Lincoln, Illinois

City Council Committee's Meeting

November 10, 2009

 

Minutes of the City of Lincoln City Council Committees' Meeting held at the Postville

Courthouse on Tuesday, November 10, 2009.

 

Those present were Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman

Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Tibbs, and Alderman

Turner. Also present were Police Chief Erlenbush, City Engineer Mr. Mathon, EMC Manager

Mr. Tackett, Street Superintendent Mr. Jackson, and Fire Chief Hulett. Also present were City

Clerk Mrs. Martinek, City Attorney Mr. Bates, and Recording Secretary Mrs. Riggs.

 

Mayor Pro Tem Busby called the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m.

 

There were ten Aldermen present (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon,

Alderman Busby, Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Tibbs,

Alderman Turner, and Alderman Wilmert) and nine absent.

 

Mayor Pro Tem Busby thanked Alderman Horn and Alderman Wilmert for setting up their

meeting at the Postville Courthouse.

 

Alderman Horn thanked everyone for coming. She said their ward is very unique with the

Postville Courthouse and across the street the well. They have many churches in the ward and

the distinction of having two nursing homes in their ward. She said Joyce Seeley told her they

had many grocery stores in their ward. She said they had road problems in their ward that need

fixed.

 

Alderman Wilmert said he has lived in Ward 2 the entire time he has lived in Lincoln. He

wanted thank Dr. Leigh Henson for the research he has done regarding Postville Courthouse

and Fifth Street. He said there were two chimneys at one time and were both outside. He said

it was sold in 1929 to Ford Museum and this was modeled after the original which only had one

chimney.

 

The Mayor Pro Tem asked for the Committees' Issues to be Presented:

 

Sewer Treatment Plant, Sewers and Drainage:

Chairman Alderman Busby said Alderman Neitzel stepped in to a meeting today with the Sewer

Plant and he turned it over to Mr. Tackett.

 

Mr. Tackett said they had a meeting today with Ameren. Back in May of this year they had a

contract written with Mid America Energy based on the deregulation for the State of Illinois.

What happened was back in 1970 there was a franchise agreement with the city that there were

five locations within the city (City Hall, First Street and a couple more facilities) that were given

at no charge. What happened when Mid America took over those meters were read and put those

charges on the city.

 

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City Council Committee's Meeting

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Mr. Tackett said they started charging the city for those 5 and charged May, June, July, August

and September. They asked Ameren if they would honor that franchise and they came out. They

have told the city that they have two options. One is they (Ameren) will stop charging the city

those charges for those meters but there is nothing retroactive back. The other option is they

continue pretty much what they are doing now. In February of each year Ameren will pick it

over average cost per month to reimburse the city for those costs. It will be somewhere around

$15,000.00 and if the City of Lincoln elects to go this way they are going to write an amendment

to that franchise for Mr. Bates to review and the City Council to vote on. When that is accepted

then what happens each February the city will get a check to reimburse for the electrical charges

for those five meters. He said right now it is around $15,000.00 to $16,000.00 but they haven’t

really come up with a figure. They have asked them to give them the figure so they can bring it

back or give them an amendment because they have a 50 year contract. If they let Mid America

charge us and Ameren reimburse then in that event it will have to be written in the franchise.

He said they would owe May – October. Before the franchise is up in 2020 to renegotiate that

franchise and that is ten years out and there is no way of knowing how it will play out.

 

Mr. Bates said you have only budgeted so much.

 

Mr. Bates said we only bought so much power from Mid America. Are we going to go over

that?

 

Mr. David Kitzmiller said what happened was when they switched all of the accounts over to

Mid America there were five that were not supposed to be switched and they got switched. By

the time they caught it they had already paid a couple of month’s worth. They were only paying

the electric portion because these five meters were supposed to be free. He said they went back

to American and they said that was correct those meters should not have been switched and they

will agree to switch them over and they will eat the cost of that electricity for the remainder of

our contract. He called Ameren and they said they would go back to the other agreement but

they also had this other option.

 

Mr. Bates asked how many months they had paid. Alderman Anderson said 6 and that they had

paid every month through the end of October. Mr. Bates said if we choose to go back to the

franchise agreement for those six months we paid, why won’t Mid America pay?

 

Mr. Kitzmiller said they had purchased the electricity per the contract. They are going to

continue the cost and let us out of the contract. If they go into this agreement with the

amendment Ameren will cut us a check for $50,000.00 now. They will compensate for twelve

months. They have no responsibility because we were getting free electricity for the past 40

years. It was an accident that it got switched and this will be the very first deal like this in

Illinois that Ameren has. Going forward everyone will be this way. If they go this way Ameren

will cut a check immediately.

