City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call this meeting the Princeton City Council to order. Clare called the role. Here council member Newman here. Gomez here. McCall here. And Philipsky. 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 now to public comment. Public comments be given at the beginning of the meeting as well as the end. We like to have you limit your comments if possible to three minutes or less. Is there anyone here would like to speak to the council during public comment? Otherwise, you get a second chance at the end of the meeting. Seeing none, we'll go on to the approval of the minutes. Please. I move that we approve the minutes from our regular council meeting on November 3rd, 2025. Second. A motion and second on those council minute meetings. Uh meeting minutes. Uh sorry about that. Um is there any questions or comments from the council concerning those? Seeing none, clear call the role. Council member Newman. Gomez. Hi. McCall. Hi. And may

I thank you. Now we're going to go on to the invoices with city clerk Janet Henning.

In the department of counts and finances, we have $42,2204. The Department of Streets and Public Improvements $115,31423. Department of Public Safety $239,76.38. and the Department of Public Property and Utilities 1,129,522.93 with a grand total of 1,886,763.58. Mayor, all council members present have they Yeah, they've done that. council.

Yeah, they have. All 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 have a motion to on invoices. Any questions or comments concerning those invoices? Seeing none, cler call. Council member Newman. I Gomez. Hi. McCall. Hi. And Mayor Ricky. I. Now on to the resolutions, please. Uh, we have resolution R-25-028 requesting temporary closure of Illinois Route 26 from Putnham Street to Peru Street on Friday, December 5th, 2025 for a Christmas parade. Move that we approve resolution R-25-028.

Second. Have a motion second. Any questions on that? Otherwise, we'll go ahead and vote on that, please. Council member Newman. Hi. Gomez. Hi. McCall. Hi. and your I and that is our Lions Club putting that on. This is I think the third year for that. Great. Thank you. Next on the agenda, we have a resolution R-25-029. A resolution accepting the proposal and awarding the design build contract to Ringling Johnson construction for the city of Princeton Fire Department expansion project. I move that we approve resolution R-25-029. Second.

Have a motion and second. Before we vote on that, we're going to have Teresa give an update and a uh presentation, please.

Sure. Just a little bit of an overview before we go into um a couple of slides up there for you to look at. Uh we did have u what we call a work group uh a committee that's been kind of going through this process obviously made up of mostly from the fire department. they know what they need for the project. So, uh we had the chief of four firemen right um planning and zoning administrator myself kind of sat through and kind of vetted the the RFPs that came in um and went through the process of interviewing the RFP applicants. Um so about two weeks ago we had two of the finalists come in and they gave a little bit more of an in-depth presentation. Uh allowed us to ask some questions. um mainly focusing a little bit on well what we were focusing on was timeline and cost obviously was the big thing. So we narrowed it down to and I think you've all gotten this update for me so it's going to be repeated here again but construction out of Aurora uh which focused mainly on health wellness and the creativity or what I call the aesthetics of the design of the projects. Uh their costs were roughly about $600 to $650 per square foot. Uh with a timeline of approximately a 100, she's 1.5 years for a buildout. Uh Raina Johnson out of Cherry Valley focused um on their timeline, the cost, and the building for building for the uh department's needs. Um, their timeline was closer to 9 to 12 months for a complete buildout with the proposed uh $450 per square foot building cost, which in the grand scheme kind of comes up to about one one to one half million less than the other contract. So, uh, the work group met again to review the

presentations and the RFPs one more time. We just kind of want to go through just the group kind of throw some thoughts out there and what everybody was thinking. Uh they were unanimous in their decision to go with Rland Johnson for the reasons mentioned above the areas that they're focusing in on. Uh they have been notified. Rland Johnson has been notified as well as the other contractor. Um and they've already hit the ground running with as you'll see a couple things they've already rendered up. Um we have a meeting scheduled for where you'll get into the actual design of the living quarters uh a little bit more in depth with them. Um it's very much hands-on with with the group. So um and Ringland has start they've already drafted what we'll call the design build agreement for for the contract. So I'll have Scott pull up you have these in your packet as well. Might be a little bit easier to see up here. Why don't you pull up the the addition first?

Which part of it?

