Lincoln, Illinois
City Council Committee's Meeting
June 14, 2011
Minutes of the City of Lincoln City Council Committees' Meeting held in the Council Chambers
on Tuesday, June 14, 2011.
Those present were Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman
Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Tibbs, and Alderman Wilmert.
Department Heads present were Fire Chief Miller, Safety and Building Officer Mr. Lebegue,
Police Chief Greenslate, City Engineer Mr. Mathon, Street Superintendent Mr. Jackson, and
EMC Manager Mr. Tackett. Also present were Mayor Snyder, City Clerk Mrs. Martinek, City
Attorney Mr. Bates, City Treasurer Mr. Conzo, and Recording Secretary Mrs. Riggs.
Mayor Snyder called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
The Pledge was said by all.
There were nine Aldermen present (Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby,
Alderman Hoinacki Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Tibbs, and Alderman
Wilmert) and two absent (Alderman Anderson and Alderman O’Donohue).
Mayor Snyder said we were glad Alderman Wilmert had rejoined us and congratulated him on
his new member of his household. Alderman Tibbs passed out pacifiers to everyone in honor of
Alderman Wilmert’s new son and to pacify everyone.
Alderman Wilmert thanked them for their kind thoughts and knew they were all thinking about
him. He now knows how to swaddle and that was great and how to go on, sleep deprivation is
a very interesting thing. He said everyone was home and that his wife, Cari had a rough time
initially and that she had to have surgery after words and a blood transfusion and his back to
eating solid foods again. He weighed 5 pounds 15 ounces and was 18 inches long and two and a
half weeks early.
Mayor Snyder said they should have one night for show and tell and they should bring him in.
Mayor Snyder said Alderman Anderson was ill.
The Mayor asked for the Committees' Issues to be Presented:
Finance, Policy and Procedure:
Mayor Snyder said Alderman Anderson wanted what their appropriation needs were prior to the
next workshop which would be June 28. Whether it be potential grant dollars or amounts you
want to have available in case of emergencies and those types of things.
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Fire/Water & ESDA:
Chairman Alderman Horn said she passed out a handout from Chief Miller and let him elaborate
on them.
Fire Chief Miller said he mentioned earlier in the year about some ordinance updates and
possibly applying some fees to some ordinances. False Alarm Ordinance, they respond to
several false alarms and some might be true with things such as food or something cooked in a
microwave or something cooked on the stove that sets off an alarm that we respond to and those
would be considered as a true activation. They do get a lot of alarms where a person is working
on the system they do not notify the alarm company or dispatch that they are doing that. They
respond with lights and sirens to those events and that happens quite a bit more often than what
you would think and it is frustrating. If a person calls and says we’ve been dispatched we don’t
need you to respond we are just working on it we are still responsible to just slow down and they
will still send one machine to find out exactly what set the alarm off and if it has been reset or
not. They verify all alarms they get. He has been working with Mr. Blinn Bates on some of the
wording and they have a graduated structure that they may adjust or change and they are going to
give people three chances if they truly have a false alarm so they have a chance to fix it. This is
designed for Police and Fire so if they get false alarms it works the same way.
Mayor Snyder said with regard to the freebies is that freebies once every year. Fire Chief Miller
said he hasn’t found anything that has a reset date but that was something they could look into
but if someone has documentation that their alarm was worked on their service and there are
some factors into that. Mayor Snyder said it would depend on the data. Fire Chief Miller said
for all of those we respond to those are placed into our computer system that we present to the
Federal Government and all that data is available.
Fire Chief Miller said the next one was Fireworks Ordinance. When someone wants to shoot off
fireworks within the city limits one of his inspectors and he attended a class last week at the Fire
Marshall’s office on fireworks and the responsibilities of the fire department for that and most
fire departments do have a fee for the permits and for standby services that may be required for
this. They are required to have fire suppression onsite when they shoot off fireworks in case of a
malfunction or fireworks actually landing in the crowd. His inspector Brett Triplett has worked
on a basic permit form that came from the Fire Marshall’s office and was generic form and
trying to fit for our needs. He wanted to know the difference between a bond or insurance they
would require.
