Lincoln, Illinois
City Council Committee's Meeting
June 28, 2011
Minutes of the City of Lincoln City Council Committees' Meeting held in the Council Chambers
on Tuesday, June 28, 2011.
Those present were Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Bacon, Alderman Busby,
Alderman Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman O’Donohue, Alderman
Tibbs, and Alderman Wilmert. Department Heads present were Fire Chief Miller, Safety and
Building Officer Mr. Lebegue, Deputy Police Chief Geriets, City Engineer Mr. Mathon, and
Street Superintendent Mr. Jackson. Also present were Mayor Snyder, Deputy City Clerk Mrs.
Gehlbach, 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 Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Busby,
Alderman Hoinacki Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman O’Donohue, Alderman Tibbs,
and Alderman Wilmert) and none absent.
The Mayor asked for the Committees' Issues to be Presented:
Finance, Policy and Procedure:
Chairman Alderman Anderson said she had received most of the information from the
department heads with regards to the appropriation requests. She said if the Aldermen or anyone
has anything that they need to share with me if they think of grants or something that we might
be fortunate enough to get I need to have that information. I will have a copy of the tentative
appropriations document for you, hopefully by next week. We will talk about it at the workshop
on the 12th and then hopefully vote on it the following Monday.
Fire/Water & ESDA:
Chairman Alderman Horn said she would like to have on the agenda to have Ashley Williams
sworn in as our new full time off probation firefighter. She said also if everyone would please
look over the ordinance you have in your box tonight on the new fire ordinance we will talk
about it the next workshop meeting.
Grounds, Buildings and Local Improvements:
Chairman Alderman Tibbs said Fire Chief Miller wanted to tell us about the pole going up.
Fire Chief Miller thanked Mr. Jackson’s guys for helping them out at City Hall they have the flag
pole donated from the old hospital put in place on Monday and it looks really good out there and
the last thing they have to do is put a light on it so when the flag is up at night it has a light on it.
The floor is complete on our grant we received from IPRF and our federal grant we received.
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Fire Chief Miller asked everyone to take a look at the floor and that it looks great.
Alderman Tibbs thanked Mr. Jackson and his staff for coming to her help on Saturday.
Sewer Treatment Plant, Sewers and Drainage:
Chairman Alderman Busby said Mr. Bates did you have a chance to go through the possible
National Bidding process.
Mr. Bates said no because they cited a section that says it complies and wasn’t sure that it did.
They are trying to track it down and they will probably end up talking to the Illinois Municipal
League to see what they think about. I am a little unclear and he wanted some private time with
Alderman Busby so he could understand a little bit more about the program. He read all the
material that they have and he still doesn’t quite understand how it works and how we would use
it.
Mayor Snyder said he asked Alderman Busby if Mr. Tackett would be here tonight because his
scheduled retirement date is July 1, 2011. If you run into him please thank him for his service
not only to EMC/Illinois American Water but the City of Lincoln. We appreciated his time here
for all that he has done.
Police:
Chairman Alderman Hoinacki said Police Chief Geriets tells me they would like to go out for
bids for 2 used sports utility vehicles and one new midsize squad car. The specifications will be
available with the bid packets and to have those bids in by 5:00 p.m. July 26th at 5:00 p.m.
Mayor Snyder said there is money in the budget for one or two vehicles and there is also money
in the capital bonding for the other. Deputy Chief Geriets said yes and he believed the previous
budget carried over.
Alderman Hoinacki said they had a request from Mario Bonaparte for a block party for Saturday,
July 9th from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the 300 block of North Sheridan Street and asked to
have that on the agenda. He is asking for barricades and the alleys will be open and there will
be trash receptacles provided by Area Disposal and he has some other guidelines that he has self
imposed. He asked to have that on the regular agenda. He said is it going to be subject to some
sort of insurance.
Alderman Neitzel asked if his homeowners would take care of that. Mr. Bates didn’t think so.
Mayor Snyder asked if there was insurance required for a street blockage.