Oh, the overview of it. There we go. So, that's obviously the footprint. So, you kind of get uh acclimated to where the the addition actually goes um in in regards to the front of the existing city hall. So, it's not sticking way out to the sidewalk. Um it kind of stays within that area. which then sort of it does limit the amount of space that uh that they do have for a footprint there. But as you'll see on the next slide, I believe how much you can kind of fit into the space is pretty impressive. If it if it's designed right and the flow is right, um it'll be much more workable space for for the department.

I'm sorry. Go ahead. What do you mean by it limits the space of the footprint? uh the space of the the ground space that we have. You're a little bit what you're taking up basically. Yeah. Scott, do you want to talk a little bit about the design flow here and why on some of these and what you might take out?

Uh first and foremost, I think we've talked about it quite a bit, but it's more having read ready access to the apparatus to respond on call. You see these would be the sleeping rooms right out in the ambulance bay. Living room, kitchen right out of the ambulance bay. We're kind of looking at this to change a little bit. Not wouldn't be crazy, just to give more living room space. Um down here, uh we actually really encourage our guys to work out and add temperature controlled workout. We're concentrating on getting it in a temperature controlled environment. Uh, we might take part of Oops, forget I can't touch it. Pull in Teresa. We'll probably take out some of the storage. We're not so worried about that. Um, because all our storage right now is right here and it holds everything currently. So, we'll try it outside. And then one of the big uh aspects um something that we hear from people trying to find the chief or the deputy chief or even find a way into the fire department is getting an entryway and a way to find us when you bring people to our usually you go out front and meet them to bring them in. So uh this would be your access directly onto the fire floor like right here's where the workout equipment is. You drop in right behind the lag truck right now.

So the two doors on the right, Scott, go out to the apparatus. This goes out to where the ambulance is sitting. Okay. And this would go this would come roughly right behind the ladder truck. Are those like 36 in doors? Are they double doors or I think they're doors. He thinks they're three foot doors. And that's generally the bay that you guys are accessing the most is your amp trailer. So yeah, 90% of the time. Yeah. Um, so you can see down there at the bottom to the left is obviously the entrance door, which you'll see on the next couple pictures.

And then in the middle, Scott, you have the memorial wall, which would get moved over to the center, right? You'll see a little tree diagrams there. So then there's some better. Yeah, the entrance makes sense. It really does. that's clearly noting in and seeing the fire change. It's always fun to see people's reaction taken through our office.

So, one thing uh they'll be able to do uh once they get it a little bit more finalized is uh they'll be able to put the VR goggles on and be able to walk through the space and even act like they're responding to a call and make sure they're able to get from one room to the next or out to the bay without running into something that's not supposed to be there. So, it's just a really good hands-on just make sure that's the part of design build that really pays off and is you miss those mistakes. You catch them at the beginning. So, that's why I mentioned the doors. You know, if there's three or four people heading out, you know, is a 36 inch door enough or should it be

double doors or something so everyone can get out at the same time? Is there another slide after that one or is that go to the next? Let's show them the uh exterior the two options for the exterior. So, this is a rendering of what one entrance may look like. Um you want to go to the next one. And there's another option there. Oh, way on the far left. So, just

trying to figure out a way for those that entrance door to stand out so they know to go there. But these are the two options you see. That first one up high. It kind of blends in better with the old historic city hall. in my opinion the whole thing. Can you go back to the whole facade the front of that please? Which one the historic one? Yeah, let's do that's a that's a very attractive looking addition. I mean it's it's very professional.

But if you look at our old city hall, how do you look at the Brook Peak on that? And then you go over at least there's a little bit of we're pulling in a little bit of history with the uh the one that's in that one. Just kind of and you'll notice the windows. Very nice. Everything's the stone head. Okay. This is the most expensive 50 grand. No, it was like almost 30. It looks like the other one was kind of framed in stone. Yeah, it was like

70. I agree. I think the the peak door entrance is is the way to go. It just gives it ties into the old city. Yeah. Yeah, it does. Uh the timeline one so they've kind of temporarily or put together a proposed timeline. Obviously, it'll adjust as things go. Uh but they know when to bid for the best bidding. um when they can start purchasing items at the the least amount. Um as summer approaches, obviously supplies will get a little bit more expensive.

