Lincoln, Illinois

January 19, 2010

Minutes of a regular City Council Meeting held in the Council Chambers of City Hall, Lincoln, IL, on Tuesday, January 19, 2010.

Mayor Snyder called the regular City Council Meeting to order at 7:15 p.m.  City Clerk Mrs. Martinek called the roll.  There were nine Aldermen present (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Turner, and Alderman Wilmert) and one absent (Alderman Tibbs). Also present were Fire Chief Hulett, City Engineer Mr. Mathon, EMC Manager Mr. Tackett, Safety Building and Zoning Officer Mr. Last, and Detective Paul Adams.  Also present were City Treasurer Mr. Plotner, City Clerk Mrs. Martinek, Mayor Snyder, Assistant City Attorney Mr. Blinn Bates, and Recording Secretary Mrs. Riggs.

Mayor Snyder asked for a moment of silence for Alderman Neitzel’s mom Mrs. Newman because she was Mrs. Republican for a lot of years here in Logan County, Mr. Mark Graff who was our janitor here in City Hall died in a fire this weekend which was a tragic loss, Ron Hardy who is a retired Lincoln Police Officer who passed away and also Tom Culnan who served on Zoning Board of appeals passed away.

Those present recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag led by Alderman Hoinacki.

Presentation by Joel Smiley of the Lincoln/Logan Development Partnership

Mr. Smiley went over the 2009 annual report and a copy was handed out to everyone. 

Mayor Snyder called for the Consent Agenda:

Minutes of the Adjourned City Council Meeting on 01/04/2010

Payment of Bills and Claims:  Finance, Fire, Water and ESDA, Buildings and Grounds, Insurance, Ordinance and Zoning, Police, Sanitation, Sewerage, Street & Alleys, and Sidewalks, Forestry, Lighting

Alderman Anderson said I would move to approve the Consent Agenda as printed and Alderman Horn seconded it.  Mayor Snyder asked if there was any discussion.  City Clerk Mrs. Martinek called the roll call.  There were nine yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Turner, and Alderman Wilmert), zero nays, and one absent (Alderman Tibbs); motion carried. 

Mayor Snyder asked for the Presentation of Petitions:

There were no Petitions to come before the City Council.

Lincoln, Illinois

January 19, 2010; Page 2

Mayor Snyder asked for the Presentation of Communications:

Mary Kelly said thank you for allowing me to come and speak to you and said she was running for Circuit Clerk and I just want to take a moment to introduce myself.  I have been out meeting a lot of people and enjoying every minute of it.  I’d like to say that I am a lifelong resident of Lincoln, Logan County.  I have been employed in the Circuit Clerk’s office for 31 years.  I was the Chief Deputy Circuit Clerk for 17 years hired at age 18.  I was trained in all areas that way when someone was gone or they needed extra help I was able to fill in.  I have also trained others in all areas of the office.  I have worked in our Logan County court rooms for over 19 years.  I have worked in the Civil Division for a little over 12 years now.  Of course, two divisions generally Criminal Division has such things such as traffic, felony, misdemeanor and we also have a Civil Division which is small claims, foreclosures, dissolutions and of course child support which is the area that I am in right now.  I am currently the Logan County Child Support Clerk.  As I said earlier I trained everybody in all areas.  I basically want to say that I am the only candidate that has worked in every area of that office from beginning when something is filed to the end where it is closed.  As Chief Deputy some of my responsibilities I would take care of any situation that came up when the clerk was absent from the office, I helped sit in on hiring processes as well as made decisions on who was hired, I supervise part time employees, and I guess it is also for the county to know and the people of Lincoln to know that the office handles anywhere between $90,000.00 to $100,000.00 per month funds received in as well as distributed.  I want to add some of my thoughts if elected as Logan County Circuit Clerk I definitely want to get direct deposit started within our child support area.  I have had a lot of requests for that over the years that is one thing that was just never addressed.  I also have been a very dedicated public servant for the people of Logan County and I feel like giving that kind of service to anyone that comes into our office is priority in my eyes.  I want people to be able to walk into the office maybe not get the exact answer they were looking for but at least give them the resource to find what they are needing and the direction to go.  Again, I want to say that I feel that I am the most qualified candidate for the position because of my 31 years of experience.  I also want to remind everybody that the election is February 2 and if there are any questions I would sure like to try to answer them. 

Detective Paul Adams read a letter from Police Chief Erlenbush regarding the death of Ron Hardy.

Mayor Snyder asked for the Presentation of Bids:

There were no Bids to come before the City Council.