Mr. Bates said Alderman Hoinacki and I were talking about it before and he couldn’t remember
when and if they had allowed a street blockage for a block party. He didn’t know if anybody
else remembers and if they do how we dealt with the insurance issues.
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Mr. Bates said the best of his recollection anytime someone has blocked and use the street
for some function we have required them to produce insurance whether it is the car shows or
whether it’s Main Street or the Chamber.
Alderman Hoinacki thought there was someone on Rutledge that had one.
Alderman Tibbs said she knew they had encouraged this in the past and our police department
with our neighborhood watches and we used to have block parties and in 2004 they had the
hotdog mobile and the police department or whatever but that would probably be a completely
different story. This getting to know your neighbor type of thing and maybe we should look into
this more.
Mayor Snyder said we have talked about it and he thought it was something they should
encourage with neighbors getting to know neighbors and spending time with each other with
positive activities is a good thing. I’ve got Kathy Vinyard from my office and John’s office
and she has information about how they handle it in Peoria, LaGrange, Hinsdale and Westmont.
They all seem to just have a form that everybody fills out and there is a page of guidelines and a
process that gets followed and kind of routine thing. It probably wouldn’t be a bad thing for us
to look into just to kind of institutionalize so we could have neighborhoods do this kind of thing.
Alderman Tibbs said Mr. Bonaparte approached her at the Main Street Barbecue and said he had
been meaning to get back to her and he wanted to get things rolling. Mr. Jackson said they did it
for Rev. Bonaparte they had a family reunion and it was blocked off from 21st and Palmer to the
alley east but they did provide insurance and that was one of things that the Council made them
do at that time. Alderman Hoinacki said it sounds like they are familiar with the process and to
keep it like this providing proof of insurance and we will definitely look into setting up a new
policy for future parties.
Mayor Snyder said these all have their own individual forms and you have to fill out things like
expected number of attendees and whether it is the first year of the event and times and dates.
Each municipality has different regulations and who has to go out and look at things.
Deputy Chief Geriets said you would have to consider the location for the road closure itself
and closing off Tremont Street would be entirely different than the 300 block of North Sherman
where he is located at. It comes up almost to a T intersection on Tremont by the Courts so he
didn’t see a traffic problem. If it was Tremont Street there may be an issue and the City Council
might want to consider that. When you are developing policies for that in the future location is
definitely going to have to be considered as to what street is asking to be closed.
Mayor Snyder said what does the insurance do on those. Mr. Bates said it was the first avenue of
liability in the event someone is injured or hurt.
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Mr. Bates said the insurance has always been a precautionary measure so we’re not the first
avenue of liability. That is all it has ever been and all it will ever be. When you have something
on the streets you have increased your liability a little bit. If there is an incident they are going to
come to you first because you are the one that authorized it, as a governing body, by having the
event planner or sponsor have the insurance it takes the initial line of liability off of you.
Alderman Hoinacki asked to have it on the agenda. Mayor Snyder thought it was good practice
to have block parties and encourage them to take place around the city.
Mayor Snyder said while we’re talking about street closures and something has come up and I
haven’t had an opportunity for them to get a petition to us. On Friday, July 8, 2011 Channel 3
WCIA out of Champaign is doing something that whole week from July 4, 2011 to July 8 and
Lincoln is the focus of their Hometown Spotlight and they are going to be doing stories about
Lincoln on their nightly news cast. That Friday they would like to do a live remote from here
in Lincoln and they contacted the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce is the
unofficial coordinator of this effort. In talking to some folks they would like to request to close
Kickapoo Street from Pulaski to Broadway so that one block from 4-7 that night and they have
someone lined up who is going to provide hotdogs to people and they are lining up someone
to sell soda pop, have a band, thought it was Vintage Days is going to play from 4-7 and they
would like to have that street blocked during that time and have a block party downtown for that
period of time so the TV station can do their live remotes from that location and basically have
Lincoln as the backdrop and people milling around, acting happy and enjoying Lincoln. He
would follow up with the Chamber about the insurance.
Alderman Hoinacki asked to have it on the agenda.
