City Council Committee's Meeting
Minutes of the City of
Those present were Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Prather, Alderman Rohlfs, and Alderman Tibbs. Also present were Deputy Police Chief Geriets (he arrived at
Mayor Pro Tem Neitzel called the meeting to order at
The Mayor asked for the Committees' Issues to be Presented:
Ordinance and Zoning:
Mayor Pro Tem Neitzel asked the Attorneys for St. Clara’s Manor to come forward.
Mr. Frank Miles who is an attorney in Bloomington and he represents Heritage Enterprises which was helping St. Clara’s put together a plan for the development of the property. The three things that he thought was being considered were 1) the preliminary subdivision plan which divides this tract up into four (4) lots, 2) final plat that approves the final subdivision plat with two of the lots and the detention basin, 3) involves a concept for a private rebate agreement that they wanted to talk to the Council about, and 4) the plan itself is behind the old Wal-Mart. He talked about bringing the sanitary sewer down through the Wal-Mart property into the property and on both sides of
Mr. Bates said everyone has a copy at their desk of the final plat.
Mr. Miles said years ago when municipalities had more money than they do now what used to happen was public streets, public water and public sanitary sewers got built by the public. Then when property owners that abutted those improvements wanted to use them tapped on and used them or went to the streets and used them.
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Mr. Miles said municipalities would get that money when new development came and chose to use the infrastructure. Currently it is hard for municipalities to up front any money and so many are asking private developers to bear all the costs of public streets, utilities that are necessary to serve the development and that is exactly what St. Clara’s is doing. They are up fronting all the costs necessary to serve that development and in this particular case they are significant. They are bringing the sanitary sewer from the center of the Wal-Mart property south through the Wal-Mart property to get to this property and they had to rebuild a portion of the sewer through Wal-Mart to have sufficient size to carry the affluent from this subdivision and property further to the south. They were working out a deal with sharing the cost with the hospital. A private rebate agreement to establish in advance the charges to use or tamp into that a developer builds. He had prepared a private rebate agreement and had furnished a copy to Mr. Bates over the past few weeks and it is a document that essentially says when the property owner to the South wants to use that street they have to pay for the costs of that street. If the property owner to the south never chooses to do anything then they never pay anything. The whole thing goes away in 25 years and they get to use it for free if they wait that long.
Mr. Bates said the private rebate agreement that the developer is proposing is an agreement between the developer and the City of
Mr. Miles said what it says is when the property owner to the south either wants to use the street cut the curb or tap into the sanitary sewer they have to get permission from the city the city is going to tell them about this document and collect that fee from the developer at that time. They are also going to record a copy of it so if that property to the south were to change hands somebody that checks the title to the property would know that that private rebate agreement is in effect. He said Mr. Bates indicated some concern about how are we going to remember this agreement 10 years from now we added some language well we hope you’ll try but if you don’t and you forget we are going to hold you harmless from that omission and what you do is give us the right to go after that property owner to south and collect from that property owner to the south. He said they could not make them adopt this we are asking you to adopt this. He said Ben Hart was present from Heritage and he is the principle that has been involved in the development and he is an engineer with Lewis, Yoskey and Brown if you have any specific questions.
Mr. Bates said this matter has been before the Planning Commission twice. It was before the Planning Commission in February on the preliminary plan and it was unanimously approved at that time by those members in attendance of the Planning Commission. This month, last week, the final plat was before the Planning Commission and I think Mr. Mathon has given you a letter as to what the Planning Commission did but the Planning Commission voted unanimously among those members present to approve the final plat and there were conditions attached to that approval. There is a requirement in our code that there has to be a construction and maintenance bond submitted by the developer for the infrastructure before the Final Plat is approved which they are in the process of doing.
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Mr. Bates said there was a request for a waiver for the sidewalks under Section
Alderman Rohlfs said the cost of development to the south if someone does not buy that property for 15 years does that price remain the same or does that adjust with inflation. Mr. Miles said there is an escalator in the rebate agreement of 6% so the cost of the infrastructure increases by 6%. Mr. Bates said compounded annually.
Alderman Tibbs said after reading the minutes I thought it was very interesting you didn’t miss a trick and all your ducks seem to be in a row. I will be voting in favor of it.
