City Council - Regular Meeting

Martin.

I'd like to call this meeting to order. Cler Paul Ru Mry here. Council member Newman here. Gomez here. McCalli 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, with liberty and justice for all.

We're going to go ahead now and go to public comment. The public comment period is at the beginning as well as at the end of the meeting. We'd like to ask you to limit your comments to three minutes if possible. Um, sorry for my voice tonight. Okay, I got uh some neritis going on. So, with that said, is there anyone like to speak to the council now or you can wait and speak after uh towards the end of the meeting? Anyone would like to speak to public comment, please? All right, seeing none, we're right now and we're going to uh have a presentation uh from Cole McDaniel of Hometown Consulting, please. Thanks, Mr. Mayor.

That was quick. I didn't expect to be up here that fast. So, appreciate it. Make sure we got that pulled up. Good evening everybody. Um, before I jump right into this, just give a few updates. Had an awesome day here in Princeton today. And thank you to Michael for uh being my shower and and setting up all kinds of wonderful meetings. We started with the EDC this morning at 10:00. Um, felt like we got through a lot. Um, I'm sure some of you that are in the room this evening that got to be a part of that will get to hear the same thing twice maybe. So, I promise not to bore you too much, but uh, yeah, some great meetings today. had a chance to meet with four different business owners, developers, had a chance to go look at the Oklahoma theater, um to go look at Sherwood Mall, a lot of different places today. Um and I asked Michael to go look put some eyes on these things, look at properties. We took an hour, uh going around town and looking at different things as well. Um and it was just it was a really great day and and a lot of great perspective gained from my end of things um regarding the city of Princeton. So to jump in tonight is really to give you guys a recap and um a I want to make sure that for the general public and also for the board and everyone else that I'm not just the BDD guy because that was happened to be what was going on when uh we were first getting things started. Um but want to share with you guys what we've been working on um what you can expect and and kind of jump into some of this. So update on our work uh since we've been involved with the city, show the progress on some of these items and the structure of them and then outline the next steps, opportunities, and what things look like really over the spring and summer months here as

we're working with the city um with business owners with with Michael. So just to recap a little bit here, um you know, our role with the city, economic development, leadership, um planning, working with the various departments, the EDC, the folks involved with the um all these different areas and then program implementation when we talk about things like the business development district or enterprise zones or really any districts we have any development programs we may have or may want to look at um helping to actually implement those things. Um everybody that's in here staff elected officials all have um several hats to wear. So making sure that we can actually implement the things we're recommending recommending is one important thing that I always like to make sure we're carrying forward. So um program policy development is one thing we're going to touch on tonight. project implementation and then tools, infrastructure and marketing. So, just give you a brief overview. So, um we'll start with the creation of the BDD obviously was a topic as soon as we came in the door. We had a lot of conversations, met with a lot of different individuals. Um had a community meeting which is on the next slide here, but really identified the target area. Um got a lot of feedback and iterations on that. What's the boundary? Uh what's the focus area of the BDD? um set some goals, some initial goals of the BDD, not just we want to create this and and have a business development district. It was we want to set goals and we want to have some real active plans of how we're going to implement this funding, how we're going to use this funding to uh be the most benefit to our business owners, our residents, and our community and then uh aligning that with community needs. And that's where a lot of the meeting that we held on the 27th was involved, right? We want feedback from the community. Uh it's one thing for me to stand up here and say, "Hey, business development district's a great idea." And I will say that, but I'll only say that if it's correlated to the actual feedback from our stakeholders, from our community members, from our business owners, from our elected officials and staff, um that all ties into a good plan. Um and making sure that we're maybe not all on the same exact page, but make sure we have

an understanding, we can hear both sides of the story, um and understand what this can and can't be used for and how it will be used um from the city. So, that was a great meeting. I will tell you, um I fortunately or unfortunately been involved in a lot of community meetings and and run a lot of those which is great but the attendance level that you had at the community meeting was outstanding. Um people are invested. They want to know what's going on. I know you bring up the word tax and I could you know I probably get a thousand people there but um there was a lot of positive feedback. There was good questions. There were people that were unsure about it and and wanted to know more. And then most importantly people sharing their priorities things they want to see out of the community here in Princeton. things they want to see happen, things they want to see invested in. Um, and taking all that again ties into a good plan and a good implementation strategy. So, appreciate everybody that was able to make it to that and, uh, be a part of those conversations. We do have all those survey results, which I know Michael shared out with all the stakeholders. I'll just share again for the general public. If you weren't at that meeting, if it's something you're interested in seeing, uh, please reach out to Michael, reach out to myself. We're happy to share those results with you or those with you um from that meeting. So um one item here and I'm gonna have to go in and out a little bit. So one item we talked about um when we were originally presenting a contract to the city was a strategic action plan. So I am a administrator, an economic developer and I'm a planner at heart. Um, I will tell you in the last 12 years, one of the biggest things that I'll use the word frustrated that I started to get frustrated with was seeing comprehensive plans or strategic plans get put on the shelf and collect dust. Not because we didn't want to implement them, not because we didn't have good intentions, not because those things didn't need to get done, because sometimes we didn't know how or we didn't have the staff person or the the person to help kind of move these things forward and check the boxes as we go

along. So I call strategic action plan for economic development because our goal with you is to get the data like from the community meeting from all these EDC meetings from meetings with business owners and have a true fiveyear strategic action plan. Um here's the things we need to do. Here's the priorities. Here's the actual timeline of those deliverables and really laying that out. So I'm going to I'm going to show you example here in a minute, but that's actively being worked on. My goal is to have um Michael a draft of that for us to kind of iterate on back and forth to probably the EDC2 uh sometime midsummer here. And then ideally this becomes an adoptable strategic action plan. Some other things you'll see put in there like um if we're going after IT funding or we're working with IDOT or IDR or DCO or any of the other state or federal funding sources, we need to have these things identified in the plan. um it's going to be one of the most important scoring metrics when we're going after grant funding. We want to make sure it's there, it's adopted, we can include it with our granting applications. So, those are there'll be some things like that that I know have been in discussion here recently that we want to see included in there as well. So, I'll exit out of here real quick and I just want to pull up um this is an example from another community of just what this will look like. I promise I'm not going to make you go through all 52 pages of it um but to give you an idea of what the strategic plan is. Obviously, it's a 5-year plan, right? Over the next 5 years, what are we going to accomplish? How are we going to accomplish it? Who's responsible for what? Um, how are we going to track this? Um, so I'll skip through, but it's really going to give you your main pillars. What do we want to focus on? For Pittsville, for example, downtown revitalization, site development, housing, business growth, a lot of the same things we're going to talk about in a lot of communities, um, with a few few differences. So, demographic overview, a market overview, a gap analysis, all those things that are will want to know about our community when we're making plans. Um, but the thing I want to focus