Mr. Bates said a bond is posting a certain amount of money and you draw on it if there is a claim
and the insurance is they just name us on their insurance policy and you go through the claims
process. He remembered reading this and it calling for a bond. He said he was not going to get
anybody to do this.
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City Council Committee's Meeting
June 14, 2011; Page -3-
Fire Chief Miller said they do have a few places that do fireworks here in town. They send a
machine and personnel out and that comes out of our wallet and it is usually overtime costs.
Fire Chief Miller said they are also allowed to recover funds from a specialty rescue. This is the
very beginning stages here with a draft for recouping money in specific rescues that we do. Most
technical/specialty rescues require overtime and lots of manpower and machines. State law does
allow them to charge back fees for the apparatus and for staffing and they have caps on that. He
would like to put that in effect so if something does occur they could recoup their costs. He will
work with Mr. Blinn Bates.
Mr. Bates said he thought that was the point Mr. Blinn Bates was trying to make when he was
gone the last couple of weeks. He wants to know if the Council wants to do these things before
we spend the money for the ordinance. You have a lot of ideas and that is fine but it doesn’t
mean that the Council wants them adopted as the ordinance. He read the material that was sent to
Mr. Blinn Bates about the specialty rescue and he candidly did not know how they ever get paid.
When are you going to have a finding by OSHA or the Department of Labor that a party is guilty
because under state law you can’t get reimbursed until that happens?
Fire Chief Miller was sure it goes through a court process through OSHA or the Department of
Labor.
Mr. Bates asked how they were ever going to find somebody guilty that fell in the creek and
you were out looking for them. The law specifically conditions any recovering by the fire
department on a finding of guilt by OSHA or the Department of Labor and he had never heard of
that happening.
Fire Chief Miller said he would do a little more research on that. Mr. Bates said that was what
he was calling about the other day and he had no idea and had never heard of that. Fire Chief
Miller said he knew when they had the underground tank explosion several years the company
was fined by the Department of Labor and the Fire Marshall’s office for not working properly
with that underground tank and that is what caused it to explode. Mr. Bates said he could
see OSHA when they found an employer guilty but for a water rescue on the creek. Mayor
Snyder asked if other fire departments recoup costs for these rescues. Fire Chief Miller said yes
there are several departments and a lot of the area departments around us charge fees for auto
accidents and things like that to recoup their costs.
Fire Chief Miller said those are the three ordinances he was looking at and he would get the
missing information and get those to them for their review. The last thing he had was a request
that he just received yesterday. It is for the fair and they are requesting apparatus and manpower
out there for a couple of automotive demonstrations they are doing for tractor pulls and demo
derbies and wanted to make them aware that they receive these and they have done it in the past.
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Fire Chief Miller said it typically costs funds out of our pocket for services and it might
be something they might want to try and recoup some of the overtime hours. They have
requirements they have to have for fire protection.
Alderman Neitzel said she thought they paid for this last year. Fire Chief Miller said he didn’t
think so. Alderman Armbrust said he believed they did for some rock and chip. Alderman Horn
asked if they should put this on the agenda and write something about charging them and vote on
it.
Mayor Snyder said sure I think it needs to go on the agenda obviously and it doesn’t happen until
early August. He asked what the Council thought of requesting some type of compensation.
Alderman Tibbs thought the County was also in this.
Fire Chief Miller said they usually ask for the Lincoln Fire Department because it is our
jurisdiction and thought they opened it up to see if some of the other departments can help and
some can and some cannot. He said the demo derby is where they get the most assistance from.
They have to put people in various locations.
Police Chief Greenslate said the police department has been recouping their costs for years. He
said it is standard practice for them. It is an off duty assignment and they pay the officers.
Alderman Armbrust asked if it’s the KC’s that pay or the fairground. Police Chief Greenslate
said the KC’s pay one group of officers and the fairgrounds pays a group of officers and that the
high school is the same way for games.
