City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call this meeting of the Princeton City Council to order. Clear call role. Mayor Maker here. Council member Newman here. Gomez here. McCall and Phil here. Would you please stand? Join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Now, we're going to go ahead and start with public comment period. Public comment can be received the council. Uh we'd like to have you limit if possible to 3 minutes. We may not respond to what your concern is, but we'll certainly take our notes and get back to you on those concerns you have. Also tonight, um there will be uh public comment available for the ordinance we're going to have to discuss about the uh Princon business development district. So that'll be on there as well. So you'll have a chance to speak then if you'd like to speak about that. So anybody like to speak to the council and public comment at this time. Seeing none, we'll go ahead and go for approval of minutes, please.

I I move that we approve the minutes from our regular council meeting on February 17th, 2026. Second. We have a motion and a second on those minutes. Is there any questions or comments from the council concerning those minutes? Seeing none, cler call the role. Council member Newman. I met McCall. Hi. I may. Thank you. Now on to our invoices with city clerk Janet Penny.

In the department of accounts and finances, we have $45,330.34. Department of Streets and Public Improvements, $129,77460. Department of Public Safety, $138,216.73. And the Department of Public Property and Utilities, $224,384.88 with a grand total of $537,7645. Mayor, all council members present have confirmed the reviews of all the invoices and their submitted for disposition. I move that we approve the invoices as presented.

Second. We have a motion and a second for those invoices. Are there any questions or comments from the council concerning those invoices? Seeing none, clerk, call the role. Council member Newman. I met I. McCall. Hi. Silki. I thank you. Now to our ordinances, please. Quick on the agenda, we have ordinance 0-26-00003 authorizing the sale of personal property no longer necessary or useful to the city of Princeton. This is the second and final reading. I move that we approve ordinance 0-26-003.

Second. Have a motion and second. Again, this is a um second reading on this and Teresa explained to us it's some additional equipment that was no longer necessary um for the fire department. And so with that said, uh, cler call the role. Council member Newman. Hi. Gomemed. Hi. McCall. Hi. Silky. Hi. And Mayor Maker. Hi. Thank you.

Next on the agenda, we have ordinance 0-26- 004. an ordinance designating and approving the Princeton District number one and imposing a retailer's occupation tax a service occupation tax and a hotel operator's occupation tax within Princeton business district number one. This is the first reading. I move that we advance ordinance 0-26-00004 to the second reading. Second. We have a motion second. Now what we're going to do is we're have Michael Zering get up please to the podium and just give us again another overview of what we're doing tonight please.

So this has been something that's been talked about quite a few but um the business development district is an incentive district uh where we can utilize sales tax money uh for the specific purpose of helping businesses open stay um expand in Princeton. Uh there's a lot of other eligible expenses such as um engineering and things like that that other incentives districts don't offer uh such as enterprise zone or or tip things like that. Um so it's going to give us the latitude to uh be very aggressive about our economic development efforts by um offering something that a lot of other communities utilize to um gain attraction uh to their town by uh incentivizing them to to do business in their town. We're going to keep you up there at the podium then, Michael, if you would please. What we're going to do is um Michael, we have two more meetings on this or two more uh parts of this whole process. Go explain that if you would please. We have the public hearing,

the public hearing and the passing the second ordinance are on the same date, March 16th. Okay.

And again, stand fast pass if you don't mind. And we're going to get to the audience if you have any questions. So, what I'd like to do is we've had two weeks since this was discussed. We've had some people um I've had two emails and I'll come back to my thoughts. But I'd like to have the council one more time give your thoughts and then we're going to go ahead and hopefully pass this ordinance tonight. What we'll do is we'll start instead of starting down at that end. We'll start down at this end. Let's start with Jerry. Uh I have a statement. I'm sure you've seen Mr. Kurum's post on Facebook about the business development district. Over 100 people weighed in. I realize this is a small segment of the community, but the consensus was clear. They're not in favor of the half percent sales tax increase. I think part of their rejection is because they do not know enough about the program. They do not see how it will help the average citizen. I received emails and had conversations with people who strongly who feel strongly about the additional tax. I believe we need to do a better job of explaining how the BDD works and how it will affect the community at large and that takes time. I'm voting no tonight because I don't think the city council should make this decision on their own. In my 11 years on the city council, we have always held referendums for proposed tax increases. If you recall, the last time we asked the voters to consider a quarter% sales tax was to improve city roads and curbs. We held a referendum. The community saw the benefits of the extra quarter% sales tax and agreed to the tax and the city passed the ordinance. Today, you can see the benefits from that tax all over town. Residents need to understand the BDD helps the community. I say we hold a referendum and let the voters decide. Thank you, Jerry. I appreciate that. Michael,