 

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Mr. Mathon said the five are City garage, City Hall, landfill, Hamilton Street garage, and

Kickapoo Street garage. Alderman Anderson said they had expended $7,436.00 this fiscal

year. Alderman Wilmert said he would get the accounts back to where they are supposed to be

or find a way to get reimbursed for the $7,000.00. Mr. Bates said they have a signed contract.

Alderman Busby said Ameren caused all of this. Mr. Kitzmiller said that is true but technically

we only had to switch the wastewater plant. Mr. Tackett said it was all part of the deregulation.

Mr. Bates said from an economic standpoint they could spend more in electricity costs and there

is a lot of unknown for 10 years and taking on a risk. Mr. Kitzmiller said the way they calculated

this for us they went back a year and said this is what they would have paid and the way they are

going to calculate later on the entire usage on the franchise agreement. Alderman Busby asked to

have this on the agenda.

 

Alderman Turner said he was with Alderman Wilmert and Mr. Bates. Alderman Busby said they

would vote at the next meeting whether to revert back or not and to put it on the agenda.

 

Mr. Tackett said the presentation Mr. Kitzmiller made in April of 2008. This is for the combined

sewers in the City of Lincoln and the regulations based on the combined sewer overflow. He

said the city has three places where they overflow and under the 1997 clean water act the EPA

is an unfunded mandate. When they start working with the CSO’s and the combined sewer

overflows during a rain event and what is going to happen is they have three different places in

our system we are going to have monitor for different things. What this falls under is the post

modern plan by the CSO standards. He sent an email out on this presentation. He said combined

sewers are a part of any city in the United States. They have to start monitoring and they are

waiting on letters from the EPA. This is a $150,000.00 for this mandate. They have gotten

quotes from two companies. They have to have 6 rain events over a two year period. There

are two major companies in the Midwest that sell these types of monitors. He asked for revised

quotes.

 

Alderman Busby said he believed they were asking for 10-12 in between each rain event. Mr.

Kitzmiller said the rain event has to be 1 inch rain and 10 days in between.

 

Mr. Tackett said they cannot be weekend rain events they have to be during the 5 day week. The

two bids were $39,750.00 with Gasvoda & Assoc. and $39,100.00 with Elan Technology. He

wanted the Council to approve the lowest quote on that particular and both are ready for review.

 

Alderman Busby said he asked Mr. Tackett about renting this for $28,000.00 for 90 days but it

might take two years.

 

Mr. Kitzmiller said this will give them hard data for how many overflows they have and they

submit this to the EPA and they come back and say this is what you have to do. They can only

have four overflows in any year. We average 19 overflows per year for the past three years. At

this point they are not concerned with how many but want our data.

 

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City Council Committee's Meeting

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Mr. Kitzmiller said step 2 is the way the program is done and the EPA accepts it and you have

this many years to separate it. However we get there we have to get down to that number.

 

Alderman Busby said you need to treat the stormwater or separate them. Mr. Tackett said most

municipalities are treating but first we need to know how many we have and what the water

quality is. Alderman Anderson said do we need to vote on this. Alderman Busby said it is an

expense even though it is in the budget.

 

Mr. Kitzmiller said they could try to find used equipment but you would have to find the pieces

together with the way we want. These things will talk by radio but remember this is only the

equipment and Mr. Tackett is going to come back and ask for about twice that to have the

analysis done. In these six events alone there will probably be 700-800 samples that will have to

be analyzed and it will cost about $65,000.00 for a private lab to do it. They looked at doing the

analysis in house but the amount of time that they are allowed it and it is just as competitive to

do it privately.

 

Alderman Turner said is this ongoing with the EPA and have to do this every few years? Mr.

Tackett said if the EPA comes back and says this is what they have 15-20 years to get this done.

 

Mr. Kitzmiller said it is not set in stone that it will ever happen again and by doing this now it

will prevent them from doing it for a long time. They are going to go a little farther than what

the EPA is asking but if we don’t do it now we will again in the next few years.

 

Alderman Busby asked to have it on the agenda.

 

City Clerk Mrs. Martinek read a letter from Mayor Snyder regarding his absence.

 

Mayor Pro Tem Busby said everyone received a letter from Sergeant Robert E. Brown.

