City Council - Regular Meeting

I'm curious. I'd like to call this meeting the Princeton City Council to order. Clare to call the role. Mayor Mry here. Council Newman here. Here. McConnell here. Here. Would you please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance? I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Now, we're going to go ahead and go to public comment period. And before we go to Victoria, let's see. Is there anybody in the audience like to speak to the council? We'd like to have you limit it possible to three minutes and you can speak at the beginning of the meeting as well as at the end. Anybody from the public? Okay, Victoria, come on up if you would please. Victoria tourism director. Thank you.

Hello. Um, I just wanted to, um, let you all know that I'm sure you've probably seen on the website and things, but that the, um, Princeton Public Arts Commission, uh, community art grant program is open. Um, we're taking applications until May 31st. Um, the commission created this program because we get conversations throughout the community for people who are wanting to do designs on their buildings or specifically murals. Um, but this would also be open to really any kind of public art, um, sculptures or anything. But it just connects the commission then to any of these projects that are going on in town. It then we can kind of vet them as well. So it's like good for both parties. Um so if there are any businesses in town that you guys have talked to that would be good candidates for this, please um share that these are open. Um you can download them through the city website. We also have printed copies here available. Um, same goes for the tourism grants. Those are open now and are due on May 1st.

Any questions on the artwork in the murals? Is there any parameters on that? Is it historic artwork or is it Could it be anything? I'm thinking like a wall sort of thing from um maybe Hawaii. Yeah, I think that um that's kind of why we wanted to do something like this. I would say that both would fall. Um I don't know. What do you do you have any comments? Yeah, I mean it's going to come down to the strength of their application and how good the artwork looks and you know refurbishing a mural would certainly

is that what you're referring to like bringing back like a historical mural like I'm I'm talking about um yeah historical some of the ghost signs we've seen around here some of the old advertising and you could look back historically and see some of the old advertising down there to be current but it's interesting because it's historic or I don't know if you're just talking flower murals but

I hope it's all things that are in good taste. Absolutely. That and that's that's like the whole goal of this application would be that we can, you know, because we see things go up in town and, you know, sometimes we're like, "Oh, they should have come to our commission for something like that." So, this is a way to to kind of connect with the businesses that way. Um, so there could be a business that might want to put something like on the back of their building just to draw like if they're if they use a rear entrance in the in the parking lot, say for instance over here. Um, uh, or I mean a lot of them want to do some kind of like photo op. That's what we've we've heard so far. Um, so yes, they will definitely be evaluated by the commission before anything's decided. So,

any other questions, comments from the council? What release party? Oh, we are going to do um a uh concert lineup reveal on April 23rd to announce the concerts that will be um down on main this year at Cole Creek. Good. If you need help uh tapping a tig, let me know. I've done it once before. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're an expert.

I got it down pat. Yeah, right. I'll bring my cordless drill. Victoria, thank you very much. Any other comments from the council? Otherwise, we're good. Victoria, you want to sneak out of here? Go ahead and head home. We appreciate your efforts on that. Thank you.

So, what we're going to do if we could uh we're going to add this on the um under public comments. I'm certain it's not it's a good spot to put this in. So, as many of you in the room are aware that uh Mayor Keith Kane had passed away on Friday, 79 years old. Uh Keith, of course, was our mayor for 16 years, I believe. Well, 12 years, and then a council member for uh seven more.

Seven more. There you go. So, 19 years service. Okay. Very good. And he was obviously a businessman uh with Ready Princon Ready Creek. His wife and him had Flowers by Julia and they still do, of course. and basically he was a supporter of not just Princeton but all of Burough County. First we want to extend our sincere sincere condolences to Julie Kane, his wife, to their three sons, uh, Eric, Mark, and Kyle, and to his grandchildren and his great grandchildren. I've asked Pete Nelson tonight to come up and say a few words. Pete worked with, uh, Keith, and they traveled to China together as well at one point for um, trade missions and we came back.

And came back. That's right. So, with that said, we're going to get Pete up here if he can give a nice word up. Please, Pete. Well, when Ray asked me to do this, I quickly learned that, you know, it's it's impossible to sum this guy up. There's just so many things um that he was involved in and and he was passionate about and and the the people he touched is just infinite. And um you know the story always goes that he knows half the people in this county and he's related to the other half.

