. We're gonna I appreciate at WLPO best. We are glad you're here. I mean that and thanks for caring. Yes. And we did get assigned a new reporter from the Shaw Papers and he called me and said he's going to be attending the the meetings from now on and so uh it's Bill Fresco's. So we're looking forward to him showing up too.

Yes. Yeah. I mean there you see it in the paper and you'll have a little more. We understand. We will do everything we can to get to work.

And if those people don't want to talk to Michael or the mayor, we'll send Jerry to talk to I'm ready. Uh, one thing I just handed out to the council members have some extra copies of this. I was in the fresh fines uh today and I thought it was really neat to see their receipt breaks down where the sales tax go for all three entities. So the state of Illinois 6 and a4% Bureau County 1% and Princeton city tax 75%. Isn't that a neat thing to see? I I love that. So that was I hope all businesses could do that. Maybe maybe it's a little more involved, but that was great. We knew exactly where our money was going. It's not that difficult, especially with uh with the devices and equipment we have. Shouldn't be that difficult.

That that was a big help for us as a consumer. Okay. Any additional questions, concerns, comments? Otherwise, let's see where we're at. We're going to go ahead and call the role. Okay. Cler call the role. Council member Newman. Hi. Gomez. Hi. McCall. Hi. Sanski. Hi. Mayor Bry. Hi. Okay. Now we're on to the city manager report, please.

Okay. I'll speak through. Um upcoming garbage schedule due to President's Day holiday. Garbage routes will be as follows. Monday, February 16th. Route will be picked up on Tuesday, February 17th. Please set your garbage out by 5:00 a.m. This is not a recycling pickup week. So, Tuesday will be a double route for the garbage guys. So, um please get your stuff out early. Um secondly is the there's a pension report for I believe it's the police uh for month ending December 31st, 2025 in your packet. And then I just want to give a quick update on where we're at with the fire department. Things have been moving. It's been very very busy. So I want to give you a quick update on where we're at. I'd already given to the council um that all building permits were submitted at the end of January. So we've got those in hand. They'll be starting the bid starting to bid the project out early February, which is right now they're starting that process. Bids can be reviewed uh probably mid to late February. From those bids, we'll get what we call our guaranteed maximum price after we see what the bids are. They'll cap the max price on it, which will include us. I think it's 20% 20% contingency. Um so that's high. Don't quote me on that. Don't quote me on that. Um, it'll have our contingency in there. So, if we have any fluctuation in added costs, it'll come out of that contingency. If we don't use our contingency, we'll get that money back. So, that's great. Or we just won't spend it. Um, so then Ringland Johnson will be here, who's our our consult our design build consultant will be here on February 4th, which is Wednesday, at 9:30 to go through with the virtual reality goggles. So, with that, uh, we'll be able to put those on, actually

walk through the building, front door, all the rooms, visually see what the room's going to look like, so you can get out of bed, go to the door, open it, go out to the bay, you can see if there's any obstructions to your your mode of transportation out to either bay, um, where light switches are, where, you know, the bathroom's set up, the way the kitchen's set up, all of that. So it all the any changes that may need to be made are made before construction starts. So it's a really cool tool. Um so the committee will go through it, all the firemen will go through it, make sure that things are where they want them. Uh with all that being said, um they are anticipating breaking ground in the spring. It's going very quickly. So, what I want to show you is just that the design of the front of the building has changed just a tad because of the elevation of the lot over there. If you look at it, you can't really tell, but it actually sits a little higher than what they needed it. So, there's a little bit of an adjustment. Uh, I'll pull this one up. It was working earlier. Okay. So, council, if you can see this, and then I'll turn it. Um, there's you can see the elevation change here. uh between where the base of the building is to where the existing building is. So, there'll be a little bit of a brick uh routine wall, I guess we'll call it. It'll be landscaped and stuff um to bring that out. And then also on the other side over here, we'll have a uh the sidewalk will have to have a little bit of a ramp coming down from their side door over here. Uh what that's going to do is add a little bit more detail here. And so you can see from this angle, the sign's going to be here. We had the fire hydrant. It just started to get a little bit busy. And then the memorial wall needed to be shifted out because I didn't know this. There's names on the back of that memorial wall that you need