The Mayor then asked for the Presentation of Ordinances and Resolutions:

Ordinance Amending Title 8, Chapter 10 pertaining to Signs of the City Code of the City of Lincoln (tabled 4/28/09)

Alderman Neitzel said she would like to leave this on the table.

Lincoln, Illinois

January 19, 2010; Page 3

Resolution declaring Saturday, January 30, 2010 as Veterans of Foreign Wars Cronin Brothers Post 1756 Day

Alderman Neitzel asked City Clerk Mrs. Martinek to read the Resolution.  City Clerk Mrs. Martinek read the Resolution.  Alderman Neitzel made a motion to accept the Resolution as read and Alderman Hoinacki seconded it.  Mayor Snyder asked if there was any discussion.  City Clerk Mrs. Martinek called the roll call.  There were nine yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Turner, and Alderman Wilmert), zero nays, and one absent (Alderman Tibbs); motion carried.  Mayor Snyder said I think the day starts with breakfast in the morning and continues on through all day long into the evening with an auction at some point and should be quite a day so we wish them the best. 

Resolution to resurface 5^th Street Road

Alderman Neitzel asked City to read the Resolution.  City Clerk Mrs. Martinek read the Resolution.  Alderman Neitzel made a motion to accept the Resolution as read and Alderman Hoinacki seconded it.  Mayor Snyder asked if there was discussion on this. 

Alderman Anderson said I will be voting no on this.  I don’t have any problems with the road improvements the milling, patching, resurfacing, but the signal at 5^th Street and College I don’t know where all of it was initiated in terms of whether there was an Alderman at that time that pushed it but the consensus that I have heard back is that and this isn’t my ward but I still heard input that they really don’t want that signal.  As for the money that it would cost for our portion of that signal, I’d rather we use it for road improvements.

Alderman Wilmert said that is the feedback that I have received as well.  It kind of caught me by surprise for the reasons that you mentioned earlier that it was initiated earlier before my time on the Council and not knowing about how the members of my ward would feel about it we (Alderman Horn and I) decided to conduct some polling and I do believe lincolncourier.com also put a poll on the website.  The response to that was a majority of people were not in favor of it and also I did receive three letters from people in support of it and one of which doesn’t even live in Lincoln anymore.  I also received phone calls vehemently opposed to it most from property owners that are nearby but also from others.  I will be voting against this if not at the very least proposing an amendment to take out that particular portion and save it for another date or change the location put the stoplight somewhere where it made more sense perhaps by the school or wherever. 

Alderman Horn said this is my ward and I am very interested in what the people have to say about it and a lot of the people that did contact me about it that are opposed to it said where did it come from.  I told them it had been brought up and because I was on the Council when it was brought up, Verl Prather did bring it up.  They did the proposed study on it and they said that it was not necessary and then nothing was said again until this came up last week. 

Lincoln, Illinois

January 19, 2010; Page 4

Resolution to resurface 5^th Street Road

Alderman Horn said it did not give anybody any time to come up here to talk about it if they haven’t read much about it last week so I am going to be voting no about it until more people have a chance to let us know what they really feel. 

Alderman Armbrust said I have a question for Mr. Mathon. Is that your understanding that it would be a car triggered light?  It is not one that every two minutes it is going to stop everything on 5^th Street. 

Mr. Mathon said my understanding of it was that it would be a video detection system triggered by the traffic that was waiting on College Street. 

Alderman Armbrust said I personally go across College quite frequently and quite honestly at the wrong time of day it is a mistake you cannot get across 5^th Street.  I have to turn away from town until I can turn again. 

Alderman Anderson said that can be said as well at the Union crossing and I go across that everyday and at the time I go sometimes you have to wait a long time.  Alderman Wilmert said that is where my car wreck occurred so I understand. 

Alderman Bacon said I will also be voting no simply because I don’t think that 5^th and College is an appropriate place for a stoplight.  If we are going to have one it should be placed more for safety which I feel down by the school would be more appropriate.  I do believe we need one on that long stretch of 5^th Street but I think it needs to be placed somewhere other than 5^th and College. 

Mr. Mathon said just for clarification when the request was sent in to IDOT for a traffic count to be done the counts came back that, and I did not pull the letter out of the file and bring it with me tonight.  The warrants were met except for the actual traffic count but with the growth and traffic that is attributed in those studies over a 5 year span it did meet all the warrants required for a traffic light.  When those results came back and they were discussing this resurfacing project the decision was made at IDOT to roll the intersection work into the resurfacing work.  When the city was notified of that there was a copy of that letter from IDOT the memo that was distributed and discussed on the floor that that was what the results were and would be proceeding from it.  Again it has been sometime ago and I don’t exactly know what the date was on it. 

