City of Aledo City Council Met June 7.
Here is the minutes provided by the council:
The City Council of the City of Aledo met in Regular Session in the Council Chambers at the Aledo City Hall building. MAYOR HAGLOCH called the meeting to order at 6:47 P.M. The roll was called, whereupon the following answered present:
Aldermen MICHAEL CHAUSSE, BARRY COOPER, DENNIS DIXON, JAY DOHERTY, ZACH FRICK, JIM HOLMES, CHRIS KOPP, and LINDA SARABASA. Mayor CHRISTOPHER HAGLOCH.
Also present was CINDY PARCHERT, Finance Director, JUSTIN BLASER, Director of Public Works & Utilities, and JAROD DALE, City Clerk.
The media was represented by John Hoscheidt, WRMJ.
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
F/Y 2020 Financial Audit: Cynthia Parchert, Finance Director, appeared before the Committee of the Whole to present F/Y 2020 Financial Audit Report. Jim Taylor & Dave Gosse, Carpentier, Mitchell, Goddard & Company, LLC were also present to provide additional overview of the audit as well. Mr. Taylor reviewed the Independent Auditor’s Report noting a clean opinion on the financial statements. Also, the report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting and on Compliance of other matters based on an Audit of Financial Statements performed in accordance with Government Auditing Standards was briefly reviewed.
Mr. Gosse highlighted on the Board Communications Letter provided to the City Council. There were no concerns to make the City Council aware of with no significant findings and noted as a clean process with the audit. The Memorandum Letter was also reviewed by Mr. Gosse. Carpentier identified no deficiencies in internal controls that they determined to constitute significant deficiencies or material weaknesses. The TIF Compliance Audit report reported as clean on the auditing side of things.
FINANCE DIRECTOR reviewed the governmental activities revenues for F/Y20. Increases were seen from the prior year regarding “charges and services”, “grants and contributions”, “property tax” and “other local tax”.
Governmental activities expenses saw an increase for “general and administrative”, “cemetery maintenance”, “community development”, and “Retirement and Unemployment”. Decreases in governmental expenses were in “Police”, “street and alley” and “Recreation Programs”.
FINANCE DIRECTOR reported the 2020 Financial Report looks good and thanked the Auditing firm and City Staff for all their assistance during the process.
Public Comment: No Report.
Communication & Correspondence: No Report.
Requests & Petitions: No Report.
Public Works Activity Report:
• Streets: Rhubarb Festival preparation; mowing tall grass at properties related to ordinance violations; and street patching.
• Gas: JULIE’s; Cathodic Protection and assist Street Division in Festival preparation.
• Water: JULIE’s; Sprayed weeds at well sites; sewer inspections; and began removing fencing at the N. Lagoon.
• Cemetery: Three (3) Funerals occurred. Fix stones & foundations; mowing.
• DPW: building permit application review; inspections; tall grass notices; ball diamond seeding coordination; pool valve and fill; Button Building maintenance; and Rhubarb Festival preparation. The demolition at Farmer’s Grain & Coal anticipated to start soon.
• ION: New Chemical tanks installed at WTP; Mississippi Valley Pump delivered the rebuilt RO feed pump but do not anticipate we would need it for many years, but good to having a working spare. Installed new hour meter on the RO. Numbers on the RO are stable and reading well within the range that we would like to see. All radio equipment has been installed at the lagoons and have started sampling fecal coliform in May and will run through November. Mississippi Valley Pump reinstalled Pump 1 at the pond lift station and a new hour meter on Pump 2 lift station was installed.
Aledo Police Department Activity Report: ADMINISTRATOR/CHIEF Sullivan reported the department had two (2) applicants for the open police officer jobs. One of the applicants did not show up for the interview. The other was a no show for the testing. He was given a second chance and also failed to show up for the testing. We have a third applicant who is currently a fully certified officer and is working in another community. He came for a ride-along with one of the Aledo officers and we are waiting to hear back from him.
The Department assisted in escorting the Vietnam Tribute Wall to Aledo. The Wall was located in Monument Park from Thursday afternoon, June 3rd, until Sunday afternoon and was open for viewing 24 hours a day. Volunteers were present at the Wall around the clock to assist people in finding names on the Wall.
The Department scheduled extra patrols in the Downtown Aledo area throughout the Rhubarb Festival time frame, and to cover the Wall and the setup periods, as well. Officers were assigned to be present for on-site security, in addition to regular patrol duties.
Administration Report: CITY CLERK Dale reported on GIS noting Eagleview made the mosaic available in Connect in late April with the hard drive delivered to Aledo and Mercer County in May. Trent Pell, Senior Technical Manager, Eagleview will be on-site on June 9th to begin reviewing the software with the staff. This is to get the software onto our server and preliminary review with staff to get familiar with the program. Also, we will be working with the assessor’s office to receive mobile ability as well for future use.
CITY CLERK provided reports related to Utility Billing and Payroll for the month of May, 2021.
