City of Chenoa City Council met Oct. 25.
Here are the minutes provided by the council:
The Chenoa City Council met in regular session at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall. Mayor Wilder, Commissioners Buchanan, Price, Moreland, Daiker, Attorney Mann, Treasurer Rowold and City Clerk Rhoades were in attendance.
#5447 Commissioners Buchanan and Price moved and seconded the Motion that the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of October 11, 2022 and the Minutes of the Executive Sessions of September 13, 2022 and October 11, 2022 be approved. That the bills and payrolls be allowed, and orders on the Treasurer be drawn in payment of same. The roll call vote was affirmative.
#5448 Commissioners Buchanan and Moreland moved and seconded the Motion to Approve Signing a Letter of Intent Regarding a Solar Farm Installation on City Property and on Terms and Conditions Set Forth by Cenery and to Enroll in the Alinois Adjustable Block Program. Letter to be Executed by November 1, 2022.The roll call vote was affirmative.
#5449 Commissioners Buchanan and Price moved and seconded the Motion to Approve an Ordinance Abating the Tax heretofore Levied for the Year 2022 to Pay Debt Service on the General Obligation Bonds, Series 2017, of the City of Chenoa, McLean County, Illinois. Ordinance #844. The roll call vote was affirmative.
#5450 Commissioners Price and Buchanan moved and seconded the Motion to Approve to Allow the Mayor to Sign an Intergovernmental Agreement between McLean County Highway Department, McLean County Board and the City of Chenoa for Jurisdictional Transfer of County Highway 19/Division Street within the City of Chenoa. The roll call vote was affirmative.
#5451 Commissioners Moreland and Daiker moved and seconded the Motion to Approve to Accept the Water Main Replacement Bid from Opperman Construction. The roll call vote was affirmative.
#5452 Commissioners Daiker and Moreland moved and seconded the Motion to Approve to Place Clear Well Replacement Out for Bid. The roll call vote was affirmative.
#5453 Commissioners Price and Buchanan moved and seconded the Motion to Approve an Ordinance Amending Title 8, Chapter 2, Section 15 of the City Code Regarding Water/Wastewater Customer Deposits. Ordinance #845. The roll call vote was affirmative.
#5454 Commissioners Buchanan and Price moved and seconded the Motion to Approve MOU to the Contract between Illinois Council of Police and the City of Chenoa. The roll call vote was affirmative.
#5455 Commissioners Daiker and Moreland moved and seconded the Motion that the council do now adjourn. The roll call vote was affirmative.
IN OTHER BUSINESS BEFORE THE COUNCIL:
Comments from the Floor
Nancy Todd said the Chenoa Revitalization Committee is wrapping up some of the park work. She thanked the council, the city employees, and Prairieland Foundation for all of their help. In 12 months they raised over $40,000 for the park project. They are finishing the sidewalk that will attach to the sidewalk on Owsley by the pavilion and go along the playground and attach to the sidewalk that goes to the restrooms. She said Dave Sipe has done well with the landscape and has agreed to take care of the upkeep on the landscape and mulch around the trees. They are also working on a communication board for children to use to help understand what they would like to do at the park. They do ask the City to help with finishing the pavilion on the West side of the park.
Liz Easley said they have worked really hard at getting all the bushes trimmed and everything cleaned up around the gazebo. She said they asked the City to pick up the pots before they freeze and break. Commissioner Price said that is on the agenda.
Dave Shane said he feels it needs to be mentioned that the Silliman Fund has put in over $150,000 for the park project as well.
Grant Writer Introduction
Commissioner Buchanan introduced Brandee Anderson as the grant writer that has been helping them with some stuff. Brandee said she started grant writing 20 years ago as a teacher. She started The Grant Lady LLC about two years ago. She has got federal and state grants before. She has not applied for any water grants before. She said she looks forward to working witht he City and asked the council to give her a list of things they need so she can get started looking for grants.
Land use for solar power with presentations from Cenergy
Bill Pham with Cenergy said their goal is to help small communities benefit from going solar. They build and maintain offsite solar farms, generating clean energy. This can reduce utility bills. They have been operating for 15 years. The program has a limited capacity and the communities that move the quickest do benefit the most. The projects are selected annually. The biggest project to date is at the Indianapolis Airport. They do all the work to get the permissions to build the solar farm. Ameran will benefit from having the energy on their grid. Typically there is a 20% discount for the local residents to benefit from. The program window opens next Tuesday. If they can get all the paperwork they need they can get on the list. If they do not hit the open window next week they will have to wait until about the same time next year. Since this is on municipal land they can apply for a smaller category on November 30. They do all the maintenance on the solar farm. They will come out and clean them off of snow if necessary. They would pay around $100,00, to $200,00 to the City. Commissioner Moreland said this will be placed Northeast of town by the sewer plant. There is no cost to the City to do this. The council agreed to move forward with this project.
Ordinance Abating the Tax heretofore Levied for the Year 2022 to Pay Debt Service on the General Obligation Bonds, Series 2017, of the City of Chenoa, McLean County, Illinois
Mayor Wilder said this is done yearly for the bond that is to pay for the water tower and water plant several years ago. This allows them to pay for the bond in ways other than increasing taxes. The $6.00 surcharge and 1% tax increase a few years back is what pays for the bond. Attorney Mann said they are doing good in the fund and no need for increasing anything. The council had no questions or concerns.