Uh so they've got it as a final completion. I had a heart attack. Uh that August August 17th. So, August 27 August. Well, it's just like that's really fast. Isn't that great though? Well, it is, but so um and I and with this company, they will stick to that as close as they can unless something

unfortunately comes up. But uh okay so I did uh mention or I guess I was talking to your mayor before the meeting uh one thing that they have presented is uh and you'll see in the resolution is a not to exceed amount that number is going to be fairly high that's you'll see in the resolution it's like a 1.8 case. Uh that is including if the soils are bad, meaning they have to do some prep work to the soil out here. It's all worst case scenario if they did that. Uh if we pick the most expensive entrance, you know, if there's anything that's unforeseen, that's including adding some in flooror heat, um some of those kind types of options. Now, if we add some stuff, we can take some stuff out. We can try to Yeah, we can we can work with it. So, that's the not to exceed. That's just so we have a number to put in here. Now, what they'll do is as we get this going and they redesign um kind of hash this out a little bit closer to detail is they'll come up with a guaranteed max price. So, um, what that'll mean is the project will not go over that maximum price and it all also factors in a 5% contingency, which means we have a little bit of 5% wiggle room if something comes up. Say, and that's usually if we add something. That's what would come out of contingency, not if they mess something up. It's if we add something. So, if we don't send that 5%, we get that back of the of that total price. So,

is furnishings and equipment that is going to be in this addition part of the package or that's all. We have an idea what that might look like. Uh, use our old stuff. Oh, wonderful. Okay. That's a way to start. There shouldn't be um typically out of the foreign fire tax that the guys get, that's what they buy their stuff on. Yeah.

And that would be up to them to furnish it. Uh, the stuff that you don't necessarily see that's already should be included in the prices like low voltage stuff like how you wake people up in the middle of the night, how the alarms come through, stuff like that. Uh there is I guess I can't say that there should be included uh commercial fridge range and hood. Yeah, range and hood. But as far as Yeah, you know, beds, they're all down there. Okay, good. Yeah, like all our desks and stuff now for it to be

a project of this magnitude, you don't want to worry about a $30,000 entrance. That's what it takes. That's what it takes. You're spending 1.8. I mean, come on. Well, not going to be worst case scenar. So, any anything else that you can think of, Scott or or Brian even? You guys were you guys put a lot of time into this. So, or anything you want them to know. Okay. I got a quick question then. Chief, how let's go back to the floor plan. I know we're not here to micromanage your floor plans. That's This is your turf, but I see you got your seven bunk rooms. Is that right? Correct.

And then the one you have to go through one to get to the other. Nope. It's one to the other. One. This is a double room. Okay. Got it. And then you've got females now. And of course they all have their own privacy just like they have now, right? I mean, so Correct. Okay. You wouldn't put your We wouldn't put No. We wouldn't put a in this room. Sure. Just like now, right? Okay. And then then go instead of just one shower, one bath, you'd have two. So

So literally, again, this is the life of a firefighter. When you're like tonight, for example, the room that is down in the upper, I'm sorry, the lower right corner is where they're spend their time. That's their kitchen. That's the chairs. That's the TV set. Yep. That's where they hang out. If they want to go into their bunk room to have a little private time, they go in there. Very good. And we and Brian come up with some ideas to this is going to look a little different if this goes through and we meet with them Friday just cuz we think it can flow a little bit better for speedier and give them a little bit more room. So, okay. Any anything else, Teresa, on this? You good? Um,

oh, the only thing I also I have if you have a question um on the sources for the fund

and I give you a little a sheet there as an overview. Obviously, as we come out better in the budget, next next budget. Um, but I just want to give you a little sense of where we're at with what I'll call as sources for some of these expenditures to come through. Um uh the first one I I wanted to point out is we usually average an annual capital expense. You remember that list of justifications that there's usually two pages worth of justifications. That will likely be a lot less this year uh or this next year because one and I I think I've already talked with Scott about this. We're getting a lot of our equipment, our vehicles, those high ticket items caught up. Uh so it's kind of gives us a little bit of a breather room area for this this coming year. So, what I'm hoping to do is maybe take half of this project cost out of the general just our normal budget and if we need to look at half from somewhere else, which is we've got opioids which may be up to about 200,000 by close of fiscal year 27. You got we have a general CD out right now for 1.4 million, another general CD for 2.18 million. Um, and then we have what we call a sweep account, which is account that we we don't touch. It's just kind of there for if we have a project that comes up. Uh, it's for 1.5 million, which is likely where we probably pull the funds from. Um, then we can replenish it as the years go on. Uh, just down there at the bottom, this is where I would call the replenishing opportunities. Our debt retires. We have a library bond that retires this year. And that's actually it's factored into our levy. It's not really a huge It's not cost on us. It's it's in in the libraries portion of the levy. Uh the go bond in 20 fiscal year 27 of 118 per year and another one for 114 uh per year and then another one the following year for 145 with outpost payments. We could start putting those