So he knew everybody. That's basically the way it was. There's nothing that's fooled him at all. But um so I'll read this little thing I put together. It's it's incompleted as it is, but it's it is what it is. So um as Ray said, uh Keith died Friday uh at the age of 79. Um, this job is impossible because Keith Keith Ke Keith was a person always in motion mostly to find ways to solve all types of problems. So, while most of the citizens were sleeping, Keith was at work scheduling raw materials for readymix concrete or perhaps out watering street flowers at 2 a.m. He always did at 2 a.m. Um, no person could entirely capture what Keith was up to. whatever he was up to, it was it was in service to one or more people. Uh Keith served on the city council for seven years before he was elected for three consecutive terms as mayor. He was a focused mayor and was skilled at obtaining consensus from the council on many important decisions. He also had a sense of humor that would help diffuse contentious situations, although not all time. Uh Keith was open to investigating anything that could bring new investment to the city, such as employing the city's first city manager, a tax increment financing district, a techn technology park, a business improvement tax referendum, a retail business loan program, and utility rate incentives, all of which contributed to real job formation and investment under his leadership. In 2005, Keith ventured to China at the invitation of the Illinois Department of Commerce and and the Office of Trade and Investment. The intent was to recruit businesses in China to locate in Princeton, if you believe that. Strangely, there were there were a lot of people that in China that were that

were anxious to come to a town this small as long as there was a nurturing environment and uh we could hold up against any other cities that were on this same trip. Um so uh it was it made sense at that time. I mean China was uh reaching out all over the world for uh new ways to invest. Um, at the time, China was a leader in foreign investment. It was very interested in nurturing China and US partnerships. This was Keith's first international flight. It wasn't like a three-hour flight to Mexico or a 7-hour flight to London. It was a 16-hour non-stop flight to Hong Kong. Um, in China, anyone with the title of mayor was considered a true rock star. So at bank, you can remember that one. So at banquetss and large business meetings, Keith was routinely segregated from the Illinois delegation in order to sit at the table of honor with the China China hosts, none of whom none of whom spoke English. Further, he was totally in the dark as to what was on the menu. So at one even one evening's banquet included smoked duck tongue, goose intestines and gravy, sauteed pig's ear and deer hoof, but the dessert included horse liver and plum sauce, so you're safe there. Keith went heavy on the bread and butter and afterwards hightailed it to the Hagen store near the hotel. Although nearly petrified, Keith gave a welcoming speech in front of hundreds of China developers and entrepreneurs. Speech uh his speeches were translated so the audience was aware of the content. He represented Princeton very

well in the cities of Hong Kong, Guanghou, Hjo, Beijing, and Shanghai. Outside of his duties with the city, Keith and wife Julia have been among the most generous people in the community. They supported many many organizations organizations and causes not only financial support but also emotional support for those who were suffering. They opened their home to Festival 56 actors each year and made lifelong relationships as a result. They also hosted overnight visits by our members of Congress like Adam Kinzinger, Jerry Weller, and others. The Cranes have a way of making anyone feel like family. There's really no end to the list of ways our community benefited from the life of Keith Kaine. Whether it be from infrastructure improvements to sharing his readymix crews to help with home homestead preparations to lifting a friend from depression. We'll never forget his service and I could go on and on but I just had to stop somewhere. So he'll be he'll be greatly missed. And he he uh he made an impact and he's somebody to emulate, you know. Guess that's it.

Thanks very much to folks. See you. I'm here all week. Great.

Thanks. We appreciate that. So, uh, I would like to just sum this up by saying who Keith King was. I'll say this. Keith cared about his, uh, family, his community, and his country. Uh, President Teddy Roosevelt in 1910 gave a speech, and I'm going to just, uh, repeat the speech just briefly, and I think this summarizes who Keith Kane was. Teddy Roosevelt's speech is the man in the arena. It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errors, who comes up short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, but who actually does strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails by daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls that neither know victory nor defeat. So we like to know that we all know that Keith Kane was definitely in the arena and so I just say peace be to the members of Keith Kane. Thank you. Okay, now we're going to go. We have uh three sets of minutes. We're going to the first set of minutes, please. Jerry,

I move that we approve the minutes from our uh princip public hearing on March 16th, 2026. Motion second. Any questions or comments concerning those minutes? Seeing none, clear call the role. Council member Newman. Hi. Gomez. McCall. Hi. Hi. Baker. Hi. I move that we approve the minutes from our regular council meeting on March 16, 2026. Second. Motion second. Any questions or comments concerning those minutes? Seeing none, third call the role. Council member Newman. Hi. Gomez. Hi. Powell. Hi. Hi. And mayor Mry. Hi. I move that we approve the minutes from our special budget review meeting on March 23rd, 2026.