 

Finance, Policy and Procedure:

Chairman Alderman Anderson said that she wanted to have another committee meeting on

Monday, December 7, 2009 at 6:15 p.m. dealing with Policy and Procedures Manual. She said

going through the Policy and Procedure Manual and it often talks about full time employees

and how many are either full time employees that are not affected by the collective bargaining

agreement or are not elected and she could think of 1 Mrs. Gehlbach.

 

Fire Chief Hulett said the fire department has three. Police Chief Erlenbush said they have two.

Alderman Anderson said if anyone thinks of others to please let her know.

 

Alderman Anderson said the only other thing is the new hospital was annexed into the city and

what ward is the hospital in.

 

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Mr. Mathon said the code book gives a definition and his assumption for the layout of the Wards

would carry through and he would check this and let them know his findings.

 

Fire/Water & ESDA:

Chairman Alderman Horn said she did not have a report. She did ask for everyone to sign the

book if they had not yet.

 

Fire Chief Hulett said he was putting in for the SAFER grant. It is a staffing grant and a lot of

cities have declined and it was up to the Council if they are accepted. The second grant is for a

new fire station and they would be determined before the end of December. The last grant is for

$41,000.00 for the exhaust system which is a safety issue.

 

Grounds, Buildings and Local Improvements:

Chairman Alderman Tibbs said she had one item that she wanted to let the Aldermen know what

is going on Kickapoo Street where they have the recycling area. There are some people that are

dumping items not accepted at the recycle and Mr. Jackson and his crew have to clean this up.

She brought to the Mayor’s attention and they are looking to put a camera in there.

 

Mr. Jackson said they would save money by going to George Alarm. They need an ordinance on

littering. He thought if they caught enough people it would pay for the equipment.

 

Alderman Tibbs said it was just a heads up where the money is going. She said they need a new

furnace at City Hall for the fire station.

 

Alderman Turner said he wanted it on the record he was not in favor of this and that it was the

wrong approach to try to solve this problem where people are dumping. They are going to

continue to dump whether it is at Kickapoo Street or somewhere else and they are just spending

money in trying to stop. He thought there were other options and as far as recycling goes he

didn’t know if they had looked at possibly getting some dumpsters just for garbage pickup.

 

Alderman Tibbs said the idea of the surveillance camera so they could see who is doing it. It is a

one time investment of $2,140.00 and there will be a monthly fee with the lease agreement which

is $279.69.

 

Insurance:

Chairman Alderman Bacon said she did not have a report.

 

Ordinance and Zoning:

Chairman Alderman Neitzel said she had a lot of things. She asked Mr. Bates to start with the

Enterprise Zone.

 

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Mr. Bates hoped everyone had gotten their emails. He had sent a copy of all this material to

them. When Horizon came and asked the city to get into the Enterprise Zone for the Railsplitter

Wind Farm the city agreed to do so and they told you at the time that they might not need all the

land in the Enterprise Zone that they asked to have. That is exactly the case. The paperwork

he sent them consisted of three documents: 1) an Ordinance removing a part of the Enterprise

Zone that we added to the Railsplitter Wind Farm and it is removing .1943 square miles, 2) the

intergovernmental agreement with the other county members of the Enterprise Zone agreeing to

amend the Enterprise Zone, and 3) the application that is actually submitted to the Department

of Commerce and Economic Opportunity asking for the states approval to remove this small

portion from our Enterprise Zone. These three items need to be adopted and would recommend

with the length of the Ordinance to make available to the press and adopt as distributed and make

it available to all citizens. It cannot encompass more than 15 square miles.

 

Alderman Neitzel said now they were going to do the Ordinance on the Class D license.

 

Mr. Bates said the Mayor had a liquor commission hearing last week. He said the Mayor has

a request for someone who is starting a new business in Lincoln downtown in a former Law

office. They are going to have a bookstore, serving coffee, food and sandwiches and other food

items and also want to serve wine. The only class license we have in the city that allows wine

was a wine seller which is a class C license under the liquor code and they only allow the selling

of a bottle with consumption off the premises. The liquor commission discussed and voted to

recommend to the Council as liquor commission that the Class D license be amended and it

allow the license holder to sell wine by the glass for consumption on premises or by bottle for

consumption on premises or by the bottle off the premises. He drafted an ordinance to that affect

by the request of the liquor commission. There is one class D liquor license by code and has

never been used.

 

Alderman Neitzel asked to have it on the agenda. Mrs. Martinek read the Ordinance.

 

Alderman Neitzel said the Sign Ordinance. She felt the sign ordinance had been dealt with

former Alderman Rohlfs. She would make a motion to take it off the table and make a motion to

pass as handed out.