Mr. Miles said they would be extending it all the way to the hospital and whether it continues as a public street from there is up to the hospital. The plan is to make it a public street that far.
Mr. Bates said to Fire Chief Hulett that he had concerns about this.
City Council Committee's Meeting
Fire Chief Hulett said he and Mr. Mathon had talked this week about some accessibility issues for the fire equipment. Mr. Miles said there are some increased turning radiuses that they are working on. Alderman Rohlfs asked if there were any contingencies that had to have before they vote on this.
Mr. Bates said yes there are some but had every confidence they would be done. The condition that has not yet been met is to finalize the construction and maintenance bond and the easement shown on the final plat and I am confident those will all be done when it comes on a final vote on the 6th.
Mr. Miles said they were going with a letter of credit which essentially means that a local financial institution will vouch for the developer and if for some reason the developer doesn’t do what they promise to do. Mr. Bates said I briefly looked at the letter of credit and it stated it would expire 1 year after it was accepted and I think the maintenance bond has to be for 18 months. Mr. Mathon said that is correct.
Mr. Miles said there is a performance bond that essentially says they will do the work. Then there is a workmanship’s bond that says we will guarantee the work. His understanding of the ordinance they have to be secured separated and if that is wrong then we can modify what I sent you.
Mr. Bates said you plan to use separate letters of credit. Mr. Miles said right, one is for the cost of completing the work and the other is the cost of guaranteeing the work for 18 months. Mr. Bats said he agreed with that.
Mr. Kitzmiller asked Mr. Bates if this agreement restricted the city in any way as far as the next developer or the second half that we are speaking of if that for some reason were to require the city to do something down stream to be able to service that development does this agreement restrict the city from collecting anything extra from that developer because of what he is causing us to have to upgrade.
Mr. Bates said if the developer is to the south that developer cannot connect at all unless they pay the cost of the private rebate agreement. I don’t think there is anything in that agreement there would say if in to the amount they have to pay the first developer the city says you have to pay us x number of dollars for us extending that sewer. I don’t think there is anything in that agreement that prevents that and the developer to the south is not going to like that. I mean if they have to pay for what is already done and then they have to pay the city. He said we aren’t going to pay them for it are we.
Mr. Kitzmiller said specifically the question is this first phase of this development is not going to cause any issues for us downstream. Mr. Bates said downstream meaning which way. Mr. Kitzmiller said downstream of the sewer from their property.
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Mr. Bates said are you meaning up to the lift station. Mr. Kitzmiller said yes, the next phase will. Mr. Bates said the next phase is going to require us to upgrade the system north of there. Mr. Kitzmiller said correct. Mr. Bates said this sewer will not service development to the south, is that what you are saying?
Mr. Kitzmiller said the next phase meaning they have another building the hospital comes in, another developer goes to the south, and anything that happens there of any size is going to cause those two lift stations to be upsized. Will this agreement prohibit us from saying your share of the upsizing is this?
Mr. Bates said not by the terms of the rebate agreement but in reality they will probably say well we’re not going to pay for what is already done it didn’t ask to be upgraded.
Mr. Miles said he thought that was the point exactly. Each time when we come in with the second phase with our second final plat you are going to have to make a determination at that time whether there is enough downstream capacity to approve that second phase. Similarly the property owner to the south comes in and says I want to connect to the sewer that St. Clara’s brought threw their property and go down to the two pump stations you’re going to have to make a determination at that time whether there is sufficient capacity. Similarly the hospital will say we want to get into that sewer you make that determination. I don’t think there is anything in the rebate agreement that says you have to approve additional development you always have the right to say no there’s not capacity but if you say there is capacity then that property owner to the south has to pay Heritage for what they say is fair for what St. Clara’s brought through. I think until people know the densities that are being proposed it is real hard to know whether there is capacity or not. I guess as the next phase comes in there is going to be a careful analysis of whether there is or isn’t capacity downstream. He said downstream means up.
