City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call this meeting of the Princeton City Council to order. Clerk, call the roll.

Council Member Newman?

Here.

Gomez? Here. McCall?

Here.

Selesky? Here. And Mayor Mabry?

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 on 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. Public comment period is at the beginning of the meeting as well as at the end. We'd like to ask you to limit your comments to three minutes, if at all possible. And we're going to go ahead now, if you're interested in speaking to the council, feel free to go up to the podium and just give your name. That's all we need. And you're also given the right to speak at the end of the meeting as well. Does anyone here like to speak to the council this evening? Please go ahead and just come on up there. Kent, state your name.

Kind of out of breath, but nice to get here. Chet Parrish, I live in Princeton. Two weeks ago when I heard Carolyn's story about 526 North Chestnut, I wondered about it and my heart went out to her. And so over these two weeks, I have FOIA'd a lot of documents. And I've gone to the courthouse. I've learned a lot. And then my heart really went out to her and her neighbors who have complained about it, according to her, for 13 years. I learned and I received copies. She's received, I'm sorry, the owner of the property, her or her son, received six police department letters over a period of about three years and three months. There were 14 administrative ordinance hearing notices. Fourteen. There were three failure to pay final notices. Even though it says final, there were three of them. A lot of fines had been issued. There was one application for administrative warrant. Three notices to abate. One ordinance violation ticket that I had in my hand. And then finally, even probably the most important, there was one notice of unsafe building in order to repair or demolish And there's one petition for demolition order. And finally, there's one Illinois real estate transfer declaration, most recently, March 9th. And then there was a case management conference order for March 11th. I received the description of the property. It is abhorrent what was in that property and how poor it is. I cannot even imagine that it could ever be repaired. It was in terrible condition. Maybe some of you read it. But I was encouraged when I saw that there was an order to repair or demolish because it was an unsafe building and then there was a petition to do it. To my knowledge, oh, I'm sorry, I forgot. There was a total of 18 fines and they totaled $7,500. to the police department's credit. That is a long time to suffer through that neighbor. And it's a hassle for this board. My understanding, Mr. Mabry, is that there was a purchase that totaled about approximately $34,000, maybe $200. The city bought that property. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. And the city's goal is to sell that property somehow. That's correct. And from the description that I read, and it was long, it was nine pages in one document and ten pages in another document. I cannot perceive that anybody's going to buy that. I might be wrong. You're in real estate. I'm not. But I would think that that property needs to be raised. Finally, the city has really taken action on that property. It took a long time. These documents go from 2019 to current, almost current. And I think that's too long. They were complaining about it, she said, for 13 years. And I spoke to her later. That is too long. And so I have a rhetorical question here. You don't have to answer it, but I have a rhetorical question. Why did it take so long? As you all know, I have my own situation adjacent to my property. And you can correct me, Mr. Mabry or Mr. Selesky, anybody, if I'm wrong. I think I'm correct. It had water damage. February of 2022, but I actually think it was in January. Through FOIA, I went to... Actually, I didn't have to go through FOIA. I went to Elizabeth, and she copied for me the utility bill for that whole year, 12 months. The water for March, so I believe it was in February when the water pipe broke. The bill was water and sewer divided in half, and it totaled $973.20. And I had two friends of mine, and myself did your math on that. It was upstairs. And we calculated. I'm going to cut to it quick. You had told me that a cubic gallon of water, the cost of it was $0.05 per cubic gallon. I'm sorry, per cubic foot, I'm sorry. And at that rate, 145,560 gallons of water poured down that house. Can you imagine your house? Almost 146,000 gallons. I present my hypothesis because I'm not in this business. I would imagine that that house is lost. It was built in 1856. It's got very thick walls and floors. Pete Nelson told me it had warped floors. Surely it has mold. It's been four years and four months. But it has not been lived in.

Can't we give you one more minute? Okay. Okay. Please. And then you can talk then at the end. Yeah.

