City of Aledo City Council met June 20.
Here are 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 7:09 P.M. The roll was called, whereupon the following answered present:
Aldermen ILA BERTRAND, MICHAEL CHAUSSE, BARRY COOPER, JIM HOLMES, CHRIS KOPP and LINDA SARABASA. Mayor CHRISTOPHER HAGLOCH. Alderman DENNIS DIXON and JAY DOHERTY were excused.
Also present was CHRISTOPHER SULLIVAN, City Administrator / Chief of Police; JUSTIN BLASER, Director of Public Works & Utilities; CINDY PARCHERT, Finance Director; JIM TAYLOR & DAVE GOSSE, Carpentier, Mitchell & Goddard, & Company, LLC, and JAROD DALE, City Clerk.
The media was represented by Jim Taylor, WRMJ.
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
Public Comment: No Report.
F/Y 2021 Financial Audit: Cynthia Parchert, Finance Director, appeared before the Committee of the Whole to present F/Y 2021 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/Y21. Increases were seen from the prior year regarding “charges and services”, “grants and contributions”, “property tax”, “other local tax” and “other”.
Governmental activities expenses saw an increase for “police”, “cemetery maintenance”, “street and alley”, “cemetery maintenance”, “community development”, “recreation and programs”, and “Retirement and Unemployment”. Decreases in governmental expenses were in “general and administrative”.
The IMRF Pension liability was reviewed noting there is a net pension asset not a liability. FINANCE DIRECTOR reported there is a 13% pension asset as a percentage of covered payroll.
FINANCE DIRECTOR reported the 2021 Financial Report looks good and thanked the Auditing firm and City Staff for all their assistance during the process.
Communication & Correspondence: Aledo Main Street provided a memorandum to the City Council. Volunteers put together 500 goody bags & 1,000 bags of Rhubarb Seeds, many phone calls and questions from vendors prior to the Rhubarb festival, secured sponsorships for the Courtesy Carts that are offered and had sign-ups for golf cart driver volunteers.
The cinema@central showing was postponed on 06/10 due to weather. Working to get this movie rescheduled. Currently, the next Cinema@Central is set to be shown on 07/22 at Central Park- Sing II.
Farmers Market- First farmers market was held on 06/09 and will run through 09/29. It will be held every Thursday from 4-6pm at Aledo Central Park. We currently have 9 seasonal vendors with 1 drop-in. New Vendor starting 06/16 is Frenell Livestock Co., they are located out past Matherville and have their own shop but after reaching out to Ashlynn Frenell they are going to start bringing their meats & items every Thursday to Aledo’s Farmers Market & Bake Sale. AMS has reached out to a couple other vendors and food trucks on the idea of setting-up to provide more options during shopping hours.
Requests & Petitions: No Report
Public Works Activity Report:
• Streets: Daily checks, tasks, JULIES, and work orders continue. Cleanup from Rhubarb; started filling potholes; removed, repaired, and replaced three storm sewer catch basins on NE 2nd St. & 5th Ave; serviced the patch machine, ordered chips for patch machine, and trained on the new oil tank. We will patch streets starting late this week or early next.
• Gas: Daily checks, tasks, JULIE’s, inspections and finals continue. The gas project on SW 3rd Ave starts June 20th; installed a new gas service at the Pink Door building; retired one gas service on North College Lane; repaired one leak behind the Cooper Building.
• Water: Daily checks, tasks, Julie’s and work orders continue. Hydrant flushing is complete. They are now going back and color-coding hydrant bonnets based on flow rates. Superintendent Frieden had a camera inspection performed on the sanitary sewer main in the alley behind the Cooper Building. It is in very poor shape und will need to be replaced. We will be working to get a plan put together and out to bid in the next few weeks.
• Cemetery: Daily tasks continue. Repaired foundations and stones in various placed; mowed and trimmed weeds. No funerals on the last two weeks.
• DPW: Work mainly consisted of getting back to projects and inspections. There has been an uptick of work started all around the City. The PW garage project is progressing slowly, there was one small issue with door lintels that caused us to lose a week of work. They will be back this week. Mike Millar and DPW met with the contractor at the former Breezy Acres site to review ROW storm drainage on 3rd Ave’s, & 100th Ave. The City nor Mercer Township have heard directly from the owner, but the contractor was hired to level off the site and plant grass. We finally came to a decision on the street replacement at the NE 6th Ave Sewer site. We will mill, re-regrade and re-asphalt the entire stretch of disturbed work limits. The price to do that work will keep the project in budget. They will start the week of July 5th. Reviewing budget at the halfway mark, department operations totals are: Street 51%; Cemetery 25%; Gas 66%; W/S 44%. Gas is above 50% due to natural gas purchases. Automotive gas – all divisions are well under 50% except W/S, which is at 56%. We will need to continue to monitor that closely.
Aledo Police Department Activity Report: New additional training mandates have been issued by the State of Illinois and will be implemented by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. The changes include an increase in the Basic Police Officer Academy training from 14 weeks to 16 weeks. Numerous other new training topics will be added beginning in January of 2023. The entire curriculum for police training at the academy is being rewritten. The academy portion of the mandate does not affect any of the current officers. However, the additional hours of training and new training topics will add to the classroom training all officers will have to complete each year.
The Department reserved a squad car for this year, which is on order through the dealership that received the State of Illinois contract for squad cars. Once it is certain there will even be a squad car available this year, CHIEF to bring the purchase options to the Council for their advice and consent. The purchase was budgeted for 2022.
Additional cameras were ordered after we used the current system, which was purchased from Reveal Media, for approximately a year and found it to be satisfactory. Those cameras were actually ordered for delivery in the 2021 budget year and simply have not arrived yet. Once they arrive, every officer will be assigned a camera and we will be in early compliance with the body camera mandate for departments our size.