um I would disagree that we haven't educated the the voters enough. I think we we've done a really good job of over educating the point of doing this as the committee. Um having the town hall, almost 100 people there, I think it was a great turnout and once they understood what it was, they were for it. We had very not even any negative review from that, I would say. Uh it was a very positive um thing. One thing I've always said, I'll never follow Facebook. And for a million reasons, you're going to have keyboard warriors on there. Half the people you don't even know are from Princeton. It doesn't matter. I had three emails in the last two weeks. Uh, and that's it. I've talked to a lot of people about this, a lot of businesses. And once I explained it to the businesses, they seem to be for it because it was going to help them retain business in the end. Um, as well, you know, down the road, we need to get business. We've got Michael Studsky in the last meeting uh pointed out we have 21 empty slots from north to south on Maine. That is not something we had a few years ago and we are going in the wrong direction. This needs to be for our future generations. This isn't about the here and now. It's about our future generations as well. Starting to spend that money in the right areas. Um we've been very transparent that it would be handled and voted on by the council through all these things. We are transparent in having it up front. Uh, I think this is a good thing. I think this is something we're working toward is to make sure that these places are around for a long time. We want to retain our business that we have in town and grow it on top of that.

Thank you, Mike. Appreciate that. And we'll go down now to Hector, please.

Okay. Yeah, as everybody remembers uh several weeks ago, uh the first time it came up, one of my my concerns was uh that I asked was the fuel uh considering that um go to go to Peru and you go here is like 40 to 50 something cents difference. And I do talk I did talk to a lot of people. I've seen emails. Um I see I see Facebook. I don't interact with it a lot because there's people that are not from this area as well. I have to chime in on and everything. Um, but I would I would say and I'll say it again. It's like if you have a concern or anything else, I've asked people to come into the meetings all the time. What's your concern? Uh, don't just sit back uh behind the screen and start uh saying things that are probably not appropriate to say there sometimes. It's like what's your opinion? There's nothing wrong with you disagreeing with something. Um, and again, I'm kind of going on both ways about it. I know that uh the referendum that Jeremy had just talked about and yes, it did pass uh can't remember like over 50 something or 60% voted for it. Um but if uh this is something that um it's going to help the businesses in a sense uh to be able to go ahead and one of the things that uh was mentioned to me uh was also was u for some of the businesses uh they should be able to go ahead and and their business should be able to provide for their own infrastructure. Uh the also things that they brought up was one of the things was are they going to be able to pay city principles, things like that. And from what I explained to him, no, I said this is supposed to be very specific. It's supposed to be for the businesses. So, um I talked to a lot of people over this

past week. Um even as I'm walking around Walmart or doing something else. So, okay, Dr. Thank you. please.

I've heard from very few people that have reached out in an email. Um I've seen very few people face to face regarding so it's hard to get a handle on what the public feel is like. Um I was hoping to get a little bit more feel from the public, but with three emails it's not many. And to your point, Hector, on the on the gas, I mean, the council of the city does not set the gas prices as far as tax. Um, the tax relative close to the same on that. So, I I understand that. I take a look at what's happened on Main Street. There's been a lot of revitalization down there. a lot of plants going on, trees, lighting, things I think, you know, look somewhat vibrant down there, even though we have a lot of empty storefronts that, um, difficult to fill. But I take a look out onto industry. We've got some great businesses out there. We've also lost a lot of business out there. We had four welding shops at that one time town. We've lost all our welding shops. But if you look out there um and if you go back 30 years ago of the business that used to be that are closed now, we depended on their lighting for the streets out there. When they took the lighting with them and that includes the miniature golf, it includes um the A&W fatalis um J&J uh was buick. They all had lighting and it's gone. you look out there, it's dark and we've got some great listings out there that really I don't know that we've done a great amount for them. We have no great lighting out there. We have no sidewalks. And I think that a real shining star out there is actually our body shop. We're down to the really one body shop in the area. But if you take a look at that, that started in a quanza hut kind of a qua type building, I should say. They built around it. They