Well, then I'll mention right now that I also learned on the bill that the water and sewer was waived. That cost was covered by the city. That's not really right. It was covered by the taxpayers. The city ended up not charging those amounts. Signed by Pete Nelson. And I believe that I'm correct that this was a problem that was caused by the owner. I don't think it was an act of God. I don't think so. Anybody correct me if I'm wrong. But the taxpayers paid almost $1,000. And I contend that when that was waived, that would motivate any owner to to not take care of the property anymore that the city wouldn't be even serious about.

We're going to stop you now and we'll get back up at the end of the meeting. Just hold that thought. We know that on the house over there on North Chestnut that we ended up purchasing, they did a gentleman go in, an engineering company, Chandler, and it was deemed knowledgeable. So we certainly hope that we'll be purchased here shortly by someone and then renovated and then stay on the tax rolls. That's our goal for that property. Is there anyone else I can speak to in public comment? Seeing none, we'll go ahead now for the approval of the minutes, please, Jerry. I move that we approve the minutes from our regular council meeting on May 18th, 2026. Second. Motion and second. Is there any questions or comments concerning those specific meetings, minutes? Seeing none, sir, I call the roll.

Council Member Newman? Aye. Gomez? Aye. McCall? Aye. Zaleski? Aye. Mayor Mabry? Aye.

And this evening we have our Deputy Clerk working with us tonight, Elizabeth Sandoval, and she's going to be giving us the invoices as well as reading the ordinances. Please.

In the Department of Accounts and Finances, $266,046.33. In the Department of Streets and Public Improvements, $58,395.76. In the Department of Public Safety, $192,587.32. In the Department of Public Property and Utilities, $359,967.40, with a grand total of $876,996.81. council members present have confirmed their reviews of all invoices and are now submitted for disposition.

I move that we approve the invoices as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second on those invoices. Are there any questions or comments about them specifically? Seeing none, third call the roll.

Councilmember Newman? Aye. Gomez? Aye. McCall? Aye. Selenski? Aye. And Mayor Mabry?

Aye.

Next on the agenda, we have Ordinance O-26-014, and then in Chapter 4, Section 7-4-8 of the City Code regarding burial charges. First reading.

I move that we advance Ordinance O-26-014 for the second reading. We have a motion and a second. If we could, go ahead. Teresa, you just give us an overview of what we're doing there with those charges.

Sure. The fees that you see listed on the ordinance are the only one that's changing is that weekday infant and any cremation. It was at $150. It's going to $350 to cover the cost of that. process there. That is the only charge that's kind of not in line with what our communities are charging. We're not even covering our costs on that one. So that's the simplest way to explain it. We will likely see a few more of these as we're going through some of our fees. That was one of the things we want to get done this year is go through our fees and get things updated so we can make sure we're staying above our costs.

Okay, any questions or comments from council concerning that? I know that our cemeteries look really good. We'll come along and open a cemetery. We commend the city and their cemetery department for taking pride in what they're doing out there with both cemeteries. Are all cremation burials, are they all in urnments? Are they actually buried in urnments?

There's nothing mausoleum-like out there, so it's all just what's left. Okay. Very good.

Thank you. Clerk calls roll.

Councilmember Givens? Aye. Gomez? Aye. McCall? Aye. Zaleski? Aye. Mayor Mabry?

Aye.

Next on the agenda, we have Resolution R-26-014, requesting temporary closure of Illinois Route 26, a state highway from Elm Place to Park Avenue, on Saturday, September 12, 2026, for a Homestead Festival parade.

I move that we approve resolution R-26-014. Second. We have a motion and a second on that. It's pretty self-explanatory what that's all about, so there won't be any questions on that, I believe, so it's a clear call to roll.

Council Member Newman? Aye. Gomez? Aye. McCall? Aye. Skoletsky?

Aye.

And Mayor Mabry?

Aye. And now on to our City Manager report with Teresa Wittenhouse.