Mr. Bates said if future developers connected via the hospital or St. Clara’s that they expand via the property to the south is the line that St. Clara’s has put in efficient to handle that additional capacity. Mr. Kitzmiller said if I am understanding yes. Mr. Bates said it would be the lift station that’s the problem not the line so I guess what I am trying to get at is the work that St. Clara’s has done is still of value because it can still be used it’s just from the lift stations on is the problem. Mr. Kitzmiller said correct. Mr. Bates said if the developers to the south were required to repay St. Clara’s for half the cost of the sewer they put in they are still getting value from that, correct? Mr. Kitzmiller said yes.
Mr. Bates said there is nothing in the agreement that says we can’t try to make them pay half of the lift station upgrade. Now, will they say to us well wait a minute I’m not paying St. Clara’s and you yeah they probably will. We have the ultimate say we can fine they can’t connect.
Alderman Rohlfs asked to have this on the agenda.
City Council Committee's Meeting
Mr. Bates said he thought they probably needed to put the, technically it would be the final plat approval for Castle Manor Subdivision and the private rebate agreement.
Mr. Mathon said the construction plans based on the comments that were given the question posed to me was do they have to have those prior to the approval of the final plat or can that be final plat is done proper that is approved and the construction plans pending final approval of my office.
Mr. Bates thought the construction plans per say are a separate matter from the final plat. The final plat is what the council is being asked to approve. The construction plans have to be approved by you and ultimately by the Council but I don’t think that is before them on the 6th.
Mr. Mathon said they have sent to him as being revised right now to incorporate the comments from the Fire Chief. Mr. Bates asked if he believed the construction plans will be ready for vote on the 6th. Mr. Mathon said he didn’t know if they would be.
Mr. Bates said if not they would table that part of it because he did not think they had to be done at the same time. We haven’t done that before have we?
Mr. Mathon said he needed to check his notes on a couple of previous ones and thought that the approval was based on the final plat that was submitted and final approval of the construction plans.
Mr. Bates said if it is ok with you let’s make it the final plat of Castle Manor, the rebate agreement and the final construction plans, all separately. He said they still want to move forward with the final plat even if we don’t have the construction plans ready to be approved or the rebate agreement.
Alderman Rohlfs said she wanted to put the Resolution for the Prison the agenda and they would not read that tonight. She said she also had a Proclamation here for the National Public Safety Telecommunications week and asked to have that on the agenda.
Sewer Treatment Plant, Sewers and Drainage:
Chairman Alderman Neitzel said we have a gentleman here to discuss the electricity plan.
Mr. Kitzmiller said we have Mr. Mike Ellis here from Mid American Energy and he is going to go over the information that I handed out two weeks in quite a bit more detail than I did as well as let you know how the whole situation works and how we arrived at the pricing that we have.
Mr. Ellis said he was here more to answer questions and to explain how everything works so at any time stop him and he had a handout for them. He started with a brief overview of who Mid American is.
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Mr. Ellis said they are a utility for roughly 80% of
City Council Committee's Meeting
Mr. Ellis said it had been talked about for years. After 911 the Federal Government and Federal Energy Regulatory commission made an assertive effort to be able to move electricity around the nation easily in case there was a problem somewhere. MISO handles the border point to the substation part now those lines are owned by Ameren but they are administered and cared for through MISO. From the substation to the meter that’s the Ameren piece (distribution piece) this piece is tariff Federal level and this piece is tariff state level by the Illinois Commerce Commission handles all those components. The budgetary analysis shows what the pieces are broken out and what they are projected to look like over the term.
Mr. Kitzmiller said those were the graphs that he handed out two weeks ago and they were thirty days, the last thirty days, the last year and then from December 2005 forward.
Mr. Ellis said he had the city broken out into two separate entities. The sewer department or wastewater department and then the rest of the city and the reason that he did that was 1) the sewer department is the largest user for the city and it operates under its own budget and if he mixed them together the sewer system would subsidize the rest of the city. He said they were working with Godfrey and
Mr. Bates said that is not what this chart shows.
Mr. Kitzmiller said what that chart is doing is Mr. Ellis’ chart and his savings does not include taxes. He went back and calculated what the taxes would be and he projected them onto his numbers. Our savings and taxes are going to be a little less than what these project. He did this so they could make sure and see actually the dollars what we were spending and what we have to budget for because we have to budget for the taxes.