Allow the Mayor to Sign an Intergovernmental Agreement between McLean County Highway Department, McLean County Board and the City of Chenoa for Jurisdictional Transfer of County Highway 19/Division Street within the City of Chenoa
Mayor Wilder said this has been discussed for some time now. It was requested out for a bid again which the City did, but as prices have gone up this bid was higher. McLean County has offered a one time lump sum of $225,000 for the City to take over the road. The McLean County Board has offered some of their ARPA funds to the City in the amount of roughly $234,000. The total money from ARPA and the County would be a little over $700,00. This would be used for the new water mains on Division Street. The lowest bid was $596,00 with one a little over $800,000. This would connect Route 24 on Division Street to Commercial Street under the railroad tracks with an 8 inch main. ARPA can be used for infrastructure projects. Mayor Wilder feels this is a great one to get started with as they know there are multiple places under the railroad tracks they need to get lines back through. The County is going from sidewalk to sidewalk between 24 and Owsley Street with asphalt. They are asphalting outside of their road as a benefit to the City. They also have agreed to pay for the labor of some of the drainage work that will be done. They will be adding a pit by the church on Division Street. The work should not affect the 4th of July. Commissioner Moreland did question the agreement where it states that they will give the City $250,000 if the COunty receives their ARPA funds. Mayor Wilder said they have started receiving their ARPA funds and all the communities have that wording in their agreements as well. Commissioner Buchanan suggested to the council that they vote at some point to restrict $50,000 a year for maintenance on this road. The council had no further questions or concerns.
Water Main Replacement Bid from Opperman Construction
Mayor Wilder said Opperman Construction was the low bid of $596,181. H.J. Eppel was the next lowest bid at $636,525 and Stark Excavating was the last bid at $793,316. Thos costs went up almost ⅓ of what they were prior. The engineer on the project Ryan Hansen, sent the City a letter recommending them to accept the bid from Opperman Construction. The council had no questions and agreed to award the bid to Opperman Construction.
Place Clear Well Replacement Out for Bid
Commissioner Moreland said they discussed a couple meetings ago and it is clear that the clear well needs to be replaced. They spoke with an engineer last Tuesday and this Tuesday. The raw tank is on the west side of the plant and after speaking with the engineers they are going to put the clear tank over there as well. Commissioner Moreland would like to see the clear well as glass but an engineer told him he may want to think about concrete. The concrete would go in faster and less expensive. Treasurer Rowold is going to look to see what money can be used for this. Commissioner Moreland is going to work with the grant writer to see if there are any grants that can be used to help pay for this. The council agreed to get the cost for this and place it out for bid.
Ordinance Amending Title 8, Chapter 2, Section 15 of the City Code Regarding Water/Wastewater Customer Deposits
Mayor Wilder said this would leave the deposit at $100 and help protect the City a little bit. It would still be held in an interest bearing account. Upon the closure of any water account, any deposit shall be reimbursed to the owner within 30 days of the closure of the account. The conditions would be in event there is no unpaid balance on the account, the full amount of the deposit, with interest, shall be provided to the account holder. In the event there exists an unpaid balance on the account, existing deposit and any interest accrued will be applied to the account balance with the remainder of such deposit and interest. The customer must be in good standing which means an account holder who has not been late at least two times within a two-year period. There were no questions or concerns.
MOU to the Contract between Illinois Council of Police and the City of Chenoa
Mayor Wilder said the only change to the full time union police contract is the pay scale. They have always tried to keep up with surrounding communities to keep the officers happy and keep them here. It will increase the pay starting May 2023 to $25.50. It is a 4 year contract with going up $0.50 each year. The council had no questions or concerns.
Attorney's Comments
Attorney Mann asked if the council had looked at the zoning fees yet. Mayor Wilder said they have not but will be looking at that before the next meeting. Commissioner Buchanan said he thought they discussed not changes the fees but just adding a fee in for the fences.
Treasurer’s Comments
Treasurer Rowold gave the council the page that was missing at the last meeting of the restricted funds.
Commissioner’s Comments
Commissioner Daiker thanked the city workers and the volunteers for what they have done to get things done at the park. They are looking at how to connect the sidewalk on Division to the new restrooms.
Commissioner Moreland said the hydrant flushing was completed last Friday. There were some that broke so they will be working on replacing those. They met with three different engineers on what they need to do with the water plant and got three different answers. At the beginning of the year they need to sit down and figure out what they will do. He would like to do 3 blocks of water mains a year and would like to start looking at how to get that process started for the future.
Commissioner Price said the guys have been doing what needs to be done and the blue pots will be picked up.
Commissioner Buchanan said some of the ladies from the Economic Development Committee went to the Main Street Conference in Bloomington last week. One of them will be coming to the next meeting to share what they have learned.
Mayor Wilder said trick-or-treating will be on Halloween from 5:00 to 8:00 pm. The Shop-N-Go has a costume contest that evening and the VFW has a weiner roast at 6:00 as well.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
https://www.chenoail.org/sites/g/files/vyhlif6431/f/minutes/10_25_22.pdf
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