I don't have anything on the agenda for for my report but just reminders to get in front of you shortcuts is on Saturday we're hoping the weather will hold out um and we'll be having our first street concert coming up in a couple weeks too so um it's gonna start getting very busy. Oh yeah um actually Yeah, I'll only mention the three. We did have three firemen sworn in this morning for our new full-time firefighters. So that's Brett Kleintelzer, Allie Jacobs, our first female firefighter, so that's big, and then Clayton Wallenreicher, the last synonym's on there. So they were our part-time firefighters. employees who tested and those were the top on the testing and they all were excited to be here. So, they're all from Princeton. That seems awesome.

And those are firefighter EMTs, correct? They wear both hats. Very good. Thank you. Thanks, Teresa. On the weekend event, I know, Tom, you're excited about Shrimp Fest. Did you kick it off with the mile run? Give us an overview one more time on that please.

Sure. Princeton Mile is this Saturday. We have two races scheduled, an elite race at 10 and then everybody else can run at 10-15. I was told today that we have a young lady who's 10 years old from the state of Iowa that is running under a 530 mile at that age and will be competing. So we have some returning from last year and hopefully we'll get the numbers up as the week progresses.

And Tom, when we watched that in the past, this is year number two now for this? Correct. You had people at the very end that were also mobility challenged. They were in wheelchairs and different devices and walking. So when we say run, a walk works too, right? Because you allow it. It's open to everyone. That's great. Perfect. Even old duffers. Okay, good. Thank you, Tom. All right. The mayor's report, as we think about people that are in our community that are active, and we think about just this past week, the president and CEO of Beck Oil Company passed away, Mr. Bill Smith. He was 59 years old. When you read the obituary, he talked about when he started his career with Beck Oil Company at age 16. And Bill was a high school graduate at Princeton High School. He really built that company up. The neat thing about Beck Oil Company is their corporate headquarters right there on Thompson Street, and they employ about 12 to 14 people there on a given day at their corporate headquarters. That's where they do their payroll, things like that. So it's nice to know that they're embedded in Princeton in so many different ways. And so we think about Bill's got a son, Jacob, and a daughter, Paige, and we extend our condolences to them. And we just want to say, as I always say, peace be to the memory of Bill Smith. Appreciate what he did for our community. with that said we're going to go to old business and on the old business side um i talked with our chief tom hammer tonight we're getting real close to hearing what the state of illinois is going to be putting down to us for these e-bikes and electric scooters and we all know as council members on a warm sunny day it's a free-for-all out there there's kids from high state 10 years old 12 years old something there's two and three kids on the same piece of equipment So when the recommendations get brought down at the state level, Tom then will work with it at the local level to craft what he thinks would be appropriate for us, and then we will have to pass that as some kind of an ordinance, and then Tom has the challenge to go out there and enforce that. Because there's a lot of parents that need to come to the table and realize that a 12-year-old should not be out there without a helmet on. And actually, it could very well be illegal at all for the 12-year-old to be out there. So it's interesting because we all know it starts out with these little guys that only go 12 miles an hour. Then they all of a sudden have these souped-up bicycles. They're doing like a motorcycle. They're doing 40 miles an hour. It's just crazy. We'll have to reel that back in. The whole state of Illinois is trying to figure out how to reel that back in every community. But thanks for working on that, Tom. We appreciate that. The infused beverage, the same thing. We're on hold on that. We're going to move on now to, unless there's any other old business for council, tonight we're going to go on to new business. Is there any new business for the council this evening? Seeing none, let's go back to public comment. Kent, do it please. Okay.

