City of Kewanee City Council met July 22.
Here is the minutes provided by the council:
The City Council met in Council Chambers at 7:00 PM with the Mayor calling the meeting to order and the following answering to roll call:
Steve Faber Council Member
Chris Colomer Council Member
Michael Yaklich Council Member
Michael Komnick Council Member
Gary Moore Mayor
News media present was as follows:
Mike Helenthal Star Courier
Sean Kernan WKEI
The Pledge of Allegiance was said.
Mayor Moore asked for a moment of silence for our troops still fighting overseas.
Mayor Moore explained that the next items were placed on the consent agenda and were considered to be routine in nature to be passed as a whole with one vote of the Council. Mayor Moore requested that any member of the Council or the audience wishing to have an item removed from the consent agenda for individual consideration to make the request and the item would be removed and considered following the approval of the remaining consent items. The consent agenda included minutes from the July 8th, 2019 Council Meeting, payroll for the pay period ending June 26, 2019 in the amount of $203,717.49. Mayor Moore asked that previous Minutes from the July 8th meeting be amended to reflect the correct address for Andy Koehler’s storage building from West Mill St. to 200 blk of S. Walnut St. The correst was approved 5 aye 0 nay. The consent agenda items were approved on a motion made by Council Member Colomer and seconded by Council Member Faber. Roll call showed 5 ayes, no nays.
Bills submitted for approval totaling $173,032.68 were approved on a motion made by Council Member Colomer and seconded by Council Member Yaklich. The bill from Chamlin and Associtaes in the amount of $2396.00 was questioned by Council Member Colomer. City Manager Bradley informed Colomer that this bill was for multilple things. One item was for NPDES storm water permit that is up for renewal in the amount of $2,000.00. This was for the permit to be able to discharge any water. Council Member Komnick then brought up that he was still curious on why we have Orkin and Pest Doctor and that he may not have written it down from the last meeting on why we have 2 services. City Manager Gary Bradley responded that we may not have ever gotten a reason why but the suspicion was with Orkin, along time ago that it may have included a warranty with longevity and Bradley stated we can get that answer. Komnick was curious if we could get a better rate with going with one service. Council Member Yaklich had a question about IMEG on East street project and if we were still incurring engineering fees with additional work that needed to be done. Will this cost be incorporated in the 80/20 split? City Manager Bradley stated that we were granted the 80/20 split for the inlets except for one, but he could not say at this time if there was any design involved with the inlets, but he would look into it and let the council know. Mayor Moore also had a question on cost over-runs and if those also would be included in the 80/20 split also? City Manager Bradley responded that it depends on the cost over-run. Couincil Member Yaklich had another question about the Illinois Department of Revenue late filing and penaltlies in the amount of $902.79? City Manager Bradley stated his understanding from Debbie was that, as we have discussed previously, we were using the wrong tax table at the beginning of the year and that has been changed, but due to not using the correct tax table back in January and February we incurred penalties and fees. Mayor Moore questioned whose responsibility was it to be using the correct tax table? City Manager Bradley stated that the City Clerk did the payroll at that time. Council Member Yaklich wanted to see if those fees came out of the general fund? City Manager Bradley stated he could check to see if there was an errors and ommissions policy. The motion was passed with 5 aye and 0 nay.
CITIZEN PARTICIPATION
Mayor Moore then asked if anyone wished to speak regarding a non-agenda item. Andy Koehler stepped forward to state how happy he was with last weekend festivities and what a great town we have. The Walldogs did a great job on the Black Knight wall mural. Heather Fryckman wanted to address the council to express her frustration with the parking on her street on Willow and that she is in favor of the restriction of the parking on either side. Stated that especially in the winter backing out is an issue.
NEW BUSINESS
Ordinance #3972 was approved on a motion made by Council Member Faber and seconded by Council Member Komnick. Council Member Faber in favor of the restriction in parking. Faber stated it is very narrow. Mayor Moore stated he gets calls and texts that the public is in favor of restricting the parking. Police Chief was asked his opinion. He concurs with this ordinace and stated it is the best option. Roll call showed 5 ayes, no nays. The motion passed.
Ordinance #3973 was approved on a motion made by Council Member Komnick and seconded by Council Member Faber. Komnick stated that in the notes that the 6ft high fence was for the dogs aka pitbulls in the neighborhood. Asked if we are dealing with these issues in the past. Chief Ainley stated that they are aware and are called many times a day about dogs at large. They have protocal to encourage the owners to tie up and keep their dogs under control. Colomer asked if we have looked at the property to make sure no line of sight would be restricted. Mayor Moore did go door to door to get neighbors’ opinions and had all positive reactions to the fence. Yaklich asked Keith Edwards on why the zoning board didn’t recommend the variance at this time. Keith stated that this would lead to a free for all for 6ft fences to be going up everywhere. The board was afraid if they granted it for one they would have to grant for all requests. The zoning board was tied. Faber stated that the subjects went through the proper procedures to get this variance and that they can review case by case. No other discussion. Roll call showed 4 ayes, 1 nays. The motion passed.
Resolution #5176 authorizing the Fire Chief to enter into a Mutual Intercept Agreement with Stark County Ambulance Service was approved on a motion made by Council Member Colomer and seconded by Coucil Member Komnick. Council member Yaklich would like a bit more information. Chief Shook was contacted by Mr. Roesner to enter into an agreement that if either department would have to get on each others rigs for the purpose of transport or ALS that a bill would be sent to the station and not the patient. This is not a mutual aid agreement. This would be in the case that if they need a medic we can supply the man and not the service. Roll call showed 5 ayes, no nays. The motion passed.