on the most here is we'll have our goals in here and then all the way down here towards the end, we're going to actually have the action items to accomplish those goals. Um, which we'll be hoping hand in hand with you as well. So, um, action items. So, development new senior housing and and duplex projects. This is a big priority in Pittsville. We're seeing a lot of this occur right now. Um, but who's the who's the lead entity? Who's the key partners to help implement this? Right? We've got a lead on it. Maybe it's planning department, maybe it's a hometown consulting, maybe it's the EDC. Um, who are the key partners in that? And then what are the potential funding sources? Is this grant funded? Is it something we're looking at with BD? Is it something that's part of the general operating budget? Um, is it only possible through grant funds? We want to understand these things because it's great to have ideas. We also want to understand in order to implement this, here's how we're going to have to pay for it or how it's going to have to be funded or what kind of grant we're going to be doing. Um, so then it'll have the description, objectives, expected outcomes, how we measure performance of whether what we're doing is is working or not. Um, so just to give you an idea of what that document is going to look like for you guys. Um, and then one of the most important things for me and to make sure that you can see if you're getting any any value out of me standing up here and and some of the things we're working on for you is we put together a dashboard um of really call it a document, an Excel spreadsheet, whatever you want, but how are we measuring the things that we're doing? What are our performance indicators? Some things you'll see out of that are like with BDD, here's the revenue that was in, here's the expenses that were out, here's the things we invested in, here's the return associated with those things. Really being able to highlight where your money is going as it relates to economic development. Um, a little bit further here.

This will call also for but also for the need for, you know, an an annual report, an update to say, hey, here's what we did in this past 12 months. Here's what was accomplished. Here's how it compares to the year before that. Um, you think about specific indicators like as of today, what's our downtown vacancy rate? Well, what is it the same day next year? Right? Is it better? Is it worse? Why? What are the things we're investing in? What are the things we're spending our money on? And is it working to accomplish our goals? Um and so the evaluation process uh five-year review and plan update. So the goal of this too scrolling but um

yeah my own computer got tired of hearing me talk. Well, while Michael's I would just go back.

Um, so point being is the strategic action plan is meant to be just a strategic plan for how we accomplish our goals um in its most basic form. So we will get that to you. Again, ideally it's something that's adopted this late summer, fall by um council so that you have it on file so that you have something that you can include in grant applications and seeking other funding um as a way to refer back to when we're making decisions at the at the board level on all the different initiatives and things that we have going on. So, see if I can get this here. Pause everyone. Are there any questions about strategic action plan or or anything like that? I just wanted to make sure to share kind of what that deliverable is with you. Okay. Um, another item we're working on which we're getting close to, again, thanks to Michael for really going through this and and picking a lot of it apart. We appreciate that. It's only as good as the the local information and making sure that we're things are correct and the most updated ordinances, things like that. So, um, we talked a little bit about this at the EDC today, but you know, a new business owner or entrepreneur or someone walks in, I want to open a business in Princeton and what do I need to do? Um, if you don't have someone like Michael or Teresa or somebody at the table that can answer those questions or even if you do, sometimes it can be a difficult process for someone to refer back to. Uh, very long story short, this it's meant to be a clear, concise guide of here's how you do development in our city. Here's how you open a business here. And to give you an idea of the table of contents, state and federal regulations, county level requirements, zoning, site selection and incentives, building and sign permits, business licensing permitting and requirements, business support and assistance resources. This is really the map of the BDD. You're going to understand what programs are out there, who you need to contact to get help filling out an application. Um, and then I said this earlier today, I'll say it again. The most important I think

two pages of this entire document are the last two. Uh because in my 10 12 years in uh municipal administration and economic development, if you have to find a contact from one of the federal agencies, one of the state agencies, and one of the local agencies, you probably got to go to 10 statements. Um we want to put that all in one spot. So you're going to have your local agencies and contact information. You're going to have your regional ones ICG and other organizations, and then your state and federal resources as well, giving the contact information, making sure people can find the information they need easily. um and and providing that to them. So, it can be a really a kickstart to someone coming in and saying, "Hey, here's all the information you need out of the gate." They can of course call with questions and we can help, you know, walk them through all these different things, but you want to give them as much information as you can that's palatable and understandable and can help kind of guide them through the process. So, you'll see that coming to your table as well. So, uh just an update. So, the the monthly EDC meetings, which um I was excited about today at minimum. I'm going to I'm going to be here quarterly in person for those meetings. I attend virtually traditionally. Um but I felt like today was good. It was productive. Um we we covered a lot. There's a lot to cover, right? There's a lot of layers to all the different things we're talking about. Um but the goal of these meetings is to have, you know, consistent coordination, be able to make faster decisions and recommendations back to uh the city, and then being able to align stakeholders. There's a lot of people from different groups and different sectors on that board. Um, being able to have these conversations in that working group uh that's sharing their perspective, feedback, opinions on a lot of these different things we're working on or as we move forward business development district applications. We're receiving um sometimes even zoning considerations as part of a development project. There'll be a lot that we need to discuss in there. So having that framework to meet monthly and um Michael I don't know have you talked about kind

of meeting just about the subcommittees and there are okay do you want to share what those three just as a function of the

yeah we we broke into three subcommittees so we could have smaller groups tackle some of the many different areas of economic development so community development business development and economic development are the three subcommittees uh so far we've been able to meet and come up with goals, strategies, and tactics to tackle many of the items that fall under the umbrella term of economic development. Um, it's just a great way to focus our efforts and make sure that we're moving forward in all these different areas. The next thing I want to touch on here is GIS implementation. So, we've talked about this a little bit. I shared some examples previously with with the group. Um, but now that the the foundational elements of this are built out, um, I I want to share the actual tool with you and share an example of how it will be utilized. So, um, what you see here is a GIS map. It's hosted by Hometown Consulting for the city of Princeton. Um, we're able to pull the information you currently already have in your GIS system, as well as the county's information. And really what we like to do is go through and build this out so that we can use it for several other things besides just parcel identification. So I'm able to go through and put the corporate limits in here. Um so you know where your corporate boundaries are. Parcels are built into here. So we can actually I'll go do this in a minute but you can click on it. You can see ownership zoning um property taxation all that wonderful stuff. And then our focus areas. So I'll come back to the focus areas. Uh buildings are in here. Business development district is the purple boundary that you see here. So you'll actually be able to identify is my parcel or property within the business development district. Um the one tip district that's in here up north by the interstate is also included. Um enterprise zone your zoning map