Alderman Anderson said so is the deal that they have to be done together both or none or can we exclude a light.  Mr. Mathon said the IDOT project as presented at this point is for both of the intersection work to be done and the resurfacing if the city elects not to participate in it I am not sure where that leaves it. 

Lincoln, Illinois

January 19, 2010; Page 5

Resolution to resurface 5^th Street Road

Alderman Wilmert said I asked last week if we were legally obligated to accept that letter of intent and the answer I got from legal counsel at the time was no but I certainly can’t see being held hostage by IDOT’s preferences as to how we regulate our traffic lights so if we were to separate that out or do it at another time or simply strip that provision I can’t see how we can be prevented from doing that. 

Alderman Busby said Mr. Attorney can we strike that part out of the Resolution. 

Assistant City Attorney Mr. Blinn Bates said we can’t right now because we have a motion and a second unless you withdraw it.  You are basically going to be going back to the Department and counter offer to them what you want them to do.  You would not be accepting their letter of intent to essentially be counter offering which I mean they could tell you no. 

Alderman Busby said I can always amend the motion.  (Tape changed). Alderman Wilmert said with the provision that x and y be changed so that we could get somewhere. 

Mr. Blinn Bates said we would need to do that in a different meeting if that is the case.  The Resolution that you are voting on now is to authorize the mayor to sign the letter of intent. 

Alderman Wilmert said we could vote that down then have another motion to proceed with one that lacked the stoplight would that be accepted.  I don’t know how they can tell us no you must absolutely put this in or we’re not going to resurface the road. 

Mr. Mathon said one concern and I don’t know how founded it would be, would be that if the city were to say we will participate say for intersection for traffic signal improvements at 5^th and College in the future the state may say that signals are required there.  It’s on your dime instead of the state participating in federal dollars.  How founded that concern is I’m not sure. 

Alderman Wilmert said at this point I am not willing to take that consideration that it may be unfounded and go against the wishes of the people in my ward and the people that responded so we’ll wait for that day as far as I am concerned. 

Alderman Neitzel said I have gone down that street a lot in the past six months and I have waited and waited to cross College.  I don’t know if the traffic from CEFCU is the one that promotes all of that traffic or it can be a factor the box factory but Alderman Bacon said we need a light maybe somewhere on 5^th Street I agree.  I don’t think it should be at the school I think we should stop the traffic before it gets to the school.  I’ve thought we needed a light there for a long time so I will be voting for it. 

Lincoln, Illinois

January 19, 2010; Page 6

Resolution to resurface 5^th Street Road

Alderman Wilmert said the discussion of whether or not it’s merit worthy to have a light is not something that as a general rule I think needs to have some more input from the city and this proposal was put on the table or at least came to this point last week and then a week later it’s going to be voted on reminds me of a bad bill being shoved through Congress without a lot of scrutiny and a lot of input so I am going to respectfully ask the members of the Council to respect the wishes of the people that have replied thus far and also respect Alderman Horn and my opinion on this in as much as it lies within our ward to vote against this tonight and resubmit later when there has been due consideration for that light. 

Alderman Turner said there was a time constraint in the original letter.  Mayor Snyder said yes they asked us to in order to allow them to maintain their schedule to respond within 14 days.  He said Alderman Wilmert it was not in an attempt. 

Alderman Wilmert said I understand if we are able to vote this down for now or respectfully decline their offer to have a stop light put there that we could have the attorney submit a letter or however the mechanics are done.  I don’t want to get involved in that and mired down in that this moment. 

Alderman Turner said can we just strike that line in the letter and authorize the mayor to sign it so, my concern is that this is resurfacing basically all of the 5^th Street Road and the traffic signal but with the way the IDOT process goes if you take it off the table it could be several years before it comes back up again.  I don’t just want to decline it if there is someway around it where we can approve but just remove whatever part. 

Alderman Wilmert said Alderman Busby what kind of an amendment were you thinking of.  Alderman Busby said to remove it. 

Mayor Snyder said what is before us is the Resolution authorizing me to sign the letter of intent. I suppose we would have to amend the Resolution to say I could sign the letter of intent with the exception of whatever you would want to exclude.  Would that be a way to handle that?