Mayor Snyder said they would put on the agenda the approval for the request from the Logan
County Fair Association for the fire truck and two firemen at these events. He said to Chief
Miller if before Monday night he could prepare for the Council some information about the
known costs and equipment costs and then that could perhaps be framed up in the motion.
He said with regards to the false alarms and specialty rescues those are things that Fire Chief
Miller still needs to work on and get drafted up so if anyone has any suggestions or concerns or
thoughts about they should get them to Fire Chief Miller. With regard to the display of fireworks
is it ready to go and he didn’t think it actually had a permit fee and asked if that was something
he had thought about.
Fire Chief Miller said they had a permit they would issue for that and basically the Fire Marshall
advised them they need to be doing, when they get the permit they need to meet with them, go
out and do a site inspection and an after inspection to make sure there are no duds left on ground
because of the hazard of them exploding. There is some footwork they have to do with that so
they just have a minimal fee for an apparatus to be there.
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Fire Chief Miller said he was looking at some of the rates the state law had listed for some of
the technical rescues $35.00 maximum per hour for manpower and $125.00 per hour for a fire
engine. He said fireworks are approximately an hour and it comes to around $190.00. That
would include the site inspections and the documentation to make sure we are listed on the
insurance the city and fire department and police department for crowd control and things like
that.
Mr. Bates said it’s not in here. Fire Chief Miller said no it’s not in here because these are things
he just found out about. Mayor Snyder said displays of fireworks usually happen on the 4th of
July and we have one voting meeting between now and the 4th. Fire Chief Miller said they are
probably not going to have it available for this year.
Fire Chief Miller said he also needed on the agenda for Ashley Williams to go from probation to
permanent firefighter.
Grounds, Buildings and Local Improvements:
Chairman Alderman Tibbs said they would put a press release out for their boxes on Kickapoo
Street for the two empty spots.
Alderman Tibbs said the fire department has been busy with the new floors.
Fire Chief Miller said the floor is just about done. The contractor said it was some of the hardest
concrete they ever had to deal with. They had to bring in a different kind of machine to make
it so the paint would stick to the floor. They are getting ready to lay out the stripes for the
floor and then they will put the clear coat that goes over that and that is the non slip service so
hopefully by the end of this week it will be done and they will be able to walk on it shortly after
it is done but will not be able to park trucks on it for another week for the epoxy to dry.
Alderman Tibbs said she was very excited to hear that the fire department had received another
grant and she thought it was very interesting for their radio communications. Fire Chief
Miller said they had just received a grant from the Illinois American Water and they purchased
radios locally and they are waiting for those to come in and they will be doing a photo op with
American Water and the local business that got the radios for the fire department.
Fire Chief Miller said they had electrical problems in the building and they had to have the
generator replaced. He has had a guy in trying to get their ice machine fixed and he is wondering
and advising they contact the insurance company because the ice maker they have is completely
shot and thought the reason it might be that way is from either electrical surge from the generator
that went bad or they had been struck by lightning. He has garage door openers that are failing.
Sewer Treatment Plant, Sewers and Drainage:
Alderman Busby apologized for his coughing spell 3 weeks ago and that he had pneumonia.
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City Council Committee's Meeting
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Alderman Busby said the wastewater treatment plant would be closed tomorrow for Donna
Schriber’s funeral. Each of the individuals down there will either be pallbearers or honorary
pallbearers.
The following bids were opened for a backhoe:
McCallister Equipment
no bid
Martin Tri-State
John Deere Backhoe cash
trade-in
net cost
$89,900.00
$23,000.00
$66,900.00
3 year lease to own annual payments of $24,028.15
3yr lease to own annual payments $24,028.15 trade in allowance $23,000.00 net cost to
city $24,403.20 with three equal payments annually beginning one year from delivery.
Alderman Busby said they would see if they came up with correct items on their bid. Alderman
Neitzel said and which option they want to take.