bought a building that was in poor condition next to them, tore it down, built a nice place to place. They've since um taken the stoners building and they're rejuvenating that with their business. And when you talk about growth in town, that is one fine example of somebody that's really invested in Princeton. Um the main street downtown is a little more difficult, I think. But I I know that why does that sound important on Peru Street and one of my thoughts of why it sounds so terribly important? It's one of our main throws through town. I mean, people come to town and they pass through town there. And you want to have a really good uh feeling when you drive into town. And I'm not sure that you get that right now because you got the J&J, which was a beautiful business, and it's just a it's just a shell of what it once was and probably will be up to the city to to remedy that issue there. And when a new business comes to town, one of the things they do is they drive around town, they take a look, they get an idea of what things look around town. And I think the downtown is great, but you get out to areas like that. You know, those things do matter if you're if you're someone coming with a business. But, uh, I wish that, uh, we had a little more feedback from the general public and maybe we'll get a little bit more tonight. But, uh, that's my feelings on it.

Thank you, Don. Um, I'll just make a few comments and then we're going to open it up to the public to come up to the podium and if they have any questions or comments, we'd like to do that. Um, so I had two people uh send me emails and I responded to both those folks and one of them I'm going to be meeting with this Thursday. We're going to go do a drive around Princeton. Um, so when we're elected officials, people have to have trust in us and we know that in general people don't trust politicians and I don't think any of us want to be labeled a politician up here tonight. I think that what we are, we have a love for our community and that's what it's all about and how we decided to travel forward with this. Um, you know, appreciate council member Newman's comments, but I I feel tonight that we're going to be moving forward in a positive manner. I know there's going to be some stop gaps in there when people uh we'll have a committee that's they'll have two of the council members will be on that committee for the initial applications and they'll be able to screen those and get a feel what we're trying to do. And if we decide we want to add a person from the community, we certainly can add an additional person from the community to assist us with screening those applications. Um, but my point would be is then it comes before the council for final approval. So, we do have some checks and balances in place. I was downtown Neighborville last week and there's a really neat statue and it's it's two people shaking hands and you read the little plaque with it. It talks about the the private and the public sector working together in Neighborville for the past 30 years and how they have to cooperate together. And that's what we're doing. We're working as a public sector, working with our private entities to build our community in in a positive manner. And that's what it's all about. And so with everybody's input, I appreciate that. I like to now refer to the people in the audience here if they'd like to speak on this issue tonight to come forward. And all you have to do is just state your name. We're glad to have you tonight. Does anyone like to speak? Smells

I'm Gerald B. Woodley. I live here in Princeton. Have for almost 40 years. Um I went around to businesses. But my first question is this. Which businesses will you not use the tax to fix something that will be charging their customers this additional half percent. I'm rather confused and so are a lot of other people. So it's not going to be the cars. It's not going to be on gasoline. Is it basically restaurants and bars? Is it Ace Hardware?

Sure. So, um, Michael, we we do we're going to bring you back up, but I can certainly part start to answer that question. So, it's a retail sales tax. So, if you go into Sherwin Williams and buy a gallon of paint, you're going to be charged that extra half a percent. That's what we're looking at on that uh purchase. So, in other words, uh, and Johnson's carpet, you're buying flooring, you're you're paying that extra half a percent. Okay.

Well, I did talk to business people. I didn't talk to everybody. I do have signatures. All the business people I talked to didn't want it. Uh the others that I talked to were afraid to sign for retaliation. I do have signatures of people that live here that signed and said no. I met one man that said sure. Now this is a couple weeks ago when this first started. I had I run out of time to go around and just get signatures. But that's what I've heard from the people. And as far as understanding and knowing, I'm very sorry, but a lot of people have not seen anything. I don't do social media. Half the people don't do social media. And where some of this stuff has been, even as I've said before, when those papers were handed out, how many people came to the meetings? There weren't that many people because nobody understood and nobody was told. Even when those two papers were handed out, you we had six people at the first one and supposedly 12 at the second and then we had almost 60 when we were at the Metro Center. That's nothing. If you think everybody knows, they don't know. I'm sorry.