to be able to see. So it needs to be pulled out. So we're going to, you know, adjust the benches and stuff. So that's going to sit a little bit further out. So, with it being as busy as it is, this is what we're looking at for the front. We went back to option two. That front porch, we'll call it the front porch got a little bit busy. It got it almost overtook the whole thing. So, with the landscaping, the wall moved out. Originally, we kind of had the wall over here, the memorial wall over here. It was just it wasn't working. So, this means a lot to the department. We want to make sure this is where they want it to be. So, um, that's what it's going to look like. There'll be a little wall over here, but

we're happy with the way this looks because it does match at least the trim and all of that. And it's about $30,000 cheaper. So, we'll take that. I'll turn this a little bit so everybody can kind of see maybe the brakes on. So gosh, I think you are locked. I'm not going to turn. If you want to look at it, you can move around. We'll leave it up.

Yeah, I'll leave it up. So that's where we're looking for now. Um, it is coming together quite quickly. So anyways, I just want to give you a little update because moving very quickly. Anything else, Teresa? You're welcome.

Okay. Great doing that, Teresa. Thank you. We understand changes are made and tweaked. We appreciate that, Teresa. We We're on it. Uh on the mayor's report, I'm going to forego anything tonight. Um we had a great um uh guest speaker, the young lady from the high school spoke at the last council meeting and and paid tribute to Martin Luther King. Tremendous. Nice job. We appreciate our our opportunity to have her come. So, we're going to try to get more uh young guest speakers to come to the council meeting. So, okay. And then we go to old business. Um on the ebikes and electric scooters, I don't think there's anything we're discuss tonight and if there is something, correct me. And on the THC infused beverages, uh these are two um things are are work in progress. Now, Mike McCall and I and we visited with our chief just before the meeting started and we're all concerned about these THC infused drinks. It's just um and I think the state of Illinois is working on some ideas, but man, it's a it's a it's a nasty product that's uh that uh is in in our community. So, we're trying for how to regulate that. So, at this point, we don't have anything new to report on that. Do we, Chief?

We have some draft ordinances that we're working on, but the state, I think, is probably going to do some things that will mitigate what we have to do.

Very good. So, it's on our radar. So, even though we're not going to be uh discussing it tonight on both those issues. With that said, then is there any uh new business to come to the council and now we go back to additional public comment from the coun from the public. Would anybody like to speak again to the council? Yep. Ian Cardardos. Couple questions on the uh uh the imposed tax not directed towards the tax uh more so and I'm asking to kind of get a better thing for it. So we're looking at doing it for business development but also to repair the downtown. Correct. So then how Okay. So, how does that It's funded by the taxpayers, but then are the businesses able to apply for a grant given to them and not repay back or is it going to be in the form for form of loans too, like cheaper loans?

I can jump in on this one. The the way they're generally set up is we'll have some parameters and policy around how the or procedures around how the funds will be distributed. Most communities do grants. Uh, now if you do a matching grant or however we're going to structure that, that's going to be up to the committee and how we get this all put together. But we're not going to reinvent the wheel. We're going to look at how some of the other communities have structured it. Uh, but likely we're speaking on behalf of everybody, but uh, likely grants that the businesses would need to apply for. Now, the city may have some projects too that we know need to be addressed. So, we can use some of those funds for those types of projects as well.

Only within businesses. Yes, only within the businesses. Well, hold on. Is it for the businesses or is it for the city, too? Because to me, that's going towards the city. So, I could see some hesitations there because if you're paying taxes, if a business is paying those taxes and as a consumer and you're saying, "Hey, it's for business development. Why wouldn't it go back directly towards those businesses?" Not not for the city stuff because we take care of that as tax. Well, it depends on what you're defining as city stuff. Cuz if it's a public area, if it's a public area, correct? That'd be the city's top. I don't know. I mean, the main street buildings and stuff are all privately owned.