Second. Motion to second. Any questions or comments concerning those specific minutes? Seeing none, cler call the role. Council member Newman. Hi. Gomez. McCall. Hi. Soy. Hi. And mayor Ryrie. Hi. Now we're on to our invoices with city clerk Janet Henning.

In the department of accounts and finances with $46,9435. Department of Streets and Public Improvements 76,44325. Department of Public Safety $166,287.98. Department of Public Property and Utilities $193,56.71 with a grand total of $482,730.99. Mar council members present have confirmed the reviews of all invoices and they're now submitted for disposition. I move that we approve the invoices as presented. Second.

We have a motion second. There any questions or comments concerning those invoices? Seeing none, cler call the role. Council member Newman. Hi, Gomez. Hi, McCall. Hi, Kleski. Hi, Andry. Hi. Next on the agenda, we have ordinance O-26-00007, an ordinance approving an agreement for purchase of property commonly known as 526 North Chestnut Street, Princeton, Illinois. This is the second and final reading. I move that we approve ordinance 0-26-007.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any questions or comments from council concerning that? If we could, Michael, if you just would just give us a quick just where we at on the timeline if this gets approved tonight, which I'm sure will be, where we at then with this project? Uh, we would uh the existing owner has already signed a deed to deed it over to us. Uh, so as soon as this passes, we would have uh the authority to sign uh and and take ownership of that property within the week. Yeah. And then what, Michael, where are we going from there?

Uh, we're going to have a couple of our local connections um check out the house and we've already had a walk through in the structural analysis um came back, you know, actually in much better condition than we thought. So that's why we went this route rather than demolish a nice old house that um it's sad right now, but it is worth saving. Um so we we'll have to get that cleaned out. It'll you know, maybe we can we think we have a guy who will do it as long as he can keep everything in the house. um or or we'll pay a little bit to have that and then we'll sell the sell the property um to someone who will fix it up so we can we can control who the buyer is and make sure that it's a good person getting back into that neighborhood that's been long plagued by Yeah. Excellent. Good.

Good. Good question, Jerry. Any other comments from the council? Okay. Long time coming. You've been wrestling with this for about four years, five years. I've only been here for two years. Okay. Well, you inherit you inherited the wrestling match. With that said, clerk call the role. Clever Newman. Hi, Gomez. Hi, McCall. Hi, Sleski. Hi, and Mary Green. Hi. Next on the agenda, we have ordinance O-26-008, an ordinance amending the city of Princeton, Bureau County, Illinois budget for the fiscal year commencing May 1, 2025, and ending April 31, 2026. This is a second and final reading. I move that we approve ordinance O-26-008. Second.

We have a motion second. Is there any questions or comments from council concerning that? Seeing none, cler call the role. Council member Newman. Hi. Gomez. Hi. McCall. Hi. Silleski. Hi. And Mayor Mvery. I. Next we have ordinance 0-26-00009 revising the fair solar credit effective May 1st, 2026. This is the first reading. I move that we advance, excuse me. I move that we advance ordinance 0-26-00009 to the second reading. Second. We have a motion and second. Is there any questions or comments? We do go through this about like once a year, Jeff. Every year. Yeah.

Every year. So, we're just making it clear what we're paying back for those solar credits for the excess energy produced. There you go. Folks have solar panels in our city limits. There's no questions or comments. Clear call the role. Council member Newman. I. Gome. Hi Mahal. Hi Sitski. Hi Emry. Hi. Next we have ordinance 0-26-010. An ordinance annexing real estate pursuant to 65 LCF5-71 through8 for Jonathan and Julianne May. This is the first reading. I move that we advance ordinance 0-26-010 to the second reading. Second.

We have a motion second. And Michael, if you would explain what's going on with that, and I'll be your obstain for this no matter what you said. So, go ahead. Sure. This is just a portion of real estate being annexed in to serve electricity to a new customer. Um, it's over on East Thompson Street. Um, it's really all there is to it. Uh, maybe Jeff or Jonathan is here as well that can answer any other questions you might have. But you're noting the entire house, correct? I'm sorry, what' you say? Not in that to the whole house, just the property to the utilities. Is that correct? Correct. Is that electric and sewer both of water or just I don't believe it's sewer. Electric. Yeah, electrical.

This is residential or commercial? Residential. Any further questions, comments from the council? Seeing none, clutter Newman. Hi. Gomez. Hi. McCall. Hi. Hi. And Mary. Obene. Next. We have ordinance 0-26-011, an annual budget of ordinance for fiscal year 27. This is the first reading. I move that we advance ordinance 0-26-011 to the second reading. Second. Motion. Second. Teresa, if you would just expand on that, please.