Mr. Mathon said they had communicated with McCallister previously and they indicated they
may not be bidding because their backhoe did not meet the specs as far as digging depth.
Alderman Busby said he had one other request from Mr. Conzo. Mr. Conzo contacted the City
of Belleville with regard to American Water’s contract. He believed everyone had one and asked
Mr. Conzo to take the floor.
Mr. Conzo said they had a copy in their inboxes of a contract for Belleville. The Treasurer
of Belleville Mr. Turner was kind enough to provide to them. It appears to him that it is
fundamentally the same as what Illinois American had offered to us and it has been in place
since 2006 and have used this successfully as he pointed out. He said he was not an expert on
contracts and was certainly qualified and in reading it over it is very similar to the one offered to
us by Illinois American Water.
Alderman Busby said he believed when he talked to Mr. Conzo about this they have had this for
about 6 years. They have not had a problem with the liability clause in the 6 years they have
had this and wanted them to keep it in mind because a collector does not solve the problem they
can be on somebody and they will pay up and they can start right over and they know how long
it takes. He asked them to keep this in mind and that he would bring this back up in a couple of
months and see where they go from there.
Mr. Tackett said he had a clarification for the plant. The guys will be there until noon and their
emergency phone will be on during that time and they should be back to the plant a little before 3
or at least he would be.
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City Council Committee's Meeting
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Police:
Chairman Alderman Hoinacki said he had a petition by Lincoln Park District for street closures
on the 4th of July and asked to have that on the Consent Agenda. He also had a petition by First
Presbyterian Church to have the alley between Ottawa and Kankakee Street and the 300 block
of Pekin to be one way going East on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. for
their barbecue and asked to have it on the consent agenda.
Streets and Alleys:
Chairman Alderman Neitzel said she did not have a report.
Ordinance and Zoning:
There was nothing to come before the Committee as a Whole.
Sidewalks, Forestry and Lighting:
Chairman Alderman Armbrust said he had a petition for sidewalk at 724 Tremont by Violet
Robinson to be done and by the expense of the city and asked to have it on the agenda.
Sanitation/Technology:
Chairman Alderman Wilmert said the per capita amount for the Joint Solid Waste would be the
same as last year at $3.00. This isn’t due until the end of July and they keep their budget pretty
tight there.
Insurance:
Chairman Alderman Bacon said she did not have a report.
Alderman Busby said Mr. Tackett has come up with an idea of the city joining the National
Bidding process like State bids and he gave Mr. Bates the information on it tonight and he was
not going to put it on the agenda for next Monday but wanted Mr. Bates to look through it and
see if it was legal for them to join the organization.
Mayor Snyder said for an example Alderman Busby had explained this you might get bids from
dealers but then you might get a state bid and this would be a national bid that you could utilize
for a whole variety of things such as vehicles, furniture and technology. Alderman Busby said
anything and everything you could think of to buy almost.
Alderman Wilmert asked what was going on with the old hospital. He said one of the nights that
he was having a sleepless night and realized it was dark. He has received calls and it interests
him maybe more so than other people that live right across the street like he does but they got
used to the glow from the hospital the parking lot lights and all the lights in the hospital and
he got to realizing there were no street lights around there. It could attract hoodlums and what
not and sure enough later that night a vehicle was stolen and one of his tenants the garage was
broken into and the next door neighbor had his car broken into.
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Alderman Wilmert said they did recover the vehicle but they came to him and said it’s really
dark now. He wondered what the plans were.
Mayor Snyder asked if Mr. Mathon or Mr. Jackson knew if there were street lights there.
Alderman Wilmert said he almost request Police Chief Greenslate drive up and down there to
see about activity going on. Mayor Snyder said they will be proceeding with demolition here
shortly.