and then your planning jurisdiction for your mile map buffer radius that is in there as well. But the main thing is a lot of this stuff is pretty easy to to grab or identify, but we like to host this free so we can take it a step further, which is we want to provide at some point for the entire uh community. Um, this first one as we get it built out is really for the downtown core area here. And what this is, you see all the the colors and the different boundaries and and everything included in here. What this is is commercial building inventory. So I'll share a key with each one of you. It's got a number associated to the building. It'll tell you what that building is, what the ownership is, what the current use is. But getting an understanding of what are the uses of our commercial buildings within these focus areas. And you can see over here on the right hand side everything from bar, restaurant, entertainment, retail service, restaurant, food service, residential, uh multi-use. We've also got your outdoor spaces, parks, public parking lots all mapped in here. Um, and you guys may never look at this again, but we look at it almost every day. Um, you know, for us to be able, someone says, "What properties are available? How's that zone? If I want to be in that vacant building and buy it, what does it look like?" Um, and be able to share that information with them. So, I'll just I'll click on a random one here, but um, number 79, for example. So, it's going to tell you what the address is, where it's located, what the current zoning is, the building use type, retail, is it in the business development district? Yes. Um the perimeter, so the size of it, and then the business name or any notes, and then if you click view, I'm not going to click on it just so it doesn't freak me out, but that'll take you to the property tax assessor's website. So, like you would see if you were using the count's GIS, it'll take you into the actual property tax bill. Um, so you can see all that information there, pin number, and we'll continue to build this out. Our next corridor outside of that

red boundary, which is, you know, that downtown corridor stretch all the way up to 80 is going to be Peru Street from east to west. Um, so we'll continue to build those out. We'll keep these updated and in real time. That's the other thing is, you know, we could create one of these layers and have the county put into their system or put it in here locally, but building uses change all the time. um being able to update those in real time. Our system updates every Saturday. If it was one that needed to be updated today, we can go in and manually do that as well. Um super important there. So that along with the available properties. So I don't want you or any developer or business owner to have to know how to use GIS to understand what properties you have available in your community. if they're just curious in what's commercially listed, what's for lease, what are the pocket listings that aren't commercially listed, but we know we're for sale and somebody's contacted us and let us know that. We want to be able to get that up here. Um, so I'll show you how it's how it's on the website here in a second, but the red pins are going to be the available properties. Um, for example, you can click on one of these. It's going to take you to that pin, show you where it's located, um, give you the picture that's that's included with it. same information um whether it's for sale or for lease, but be able to easily pull people to the information we're looking for. Again, it has all those main layers and everything else in here, but it's going to be a list of our available properties. Um, ideally cost, size, and the information that we're able to either get or that is already out there. Um, and this will be updated in real time as well, but as we know, these things can change quickly. Um, I think one of the important things is, you know, if something's commercially listed, somebody from outside your community can see that. We can all see that. We can look up what commercial buildings are for sale on Princeton. This takes it a step further. We want to be able to put up the pocket listings. We want to be able to see the core lease properties because if it's not me or Michael or someone in this room or someone from Princeton that drives by that building and sees the sign of the window that says property for lease, how

does anybody outside of our community know that that opportunity is there? We want to make sure that we can advertise that, market that, and and make people aware of that um outside of the community as well. So, there's the available properties piece. I'm going to use a metamoras here just to give you an idea of as we kind of go through and work to restructure some of the just economic development page and we'll talk through exactly what this looks like and how you guys would like to see this set up. But, uh this is the village of Metamora for example. So, community profile, some snapshot information about infrastructure, utilities and connectivity, education and workforce development opportunities, um comprehensive plan, any feasibility studies or studies that have been completed, something like the strategic action plan is something you see there as well. Um, and then most importantly having the GIS in the actual website, be able to see that without having to know how to use GIS. Go to GIS. It's actually built right onto your website. People can use it, zoom in, zoom out, um, see all the information they're looking for. They can go to properties, make it accessible, right? It wants it to be public facing and publicly accessible tools. Um, the business guide will also be in here. incentive programs. When we get a little bit further on EDP stuff and the things we're putting together, you're going to see that listed here as well. So, providing the resources at people's fingertips, removing the red tape and some of the questions that we don't want to turn them off from investing our community before they even pick up the phone and call us. We want to give them everything they can be looking forward to to start that conversation. So, I'll pause it there again and I just ask there any questions on the GIS? Um any information surrounding that? Keep going here. Good. Okay, perfect. Um the only other

thing I'll say is I don't expect you to learn GIS. I don't expect you to have to know how to use it overnight. If any staff, elected officials, community members are ever interested in learning more about it, how it works, how they can utilize it, I'm happy to sit down oneonone and walk through that. um it's not something I feel like to sit through two hours of tonight, but if anybody is interested in that, I'm I'm happy to do that. The only other thing I would ask it relates to GIS is please feel free as a community, as a city, and as leadership to be creative. We can do a lot of things with GIS. Um whether that's mapping abandoned properties or properties that we're slating for demolition or there's a lot of other things that can be done through this um that we're happy to do. Like I said, I've actually been at this in places before and I I'm a dork about it and I love it and um and I'll get to the end of it and everybody say, "Oh, that's great. Um can you map the three out?"

Yeah. Yeah. You know, that was their big thing. But point being is we can do about any of those things. So, if there's ever something like that or a layer or historic district or whatever it may be, just keep that in mind that those are options too that that we can easily add something like this. So, Okay. So um really the next steps with BDD the marketing helping people understand um you know what the process looks like from really this point and getting approval back from ID through really when we start receiving funds and the implementation of that is as the EDC we started talking about scoring matrix weights for different types of you know how we evaluate projects sales tax and property tax impact local ownership you know all the things that are going to score points on an application. Um so as we go through that we will be working to refine that, define that and then ideally share that with um the full council to adopt that and then be able to market that back to our business owners who are developers, the residents and let them know what's available there. Um another piece of that is going to be as we're marketing all that back or working towards the ability to market all that. Um, I let Michael know today we will I will work with Jacob Klein to get you what's called it's just a standard business development district application. It's going to be the city of Princeton. It's going to ask for basic information like the person's name, where the project's located, things like that. So, you have that standard form that someone could theoretically fill out tomorrow and submit it. We just need to know and the community needs to be very understanding that we can't give funds out until funds are received, right? It doesn't mean you can't have an agreement or, you know, look at projects or have that conversation before then. Um, but there will be a time here, you know, late spring, early summer where we've got that formal application, it is available