So that's where that money should go to the private infrastructure. Correct. Not for the city because we already have taxes that cover that. Right. Right. And so then, but that that is one of the things I didn't understand is what are we talking about? You say and the city can use it for certain. It can. Does it mean that's what we're gonna do? Sure. I I think we're we know where our where our focus is. It we know the businesses need economic development economic development business retention like on this. That's where we I could just provide an example. Absolutely.

Okay. the J&J property. That's that could cost upwards of 500 grand to remediate, demolish, and then so we're able to step in, access some of those funds to remediate that, which we don't have that type of money sitting around to demolish or remediate something, then we can flip it around and get it in the hands of the business.

And that's I think that's the clarity on stuff. I just But when you say, "Okay, we can use it. Is that going to be oh, let's put flower pots or redo the road or something like that?" That's that's different. I I understand in doing the business on that. Um and if they're granted the money, which would be better, but then is the city also going to help find other like SBA loans and stuff for these businesses that maybe don't have the capital to do that because a lot of the old buildings in town do take a lot of capital. And out of curiosity, what are the is there ways the city can assist with that side?

I mean, if cuz and I don't what's the tax? You haven't showed any of the numbers or anything, right? They haven't come out with what that'll generate.

Because it is I mean it's getting up in Chicago taxes. So, I mean people do concern is it a lot of money? Gas is going to I I think gas big concern, but that's it's a huge concern. You already have 70 cents different from a town that you can drive 15 miles and get that's that's a lot. So, I'd be curious to see what Daryl Casey says to talk. So, I know you reached out to Daryl to find out that. But th those are just some of the concerns. My my biggest thing is though, like is there enough money to do some of the projects we're talking about and fix some of the old stuff that it's going to have impact? Couple of thoughts on that and and we hope that you uh keep adding your input and uh in a positive manner. Uh the example of a small project that the city can jump in and help on. Four Seasons were we're just so glad to have Four Seasons make a commit commitment to Princeton almost 40 years ago, but they've got a nice brick sidewalk that goes from the city curb right up to their front door of their uh main of their building, the main entrance, and that's on city property. So, helping them out with some new um they it was it was um bricks that were put in, but they're just about shot after 40 years. So there's a a prime example of something we could do to help in a very small way that would be on the city side of the house that needs to be done.

But wouldn't that go under the existing tax structure because it's already infrastructure? Certainly could, but we just don't always have enough money to do those things, those things that should be done. Just, you know, it I was excited as mayor to get a $20,000 crack grinding machine that the city went around. Well, it's true. It's a great machine because we've had people trip and fall on our in our business district. So, um, but I I think you you bring up good questions. Um, I think that, um, these buildings that we're going to focus on hopefully with these building owners, they're going to have to put some skin in the game. We're not going to be subsidizing the whole project. And, and my question is is are they willing to put that skin in the game? And how much? And that's where

it's a that's a big because if you're asking the public to subsidize it, there's got to be some decent return. I mean absolutely we understand completely these these storefronts um and I've made this comment before but when small when you look at a community like for instance when you lose a storefront it's like losing a tooth and and so when the uh we had a fire and the pet store there now that's an empty space and even though it's been cleaned up and that's one of my son's projects I want to give full disclosure that it's still a bite that's sitting There's a spot there that's just vacant and is empty. So, some of these other buildings that we're concerned about could soon be in that same role of of collapsing or

No. And I I totally agree. I just I mean the appropriation of the funds to fix the sidewalk when we're paying the it just that would raise questions to where if a business is paying the extra tax or the consumer and you're saying hey it's going directly 100% back to help a business rebuild their building maybe helping with the business side I I do agree I like the funding for you know doing it for the J&J and stuff like that but when you're talking sidewalks or you're talking making things beautiful, that fun, I would think, would come from a function.

