City of Galva City Council met Feb. 28.
Here are the minutes provided by the council:
The City Council of the City of Galva met in regular session at 6:00 p.m. with Debbie VanWassenhove serving as City Clerk. Mayor Rich Volkert presided with the following Aldermen in attendance: Jim Hartman, Jayme Hopping, Jackie Clucas, Doug Anderson, and Mitch Boston. Alderman Otterstrom was noted as being absent.
The meeting started with the Pledge of Allegiance.
MINUTES
Alderman Hartman made a motion and was seconded to approve the January 24, 2022 council meeting minutes. The vote was 5 yeas and no nays.
BILLS AND CLAIMS
Alderman Boston moved and was seconded that the bills and claims be approved as presented and the City Clerk is instructed to issue orders on the Treasurer’s account for the several amounts. The vote was 5 yeas and no nays.
COMMUNICATIONS
Mayor Volkert reported that the City had received: State of IL: COVID Relief Assistance $106,766.98, January Video Gaming tax $2,943.47, January Income tax $41,963.72, December Local Share of State Use tax $8,863.41, January Cannabis tax $343.09, December Telecommunications tax $2,026.98, January MFT $8,806.99, and December Sales tax $22,077.46
First on the agenda was the MFT Presentation. Greg Peterson made the presentation, he handed out maps to everyone. The area in green will get 4” of rock and the rest of the areas are just maintaining (seal coat). We are concentrating on the area north of the highway and west of Center Ave this year. Next year we will concentrate on the east side of Center, and the year after will be south of the highway to keep on our schedule. The total cost will be around $133,000.00, around $40,000 would be from our MFT fund so we would need approximately $88,000-$90,000 more. He stated that we do still have some aggregate left so that total number will actually be lower when all said and done. Alderman Hartman commented that SE 4th St needs work. Richard Plummer stated that there are sewer issues under that road that need to be addressed before we can do any work to the road to avoid having to come back and redo it later. Alderman Clucas asked how long NW 3rd Ave road work will last from the when we had redone that road. Greg replied that it was asphalted so that is good for 15-20 years. Mayor Volkert asked if we were to seal that if it would last longer and Greg said that yes that would help a lot. David asked if we could go ahead and do that this year too. Alderman Hartman made a motion to appropriate $150,000 for the project and was seconded. The vote was 5 yeas and no nays.
Next on the agenda was Lions Club Electronic Sign Downtown. David stated that the Lions club has about $5,000 earmarked for an electronic sign that lists events etc. for somewhere in the downtown area. $5,000 is not enough to purchase a nice sign like we would want so they are looking for some help on that. He will have them come and do a presentation on this but he wanted to make the council aware.
Next on the agenda was the Junior Achievement proclamation. Mayor Volkert read the proclamation and declared April 7, 2022 as Junior Achievement Day.
PUBLIC COMMENT
There was no public comment at this time.
Next on the agenda were the department head reports. Richard Plummer stated that he is now taking applications for summer help. The spring cemetery clean-up will be April 10- 14th so all flowers need to be removed by the 10th and can be put back after the 14th. He then stated that he has an opportunity to purchase the townships old grader. They are purchasing a new one and they are giving us 1st chance to buy the old one. The one we have right now is a 1986 model and they one they are replacing is a 2003 model. They are asking $44,000 for it and would give us $17,500 for ours so we would only have to pay $26,500. He stated that it has a wing on it too so they would be able to push snow a lot further off of the road. Alderman Hartman asked how often we use the one we have and Richard replied that it is used a lot, mostly in the summer for road work, but it would be used more for snow removal too if it had the wing. Alderman Boston asked why they are replacing it, Richard said that they are getting one that is 6-wheel drive. Alderman Anderson asked how long the offer would be good for, Richard replied September or October is when they would be replacing theirs. Alderman Anderson then stated that he wants to make sure we stay away from vehicles using DEF and if we upgrade to this now it should last until DEF is no longer being used so he thought it might be a good idea. After some more discussion Richard was asked to get some maintenance reports on it and everyone decided to think on it and they will vote on it next month. Kraig Townsend stated that with the snow melting he wanted to ask that all residents start getting rid of non-working vehicles and accumulated junk around their properties, they will be going around looking for ordinance violations soon.
Next on the agenda were the Aldermen’s Reports. Alderman Hartman asked if someone could get ahold of Troy Voss to see when he will be back to finish up the Hemphill property, David stated that he would call him tomorrow. Alderman Anderson asked Chief Townsend how the new liquor ordinance was working for them? Kraig replied that it is working out very well, they only had 2 issues with compliance so far and it was handled very quickly because of the new ordinance so he is happy with it.
City Administrator’s Report
David Dyer stated that we are $14,363 ahead of last year which was a banner year, so this is looking to be another record year for the city’s revenue.
Mayor Volkert stated that this is Jeremy Wood’s 1st day working full time for the city. He then stated that March 28th is the last day to order trees from the county program. Shane Kaiser is going to be coming in to see if we need any more in the parks etc. The cameras in Wiley Park should be up in May. He also wanted to announce that the Galva Ready to Grow group is having their annual clean-up day on April 23 starting at 9am.
After no further discussion Alderman Hopping made a motion and was seconded to adjourn. The vote was 5 yeas and no nays.
https://www.galvail.gov/Minutes/022822Minutes.pdf
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