and people can start to express their ideas about projects or um start that conversation at the city level. So, and then most importantly, as we get this thing going, and this will be a little bit further down the road, but as we are approving projects and projects are getting completed and funded, um, how are we marketing that? How are we showcasing what's been approved, why, here's the results, here's some before and after photos, all those things that are really easy to forget about 6 months into approving 15 different applications. We want to market that. And again, that's not just for the people locally and our community members and the people that are a part of this. It's also people outside of our community. You know, you're doing 10 projects at the same time and approving incentives and people, what in the world's going on in Princeton? Um, they jump and call Michael. Um, hey, what's going on, Michael? We're interested in investing in your community. And those are the kind of things as we market that, as we tell that story, that will continue to be developed. So, um, finalizing the action plan, continuing the BDD roll out and the parameters, and then launching the marketing efforts is really our our next steps with you as we're continuing to work on the strategic action plan, startup guide, and some of these other deliverables for the city. Um, again, continuing to meet with Michael and developers, business owners, property owners, having these conversations, getting their insight um, and feedback. I think today was really was great. Um that insight is so important for how we develop not only the programs but also introduce have you thought about this and and it just that conversation in itself can lead to projects occurring um from people who are really engaged and excited about what's going on. So um yeah like Sarah just commitment to implementation and focus focusing on the measurable results. I don't want to just hand you guys a plan and um help me implement a BDD and then never see you again. I want to be here by your side, help you implement these things, be a part of the the progress that's going on and and making sure we can continue that and make it sustainable. So,

that's all I have for you this evening, unless there are any questions, council. Any questions? Can't wait to see your roles on real quick. Cole, so I had the opportunity to go to Galva. That's one of your communities that you've been working with. Canton, I was there about two weeks ago. had a great uh meeting down there with the mayor of Canton. So, what other community would you say in the next oh within 100 miles I should go take a look at that's done a good job working with you that I could walk the streets and see how they're doing.

Well, I'd love to take you around to Havana. Now, that goes back to 10 or 11 years ago for me, but that's my hometown and when I got into this whole world, but uh would love to bring you down there. Metamora would be another good example. Um those are metamor I take field trips. I enjoy that. Yeah. No, no, it's great. I I think that's great. I think it's important for the work you're doing here to be able to get some of those examples and experiences from others, too. So, appreciate that.

Okay. Anybody else have any questions, comments, concerns? We're going to we're going to we're done. Michael, you have anything to add to it? No. Okay. So, Cole, we appreciate you working with us on this. And um I think about when I went to Canton for example and you look at the town and walk the the downtown and you see that the storefronts if they're not filled the at least you know little things like the glass is clean and the stickers from 15 years ago that say chamber member from 1982 they're all they're gone. Just those little things that building owners need to do keeps their storefront looking good until they get it filled and it's just critical.

Absolutely. Uh just to just to make this point before I close here is um I agree and I will tell you six or seven years ago and it was not like that. It's a process. It's a it's an education sometimes and it's a it's a joint effort between city business owners everybody involved uh to get to that point. But once we can start to preach that understanding and and people can see the results and some of the things we're talking about, I think is really when you start to see perspective change and shift and that's a pretty exciting thing. So yeah, thank you. Thank you, Cole. What we're going to do before we go on, uh, we're going to sneak in the daughters of the American Revolution. So, uh, Sue and Nancy are going to, uh, present to the council tonight about America 250. And again, that's the case leave the whole meeting.

All right. Thank you. Please.

My name is Sue Studsky. I am the America 250 chairman for the Princeton, Illinois Daughters of American Revolution. And I have with me Nancy Gardner. She's the regent for America America 250 and the Princeton uh D chapter. We we want to put a little plug in for ourselves this year. Our chapter is 130 years old. Princeton is the D was founded in 1890 in Chicago and just six years later, Little Princeton had a D chapter. So, we just had our 130th party. So, we're excited about that and thankful for it. Um, I think most of us know that in 2026, the year we're in right now, our wonderful country celebrates its 250th birthday. And for us in the DR, of course, it's a big deal because we talk about the American Revolution all the time because to be a member of the D, you have to be able to trace one of your family members back to the American Revolution. So, we we have big celebrations going on with America 250. But the reason I'm here tonight is that we feel like it's important for our community to also celebrate uh our country's 250th birthday. No matter how you feel about anything that's going on in politics or whatever, uh we feel we have a lot to be proud of and thankful for uh for the freedoms we have in our country. So the D has put together some projects and I want to tell you about them real briefly. I know I have three minutes so I'll talk to you. You're good.

Oh, okay. All right. Good. Well, I'll take a while. No. Um, honestly, um, some of our projects are we're going to have a display at the Sash Stalter Matson building on the third floor starting on July, excuse me, starting on June 13th and going through July 9th. And on the third floor, we will have stories of some wonderful ladies from Euro County who have been members of the D and stories about their patriots. So anybody that's interested in learning about how people right here from Bureau County have family members that served during the Revolutionary War, you can go to that display and it will be quite nice. We have patriots from here all the way from people who were drummers and fifers to officers in the military. We have one story about one of our patriots who crossed the Delaware with George Washington and also a wonderful story about someone from Bureau County whose family signed the Declaration of Independence. So, um, so we're really happy about those stories and this is the time to begin learning about all those people that sacrificed for us. So, that's one of our projects. The second one is we're going to be a part of the wonderful July 4th uh parade that we're having here in Princeton and the DR is going to put together a float for that. Good Lord Helen if we can get everything accomplished and the theme of our float is going to be we the people and uh for some of you that know my wonderful husband Michael Stuski he's going to be writing on that float as a signer of the Declaration of Independence. So, some of you might really enjoy seeing Michael on the phone. So, so that's coming up soon. And then thirdly, the project I think one of them that we're most proud of is we have been seeking grants and raising money from our chapter to place a stone

right here in front of city hall. A beautiful stone that will commemorate our community celebration of America 250. and it'll be something that will not only tell about how we celebrated it, but it will be um something that will commemorate the celebration for generations to come. So, we're very pleased that we're going to be able to put that stone up coming up on July 4th. What I'm here for this evening is we have one fourth project that we would like to ask the council's um authorization for and Nancy and I are going to display it right now. It's the D has some beautiful flags and um we would like to display this flag. Um I I drive by city hall all the time as most of you do too and I see this beautiful little balcony that's out front and some pillars and we plan on putting grommets in this flag and we wondered if we could have authorization to display it so that everybody passing through Main Street in Princeton um beginning June 1st would begin thinking about America 250. Uh and again we would hope to keep it up through uh through July 4th. So, we're asking for authorization to do that and we uh appreciate your time for us tonight to be able to present it.

Great. And we look forward to helping uh set that up. We use our electric department resources, whatever it takes to make that look good so it's it not just flapping around. It can be wonder sharp. That's perfect. Well, thank you very much and thank you for taking time for us tonight. We're glad to have you. Let's give a round of applause. VERY GOOD. Thank you, Nancy. Thank you, Steve. Thank you very much. Okay, we're going to go on now to be with Jerry, please. The minutes. Yes. I move that we approve the minutes from our regular council meeting on March 20th, 2026. Second. We have a motion, a second. Any questions or comments about those minutes? Seeing none, first call rules.