Mayor’s Report: MAYOR Hagloch reported the Rhubarb Festival was a successful event with great weather this past weekend. MAYOR met with Illinois State Representative Swanson and Representative Durkin on Saturday, June 5th. Also, WJ Albertson & Louis Powell were also in-attendance. MAYOR noted redistricting in Illinois could cause issues related to our current state representatives for our community. Also, MAYOR highlighted the Closing Ceremony at the Vietnam Memorial Tribute Wall was also held on Sunday, June 6th and another great event for the entire weekend.
Committee Report: ALD. Cooper reported the Public Property, Streets & Sidewalks Committee met on May 24, 2021. The Committee reviewed the yield signage request, which is on the Agenda under Action items this evening as a first reading. Also, the Committee discussed repainting the storefront at the Button Building with City Staff to organize those repairs.
REGULAR COUNCIL SESSION
Following the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag,
CONSENT AGENDA
Motion was made by ALDERMAN CHAUSSE and seconded by ALDERMAN KOPP to approve the following agenda items:
• Approval of Minutes of the Regular Meeting of May 17, 2021
• Approval of Finance: Invoice Listing – AP10
• Approval of the Purchase of Computer Equipment and Software in the amount of $8,870.37.
• Approval of the Resignation of Gavin King as Gas Worker in the Public Works Department of the City of Aledo.
• Approval of Resolution No. 18R, Series of 2021; Approving the Appointment of the Aledo Civic Center Authority Board.
• Approval of Ordinance No. 13, Series of 2021; An Ordinance of the City of Aledo, Mercer County, Illinois, to Approve the Withdrawal of the City of Creal Springs, Williamson County, Illinois and the Village of Tamms, Alexander County, Illinois as Members of the Interstate Municipal Gas Agency and to Authorize Execution of a Supplement to the Agency Agreement establishing the Interstate Municipal Gas Agency. (Second Reading)
A Roll Call vote was recorded as follows:
YES: Chausse, Cooper, Dixon, Doherty, Frick, Holmes, Kopp, and Sarabasa. NO: None. Motion carried. 8 yeas, 0 nays.
PUBLIC COMMENT: No Report.
ACTION ITEMS
ORDINANCE NO. 14, SERIES OF 2021; DESIGNATING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A YIELD SIGN AT A CERTAIN INTERSECTION ON S.E. 8TH STREET AND S.E. 22ND AVENUE: (FIRST READING)
The City of Aledo Police Department was directed by Mayor Hagloch to conduct a traffic study at the intersection of SE 8th Street and SE 22nd Avenue. The Mayor had been contacted by the plant manager at Liqui-Grow of Aledo, who stated he felt the intersection could be dangerous.
A review of the traffic patterns at that intersection was conducted. The layout of the intersection, the destination points of all lanes of roadway to and through the intersection, and the nature of the traffic in the area were all taken into consideration. Department records were checked to see if other complaints or issues had been reported. Liqui-Grow is operating out of a newly built facility. No prior issues were noted. However, the nature of the traffic has changed recently. CHIEF Sullivan spoke with the managers of both of the major businesses whose business vehicles and whose employees’ vehicles travel through the intersection. CHIEF also checked the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for guidance.
The Aledo Police Department recommends the City Council make no change in the traffic pattern at the intersection of SE 8th Street and SE 22nd Avenue. The Department further recommends that the City Council establish a yield sign for traffic traveling east on SE 8th Street at 22nd Avenue to formally establish the existing traffic pattern by ordinance.
The second reading to be held on Monday, June 21, 2021 at 6:30 o’clock p.m. in the City Council Chambers.
OLD BUSINESS:
DPW Blaser reported he would begin working on a NV path to Wal-mart now that the Rhubarb Festival was complete for this year.
The ITEP application for Hall’s Alleyway was submitted earlier this year and waiting on a response back from the State if approved or not. IMEG to also be in Aledo this month as they have requested to meet with City Staff. An additional ITEP application was submitted by IMEG on behalf of Aledo related to the continuing project for Multi-use Pathway project in Aledo.
ALD. Chausse highlighted Michael Clark recently touched up the Rhubarb Statue with paint at the corner of Rt. 17 & 94 before the Rhubarb Festival took place this year.
CITY COUNCIL inquired on the current status of the proposed SXS routes in Mercer County and how the stickers will be handled by Mercer County. Questions were asked as to who issues for Aledo residents and if current permit holders would be required to purchase an additional sticker for Mercer County trails. MAYOR reported city residents would purchase stickers from Mercer County going forward but all revenue related to Aledo residents would be forwarded over to the City. COUNCIL inquired if inspections would be conducted and who would be completing those.
After some discussion, City Staff to review current County proposals and report back to the City Council at a later date.
NEW BUSINESS:
CITY COUNCIL inquired what the current plans would be by Casey’s General Store Corporation related to the prior commercial building located at 303 SW 3rd Street, Aledo. City Staff reported the pumps have been pulled and anticipate the tanks to be removed as well, per EPA standards.
CITY COUNCIL inquired if the building would be torn down. No information was provided at this time.
ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, motion was made by ALDERMAN SARABASA and seconded by ALDERMAN DIXON that the meeting be adjourned. A Unanimous voice vote followed in agreement. Meeting was adjourned at 7:02 P.M.
http://aledoil.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_06072021-277
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