Mr. Ellis said the reason that it is less of a savings is the farther out you go you can look at the market trend charts, the graphs and look at each calendar year but there is one called balance 09 and that is the balance of 2009 and you have Calendar year 2010, Calendar year 2011, and Calendar Year 2012. The farther out you go the more electricity is but even if you go out to 2012 it is still at a point that is not traded at in five years.
City Council Committee's Meeting
Mr. Ellis said he was not saying the lowest point in the market but it is a very good price point. It is for 1, 2, or 3 years from now when the economy covers and the market is back to a normal level the increase that you have to deal with. He said there were ways to limit that. He said Ameren is mandated by the State of
Mr. Bates said if we sign a 44 month contract with you do you procure that power at that point when we sign a contract for that 44 months. Mr. Ellis said correct I go out and front the money and buy the power. Mr. Bates asked if he bought those on the futures. Mr. Ellis said right we buy. Mr. Bates said you fix our price for a year.
Mr. Ellis said right and he fixes his backend price as well. That is exactly what got Enron in trouble years ago with they would sell these contracts then not actually procure the juice. When the market started to go up they could no longer meet their obligations which part of what got them into a lot of trouble.
Mr. Bates said how do we know that you have done that or acquired that so we know you aren’t going to be another Enron 20 months down the road.
Mr. Ellis said that is a good question it is guaranteed in the price of the contract and it is very true and that he could give them a list of references that have done this for years and years. There is really no way. They currently serve 1.7 gigawatts which is 1,700 megawatts an hour of electricity that we are dumping into that grid. Ameren is 1.1 gigs or something. He said he could give them references such as
Mr. Bates said we don’t pay you up front but monthly.
City Council Committee's Meeting
Mr. Ellis said most electric contracts out on the market are called what they call take or pay which means for a set price you get x number of kilowatt hours now that X number can be a daily number a monthly a seasonal number of kilowatt hours you would true up with the supplier. You simply pay for what you use. That is where it gets a little gray. If you lost an account let’s say you sold a building or something like that that is currently under your contract. I would take the amount of power that I had delegated for that account sell it to the open market and as long as we can make ourselves whole and break even then we are good to go. If we make money and no you don’t get any of it but if we do come up short we are going to ask you to make up the difference to break us even so we can walk away. Whether it is the whole contract all of the accounts or one of the accounts the way the contract is set up is to just simply make it whole.
Mr. Bates said there is a clause in here that talks about failure of delivery and you have no responsibility for that. Mr. Ellis said correct. Mr. Bates said you say we have to pay our bill by the due date but you don’t tell me what the due date is.
Mr. Ellis said it depends on the meter readers because some are read the first or second of the month and some might be read the 15th. Ameren comes out and reads the meters they send us your delivery bill. We pay them the delivery bill and put their delivery bill with our bill and mail it to you. He thought governmental bodies had 40 or 45 days. He said the State of
Mr. Kitzmiller said like our bill it is going to have all of those transmission charges that you explained going to those different entities and it is also going to Ameren but we are not cutting all those checks we are cutting one check. Mr. Ellis said they would have a bill for each account and they can go central bill pay and you can add up five of them and write one check. Mr. Kitzmiller said the point is we’re paying you and you are paying Ameren and everybody else. Mr. Ellis said right.
Mr. Bates said if we sign a 44 month contract is it a rate per kilowatt hour and if our rate was fixed. Mr. Ellis said correct, you are taking a stand and saying look this is where we are at and it is less than what we had before is that worth it. Mr. Bates said the day we sign the contract is the day you are going to fix the price.
Mr. Ellis said right and that is why all this information that you have that was done yesterday and it is no longer any good. The problem that most governmental bodies have be it Park District, School Board whatever is reacting quickly. With a business he normally has the guess guy pulling the trigger. What he had found is if you designate someone and say look this is your ball you are going to have call it and they can watch that daily market and pull the trigger when.
Mr. Bates asked if that was what
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Mr. Ellis said there was no evergreen clause in the agreement so it does not automatically roll over. You have to do something at the end of the agreement. If you have not done anything you will go back to Ameren.
Mr. Bates said let’s say we get 12 months into a 44 month contract would Mr. Kitzmiller call you or you call Mr. Kitzmiller and say now it’s down lower than when you bought it can we add a year on that contract are we calling you or are you calling us.