Mr. Lebegue said Brandenburg is the company doing the work. They are a very large reputable
firm out of Chicago area. He has dealt with them on at least two other occasions on big
demolitions in the Chicago area when he worked up there. He met their rep onsite and they
are looking at a two month project to tear down the entire facility. They started basically at the
end of the last week and are doing demolition and such on the inside of the lower east side of
the building. They are taking bobcats in stripping out as much as they can and salvaging then
they will be tearing down the lower sections first and then they will start tackling the 5 story
main building thereafter. The hours of demolition would probably be wrapped by 5:30 in the
afternoon and he would verify. They are taking a lot of steps to contain any dust and things that
will be generated on the site. The material will be reclaimed on the site so there will not be a lot
of material, from what he had gathered, hauled off the site.
Mayor Snyder said that Mr. Mathon, Mr. Jackson and he met with the hospital officials as well
as some of the contractors that will be working on the demolition and he didn’t think they were
required to do any type of air monitoring but they are going to do that anyway. They will be
tracking anything that might be in the air.
Mayor Snyder said Monday night they needed on the agenda releasing their first Frequently
Asked Questions. He has been working with the department heads about some frequently asked
questions that get raised about all their departments. They have four to release on Monday and
they will be releasing these at the second voting meeting of the month. The first round are things
like wiener roasts and fire pits, getting pulled over by a policeman, blowing grass clippings in the
street and swimming pools.
Mayor Snyder said last Saturday morning Alderman Tibbs and Alderman Anderson were there
the City along with several other entities and businesses were recognized by Main Street for our
contributions for projects that promote, revitalize the courthouse square, historic district and
were given that said you make a blue ribbon downtown. That is partly for Mr. Jackson’s guys
for hanging the baskets on the street lights downtown and it was not a simple deal of drilling
holes and putting bolts in. They had to drop the wires for the lights and drill the holes through
and put the basket bracket on wires back up. He thanked Mr. Jackson for his guys for doing that.
Mayor Snyder said they are going to need to get moving on our City Administrator position and
November 1st is coming up sooner than we might think.
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Mayor Snyder said if they have thoughts about the job description or things you would like
to see in there. They would probably need to pass an ordinance which spells out the duties
and actually our code. The Illinois City County Management Association has a guide for
recruitment, selection of a Chief Administrative Officer and have a model ordinance. If they
want a November 1 start date they will need to have an offer by October 1. He will be putting a
couple of Aldermen on the committee.
Mayor Snyder said he passed out 2 pages of statutory language on redistricting. He like most
of them get legislative briefs from the municipal league throughout the legislative process. He
looks at each individual bill they are asking the cities to take a position on and one of those
this spring dealt with the redistricting of the wards within cities. He looked at that because he
wondered if they were going to have to do that here because obviously the 5 wards they have
been in place for a while. He asked Mr. Bates to be involved and they took a look at the state
statute and Mr. Bates made some inquiries of the Municipal League and they found they do have
to do some redistricting and what triggered it was our population. Because we dropped under
15,000 in population and that is under the first page in 3.1-20.10 the municipal code says that
cities exceeding 3,000 in population but not exceeding 15,000 in population you can only have 8
aldermen. We have 10 with 5 wards and 2 from each ward but because of population according
to the 2010 census dropped below 15,000 we now have to go through the process of redistricting
within the city and have to do it in a way that we create 4 wards and there would then be 2
Aldermen elected from each ward. The other section 3-1-25 it talks about when a census shows
that a city contains fewer wards than it is entitled to the City Council shall redistrict the city as
to as many as the city is entitled and it shall be completed not less than 30 days before the first
date set by the general election law for the filing of candidate petitions for the next succeeding
election for city officers. Our next election would be the primary in 2013 the filing period for
that would be December 2012 which 30 days before that would mean we would have to have the
redistricting done by early November 2012. This has no effect on anything up until May 1, 2013
but from that point forward we can only have four wards from the city with 2 aldermen elected
from each ward. He believed at the first vote there would be two aldermen elected from each
ward and then there would be a drawing basically of lots and one person would get a two year
term and the other person would get a four year term.