Sure. uh the special meeting we had um last was to review the the budget proposal. Uh we are looking at uh total revenues of a little over 30 million and total expenditures uh just shy of 30 million at 29.9 million with a net and deposit of of $367,485. Um within that budget we have what I'll call the major projects uh or capital projects of 4 a little over 4.2 million. Of that 4.2 million will include the 1.8 and some change million for the fire expansion that's as you now see is taking shape. Um, and then some other significant projects on there here like the the north of I80 uh loop that we've been trying to get done for electric that's at 500,000. So there's some bigger substantial projects um going into the next budget. Uh the debt payments for this this budget that we're currently in, we were at 2.3 million. We'll be down to 2.15 million in debt payments. Um, and we'll be down to 12.3 million remaining in our debt. So, we're getting there. Um, that's the positive. Uh, we'll be down to 13 total payments uh for this next year. We'll have we have one expire or not, that's not the right term. What do you call it?

Retire. Retire. That sounds better. Um, this this year next year at the end of the fiscal year, we'll have two more fall off. So, that's great. We're getting there. Um, any questions on sections of the budget um that you guys have thought of since? Off the top of your head, Teresa, how much will will we be able to invest in the streets? Uh, it's usually it'll be around, let's see, about 700,000. Okay. Wow, that's great.

We'll be meeting with Champlin to finalize the the projects and the the estimated costs on those. Those can get out for bid pretty soon. So, we should know that between MST and street uh tax, the the tax we bring in is usually around 700,000. Perfect. And then some because there's always some unexpected. So, any additional questions or comments from council? So, you've got built in about 300,000 of fudge factor. Is that what you've got? Okay. Fudge factor. All right.

It's not much. I mean, it seems like there's a question there, but that's it's not much. I got it. It's self on the popcorn. I understand there's not much there. Okay. Need some questions, comment. I approve the ordinance with the exception of $20,000 in the economic development fund going to the Chamber of Commerce. Hi, McCall. Hi. Hi, Emry M. Hi. Thank you. Now, on to the board appointment, please. Well, let's not forget the resolution. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. by the one mile run. Sorry. Next on the agenda, holy smokes,

is resolution R-26-008. I do permit for road closure for the Princeton one mile road race. I move that we approve the resolution R-26-008. Second. Motion in a second. Wow. Now me having skipped that. Tom, would you like to say anything about this? This is one of your big projects. Year number two, right? Second year for it. and uh chamber is putting it on and it will end at Shrimp Fest. So just bring more people into town and showing off Main Street. Great. Super. And we all can participate. There was last year when I watched there was walkers too. Fast walkers, right? Yep. Want to sign up now?

Okay. I'll make a but I can't use my gator. No. All right. We'll we'll jump in there. I'm going to board up to that. Okay, that said, now we're ready for Mr. Call me. Hi. Gomez. Hi. Paul. Hi. Hi. And I thank you. I move that we appoint to the bicycle and pedestrian committee Adam Helman to fill an open seat ending on June 30th, 2027. Second. Motion second. Any questions or comments concerning about that appointment? Seeing none, cler call the role. Member Newman.

Hi. Gomez. Hi. McCall. Hi. Hi. Andrew Vicky. Hi. Okay. Now we're on to our city manager report, please.

Uh in your packet is uh the monthly reports for January and February for the city of Princeton's financial uh information. uh we reviewed these couple weeks, couple meetings ago and that she could see things were where they needed where we expected. Um so this will get us up through February. Have March and April yet to get us caught up to where we are here shortly. So uh also included in there is your uh fire pension report for February of 2026. Um, and then I do want to touch on one thing real quick. Um, with the construction that's happening next door, we'll call it. Uh, they did tear out the sidewalk for the handicap entrance. So, we'll have partial dirt um there. So, we will be redirecting people to the back of the building if you have if you need handicap access to the building. Um, and we'll move the signs that are out front here for handicap parking to the back. And we'll have a couple spaces reserved back there for handicap accessibility if they need to get in the back door and we'll get this out there to the public, but uh, we'll have to buzz in to to get in. So, we don't have a lot usually that come in that way, but we definitely have I mean, we've got the cameras, so we can kind of keep an eye on on the entrances, too. So, we'll get the information out to the public, though. didn't I guess we didn't think about that sidewalk getting tore out that quickly today. So, um we'll just have to have everybody excuse our mess for a while, but any questions on the project out there? Anything?