payments back in to replenish the the funds for that. So no debt you could do this project without debt. So yeah, for just question for the opioid um funds, is that money that we already have um and the other question can actually be used for that? Cuz I know some of those funds were were meant for specific uh things that can be used for obviously the ambulance would be one of them where they're actually um uh going for a call to be able to go ahead and give Nan to an individual that has overdosed. So, um, is that kind of the justification that it's being used for?

You can basically swap out your expenses ultimately. Now, do I even think we'd have to touch it? I I really don't think we'll have to. Um, if we have a we got a couple payments on ambulance. No, that's done. We just have the engine. So um any supplies if it's uh anything like that we we can use it for that or we use it for you know things with the so you basically would spend it on that and then just move that money out for

you just use it for that stuff instead of what we would take out of the general because it is fund sitting there that just keeps I don't know it seems like every month we're getting a new settlement that comes in and where's this money it just keeps coming in so we need to make sure we're we're using it and you do it report. I have to report on this every quarter. So to use to report where it's being spent, so it is being accounted for. Any questions on the or the sources?

Okay. And your CDs and you're in the four and a half% range on your CDs roughly give or take and sweep accounts probably not bringing much in right now. So and that's the thing about sweep account we understand is it's readily available. So obviously that's where you want to cannibalize what you said. You grab from them there. Okay. Any questions to the council? You don't cannibalize. You utilize. Okay. Well, I cannibalize I or you can say control over the patient. Steal computer, but okay. Okay. Okay. Um, are we good?

Oh, I do want to touch on real quick. I don't maybe it was before the meeting. There's a question on in the resolution there's a um the proposed project consists of two phases. So phase one is this project. Phase two is the new substation. Um both pres or all the I guess I did talk about it. Um they all presented on it. This is not a for sure thing. It's not committing that we're getting there. Um but when it comes to that time if it if it gets to that point uh we don't have to go through the whole RFP process again. We're we'll be ready to go. So good. That's part of the timeline as far as the cost would be the cost. Yes.

Again, these folks I know that uh up in Rockford, they're very well respected. These it's the general contractors, Einville, Ringland, Johnson folks. So, okay, good job, Teresa and the Michael Zuring helped. And then of course the fire department. We appreciate you guys. This is your this is your project and we don't want to micromanage, but if we can find a way to get that front entry looking fit that Jerry, right? Yep. Okay. What's 30,000? Okay. Well, think about that. Okay. At least on a new car. You'll have 124,000. I won't tell them what the committee voted unanimously. I know. Except for spend the other one. Okay. Well, that happens.

That happens. Um, okay. Well, good good project. You want to get this thing moving forward. And I know that I told Priesta that the nice folks out at uh LCN Allegian, they said, "Man, that anytime we're doing anything that we could use their products, they appreciate that cuz they they have a tendency to look up at anything we do as far as door closures and hardware." So, yeah. So, glad you brought that up. One thing that they will do is when they actually handle all the bidding for us as well, but they will vet all of the biders and give local preference. So, obviously, we've got Crescent right here. you know, you've got you you have these options to use local contractors. Um if they absolutely

go through the vetting process and make sure that they're, you know, that they're bonded, that they're, you know, all that kind of stuff. Um so yeah, I'm comfortable with that. Yep. And we just want to make sure those LC door closers are on these rascals. So they uh we have 260 people out there working. So okay, very good. Thank you for your hard work on that. I think now we're ready for a vote. Go ahead if you would please. Council member Newman. Hi, Domad. Hi, McConnell. Hi, and Mary. Hi. Thank you. Now, we're on to the board appointment, please. I move that we appoint Richard Heaton to a three-year term of the public arts commission ending on April 20th, 2028. Second.

Motion uh a second on that. There any questions or comments from the council? Otherwise, we'll go ahead and vote on that. Council member Freeman, Izzi, McCall, hi. Mayor Bry, I Okay. City manager report please.