Mr. Blinn Bates said we’re not going to be able to do that.  City Clerk Mrs. Martinek called the roll call.  There were two yeas (Alderman Armbrust and Alderman Busby), seven nays (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Turner, and Alderman Wilmert), and one absent (Alderman Tibbs); motion failed.  Mayor Snyder said perhaps we need to have further discussion.  Alderman Wilmert said if we need to have a special meeting and instruct the attorney to do whatever is necessary to adopt a proper letter, whatever.  Mayor Snyder said we’ll have to discuss at the workshop to have a clear understanding of what you would like to see done. 

Lincoln, Illinois

January 19, 2010; Page 7

Resolution for resurfacing of Illinois 10

Alderman Neitzel asked City Clerk Mrs. Martinek to read the Resolution.  Mrs. Martinek read the Resolution.  Alderman Neitzel said I make a motion to accept the Resolution as read and Alderman Hoinacki seconded it.  Mayor Snyder asked if there was any discussion.  City Clerk Mrs. Martinek called the roll call.  There were nine yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Turner, and Alderman Wilmert), zero nays, and one absent (Alderman Tibbs); motion carried. 

Presentation of Official Reports:

There were no official reports to come before the City Council.

Presentation of Special Reports:

City Clerk’s Report for December 2009 is on file.

City Treasurer Mr. Plotner gave an oral report for the month of December 2009. 

Presentation of Unfinished Business:

Written reports from Department Heads were submitted in writing. 

Mayor Snyder said in the EMC report they had an accident free year and congratulated them.  The Fire Department has attached all the call for 2009. 

Mayor Snyder asked for New Business:

Highway Authority Agreement for Illico Property (tabled 2/2/09)

Alderman Turner said I would like to remove from the table and Alderman Armbrust seconded it. City Clerk Mrs. Martinek called the roll call.  There were nine yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Turner, and Alderman Wilmert), zero nays, and one absent (Alderman Tibbs); motion carried.  Alderman Turner said I would like to remove from the agenda and Alderman Armbrust seconded it.  Mayor Snyder asked if there was any discussion.  There were nine yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Turner, and Alderman Wilmert), zero nays, and one absent (Alderman Tibbs); motion carried. 

Permission to go out to bid for Zion, Kmart, and Singleton Lift Station modifications

Alderman Busby said I move to go out for bids on the Zion, Kmart and Singleton lift station modification bids to be returned to the City Clerk’s office by March 23, 2010 by 5:00 p.m. and Alderman Neitzel seconded it.  Mayor Snyder said asked if there was discussion.  City Clerk Mrs. Martinek called the roll call. 

Lincoln, Illinois

January 19, 2010; Page 8

Permission to go out to bid for Zion, Kmart, and Singleton Lift Station modifications

There were nine yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Turner, and Alderman Wilmert), zero nays, and one absent (Alderman Tibbs); motion carried. 

Permission to go out for bid on a second police vehicle

Alderman Hoinacki said I move to go out for bids for permission for bids on a second police vehicle with the bids to be received back to City Hall on Tuesday, February 9, 2010 by 5:00 p.m. Alderman Horn seconded.  Mayor Snyder asked if there was any discussion.  Alderman Turner said is there anyway that we can bid because we just bid another police car.  Alderman Hoinacki said yeah that's why we said second vehicle we are putting this together.  City Clerk Mrs. Martinek called the roll call.  There were nine yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Turner, and Alderman Wilmert), zero nays, and one absent (Alderman Tibbs); motion carried. 

Announcements

Mr. Plotner said the bid on the police pension fund the $2,000,006.00 went out to CEFCU at 1.9% interest rate. 

Mayor Snyder said just two announcements Mr. Smiley alluded to this earlier.  This Saturday 8:30 is round 2 of the economic development summit.  All of you and the public is invited to attend you don't have to have read the book and there is not going to be a test or anything on the book that is going to be discussed.  Feel free to come everyone is invited and don't have to pre-register or anything just come.  It will be from 8:30 to noon in R49 in Restoration Hall. Just go in Chapel Drive at Lincoln Christian University it is the first building on your right, go right in the front door and you go right straight back and you'll walk into the room and everyone is welcome to attend that. 

Mayor Snyder said Saturday evening the Chamber is having their Annual Chamber dinner and it is at the American Legion $25.00 per person there is a social hour from 6-7, dinner is at 7 and the program is at 8 and deserts are at 9 an evening full there. 

Alderman Busby said I move to adjourn and Alderman Anderson seconded it.  There were nine yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Turner, and Alderman Wilmert), zero nays, and one absent (Alderman Tibbs); motion carried. 

The City Council Meeting was adjourned at 8:06 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted By: Risa Riggs, Recording Secretary