Thank you, Geraldine. Uh, next. Anyone else like to speak? Four, against, neutral, whatever. and I'll be 110 if it goes for 23 years. That's another thing they don't like. Okay. So, with that all said, um I want to thank the the group that started on this project uh six or eight months ago. They put a lot of time into this. I think we got some good people that uh that we've teamed up with. Um um Herb Klein, the attorney from uh over Lasal Peru that's familiar with BDD. uh Cole um Kohl's McDaniel

McDaniels from Hometown Consultants. Uh we've got him on board. So I think it's just part of our toolbox. You know, not one thing's going to solve all of our problems, but we got a toolbox of tools we can use to help uh bring our community forward in a positive manner. With that said, if there's no other questions or comments from the council, I'm going to go ahead and ask the clerk to call the role. Council member Newman. No. Gomez. At this point, I say nay. McCall. Hi, Philipski. Hi. Hi. And may I. Thank you.

Next on the agenda, we have resolution R-26-004. This is a resolution of the city of Princeton Bureau County, Illinois, abating the 2025 levy pertaining to the 1.170 million general obligation refunding on alternate revenue source series 2014. I move that we approve resolution R-26-004. Second.

Have a motion second. Is there any questions or comments from council concerning this? It's just housekeeping, right? This is uh when we had the list of all the other aated ones. We missed this one. We just want to make sure we're doing our correct paperwork here. Very good. The devil's in the details. Very good. Thank you. Clear call the role. Council member Newman. Hi. Gomez. Hi. McCall. Hi. Hi. And mayor M. Hi. Next on the agenda we have resolution R-25-26-005. Authorizing the city manager to enter into contracts and joint participation agreements with the state of Illinois on behalf of the city of Princeton.

I move that we approve resolution R-26-005. Second motion second. Teresa, just elaborate on that, please. Sure. It's really exciting. Um, this is so that we can purchase salt for the city department. uh each year when when we put in for the bid on that um we have to show that either I have authority or and if the council has changed we have to redo uh the resolution so that's all this so we can go in and get our purchase order for the results next year that's great we mean for next year I appreciate well yeah actually this year next year's fiscal year very good thank you

and that's where the joint purchasing comes in that's the point of buying it through the states for reduced price. Uh how many um oh what municipalities have with any joint venture as far as purchasing? I don't know. I would say most of them are participating. I would say because I actually buy my power be when somebody gets Exactly. Very good. Thank you. Okay. Call RO please. Council member Newman. Hi. Gomez. Hi. McCall. Hi. Sitki. Hi. and mayor may agree.

I thank you. Now onto our board appointment, please. I move we approve the appointment of Michael Stsky to fill the unexpired term on the Historic Preservation Commission. The term will expire on December 31st, 2029. Second. Motion second. Cler call RO. Council member Newman. I Gomez. Hi. McCall. Hi. Sitki. Hi. And may I. Thank you. Now to our city manager report, please.

Uh I didn't know it first thing on the report back and forth here. Uh the monthly financial report. This is actually ending December. So we're going back a couple months here. Um I guess I go first page there that's got the financial summary uh ending December or December 31st with the revenue showing the 71% expenditures 82%. Uh if you flip through the financial report and you go to the uh bar charts, it's a little bit easier to see where the spending is in comparison to what we budgeted and um the expend expenditures versus uh what we look at. If you look at streets on page six, this is what kind of causes that revenue expenditures to be off a little bit. You'd think your revenues are going to be higher than your expenditures. not necessarily because you haven't collected all of that sales tax yet because you're pledging it for the entire year. So, so it's gonna show streets improvement is going to be uh over spent in a way. It's because we haven't collected all the sales tax yet. So, it does throw some of those off a little bit. But, um you sales tax is up couple months. It's level a couple of the other months. So, we're still averaging about I'm averaging total here about four to 5,000 sometimes 9,000 more than last year at each of these during each of these months. So, we're not jumping a ton, but uh we jumped significantly during CO. So, we're we're still up there. So, um hotel motto hanging about the same as it has been. And you have your call volumes in here, too. And then the balances on all of our CDs if you are curious on all that. Uh secondly in the packet is your uh Princeton police pension fund report for ending the month of January 31st of 2026. And then I believe the very last page is