Council member, I may. Hi. And now on to our invoices with city clerk Janet Henning.

In the department of accounts and finance we have $70,638.94. The department of streets and public improvements $85,764.38. Department of Public Safety $350,56710 and the Department of Public Property and Utilities $861,2425 with a grand total of 1,368,17457. Mayor, all council members present have confirmed the reviews of all the invoices and they're now submitted for disposition. I move that we approve the invoices as presented. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Uh there's any questions or comments concerning those invoices? Seeing none, clerk, call the role. Council member Newman. Hi. Gomez. Hi. Silky. Hi. And I. Next on the agenda, we have a recommendation for final plat approval for the Cliff Estates subdivision. I move that we approve the recommendation for the final plat approval for the Cliff Estate subdivision. Second. We have a motion and a second. Michael, is there anything we need to add to that? Um, Michael,

um, not necessarily. Um, you know, it's just it's going to be really positive 25 um, unit subdivision developed by someone here from Princeton, Spencer Davis, who's here in the crowd. Um, you know, housing is of a great need here in town and especially ones of this uh, size and price that he's looking for. So, really excited to get this. Great. And that would be Spencer and Annette, right? That's working together. Great. We appreciate that. Okay. No questions or comments from council. We appreciate the Davis's investment in Princeton. Cler call the role. Council member Newman. Hi. Go. Hi. Silky. Hi. Hey. Hi.

Next on the agenda we have ordinance 0-26-00009 revising the fair solar credit. This is effective May 1st 2026. Second and final reading. I move I move that we approve ordinance 0-26-00009. We have a motion and second. Again, this is a second reading on this. Is there any questions from the council? Seeing none, clear call role. Council member Newman. Hi. Gomemed. Hi. Hi. And may I.

Next on the agenda, we have ordinance O-26-010. An ordinance annexing real estate pursuant to 65 ILPS 71 through8 Jonathan and Julianne Mayberry. This is a second and final reading. I move that we approve ordinance 0-26-0. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any questions or concerns council regarding this? I will be abstaining on this. U go ahead and call. Council member Newman I will abstain. Thank you.

Next on the agenda, we have ordinance 0-26-011, annual budget ordinance for the fiscal year 27. This is the second and final reading. I move that we approve ordinance 0-26-011. Second. We have a motion and second on that ordinance. Again, this is the second reading. Is there any questions or comments from the council concerning that ordinance? Seeing none, cler call the role. Council member Newman. Uh, I vote I, uh, with the exception of a $20,000 gift to the Chamber of Commerce under the Economic Development Fund. I, hi. Mayor Rvery. Hi.

Next, we have ordinance 0-26-012 amending the city of Princeton Land Development Code to require public hearings for final flat review. So, this is the first reading. I move that we advance ordinance 0-26-012 to the second reading. Second a motion and second and before we vote on that Michael just a little housekeeping on that if you would please.

Sure. Um so this was my first plaid I went through uh with the plan commission and uh in the code it says for a preliminary hearing we are to notify the surrounding neighborhood 200 ft within the um where the subject property is and also put it in the newspaper. that is our code language for public hearing. Um when coming to the final hear the final plat review, I realized that a public hearing isn't required and brought that to plan and said, you know, these the neighborhood is invited um to come uh hear about the the initial plat idea and often times they have feedback and there's changes that are getting implemented to the final plat. So, uh, in the interest of transparency and and, um, you know, that neighborhood being informed throughout the entire process, uh, planning commission wanted to, um, have this ordinance proposed that would require final hearings for the final plan review as well, um, to keep that neighborhood engaged, um, throughout the entire process.

Very good. Any questions or concerns about that comments? Thank you, Michael. Seeing none, clerk call. Council Newman. Hi, Gomez. I

I move that we approve the following board appointments to the historic preservation commission Leanne Kent and Matthew Adams to fill a three-year term ending December 31st, 2029 and for the plan commission board of zoning appeals Laura Gray and Rodney Lang to fill a three-year term ending April 30th, 2029. We have a motion and second on that. Any questions or concerns or comments from the council concerning those appointments? Seeing none, clear call. Council member Newman. Hi. Gomez. Hi. Sitki. Hi. May. Hi.

Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Can it? Now we're on to our city manager report. Uh, I have nothing actually formally on that, but I just want to give everybody I have an update on where we're at with the fire department now that things are starting to take shape over there with the expansion. Uh, we do meet with Ringland Johnson uh regularly each week and uh go through kind of an update of where we're at. So, give you an update. As you can see, the demo work is complete, which is what we'll call site work. Uh the only hold up, and it really wasn't that long of a holdup, was getting the monument sign removed. It's a little bit more expensive than what we thought it was going to be. Uh some more monument came and took took it out successfully without any damage. Uh ongoing for last week and going into um this next week, excavation will continue. Looks like they've made pretty good headway today as well. Uh footing excavation will be starting. Um concrete lay layout will be starting. Rebar delivery will be the tomorrow. Um footing and foundation forms and p form core and strip will be starting as well. The anchor bolt in install and setting plates will be starting. So um it's nice as we have these meetings with Ringland and and the group that's working on this, we get these regular updates. any questions that are coming up. Uh we've gotten down to picking out the brick or the outside, the masonary work and the um edging for the concrete around the windows and all of that, getting those colors. Soon to come will be the interior colors next week, right? Get my weeks messed up, but um so that'll be fun to go through that process. So, uh things are moving along. Um you guys got anything to add? Okay. Okay. Anybody's got any questions? So,

anything else? No. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Under the mayor's report, we're going to have uh two appointments. We have an appointment for Chuck Woolly for a three-year term on the firefighters pension fund and also an appointment for Barry Portman for a three-year term on the board of police and fire commission. J, you have those in your notes, too? I do. Please. Okay. I move that we approve the following board member appointments. The board of trustees of the firefighters pension fund Chuck Willie for a three-year term ending April 30th, 2029. And to the board of fire and police commission, Barry Portman for a three-year term ending April 30th, 2029. We have a motion and second. Cler call. Council member Newman. Hi. Gomez.

Hi. Hi.