You did say everything all the shrubbery and everything got relocated. Excellent. That's great. We did save the uh stone the I guess you call you call it flag stone. Yeah, slaps of stone. About 50 of those. We did save those uh to use throughout town at some of our other properties. Um some of the plantings we were able to save some of it. Um but some of the the shrubs are just too established to to be able to save. But um I mean that's the main I think the only thing left is the memorial that's still sitting out there. So I think they're a little nervous to take that out. Can't the firefighters just pick that up and move?

No. Well, anybody want anybody hurt? Is that it? Yeah.

Okay. Very good. Thank you. Um, under the uh mayor's report, I'm going to read a proclamation. Whereas, April 11th, 2026 marks the 58th anniversary of the passage of the US Fair Housing Laws of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 as amended, which enunciates a national policy of fair housing without regard to race, color, creed, national origin, sex, commitive status, handicap, and encourages fair housing opportunities for all citizens. And whereas the city of Princeton, Illinois as well as the Ali Valley Association of Realtors are committed to highlight the Fair Housing Law of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 by continuing to address discrimination in our community to support programs that will educate the public about the right to equal housing opportunities and to plan partnerships efforts with other organizations to help assure every American of the right to fair housing. Now therefore, I, Raymond Mavery, mayor of the city of Princeton, do hereby resolve that April 2026 being fair housing month, began a year-long commemoration of the US fair housing law and urge all citizens to wholeheartedly recognize the celebration throughout the year. Signed, Ray Mabvery. The second thing I just want to give to the council, I know that Tesa had told us during the budget meeting that one of her challenges to work with is our health insurance costs. And so I thought Teresa and and Janet put together a real simplified uh summary. So there's for each of us to be thinking about this. We'll pass that down. And there's a copy for John. And I think yours is in there too. Wait till they each council member gets this. So obviously um we we want to continue to provide uh good benefits for our full-time employees. Uh what kind of uh

drives this home is though we take for example the first page is the family if a family uh is fully enrolled. It's uh a total of $31,387 a year and that could potentially go up here after January 1st uh 27% to $39,862. If it's an employee with a spouse, it's now currently $21,610 currently and that'll go up to $27,444. On the second page, you'll see where it's an employee with a child and that currently is $20,000 and that could go up to $25,485. And then an employee only, a sole employee only is $10,215 currently and it's going to be going to $12,973. I bring that up tonight um as you council members be thinking about that um as we are challenged with trying to continue to offer a good wholesome benefit package. But when you think about um a family could possibly go up to $39,800 for health insurance. I I guess I haven't priced health insurance lately. I showed on um social security, Medicaid. So what's your thoughts there, Jerry? No, I think that health insurance is vital. Uh I'm fortunate enough to benefit from that from my employer when I retired. So I realize the value and I've experienced a lot of expenses and medical babies the last couple years. So God bless it.

Yeah. It's I think it's just unnecessary evil. I understand just he's premature. Yeah. Or any other comments from the council otherwise you think about that.

Say I had been getting that with the past years with the county at the time when uh and the employee is the last couple years has been covered by the county or the health department. Before that uh we still had to pay between uh two to $4,000 depending on which plan we had and spouse 17 to 20 grand. uh family, it was even worse. So, and that had been like that for the 20 years that I've been over at the county. So, uh we ended up getting policies uh to be able to go ahead and get my family covered um until the Affordable Care Act came in and kind of triple everything.

Thank you, Hector. Any additional copy of the council otherwise we think about that.

Very good. All right. Uh let's go now to any old business. We always throw in the ebikes and scooters and that's still on hold on that. It's working on that. And then the THC and juice beverages. We're still on hold at that federal level said on that. Okay. Is there any new businesses for the council? Is there any additional public comment from the council? Okay. Seeing none, if you would do the jury's going to um go ahead and and Gerald Dean have something. No. Okay. Didn't know her phone back there. Okay. Uh we're going to go ahead and go into executive session after this. If you have any questions or concerns, you can talk to us for just a minute or two, then we go back in executive session to discuss uh personnel. So, very good. Jerry,

I move that we adjourn our regular se meeting this evening in retired executive session under Illinois statutes uh to discuss personnel issues. Our next regular council meeting uh for Princeton will be on Monday, April 20th, 2026 at 6 o'clock at city hall. Second motion to second. Third call rule. Hi. Gomez. Hi. McCall. Hi. Hi. May I thank you for attending this meeting.