And there's a functionality aspect that we're talking about. Like I use example about four seasons. And again, that that brick is on city's property and it looks nice, but it just hasn't held up over 40 years. So Ian, anything else? Nope. Good. Okay, good. I appreciate your comments. We do. Any additional comments during public comment? Okay, that's it. Absolutely. This is the kind of this voting comment. Absolutely. Phil, jump in there and just give your name.

Rick Warren. No new taxes. Enough about that. This is Illinois. We can get beat to death. I don't want any new taxes. I just I want I want you to be able to live within your budget. You got a budget. I have to at home. We all have to down. Um, on a different subject, you talked about downtown, how downtown used to be. I loved how it used to be. It's not that way anymore. Has anybody on the council or the mayor reached out to Champion Air compressors to find out why they closed and what you're doing to get that business to keep it here? It's long gone, but what are you going to do to replace that business? How how you going to track that?

Sure. Appreciate that. So, um on Champion, uh Gardener Denver, um I did talk to corporate and they um Can I ask you to talk to you? Uh I can show you the email. How about that? Yep. Perfect. Fair.

Um and they explained that they have a um large commercial real estate company that will be listing that property and I asked for us as a council to be able to go tour that property. That's our goal is to be so we we know what is being available. We we enjoy these tours. We did that uh recently with a building last year that ended up being sold and it was it was just nice to be able to physically go look at these buildings and see what what So we I've asked for a contact name. I do have that. Um they are not quite ready to to move forward with listing the property, but we will be involved with that aspect of it to try to help fill that space in a proactive way.

Well, I think I think you are correct. The downtown is not what it it used to be. It it used to be without online banking. The banks were open till 9:00 at night. All the businesses were open. People would actually go up town and get a early parking spot just to people watch. Be one of them. And uh you know it was a it was really kind of um a social gathering place up there. Um you met people was a social gathering place. I think that you know if we don't try to preserve the downtown it's really kind of our identity. the historical part of it's our identity. If if that's gone, we're nothing more than a uh Interstate exit 56. And um you know, some people will say that our downtown concert nights. Those are just a a concert for the local people. Well, they're really not. They bring in they bring in people from out of the area and that is a time when you look in the downtown is almost like a Friday night. There's a lot of people down there. There's a lot of activity. Um you can look and you can think about the history of things that have that have come there before. I think it's just kind of um it's kind of unique that the downtown is filled like it used to be on a Friday night. Now, we probably can't go back to Friday nights for people to gather up there. It's just not it's not feasible, but I think it's nice to maintain the historic value of what we have up there. I think that's very well said. I I would like to leave on that comment and make the I I Sunday morning I I saw people walking up to Myrtles and and pulling on the doors and I I saw the number on the the the front facade there and I called the owner and left a messages saying thank you, thank you, thank you for Myrtles. Even though they're closed for extended period of time, Myrtles is one of those destinations. People enjoy the uniqueness of a place like that. And there's a lot of communities that when I go to deliver my apple pie to fellow mayors and they say, "How do we get a myrtles in our little town?" And that's a true story. So, uh, we appreciate the

victories we do have. When we go here in just a moment, uh, Jerry, just a moment. I want to say, uh, we into executive session here, but we'll stick around for just a few minutes here if the public would like to talk to us. Otherwise, we go to executive session and we won't be taking any action on anything tonight, but we won't be available for any comments from you. So, we don't want to act like we're hiding from you. So with that said, uh Jerry, if you would please. Sure. I move that we adjourn our regular meeting this evening and reconvene into executive session under Illinois statutes to discuss uh the purchase or lease of real property for the use of the public body. The next regular council meeting will be on Tuesday, February 17th at 6:00 at city hall. Second. Moved in second. Clear call rule. Council member Newman. Hi.

Gomez. Hi. McCall. Hi. Hi. Mayberry. I thank you for attending. We appreciate your input.