Hi. Very good. Thank you on that. Um harbor day and I'm going to try again. I got this laryngitis going on. I'm perfectly healthy. My wife's a pharmacist and she explained me all the things I needed to take today to work with my laryngitis. Um, and I've done all those things, but I don't know if I can get through this whole proclamation. I So, we're going to do and again, we love trees, so I don't want to site anybody on this, but I'm just going to read part of this. And so, this is u the Arbor Day proclamation. In 1872, J. Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees which is now considered Arbor Day. Um the Mortons made their money just so you know uh in the salt business. I it's funny to Google the the where the money came from and the the interest in trees. Um trees are renewable resource giving us paper, wood for homes, fuel for fires, and countless other wood products. Trees enhance uh the city's beauty of property values. Um the purpose of designation of states throughout the nation is to encourage the planting of trees and to promote their protection and care to ensure their beauty and usefulness. So therefore, I Raymond M. Mabry, mayor of the city of Princeton, do hereby proclaim Friday, April 24th, 2026 as Arbor Day in the city of Princeton. And I urge all citizens to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands and to support our city's urban forestry program. And I urge all citizens to observe this day by the planting of one or more trees dated this 20th day of April, 2026, Ray Mayor. So, thanks for letting me get through that. And so with that said, I just want to say um Michael Zuring's been our uh planning zoning person now for Michael's been two years.

Two years.

And I know sometimes it feels like five. Um, we have what I call small victories and and tonight uh we're excited that the city council giving uh direction using uh the resources of Teresa and and Michael and our law firm down at Puri Miller Hall and Triggs, we were finally able to acquire the ownership of 526 North Chestnut Street. And that was done last week. And that's a victory for the city. It's a victory for the re the residents that live in that neighborhood. It was a blighted property. The city has ownership now. Michael's working and Teresa to come up with a vetting process to sell that home. So that home will be going on the market here in the next week. Is that right, Michael? And uh so if you're interested in investing in Princeton, it's a home that needs some love. But we're just glad that that chapter's over with. Those poor neighbors down there. It was a long process to get that wrapped up.

Has that building been cleared out? Uh, no. That's still very good. But the good news is the occupants are on. Oh, yeah. You're right.

So, it's a victory for us and we just appreciate the patience that the neighbors had on that project. So, Michael's working on the next phase. Our goal is in the next 45 days at home, we'll see a new owner and get going on that, which is great. So, thank you for everybody's work on that. Okay, now we're on to old business. Is there any old business as far as updates on the ebikes or the electric scooters? I understand we're still working on both those issues. And then the THC infused beverages. According to Chief Tom, that's something else we're also working on. So, we'll move on then to new business. And on new business, uh we're going to have uh central bank is looking at expanding their existing location. and Michael Zering actually is going to get up and talk first just an overview where we're at on this and then Jeff Hunt will speak to the council. Please Michael.

Sure. Um Central Bank has approached uh the city uh they are hoping to expand their operation on the east side of South Main Street. So uh just north of the corner of Peru and Maine. Uh their location there. They are hoping to expand their building north to get all of their employees in Princeton. um under one roof. Uh they currently have um a real estate center across the street. So their idea would be to get everyone under one roof and maybe even have uh real estate or office space to um have maybe a marketing director or someone else. I understand Jeff. Um to do that uh they would they are asking the city to potentially vacate um a section of Crown Street between Main Street and the alley directly to the east. Plan commission has heard about this for two or three meetings now. Um Jeff has done some personal traffic studies of his own counting um people coming um to the bank um and otherwise traffic going through. Um he also has very good reasoning as to um that that street is mostly used by central bank. Um it it really doesn't have that huge of of a traffic load on it. So um Jeff's here to present about their ideas and um there is also some potential development to the south um with Mike Judge's property as well. So I'll hand it over to Jeff uh to talk to the city.

Thank you, Michael. set this up here. I think this is the best spot to put this. I don't know if everybody can see it. Kind of give you an idea what's going on here. Um so, um again, I'm Jeff Hunt, community bank president with Central Bank Princeton, Illinois. And uh in 2006 we bought this property. Uh it was the vacant Hardies building as most of you remember and uh the property uh just across company street is actually company not. So um and we're looking at expanding to the north. Uh the idea our our idea with the expand to the north that's the best idea we think for us as far as budget and so forth. Um, again, we started with five employees in 2006, uh, in the old subway building downtown next to the to the building where we're at now. Later purchased this property, and now we're up to 25 employees between two locations. Uh, our other location, as most of you know, is the real estate center right across the street. So, um, we've added to this building twice since 2006 on top of purchasing the building across the street. Um, Princeton has grown to be the largest branch of Central Bank, Illinois, which is headquartered out of Jio with branches in Fulton, Peru, Sterling, Rochelle, Ashton, Oregon, Fulton, if I didn't say that one. So, um, we're we continue to grow and and now our issue is we don't have enough office space. We don't have enough storage space. We're running into those kind of problems. Um, we have some confusion being in two locations, even though

they're right across the street from each other. A lot of times, um, the building across the street from the main bank is for consumer loans, car loans, home loans. So, a lot of those people come with their closing to the main bank looking for the closing. We have to send them back across the street, busy Main Street, by the way, um, back over to that building. We also have employees walking back and forth across Main Street. It's just become um a little bit difficult. Um if we're going to add on to this building, the idea is to consolidate operations into under one roof and then sell the building across the street. There are opportunities there. uh since co um you know a lot of businesses have figured out that backroom operations like compliance and and bookkeeping and so forth don't all necessarily have to be in Jio. They can be run and somebody can do the same job in an office in Princeton. We don't have those spaces for those people. Uh luckily we did have an opening across the street. We were able to retain one job here in Princeton that actually is is is kind of headquartered out of Jet Seal. At one point, we had a real good shot at getting the head of marketing in Princeton, but um she later took a she decided to open her own business. She was a Princeton resident and again that would have been great to have those that that position here. So, there's opportunities for us to maybe grow a job or two here and there. Um now in in this process we would have to vacate Company Street from the alley which is behind the bank on top of that map to Main Street. And I know um it's come up in in zoning. Um, the traffic count has is is been kind of an issue and I know, you know,

it's a bank and and the cost of the traffic study I'm reluctant to do. Of course, we would do it if it was part of the deal, but I I want to make a few points as to the traffic study. We did our own uh traffic count of of cars going through our drive-thru and kind of surprised us, but um we did two weeks, we counted all the traffic. That's 24-hour period when I say a day. So that's ATM traffic after hours, night drop after hours, and drive-thru traffic throughout the day. And we average about 175 cars per day going through our drive-thru. 185. That's Monday through Friday. Um, it's a little bit lower. Of course, on Saturday, we're only open till noon. The traffic will exit to the east, go into the alley. They can go north or south. South to Peru Street or north up to Company Street. And um it's kind of hard from here, but from Company Street um do I have to I have to be right here. Okay. So, let me just point out a couple things here. This really is Company Street right now. So, the bank is has built right up to the curb. All of our employees park in this lot. And there's 20 there's 20 employees at at our bank now with five across the street. So this little street here is is is with 185 carbs coming through here a day, 20 people in and out of here, lunch, come in in the morning, leave at night. Um that take that information into account. And unfortunately I don't have uh the city map up, but if you think about the blocks, there is one block to the east of us. We've got Vernon Street over here. There are three houses here. And then there's another two houses over here. Actually, one's the um Chiropractic though. They have entrance all of Peru Street. But on the other