I don't think in my case, with the property next to me, I don't think anything has happened with it. As I said two weeks ago, I wrote Teresa an email. It didn't get answered for 16 days. I think it would have been easy to have found out. All it would have taken was a group email to the four or five principals, and they could have responded in one day. But I didn't get an answer. It took 16 days, and I had to resend it. And the answer was she didn't know if there had been any movement on it. She couldn't find any. So I'm assuming that if there has been movement on it, if there's been an administrative ordinance hearing notice, if there's been fines, if there's been failure to pay notices, and most importantly, if it's had a notice of unsafe buildings and a petition for demolition, those would be pretty important. And I think that I probably would have received that information. So I'm assuming at this point that nothing has happened. And I have a FOIA that I spent almost two weeks concerning with the Chesa property. As I said, 145,560 gallons came down that house. The total was $973.20. It was weighed. I don't know if Pete Nelson did that by fiat or if he had somebody else who was advising him and who approved that. But in my opinion, that's too much. The taxpayers had to cover that charge for something that wasn't an act of God. And it's my personal belief, it's my opinion, that that contributed to some degree in the owner of the property living totally out at the other property that she owns. Because I don't think she's ever been there since. How could you be? And has abandoned, this is my term, this is my layman's term, has abandoned the property. And I cannot perceive anybody buying that property. because of all of the damage that would have been caused. The only persons that I could see would be someone perhaps from Chicago who's wealthy and wants to get out of the city and has the money to fix this lovely old Victorian house that was a key house in Princeton when it was built. And so is it going to sit there forever? My question today or next time this meeting happens Is there going to be a notice of unsafe building that's going to be issued for that property? Is there going to be a petition for demolition? Is it going to be treated equally? I don't think it has been so far. I don't think there's been 18 violations of the ordinance. I would like to give Ray Mabry credit. I wrote a letter that some of you received on the same day that he started cleaning up the place. And I appreciate it. I'm starting to feel better. Would you agree that it's been a fire hazard? It actually is a fire hazard. My property is approximately four feet from that property. I have been concerned for two years for a fire. I caught a raccoon that went under my fence. It was gigantic. I have a picture of it. I took it out in the country and let it go. I had a cage that I was able to trap it in. There's been bats. There's been birds. And it's just incredible how it has impacted my life. As I wrote in my letter, the money that I spent, the time that I spent, the distress that I've had, The devaluation of my property, if I wanted to move, I couldn't sell my property for what it was actually worth. It's inconsiderate. First of all, that the owner has just abandoned it. And it's inconsiderate of this commission to have done nothing about it. After I have spoken so often about it, why wouldn't anybody be disappointed, upset, and mad? Why wouldn't anybody be? I have received an excuse that I expanded upon in my letter. Three minutes?

One more minute. We already used the three.

Mr. Mabry and also Ms. Azarian have both told me, well, she hasn't been feeling well. And I expanded really a lot on that, comparing it to my mom, who had Guillain-Barre, paralyzed her for years, for months. Had a hip replacement at almost age 95. Who had C. difficile that really impacted her life after that. Who had a gallbladder infection that put her in the hospital for 19 days and almost killed her. And who died of COVID-19. All on top of macular degeneration and a sleep disorder from working nights as a nurse for 50 years. And I went to live with her and took care of her for almost five years. And I saw these diseases and these illnesses and these issues. And I can tell you, as I did in my letter, that my relative, my mother, would have never allowed that to happen. And she had so many issues and so many illnesses. And she would have picked up the phone and found somebody to fix them. And I don't want to hear from anybody anymore, Mr. Maynard, that this individual has been ill. Who hasn't? As I said in my letter, I had five relatives die of COVID-19. My mother, my brother-in-law, my dad's cousin, my dad's another cousin, her husband, and my 53-year-old niece's 56-year-old husband. They all died of COVID-19. So who hasn't been ill?

Ken, thank you very much. We appreciate it. Come back to the next council meeting. What Ken alluded to is that we had a high school senior that assisted, and we got some cleaning done. We have one more day of cleaning there. We should have that looking pretty good. Well, thank you for doing what you've done. Well, we're trying. We're trying on our end. I do. With that said, anybody else for a public comment period? Seeing none, I move that we adjourn our regular council meeting this evening and reconvene for our next council meeting on Monday, June 15th, May 26th, 6 o'clock at City Hall. Motion second, third call to roll.

Council Member Newman? Aye. Gomez? Aye. McCall? Aye. This meeting is adjourned.

Thank you for attending and we'll see you at TrimpFest and the mile run. I'm excited about that. I'll be walking, but I'll be there. It'll be thrilling time.