Mr. Ellis said Mr. Kitzmiller would call him and that it was possible. He said all he was doing was buying another strip. He said it was totally flexible in that regard. The MISO piece can move on us from year to year and each June when those rates are reestablished by the federal energy regulatory commission so these budgetary numbers that you are looking at now are using the current rates that those pieces are assessed at. If those rates change and of course it would affect you with Ameren or me that’s not but you have to understand if you set it more than a year you might see a change in June this rate is up 2% or something. It’s not a fixed component and can change transmission capacity. The Illinois Commerce Commission the state legislature just passed the green power act 10% of the power that I supply and Ameren supplies or any other supplier supplies have to be from a green resource. That has yet to come in play and that will get tacked on that that charge will get tacked on to the bill once that all gets finalized. He said they were expecting to be ½ million kilowatt hours to 1 million kilowatt hours the reason it is so expensive if they would have done it differently in part of the law they required that we purchase the green power from Illinois Utilities all the wind farms that you see up here we have to buy there first and secondly around the states and from there we can go to the open market. The city has 25 accounts but a lot of these are really small. Everything with a meter I put on here but things without meters such as street lights and a couple of traffic lights there are no meters those are not included in here and will stay with Ameren. The city will save 33% on a thirteen month which would be about $785.00 a month, twenty five month 29% and the forty four month is about 23% roughly $549.00 a month. The rate the city is paying on these smaller accounts is higher and the sewer department is the larger account.
Mr. Bates said schedule b of your proposal what rate are we using. Mr. Ellis said there is a price per kilowatt hour in a box that is about halfway down that is the energy. Mr. Bates said it changes by period.
Mr. Ellis said same price and could not structure that because there is a summer rate and a winter rate. He can also set it up for on peak or off peak and could also set up where it is for certain accounts on peak and off peak and others it is flat. You have no say on any of your power makes no sense because you can’t take advantage of it.
City Council Committee's Meeting
Mr. Kitzmiller said the way that this is it is either on peak or off peak you have no other choice so to speak and now whenever Ameren looks at the demand charge it says if you remember way back when you were generating your own power and we were eliminating that demand charge and we couldn’t do that after Ameren changed their rates. He said if they all looked at the ones that he passed out tonight this is what numbers that we looked to put in the budget. In the past twelve months at the wastewater plant we spent $351,000.00. That is going to reduce if you go all the way to the right if you go down to whatever one of those contract terms you select. That is the number we can put in the budget. As far as the city side he only had one month of bills so he projected what the annual estimated cost was and then he projected what the taxes would were to get to the end result.
Alderman Neitzel asked to have this on the agenda. Mr. Bates said they needed to decide the term. Alderman Anderson asked if Mr. Kitzmiller had a recommendation.
Mr. Kitzmiller said he didn’t know that he felt that he would be comfortable in making a recommendation because it is an opinion. If you can use the analogy of if we could lock in diesel fuel for the next four years it would probably be a good thing. This is kind of the same thing but it is a gamble and you are basically rolling the dice. It could be a significant savings annually if they could get a 13 month or 44 month contract. We could roll the dice and say we’re going to save $58,000.00 in one year and see what happens the next year. They could do two different things. You could extend it if you see that it is good we can do that.
Alderman Neitzel said why don’t we meet 15 minutes before the meeting and we’ll get the committee’s report on what they feel would be best. Alderman Rohlfs said there was already a meeting.
Alderman Anderson said personally from her perspective when you look at the historical rates that are here and where we are at the optimist in me hopes that we are near the bottom and that some of the rally that we have seen will not drop away automatically but she couldn’t see locking them in for any less than 25 months. She was more inclined to lean toward the 44 months only from a standpoint that if we look historically things tend to go up more often than they go down.
Alderman Neitzel said they could always lock in the sewerage treatment plant for 44 and the city for a different by doing them separately or we can do both of them the same. At least we would know how much look at what we’ve looked at for health insurance.
Alderman Anderson said she would be more inclined to keep it simple and keep it all the same. Alderman Neitzel said she agreed and said to put it down for 44 months. Mr. Bates said you don’t have to put the amount of months just the agreement on the agenda. Mr. Kitzmiller asked if we needed to have exact number that day or can we say that we are going to approve it on the information that we currently have.