side of that street is is the Methodist church. So traffic and then and then that street dead ends on this end. So traffic is very limited in my opinion after being there 20 years. Through traffic for residents is very limited here. It's mostly the paying traffic. That 185 um car count per day doesn't include our walk-in lobby traffic or our employees coming in and out of here to go to lunch, come in to work, and so forth. So, I'm I my concerns about the traffic count are that it's going to count all of our traffic, central bank traffic. I'm not exactly sure how we can decipher between non uh central bank and and and um residents. So I have spoken to the two homes on the corner here on either side of company. Both residents would be in favor of of we we would actually asked to block the street off and what you end up in is a well you end up with a small deadend street there. Okay. With this project we are going to need additional parking because we're taking in our current parking lot is right here. Um, one of the plans is ideally for us is to buy Mike Judg's building here to the south and that would also hopefully include the grassy lot which is a third owned by a third party all the way to the end. And then this would be a new parking area here. And then again, we'd be more than happy to work with the city or whatever the city's plan is to landscape this corner because I mean we that's a very important corner to downtown Princeton. So you open ideas working with the city to landscape that area. Our parking lot is also currently used by festival 56. This would also help that situation out with them. So, um

I I just I know and and the traffic count may be required. Um and that's fine, but it's come up numerous times. So, that's kind of why I've been reluctant to do one. I really do think this is the highest and best use for that property and meaning um my judg's building. Um it is very tight there. It's really hard to get in and out of that building. Um it does need some repairs and I think overall the improvement to that corner would be a benefit to the city of Princ. It'd be a benefit to the bank. It' be a benefit to city of Princeton. It' be a benefit to my judge. It's got other plan. So, um, so tonight it's just kind of a discussion, question, Q&A. Um, it's not a formal request. Um, I'm just here to kind of gauge the council's mood on this. That's all I have. Any questions from anyone?

Why don't we start? Uh Jerry, we'll let you. Uh expansion to the south, Jeff is not going to work.

Good, good point. Um expansion to the south actually probably would be preferred, but much more expensive. Um so the drive-thru, the drive up is on the south side there. We only have one location in town. We don't have a north branch that we can send that drive-through prep. We don't have an ATM of any. So, we did consider this uh but the process was too disruptive to our business. We were going to shut down the ATM lane, these two outer lanes, one being the ATM. And with that traffic count, we just don't have it's just not viable for us. There's a lot more expense to shift this and build this way. Ideally, yeah, it'd be great to have the building over here and maybe parking over here, but we will eliminate there is another driveway here to Mike's building that would be eliminated. Um, this is our existing entrance here. So, nothing really changes. Here's the street entrance and here's our entrance. Traffic I I didn't mention this. It is possible um the alleyway to the north. So, this would be behind um um I the vape shops there and the and the lady that has the work out. Um that alley is needs it needs some serious repair. That one's pretty rough and the bank would, you know, we we help with repairs on that alley because we pushing some serious traffic up that way. It is also possible we do not need if the street were vacated, we do not need to go all the way to the other other building on this side. Um, it's possible to have an an exit as they come out around here and spill them back out this way to the street, too. So,

so how do we transfer ownership of a street to a private business? Well, they own both sides of the street. So, if the street were to be vacated by state statute, it gets split in half and absorbed by the adjacent property owners. So they would absorb and utilities under the street. Do we know was it only storm? I'm sorry. Only storm sew.

So the the issue with storm sewer and I guess if it's going to come to planning commission again I'd encourage fire department um probably Aaron to be there to talk about this uh because I think storm storm sewer is the only issue. But when we we've talked about this uh Aaron and I uh that storm water that's going to come down company right? Yeah. Yeah. Town company. Uh

it's definitely a water flow area. So you'd have to have something on the other side to catch that water. Um it's doable, but there definitely otherwise your buildings become going to become a water block that flows through there. So, we just had to make sure we got that. That's why I think if it goes further with planning, we just need to make sure that we got that that piece. Make sure we we fix that before. Water building, I'm sure. No. So, building any more questions? Oh, great. uh detector.

Um I would I would say is like there's there's never an issue with uh somebody trying to uh to enhance the the beauty of of the autonomous including the landscape and also not only did the business becomes bigger with the employees but again it also uh the possibility of bringing a lot more tax revenue from the employees that are here to be able to go to the stores go to eat here. I usually don't have an objection as long as everything is taken care of. Um, which is just mentioned right now with the restored. So, yeah, I mean, we'd have obviously unfortunately we'd be paying more real estate taxes. So,

okay, Don, how about you? What's your thoughts?

I like the idea of clearing out the building there. It's um solid. We got a lot of fond automotive memories there, but it's merely memories. It's hard to tell if a building is falling apart at this point. It would look better if that was gone. Um, I was at both of the planning and zoning meetings and listen to extensive talk on that. I know that you haven't done a car count study yet, which I think might be required, but a question as to whether you can actually close the street off and the state will allow you to still circumvent around your building and still exit out onto the state highway. Um, do you know for sure that you can do that?

No, I I I do not know. Okay. Ideally, you talk about um expanding to the south, which should be a little more expensive, but that would be ideal in your facility across the road. The savings alone, you do have a drive-thru there. It could be used in the inter room, correct? No, it have to be refitted. All that equipment and stuff is gone inside there. That's more of a office area,

which I mean I mean that's our happier room, room. We like the idea of that building being seamed up, but I find it I mean we've got a great facility. It's a great asset to Princeton and the community, but I find it a difficult leap for me to give up uh city street and not have it seen as a sort of um favoritism from the other financial institutions. That's just my thoughts on it. Um yeah, to me it it would be better if there was an alternate plan without closing the street. I almost think it says a present in the future other things hard to turn down.

And it's not like it's your only option. You have an option to go south. It would just cost you more money going north. I share some of the Okay. Well, I maybe we go on board here a second time.