Resolution #5177 to authorize the Fire Chief to enter into an Agreement with ESO Solutions for the purchase of a Computer Software P&M Module was approved on a motion made by Council Member Faber and seconded by Council Member Komnick. Council Member Colomer asked if this was the billing software we are currently using. Chief Shook explained this is correct and we have already budgeted for this next phase. Roll call showed 5 ayes, no nays. The motion passed.
Ordinance #3974 approving and authorizing the Execution of a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District Development Agreement with Dooley Bros. Plumbing & Heating Inc. was approved on a motion made by Council Member Faber and seconded by Council Member Komnick. Mayor Moore stated that this would be similar for what we did for Gustafsons. City Manager Bradley agreed. Roll call showed 5 ayes, no nays. The motion passed.
Ordinace #3975 approving and authorizing the Execution of a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District Development Agreement with Dale Mathews (D.B.A The Broken Chimney) Council Member Colomer ased that this be tabled until next meeting due to incorrect information provided, seconded by Council Member Yaklich. Roll call showed 5 ayes, no nays. The motion passed.
Resolution # 5178 authorizing the Chief of Police to Execute an Amended Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement was approved on a motion made by Council Member Faber and seconded by Council Member Yaklich. Police Chief Ainley stated this was due to a one word change in the original section 1 sub section 9 from only to all. Roll call showed 5 ayes, no nays. The motion passed.
OTHER BUSINESS
Council Member Colomer started with he has had a few calls and residents stop him to get carification on the sludge situation and the transparency. It was brought to his attention that we pay Bock Inc. a lot of tax payer money to manage this for us and have they done that? We have this weeks water report and I can not dicifer this information. The waste report also shows nothing for me to see how much is there and how much are we getting rid of. It concerns that there is a lack of transperancy and that we are willing to spend 90k on this and they actually encourage us to spend that. After looking at the math we have 800 thousand gallons of sludge per year.and remove 600 thousand gallons, leaving us with 200 thousand gallons left each year and in 4 years the City would run into the same situation. Why was someone not watching that? There should some sort of a report that they can provide for the services that we are paying them. They need to be present at the meeting to be able to answer questions and explain these reports. Also concerned on why Bock Inc. will need to put all the resources it can to get the sludge removed. Why are they leaving a plant unmanned for a problem that they caused. Yaklich agreed and stated they need to be present to answer and be accountable. We should never be forced into a situation to spend 90k to fix a problem we didn’t cause. That is what we contract them for. Asked that Bock Inc. be here at the next Council meeting and provide a better report to be able to read and understand. Komnick would like them to present the report personally. Bock Inc. is like a department head that we contract out. Bock should be here every meeting. Mayor Moore asked how long the contract was. City Manager Bradley stated we are 5 years in on a 10 year contract. Colomer also stated this is not the first issue. They had an employee that was not certified correctly running a facilty and employee was not properly qualified. Last thing.hats off to the Walldogs and the people involved to make last weekend events so great. The magician was amazing. He and his family had a great time. Thank you to all involved and to see a town like Kewanee pull this off.
Komnick started with congratulations to the new policeman and fireman and complimented both departments on what a great community involvement they offer. Chief Shook with the smoke house and Chief Ainly with popsicles and badges. Wanted to also mention Francis Park is a huge assest to this town. It’s a gem that he would love to see, as funds become more available, to be used more and to add a shower house and other needs. Shelter house needs smaller improvements and would be well deserved.
Yaklich wanted to start by saying thank you to the City Manager for getting a copy of the bills from the work on Division St. He had a question on why some information was not included in the FOIA? City manager Bradley addressed the question stated it may have been a miscommunication, because the request was for information regarding the contractor, while the information provided was regarding payments made by the property owners. Moving on with a statement in regards to the Neponset Fire/EMT arrangement, he felt that as a council member this should have been in executive session and discussed it in its entirety. He did not feel we should tear up this contract, but felt the Mayor was clear and direct. He felt the City Manager and City Attorney let the Council and Mayor and should have made sure the intent of the Council was carried out. Justin and Gary should have instructed the Council that they were not voting to negotiatiate and should have been told to that they needed amend the ordinance. He noted other concerns that he felt still had not been addressed; that the people of Neponset were not paying equal to residents in Kewanee was among them. Yaklich then read through the transcripts from the meeting reiterating that he still feels we were just in negoitations. Mayor Moore and Yaklich then stated that all involved were wrong. Yaklich directed to Justin and Gary that it is their job and they get paid to be the guys that covers the council’s ass. Yaklich apologized the to the residents and stated we have a year to make sure the next contract is negoititated correctly. Yaklich asked to have a copy to review before the next meeting.
Faber started with by stating the he voted on an agreement, that the ordinance said said execute. He agreed with it and went over it a in his mind. Execute was the word that made it a done deal. The great success of the Prairie Chicken Festival was due to some great people. Also again we are having trouble with Williams Street; “they” are back on the sidewalk. Ainley stated he will look into it.
Mayor Moore stated he wished he had more time at Prairie Chicken Festival but with a new grand son.he spent more time with his family. Mayor Moore’s son returned from Afgahnistan and it is a huge relief. Kewanee should be proud of the 14u team Ballhawks that won nationals. Mayor Moore has every intention to have something ready at the next council meeting for the team.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The City Clerk read an announcement regarding.
There being no further business, Council Member Colomer moved to adjourn the meeting and Council Member Faber seconded the motion. Roll call showed 5 ayes, no nays. The meeting adjourned at 8:01 PM.
http://www.cityofkewanee.com/Approved%20COUNCIL%20MEETING%20MINUTES%2019-14.pdf
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