City Council Committee's Meeting
Mr. Bates said you are by necessity going to have to approve this somewhat in the dark because if you approve it on Monday night April 6th Mr. Ellis cannot lock the prices in until the earliest Tuesday the 7th so you are not going to know the price on the night you approve it. When you vote you are going to be voting to fix it at a price to be determined.
Mr. Ellis said what they can do is designate a point person that calls it and you are exactly right I can give Mr. Kitzmiller the numbers for Monday morning but by Tuesday morning it could shift up or down a little bit one way or another. The volatility has lessened some over the last three months so it’s not as bad as it was six months ago in October and November. They were seeing dollar and megawatt hour which are huge moves but it has settled down. What he could do was give them the numbers Monday and basically you guys say whether it is 5% or 3% or whatever number you choose go ahead and lock it in. You will need a person to sign and that person has to be available on Tuesday early afternoon so he can get them the documents to sign and get it back to him before
Mr. Bates said typically the Mayor would sign it but I don’t know if the Mayor will be here on Tuesday the 7th or not. He said they needed to authorize the Mayor or Mayor Pro Tem to sign. He said at the meeting on the 6th, and he wasn’t going to be there but vote to approve the agreement for whatever term at a price not to exceed 3% of the price that night so if it doesn’t go up more than 3% by the next morning then it is a done deal.
Mr. Ellis said there is nothing saying that it won’t be lower either. You just don’t know.
Finance, Policy and Procedure:
Chairman Alderman Anderson said she wanted to remind everyone of their meeting Saturday from
Fire/Water & ESDA:
Vice Chairman Alderman Armbrust said he did not have a report but Fire Chief Hulett has some information.
Fire Chief Hulett said that we continue to have issues with the outdoor warning system. We tested them today and half of the sirens did not function. There appears to be an issue between our equipment and the dispatch center where they are activated and he is working with Dan Fulscher to try and get this corrected as soon as possible. He said unfortunately they have to test them again next Tuesday and he believed the media would be alerted but if you hear the sirens going off next Tuesday we are still trying to resolve the problem with the equipment issues.
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Mr. Bates said he understood the nursing homes took cover and wondered if it had been in the media. Fire Chief Hulett said it was in the newspaper but he believed by state policy it has to be in the paper and it was.
Grounds, Buildings and Local Improvements:
Chairman Alderman Tibbs said they had a meeting about the roof. She wanted the feeling of the Council about whether they should move forward with this they will need to find some money somewhere. This is a decent building right now and sturdy but we can’t continue to band aid and if you feel we’ve got to put this off yet another year she can’t see much reason in the mold expert being here today because we can’t correct any other problems.
Alderman Neitzel said until we have one over the top we could have problems everywhere.
Alderman
Alderman Tibbs said we don’t have a choice. We do prove to have mold we don’t have a choice but to go forward with this roof project and it is a priority.
Alderman Neitzel said did we put out any money this year for band aids on the roof at all. Alderman Tibbs said yes we did and it wasn’t a band aid but it was pouring in the one side and had a contractor come and seal that place in the one general area which was pretty bad. The cost was about $2,000.00.
Mr. Bates said one of the things that he was stewing about and maybe Mr. Plotner is getting ready to talk about it and I guess I am reverting back a little bit about finance but there is a liability hanging out there right now with an uncertain amount. We have a liability to Wal-Mart in an amount we do not now know and that is based on the sales tax rebate. We have been unable to get the sales tax figures that we have to have on the Wal-Mart deal from the Illinois Department of Revenue to establish the base years. Without knowing what the base year is we don’t know how much we owe them because we owe them everything they have generated over that base figure and we are well past the one year where we are supposed to have paid them. We don’t have the figures in hand and can’t get them from the department of revenue.
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Mr. Bates said that is going to be a large number.
Mr. Plotner said that is going to take some negotiations with Wal-Mart to get that thing squared away. We’ve got it started from October 2007 we started receiving money then.
Mr. Bates said the Wal-Mart agreement said their base was established on the average sales tax they generated for the City of
Alderman Anderson asked whose responsibility it was to get these numbers.