just a reminder for cemetery cleanup notice. After March 15th, city crews will begin removing of any winter decorations and grave coverings for the city of Princeton cemeteries. Please remove any items you'd like to keep before March 15th. um in your update that I sent on Friday, please note that we did plan to do the budget planning session for fiscal year 27 um prior to March 16th meeting. That's going to be a crazy chaotic day. Uh so I'm proposing we move it to the next Monday at 5 or 5:30, something like that. So if everybody's okay with that,

makes sense. And five works for everybody too early. Good. Okay. The week ahead on the 16th. No, after that. After. Okay. Got it. 23rd. Right here. Okay. Teresa, anything else?

Okay. Thank you, Teresa. Appreciate that. I'm going to step down here to the podium with my report. Okay. Not not that we endorse any specific business, but it is a day to say hallelujah because Dairy Queen opened and that means open. We don't we don't rely on the ground here in Princeton after Dairy Queen opens. Couple things. U the council's been invited. There's a uh Illinois Valley Pads, which is the unhoused shelter. There's a a movie being shown. uh hosted by the Apollo Theater. It's going to be coming up on the 21st Saturday and it's $10. It's a fundraiser and it talks about the unhoused people and it's all over. Uh this year the warming center, thank goodness, had fewer people than uh previous years, but there still was a need out there. A lot of times we if at all possible that we have unhoused people that qualify to go over to PUR. Uh Pru's been real good about taking our unhoused people and working with us on a regular basis and we appreciate Carol Elhorn and her staff over there at the PR um pad shelter. Um next thing I'd like to just bring up is u uh I'm the only mayor that always tells people when I get a chance to visit that there's communities you need to go visit that really are an inspiration. And I was thinking uh today about a little town. I call it Casey, Illinois, but actually it's it's Cassie, Illinois. And it's only a town of 2400 people. And uh they have uh 12 of the largest items. And before you roll your eyes and say, "What is he talking about?" It's just so cool to see a little town and how they have taken basically they had no real attraction to their community and they brought in these these items that was was built custom built by uh a business owner in KC or Cassie uh Illinois. So

you get a chance to take a a field trip between now and and when you you get busy here back with spring uh tours. Um it's three hours south of here. So we can learn from a little town about how to attract people and we're not going to be doing the same thing as they do. You go to a town like that, it's clean and neat. Uh it's it's very welcoming and u they just I would say the key takeaway besides that fact is uh Mr. Jim Bolan, he's 61 years old. He has a business there. It's a pipeline clothing company and he was born in in Casey and he was educated there. His wife's from there and they adopted their community and they show that community. It's just the attention to detail and all the things they do for their community. I think that we're fortunate in Princeton. We have business owners and both men and women that have contributed to our community over the years. Every time I go out to the metro center, I think about I never met Mr. Shoemake, but I want to give Mr. Shoemake a big hug because has anybody here ever met Mr. Shoemake? But it's Shoemake Hall and when he died, his estate left money for our metro center and hence uh they they dedicated the hall to him. Shoe Hall. I think about when we go to the park district, we got George Zaring and I never met George Zaring. Darn it. and and uh John, you knew George Zaring, maybe?

I I don't think so. I think I knew some other ones, but I don't think I knew.

Yeah. So, we appreciate the Zuring family and their donation they made for a beautiful park. So, uh it takes people that love their community and and give back to the community. Um I've got the opportunity I've told you before about having the mentorship. The high school's got a program, a vocational program where you get seniors for uh 5 days a week from 1:00 to 3. So, you only get them for a 2-hour window of time. And these are seniors that may not go on to say a traditional four-year college, but they may go to to a two-year college or a trade school. And uh we one of the things we do uh in our life skills of having them for two and a half months during semester is we have them read the book uh it's an autobiography by Dick Nelson. It's called Paving the Road to Success. And again, another person in our community, Dick and and his wife, Mrs. Nelson. Um, they they donated so much back to the community on a regular basis, and we appreciate what they've done for our community, and their legacy lives on. So, thank you for those investments that people make in our community and continue to make. With that said, now we're going to have uh under positive Princeton, we've got uh two folks here. They're representing the Princeton uh closet. And so what's up tonight is going to be um see I've got my notes here. I don't have my notes. So we got Diane Van Drew and we got Go ahead. I apologize.