Mr. Bates said he did not remember if that is how that goes. He thought if they had a reduction
the two that reside in that ward continue to serve their term until their term expires.
Mayor Snyder said it would depend on what the ward lines look like and who resides in what
ward. Alderman Neitzel asked what determines the lines.
Mayor Snyder said the Council ultimately does with the Ordinance that it passes and our current
lines are set in city ordinance and were done in the 80’s. We still have some questions to get
resolved but they did become aware of this in the last month or so and they wanted to make
aware of it as well.
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Mayor Snyder said the wards have to be compact, contiguous and nearly equal in population as
practical. They have to be fairly equal in size.
Mr. Conzo said they are just now redoing the precinct and it would be voted on this week. They
had to redistrict the county board and what they have done is combine some of the precincts.
Mayor Snyder said the bottom line is they have to make a change in our wards and they have to
go from 5 to 4 and it has to be in place by November 2012.
Alderman Wilmert asked what Mr. Bates interpretation of section e was. Just in case the
redistricting ordinance decreases the number of wards in the city because of a decrease in the
population shall not be effective, paraphrasing here if an official census is officially published
that a city has regained population and in our case 500 people.
Mr. Bates didn’t know if they would have to get a correct or get the census bureau to redo it. He
said he and the Mayor talked about that and how you get them to do that.
Alderman Wilmert said 500 is in the margin of error and asked how accurate was the other
census to begin with.
Mr. Bates said it is a great idea but didn’t know how they would do it. Mayor Snyder said it
was not something they were planning or looking for. Mr. Bates expected that it would be a
considerable expense and there are costs that obviously not budgeted.
Alderman Horn said I move to go into Executive Session under 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(2) to discuss
collective bargaining and Alderman Busby seconded it. City Clerk Mrs. Martinek called the roll
call. There were eight yeas (Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman
Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Tibbs, and Alderman Wilmert), zero
nays, and two absent (Alderman Anderson and Alderman O’Donohue); motion carried. The
meeting adjourned to Executive Session at 8:08 p.m.
The meeting returned to regular Session at 8:35 p.m. City Clerk Mrs. Martinek called the
roll call. There were eight present (Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby,
Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Tibbs, and Alderman
Wilmert), zero nays, and two absent (Alderman Anderson and Alderman O’Donohue); motion
carried. Department heads present were Police Chief Greenslate, Fire Chief Miller, and Street
Superintendent Mr. Jackson. Also present were City Attorney Mr. Bates, Mayor Snyder, City
Clerk Mrs. Martinek, City Treasurer Mr. Conzo, and Recording Secretary Mrs. Riggs.
Mayor Snyder asked about the Alderman getting paid for the collective bargaining. Alderman
Busby said they had in the past. Mayor Snyder said he would check with Alderman Anderson to
see if it was in the budget.
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Alderman Wilmert asked what action the state could make if they had overlooked the census
thing.
Mr. Bates said the bottom line it is not so much what the state can do to us but it’s what actions
we take as a governing body if we’re not properly constituted the actions we take as a body are
invalid. He didn’t think they could take the taxes away. They are doing that without us doing
anything wrong.
Mr. Jackson thought that Chatham was going to challenge theirs. Alderman Wilmert asked if
they were all jumping to redistrict. Alderman Hoinacki thought they should look at all of it.
Mr. Bates said there was new legislation and there were two things that were a slim ray of hope
when the Mayor and I were talking about this and one of them is some very new legislation that
is not in here but it allowed municipalities to stay where they were even if the census required
a redistricting but when they passed the legislation this last session waiting on the governors
signature it only applies to cities of more than 15,000 so it didn’t help us.
Alderman Busby made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Alderman Neitzel seconded it.
There were eight yeas (Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby, Alderman
Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman Tibbs, and Alderman Wilmert), zero
nays, and two absent (Alderman Anderson and Alderman O’Donohue); motion carried.
The City of Lincoln Committee’s as a Whole Meeting adjourned at 8:43 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Risa Riggs
Recording Secretary
City of Lincoln