Mr. Bates said it was ours, they authorized that to be released to us but the Illinois Department of Revenue cannot give it to us. He and Mr. Plotner have been trying to find an opportunity to get together we are going to open up a dialog with Wal-Mart and tell Wal-Mart we don’t have the figures we have to have to pay them. He said if they could go back and produce the sales tax revenues they have generated for those years we can get a base through their figures.
Mr. Plotner said they told him when he talked to them at the Department of Revenue that Wal-Mart knows it too. He said Sysco is still hanging out there too. He said we have a base but no figures. On the roof thing the only thing you aren’t going to have $170,000.00 in that budget to put into the roof. It’s going to be a tough budget and things in all the departments have gone up. Some have grown substantially. When he talked to Kevin Heid they talked alternate revenue bond could be done or even a possibility short term loan. Municipalities can get that from the banks in a short term loan and pay it back. The G.O. Bond cannot pass until October 2010 so it puts this fiscal year out of business.
Mr. Bates said a revenue bond wouldn’t be an option what is the revenue source you are pledging. Mr. Plotner said it would have to be sales tax.
Alderman Tibbs asked to have that on the agenda. Mr. Mathon thought the bid was on the agenda and had just been tabled last meeting. Mr. Bates said the cost figure did not have to be on there.
Mr. Jackson said he was going tomorrow to take a look at Chevy garage he thought he saw part of the middle roof moving during the wind this afternoon and if there is he would get a hold of the insurance.
City Council Committee's Meeting
Insurance:
Vice Chairman Alderman Horn said Mr. Danner is going to be here to explain the liability insurance and asked to have that on the agenda.
Police:
Chairman Alderman Horn said she had a letter to Police Chief Erlenbush and she read it for a transfer of funds to purchase items for the squad cars on order with a cost of $29,452.00. He asked for approval to transfer the following:
$3,000.00 from 02-12-06-6434, processing of prisoners to 02-12-06-5206 repair maintenance of radios
$10,000.00 from 01
She said with the transfers they will be purchasing out of 02-12-06-5206 repair maintenance of radios one radio at $3,671.00, one radio console at $300.00, two light bars at $975.00 each and two DVD car cameras at $5,300.00 each out of 02-01-08-7864 capital expense radios at $3,671.00 each and one radio console at $300.00 each. She asked to have that on the agenda.
Alderman Horn said she had two letters from Dan Fulscher explaining the Logan County ESTB Board’s request for money from the City Council. On the back of these are all the grants that Mr. Fulscher has applied and received in the last seven years.
Alderman Horn said Mr. Carlton and she were talking and he had a email from
Alderman Horn said she had not written the letter to Comcast but Comcast has contacted her and asked for a face to face meeting to express our concerns. Mr. Bates said he took Alderman Anderson’s advice and called Comcast this week and it lowered his bill $15.00 per month.
Sanitation:
Vice Chairman Alderman Hoinacki said he did not have a report.
Sidewalks, Forestry and Lighting:
Chairman Alderman Hoinacki said he did not have a report.
Streets and Alleys:
Chairman Alderman Armbrust said he had received a letter from Mr. Mathon, City Engineer.
City Council Committee's Meeting
Mr. Mathon said we did receive another notice from the Illinois Commerce Commission that they are going to be doing crossing improvements at
Alderman Neitzel asked if they needed that on the agenda. Mr. Mathon said yes and they would be authorizing the mayor to be the designated agent, execution of the agreement and also there is a motor fuel tax resolution to appropriate that money from the Motor fuel tax.
Alderman Neitzel asked if they mentioned
Mr. Mathon said they did not but he has a call in and had seen where they had dropped some ties. He thought they would be adjusting the grade all through there.
Mr. Jackson said the roof on the Chevy garage is flipped up in the middle and he would contact insurance tomorrow to get the roof replaced.
Alderman Rohlfs set up a sign ordinance for April 14 at
Mr. Jackson said
Mr. Mathon read the Resolution for
Alderman Anderson made a motion to adjourn and Alderman Armbrust seconded it. There were seven yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Rohlfs, and Alderman Tibbs), zero nays, and three absent (Alderman Busby, Alderman Henrichsmeyer, and Alderman Prather); motion carried.
The City of
Respectfully submitted,
Risa Riggs, Recording Secretary
City of Lincoln