Administrative Report: City Staff are working with Bi-State to conduct a salary study. CITY ADMINISTRATOR/CHIEF Sullivan received a copy of the 2021 salary survey they conducted last year. An updated survey, with more accurate information, will be released over the summer of 2022. It will have the latest available information. City Staff will then work toward gathering additional data to put together a more complete comparison of the salary and benefits of competitor government bodies in the region.
City Treasurer’s Report: The Treasurer’s Report has been marked exhibit “B”, attached hereto and made a part of these minutes.
Mayor’s Report: No Report.
Committee Report: An Ordinance & Police Committee meeting to be scheduled for Monday, June 27, 2022 at 6:00 o’clock p.m. in the City Council Chambers.
REGULAR COUNCIL SESSION
Following the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag,
CONSENT AGENDA
Motion was made by ALDERMAN KOPP and seconded by ALDERMAN COOPER to approve the following consent agenda items:
• Approval of Minutes of the Regular Meeting of June 06, 2022.
• Approval of Finance Invoice Listing – AP11.
A Roll Call vote was recorded as follows:
YES: Bertrand, Chausse, Cooper, Holmes, Kopp, and Sarabasa. NO: None. Motion carried. 6 yeas, 0 nays.
PUBLIC COMMENT: No Report.
ACTION ITEMS:
RESOLUTION NO. 31R, SERIES OF 2022; APPROVING PROPOSAL FOR PERFORMANCE OF SEALCOATING OF PAVED SURFACES IN THE ALEDO CEMETERY IN THE AMOUNT OF $16,450.00:
Motion was made by ALDERMAN BERTRAND and seconded by ALDERMAN KOPP to approve Resolution No. 31R, Series of 2022; Approving Proposal for Performance of Sealcoating of Paved Surfaces by Henderson County Highway Department in the Aledo Cemetery in the amount of $16,450.00. A Roll Call vote was recorded as follows:
YES: Chausse, Cooper, Holmes, Kopp, Sarabasa, and Bertrand. NO: None. Motion carried. 6 yeas, 0 nays.
RESOLUTION NO. 32R, SERIES OF 2022; APPROVING A MASTER SERVICES AGREEMENT AND A TASK ORDER FOR PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING SERVICES:
Motion was made by ALDERMAN CHAUSSE and seconded by ALDERMAN HOLMES to approve Resolution No. 32R, Series of 2022; Approving a Master Services Agreement and a Task Order for Professional Engineering Services with HDR Engineering on a recurring basis (Task 1 – On-Call Professional Engineering Services - $5,500.00) and (Task 2 – Subconsultant Services - $3,500.00). A Roll Call vote was recorded as follows:
YES: Cooper, Holmes, Kopp, Sarabasa, Bertrand, and Chausse. NO: None. Motion carried. 6 yeas, 0 nays.
RESOLUTION NO. 33R, SERIES OF 2022; APPROVING THE PURCHASE OF A 2012 DODGE TRUCK FOR THE STREET DIVISION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS IN THE AMOUNT OF $29,454.00:
Motion was made by ALDERMAN CHAUSSE and seconded by ALDERMAN HOLMES to approve Resolution No. 33R, Series of 2022; Approving the Purchase of a 2012 Dodge Truck for the Street Division of the Department of Public Works in the amount of $29,454.00 from Essig Motors, Inc. in Aledo, Illinois. A Roll Call vote was recorded as follows:
YES: Holmes, Kopp, Sarabasa, Bertrand, and Chausse. NO: Cooper. Motion carried. 5 yeas, 1 nay.
RESOLUTION NO. 34R, SERIES OF 2022; APPROVING THE PURCHASE OF A 2017 FORD TRUCK FOR THE WATER DIVISION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS IN THE AMOUNT OF $48,537.00:
Motion was made by ALDERMAN CHAUSSE and seconded by ALDERMAN BERTRAND to approve Resolution No. 33R, Series of 2022; Approving the Purchase of a 2017 Ford Truck for the Water Division of the Department of Public Works in the amount of $48,537.00 from Essig Motors, Inc. in Aledo, Illinois. A Roll Call vote was recorded as follows:
YES: Kopp, Sarabasa, Bertrand, Chausse, Cooper, and Holmes. NO: None. Motion carried. 6 yeas, 0 nays.
OLD BUSINESS: ALD. Chausse inquired on the tabled Resolution No. 30R, Series of 2022; Approving Cash Farm Lease Agreements between the City of Aledo and Rick Gillespie. CITY CLERK Dale reported the item to be listed on the agenda on 07/05/22.
ALD. Sarabasa inquired on a property maintenance issue within the city limits. CHIEF Sullivan reported the property (no address provided) could be condemned. CHIEF, DPW Blaser and ALD. Sarabasa to discuss the matter further after the City Council meeting.
NEW BUSINESS:
ALD. Chausse inquired on the status of regulations regarding an AirBnB within the corporate limits of Aledo. City Staff reported they are currently allowed.
DPW Blaser reported the 6-2 Truck is currently in need of repair. Estimates for repair were reported in the amount of $11,000.00. Sexton Ford would be completing the repairs for the City. The item to be formally approved at the next regularly city council meeting. A consensus was given by the CITY COUNCIL to proceed with scheduling the repairs.
ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, motion was made by ALDERMAN CHAUSSE and seconded by ALDERMAN KOPP that the meeting be adjourned. A Unanimous voice vote followed in agreement. Meeting was adjourned at 7:29 P.M.
https://www.aledoil.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_06202022-325