Uh in your packet is uh just a reminder uh that Thanksgiving holiday city hall hours and garbage schedule. City hall offices close at 3:30 on Wednesday the 26th and continuing through Friday, November 28th in observance of Thanksgiving. Uh just a reminder, Thursday garbage will be Thursday garbage will be picked up on Monday, December 1st and Friday's garbage will be picked up on Tuesday, December 2nd. That one's going to be confusing. Monday, December 1st and Tuesday, December 2nd, garbage routes will remain the same. Um, but also, and these are not recycling pickups, so no extra garbage pickup or brush pickup the week of Thanksgiving. So, um, if people have extra garbage that they tag, we pick those up on Fridays. We will not be picking that up. So, I'm sure we'll put a reminder out on that. Uh, also in there, um, is the extension fund. So, report for that.

Okay. Anything else, Teresa? I don't think so. How about overview? I know you did gave the council, but real quick, you were in Dixon for two days with uh Main Street uh Illinois program. How did that go?

Uh, actually went very well. We had some pretty good speakers. Ironically, they focused in on Mike. We'll talk about this in the morning. Um, the business development districts. Uh we had a couple presenters on on that and how they utilized it, how they went through the process. Um a lot on branding which was was a hot topic and was one that we need to we're trying to talk internally about how to make sure that we've got a good branding for the whole community. Um one of the other interesting topics was AI and how communities are using AI and holy cow absolutely

it's eye opening. is really eye opening how well you can use that for the good not I mean there's you know some bad sides to it too but um it's really like regarding the administration of city hall using technology you can use uh they use it actually in grant applications

you upload the grant application you have your your notes typed in there and it retypes it out for you and gives you an indication to say okay give me pointers on how to get better points on my application and does it all for you. It's It's impressive. But the Bengraphth did the presentation on that and I I I know him from past working and he's he's just smart and he's just the way they're using it now is unbelievable. So wonderful. Yeah. So good speakers from all around the state hosted in Dixon. Yep. Yep. Good. Okay.

Thank you for going to that. Michael was going to that as well. Um all right. Let's see on the mayor's report. Um the Habitat for Humanity Home is that you get a chance to drive by. It's it's all uh closed in. It's got the windows, the siding, the shingles. They're in their hanging drywall. Uh there's a lot of volunteers that come on Saturdays typically. They have there two Saturdays helping them move some u some uh earth. They had uh some back filling to do and help put the yard in, so to speak. And uh uh Dustin Sidell from Princeton, he's the lead carpenter on it. And uh again, it's just fun to watch this. And there's a a young couple. They got four kids and they're excited about moving into the house. So, um but I'd say they're about two months away now from getting in there. Again, the drywall is just getting hung and they got to do some obviously finish work and get a kitchen in and bathroom, but it's looking good. Um hey, I was going to just say real quick, um I know we got lots going on here for this coming weekend. And Jennica, did you want to make any comments about that? just annual Christmas walk this weekend, Friday through Sunday. Extended store hours on Friday night and then all fun things with Santa and carriage rides on Saturday and carrying over into Sunday. So,

it's all online. Very good. Thanks, Janica. Yep. Appreciate that. Um All right. And um I think on the marriage report, we're all thankful. Uh hard to believe the next council meeting is going to be in December. We got two comments before we wrap up the year. Yikes. Uh we'll go ahead now. We'll go to old business. We got ebikes, electric scooters. Don Sleski couldn't be here tonight. He's on a family vacation that's already planned, but I'm sure we're going to get some reports from somebody on that.

We have a couple of uh other ordinances from other communities. So once Don gets back, we'll go through those, but also have Tom look at them as well. I was hoping we get a few more, but we'll see. Sure. Okay. Again, those are resources from other communities our size or similar to our size. We're doing this. Good. Okay. Thank you very much. There's no other old business. We'll go to new business. Is there any new business before the council this evening? Uh is there any additional public comment before we close the evening? Um seeing none, we'll go ahead chair if you would please. I move that we adjourn our regular council meeting this evening and reconvene for our next council meeting on Monday, December 1st, 2025, 6 o'clock, city hall. Second

motion second. Clear call rule. Council member Newman. Hi. Gomez. Hi. McCall. Hi. And I committed. Thank you. If you want to stick around and talk to your council members, that'd be great.