Amy Murphy. Amy Murphy. So I apologize. So we're going to have you come up and talk about the closet, please. Right here. I'm going to sit right here.

Well, thank you, Mr. mayor and council members for having us here to talk about the closet. I'm Diane Van Drew and I'm president of the closet board. I'll give you a little bit of background about the closet and some information about our lending a hand program and our scholarships. The closet began giving back to the community over 57 years ago. It all started when teachers traced the feet of migrant children on brown paper bags to find the correct shoes and boots for them. Church women were asked to collect the shoes for the children and this led to the creation of the Princeton closet. Church Women United opened the store to provide reasonably priced shoes, clothes, and other items for migrant children, excuse me, and their families who might be too proud to ask for charity. Church Women United disbanded eight years ago and a board of seven took over the closet. The mission statement of the closet is create an atmosphere of love and kindness to all who enter. Support those in need of material goods at a fair cost. Support the mission with a spirit that is pleasing to our Lord and Savior and glorifies him in all ways. Give back to our community and support those programs that are helping in areas of need. The last statement is what lending a Hand is all about. Blending a Hand is a program to assist not forprofits in the Bear County area who positively impact many lives. If an organization receives tax revenue from Durham County, they are not eligible for this program. The application for lending a hand can be found on our website, Princeton Closet. We must receive them before midnight, November 30th, with a copy of your 501c3 before your application will be considered. The board meets in December to go through the applications and organizations are notified in January. January 20th this year, we handed out over $200,000 to 43 not forprofits.

WQAD was to was there to film it. And when the reporter spoke to me, he said he wondered why when he pulled up into the parking lot what he was doing at this small resale shop, he was not impressed with the whole idea. Then he walked into the store, saw all the people there who were there to get their money. And when I started talking about the amount that we were giving back and how much we given back over the years, he was amazed. And his whole idea about our store changed. In the last 16 years, Lending Ahead has given back over $2.3 million to to the area for not for profofits. Think of all the lives that that has impacted. We thank the community for their continued support, giving us awesome donations, and for shopping the store. If not for this, lending a hand would not be able to give back all those funds every year. We also give out scholarships every year to be county students in memory of Shirley and Dale Espel. We are dedicated in supporting the education and development of our young people. We believe that every student deserves the opportunity to pursue higher education regardless of their financial situation. We believe that investing in the lives and education of young people is one of the most important things we can do to support future success of our communities. Scholarships can also be found on our website. We must receive them by April 1st. Scholarship applications are a one time of at least $1,000 to at least three high school graduating seniors in Bureau County. The money is sent directly to the school they will attend. This past year, we gave out $15,000 to area students. Over the last 16 years, we've given out over $104,000 in scholarships. Amy Murphy is the manager of the closet, is going to talk about some of the partnerships, and then I have a closing statement.

Hi everyone. Um, you mentioned the communities that make a difference and the closet would not be able to do what it does without everybody who chooses to donate and shop with us. We are trying to educate the community this year because the closet has been around for 56 57 years but I believe that people don't really understand what we do or what we're really about and it's our job to try to help communicate that. So last year we celebrated our 56 years. This year we're really trying to highlight our partners and how our support affects our partners. So the 44 different organizations that receive grants from us, what would happen if they didn't and how do they use our grants? Um, and all of that happens because of the donations and because of the shopping and support of of the community. So, it's really um, incredible. Uh, and last week we did a food drive. So, you'll see a lot of different things happen this year trying to highlight uh, the different organizations that we support. We had all four of the food pantries come in, raise money individually. We collected food on their behalf. And in researching that, it just even uh educated me on um so much that I don't know that all these nonprofits are doing, all these tireless volunteers and their time to to help improve their communities and help those in need. And that um makes us so really proud uh to be part of that. At the closet, we partner with Ace Hardware. We partner with Gateway. I wrote down um the fire department in the past uh has needed things from us, local churches. Um, we've worked with the Lutheran church on helping rehome things, you know, trying to think about sustainability and there's always somebody that might need something. So, not to instantly think that it should just go in the trash, you know, try to find uh someone who might need it. The Methodist church and their prom event, uh, Greenfield greeters, you know, Greenfield has been a big part of of our group since they started their greeting program, and it it's it's so special to see them on Thursdays. They'll be back in March if you want to come say hi to them. Um, Freedom House, we work very