 

Alderman Turner said he had a few questions. He wanted to know why they needed a thirty

page sign ordinance in Lincoln. He said there were some inconsistencies in here that he has

seen.

 

Alderman Neitzel said they should have a special meeting. She set it up for November 24, 2009

at 6:00 p.m.

 

Ward 4 will host on December 15, 2009 at Lincoln Christian Church.

 

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Police:

Chairman Alderman Hoinacki said the Police Chief had some information.

 

Police Chief Erlenbush said a month ago one of their squad cars was totaled and the insurance is

going to pay off and they need a new squad car. He said the difference between the local and the

state is about $3,500.00.

 

Sanitation/Technology:

Chairman Alderman Wilmert said he did not have a report. He said the Joint Solid Waste was

replacing a truck. They will be adopting a method for curbside service. He said he would do

some checking into Area about the recycling.

 

Streets and Alleys:

Chairman Alderman Turner turned it over to Mr. Jackson. Mr. Jackson said they had completed

all the stop signs.

 

Alderman Turner said there was a bill which he pulled two or three meetings ago for

reimbursement for mileage for going to doctor visits for a workers comp claim. He got the

documentation from the doctor office and he was referred to a specific doctor in Springfield and

there was also a request to pay for a cell phone which he did not think they should have to pay

for.

 

Alderman Busby said the worker refused treatment here. Alderman Turner said it was on the

release papers from the doctor and he had heard the opposite story. Alderman Busby said why

should the city have to pay?

 

Alderman Turner said he figured from his perspective that he was given adequate documentation

that it was not a personal choice but was a requirement by the medical professionals for where

he needed to go. That was enough to justify paying the $200.00 miles for five or six trips to

Springfield. He has the original doctor’s release said he would need a doctor in Springfield. That

relieved all of his concerns for reimbursement for mileage. He has the medical release forms.

 

Alderman Busby said he has a hard time having the city pay for anything when heard how he got

hurt and not saying he didn’t get hurt but how it happened.

 

Alderman Anderson said she felt that as Alderman Turner has indicated if the medical

professionals indicated that was where to go then she would say but she would hope as a separate

issue of how this originally occurred is being dealt with as a separate issue because there is an

issue there. She didn’t know whose responsibility that is to push that issue with workers comp

itself or whether it is Mr. Jackson’s department but she thought it needed to be followed up on.

 

Mr. Bates asked where it is written that they pay mileage for anything.

 

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Mr. Jackson said the workers comp representative said State of Illinois never pays except, if it is

a third party doctor then they get mileage.

 

Mr. Bates said why do they have to pay mileage for a doctor and they don’t pay mileage when

they go across town to a doctor. Have we ever had a practice of paying mileage for an out of

town doctor?

 

Alderman Busby said he couldn’t remember any and he had been on the Council for 17 years.

Mr. Bates thought they had to look at whether or not the city pays for it. Alderman Hoinacki

said they should not pay. Alderman Busby said they should put it on the agenda for a vote.

 

Sidewalks, Forestry and Lighting:

Chairman Alderman Armbrust said he hoped the final draft of the guidelines for brick sidewalk

replacement. He said everyone has a copy.

 

Mr. Bates read the Brick sidewalk draft. Alderman Armbrust asked to have it on the agenda.

 

Mayor Pro Tem recognized the following guests in attendance which were Mr. Les Van Bibber,

Dan Wheat, Chuck Conzo, Joyce Seeley, Lois Leonard, and Burnetta DePuy (Alderman

Anderson’s mother who does not live in Ward 2).

 

Mrs. Seeley said she had a few words. She is 75 years old and has lived in Ward 2 all but 2

years of her life. She can remember when there were no sewers, no running water, and when

they put the sewers in it was wonderful. The only thing she doesn’t like is the races.

 

Ms. Leonard said she lives on 2nd Street and used to be able to sit out in her yard and cannot do

that now with the racing. She thanked the Aldermen for doing a good job.

 

Alderman Hoinacki said the Police Chief also brought up the concerns from the Merchants about

the downtown parking again.

 

Alderman Neitzel made a motion to adjourn and Alderman Wilmert seconded it. There were ten

yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman

Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Tibbs, Alderman Turner, and Alderman

Wilmert), zero nays, and none absent; motion carried.

 

The City of Lincoln Committee’s as a Whole Meeting adjourned at 8:34 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Risa Riggs

Recording Secretary