I just bring something up. It's like I remember the uh the closing of Columbus uh for that project. Um I recall saying that as long as we don't put something that's permanent there to be able to allow the traffic to get in and out, but we still end up doing it anyway. Well, and I think it was important for communication on that project with all the people. I think that's one of the things that I I was at the last planning and zoning commission meeting that um Jeff presented and the question was raised that you know you need you need to go talk to your neighbors and Jeff you've done that since then and the neighbors to the uh east of that and that would be infected by that alley. Um, so tonight I believe tonight's goal was to give Jeff some direction so we can move forward with working with the planning and zoning. Um, I know that um, early on there was a utility locate done because I think we've been working on this now about six or nine months maybe. Um the utility locates showed that there was a storm sewer line and I know that Chamlin is our engineering company we use as a city and Chamlin would be the company that um Union Bank would central bank would be using and so we could resolve that I think in a in a favorable manner for both parties not to block that flow. Um I really think this is an opportunity to uh endorse this project in a positive manner. So, I would really like to ask the council if they would um take this back to planning and zoning with the idea that if a traffic count is required that they do that and that we meet all the regulations that Chambla would want for uh our storm sewers and not to be impeded. Um I think we need to uh move this back in a positive manner so that central bank can get started with a definitive uh plan of action. So, I think the being able to tear down uh Mr. Judge's building and beautifying

that corner is is a tremendous win. I don't know if there's a we say setting a precedence. Um, every day we help and just like we have in uh uh Cole here, we're working to uh enhance our community and also to support small businesses. And when we had this issue where we were going to be raising a sales tax, some people in the community were concerned about the sales tax going back to private individuals to work on their buildings. But that's what it's all about. You know, we're so blessed to have the forethought of previous council members and mayors that bought the land out there north of the interstate that now uh is home to Ali's because I know Teresa's been working uh with Ali's and they uh maybe making an announcement in the future of an expansion project out there and that's just tremendous news. But if it wasn't for the council and the mayor back then that took some flack over investing in that land, um we we wouldn't have that opportunity to have alies in Princeton because they were looking for a shovel ready site and that's one of the things that the community of Princeton had. So I think that we do make decisions every day to help uh either existing businesses or enticing new businesses to come to town. So I would just encourage the council. I'm 100% in favor of this with the stipulation that planning and zoning would continue to work with the the obvious that there's a concern over traffic count and traffic flow with the state of Illinois and also our utilities not being impeded by the flow of that uh storm sewer. So I'd like to go back around the horn one more time and ask if the council would consider giving the green light to move this forward. So very

I'm still kind of hesitant. I'd like to hear I'd like to hear what the financial differences is Jeff between spending south and spending north.

Well, that would that's the problem. That costs more money to get those numbers done, too. We got to talk to the contractor. Um, and we've got to we're working with the architects, the UK, and um we're trying we're trying to see if this is a possibility first before we go spend the money. the you know the thing is and not that it matters because nothing was in right when we brought this back in 2006. Um uh the city had mentioned vacating this road was always a good possibility for you guys if you ever wanted to expand. So this is this is not anything new but I can tell you I don't have anything I wasn't in that meeting. Uh even though I was at the bank then I wasn't part of that meeting. It was always kind of what was available to us. But there, you know, that's 20 years ago. So I understand how things change and and I understand, you know, vacating a street. I mean, when the forefathers set that street in 100 plus years ago, they had no idea what was going to be how things would change in town and so forth. And um in looking you it's really interesting when you look at the city of Princeton math and you look at this little street here. It does go two blocks, one here and then it goes over to church. But um it it is it is really I mean we're the only ones practically I I mean I would guess we're at least 85% of the traffic on that project.

And I'm glad that the uh neighbors there were in favor of it that have the children. Yeah. I mean right behind here are the Andersons and they have this alley. The problem is what's you know traffic generally is fairly slow here but but I I come from Peru. I live on East Peru Street.

I I we sometimes have some very fast traffic cut through here and I think they're cutting the light is what they're doing. They're coming down PU. They'll see 10 cars lined up and they'll zip right around and and many of them flying through there. It's it's tight walking out for employees. It's tight for the Andersons here. It's a blind spot actually. All of our drive-thru come out because our bush is here, the banks here. It It's just a It's a congested little area. Um, and it just, you know, it's I'm biased to me. It doesn't seem like a a very, it's not like it's going to be a missed road, but I understand, you know, where do you stop? So, I get that. I and I just want to make clear when I mentioned the fire department and um street department to be involved anytime we want to vacate or think about vacating a street first one is double check with the fire department they get access to where they need to go. So um we've had that talk briefly would honed in on Brian but he just stepped out but um that would be something we just want to make sure that that's okay. So is your you're a you're a I I I assume we're going to eventually have a resolution for this debate. Is that is that upcoming?

I think we could have done that, but I asked it to I mean it's an interesting process. I'm not in a position to say yes or no tonight. But I I'm glad Jeff came enlightened me just exactly what his plans are. All right. Um Hector, do you be in favor of this project? Yep. Like I said, as long as everything else that uh needs to be done um through the city, through whatever um laws and regulations that we have to follow. Okay. Very good. And Don,

I'm going to need more information. I know you're in the early stage of survey. I know it cost money, but I'd like to know what the difference is between financially from building that direction or the other direction and also about the um traffic study more information on that. um in the traffic study and maybe you guys are more familiar with these than I. Um I'm assuming you want to understand what other flow is going through there.

Yeah, you know, you mentioned cutting the light. There's really nothing illegal about that. Um there is if you're going cutting a corner doing it, but does it actually take flow and uh distribute it around the light? Um because you mentioned the people cut the light up to something where there's an alternative route when there's a a big bottleneck up there the light too. So there's some things in the in the study that I'd like there. I think at uh one time there was some thoughts of an alternative road behind it. Wasn't there an exit? Uh yeah. Yeah. Another option was was was try to get an exit straight through to

residential Vernon. Is that something you still consider that all options are on the table. So something like that could be an exit, a right turn only, which would still up to Peru. Yeah, I'd like to in zoning they were they didn't really conclusively give you directions if they as far as moving forward or not as I understood it. Michael, how would you interpret that with planning and zoning here?

We had we had some of our louder voices on it on the topic uh absent from the meeting. uh the quorum that was there did seem generally that got us here tonight with the idea that to bring it to the council for their first look at this and get a sense of where we feel as a council. So I would say don't be discouraged. I would I would ask that you go back and do a little bit more leg work and then present it back to the council. I think that okay and and feel any of you guys call me if you have any specific questions. You know where I'm at. So We need more room for the real fast. Any additional questions or comments from the council? Jeff, thank you very much for coming.

Okay, if you're with me here, now we're on to uh public comment. Uh again, I'd love to have anybody here that like to speak to the council come up and speak. All you have to do is give your name and limit it if possible to three minutes. Anybody like to speak? Seeing none, if you would jerry. Sure. I move that we adjourn our regular council meeting this evening and convene into executive session under Illinois statutes for discussion of claims, loss of risk management, information, records, data, etc. uh regarding the city in its operation. The next regular council meeting uh will be on Monday, May 4th, 2026, 6:00 at city hall. Second. Motion second. Call

member Newman. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. This meeting is adjourned and thank you for coming.