closely with Freedom House in Aruka and Tri County. Uh, when people are struggling, they can come in and and uh confidentially receive some some help that they might need. Uh, the chamber, we've we've uh worked closely with Jennica and just trying to partner with the retailers in town to to maximize on traffic or events and and how we could be of assistance to any of the retailers and they enter and help assist us. and um the students from Princeton High School uh we have the staff students come five days a week uh and and learn skills and we have the privilege of of working with them and learning from them as well. So it's really it's really special and we appreciate your support your support um and helping us continue to do the the work that we're doing.

Thank you Amy and I want to thank the community for support. We want to thank our volunteers and all of our staff. Without them, we wouldn't be able to give back to the community every year. In the last 16 years, the combined amount between lending a hand and scholarships that we have given back is $2.4 million. Excuse me. I spoke to a Bureau Valley prek class in November during community involvement week. And the little boy summed up our donations really well when he said, "That's a lot of money." So, thank everybody. Anybody have any questions? I have a question. I know you probably get a lot of uh donations that I'm sure a lot of them are high quality. There's probably some things that need to really be sorted through. How do you accomplish your volunteerism for the sorting process?

There you go.

Yeah. Um I've been at the closet for a little over a year and when I started there I was in really impressed with how if you ever want a tour of the back of the house, you're welcome anytime. We'll show you a look behind the scenes, but we have um every area is divided and and our volunteers, most of them have been with us over five years and they're very passionate about their certain areas. We again try to not throw anything in the garbage if we don't have to. Um the environment is very important to me and it's very important to a lot of us that that work at the closet. We started a lot of recycling programs where uh last year we even started in the warmer months we would put a lot of stuff out for free. uh our customers decide whether they want to buy something that's been donated, we do our best to turn it over, but some things people just aren't interested in and instead of having to put something in the garbage, we we started that and people actually were starting to request, you know, look forward to that day and that'll start again as soon as the weather gets warmer.

So, we we do get a lot of really good things. We do get some things that aren't very good. We do get some things we're forced to throw in the dumpster for one reason or another, but we also have that big semi at the end of our building. That truck recycles clothing, shoes, linens, and uh and there's a recycling plant in Carol Stream. We I visited that last year and um lots of those things get a second home, which is also uh heartwarming. So, you got a really good base of volunteers to come and help you as opposed to using a lot of public service hours and high school kids. We need both. You got you got Okay.

Yeah. Honestly, we have we have a lot of both. Um, and we we help, you know, somebody needs as a nonviolent crime and needs community service hours, we're able to assist that as well. And we've had some really fabulous people come through that just needed to give some hours back. And we love we love all kinds of help like that. Interesting. Thanks for the presentation. It's been informative. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? One more round of applause. Thank you. Very good.

Okay, now we're going to go to old business. I know we we still have these two subjects on the old business. Uh ebikes and electric. Nothing new on that presume state of Illinois to hear some clarification there. And then on the THC infused beverages, same thing. here. I heard a couple places pulled those beverages. Yeah. And I think the federal government's working on some stuff with that too right now.

At least locally. I know one place they said they had it and they they discontinued it. Safety concerns. So that's good. Very good. Okay. Any new business before the council? Any old business before the council? I mean, I'm sorry. Any uh public comment? I apologize. Any public comment that could be about anything you'd like to discuss to the council? Okay, seeing none, go ahead, Jerry, if you would, please. I move that we adjourn our regular council meeting this evening and make Monday, March 16th, 6 p.m. in city hall for our next council meeting. Second, we have a motion second. Uh, third call. Council member Newman. I Gomez. Hi, McCall. Hi, Sarski. Hi, Mayor Baker.

I This meeting's adjourned. Feel free to stick around and talk to your council members. Thank you. I'm going to stick around. surveillance. Get up here.