Streets and Alleys:
Chairman Alderman Neitzel said they had received MFT Material bids. She said they had only
received two bids which one was for the seal coat in the amount of $121,412.00 and the patching
material $18,030.00. She asked to have it on the agenda.
Alderman Neitzel said she had a petition for a gutter repair at 365 Mayfair Drive by Thomas
Letterle. She asked to have it on the consent agenda and said it has been looked at and the rain
washes it out and there is about an 8 foot piece that needs to be fixed.
Alderman Neitzel said she had a petition for a curb break by Ronald E. Parker at 224 N. College
Street. She asked to have that on the Consent Agenda.
Mayor Snyder said he passed out to everyone a list of seal coating for this summer. Mr. Jackson
said all the streets will be done but not all the alleys. The dates for seal coating are July 11-14
and 18-21, August 8-11, 15-18, 22-25, and 29-31 and if there is any rain it will keep pushing it
back and they can go clear back into Thanksgiving.
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Mr. Jackson said the University of Illinois Extension office has contacted him to seal coat their
parking lot and it has been 9 years since they have and wanted to know if the city would do that.
He got the figures and the equipment, material and labor come out to $694.42. He said they
wanted to know if the Council would approve that so they can get their lot done.
Alderman Neitzel said to put it on the Consent Agenda.
Alderman Neitzel said Mr. Jackson told her they would be spraying for mosquitoes on
Wednesdays and Thursday’s weather permitting with Friday being the rain delay day for six
weeks.
Ordinance and Zoning:
Chairman Alderman O’Donohue said in front of you, you have a picture and Mr. Lebegue wants
to talk with them about it.
Mr. Lebegue said what they have before them is the former Lincoln Church of God over on 4th
Street and this is looking at it from 4th Street. This gravel is what was the parking lot and there
is a prospective buyer of this and what really is the deal breaker is if, this what is the gravel
can be vacated or whatever but was a city right of way at one point. Mr. Mathon has done
some preliminary research on this and the GIS that the county has their map shows that it had
been vacated at some and apportioned to the church and to the residential property to the west.
Whereas the tax assessor records do not show the inclusion of the property on to that because if
it had been vacated that portion vacated would have been put onto the taxable property. They
are trying to unravel this and they did get an inquiry to this for someone from the church and
they are just bringing it as informational at this point to see how we want to proceed. It looks as
though the church as utilized the entire area for their parking and entrance during the time that
it was being used as a church. The property to the west the home is in foreclosure and for sale.
Just trying to unravel this and go back in the ordinances and try to find if an actual ordinance
vacation had been done.
Mr. Bates said vacation isn’t going to solve their problem because if it is vacated it can go half
each way. Mr. Lebegue said if it had been vacated before it would have been apportioned half
and half. Mr. Bates said you might want to spend a little time with Bonnie at the Title Company
and she might be able to do it quicker than the ordinances and if she looks at her indexes on
those two properties she might be able to find if there were ordinances recorded. Mr. Lebegue
said he would try that.
Mr. Mathon said they are talking about the Evans Street right of way between 4th Street and 3rd
Street and the Postville Subdivision was all laid out with the alley Evans Street going through
and the alley divided up. In 47 or 48 the Martin Subdivision vacated the half of this block
between 4th and 3rd Street and re-platted it.
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Sidewalks, Forestry and Lighting:
Chairman Alderman Armbrust said he did not have a report.
Sanitation/Technology:
Chairman Alderman Wilmert said he did not have a report.
Alderman Wilmert said he was reading the Building and Safety Department activity report. He
had a question about the hospital again. He asked if they were taking all the parking lot and light
structures up too or is it just the building. He said it was the parking lot behind.
Mr. Lebegue said they were contracted to take up everything and includes the one across 8th
Street. He thought anything on site was up for demolition. All the lighting there was on their
property.
Mayor Snyder said he, Mr. Mathon and Mr. Jackson had a meeting with the hospital about just
exactly where things would be done. Part of the reason with the sidewalk particularly where
you are there is a retaining wall and by taking out the retaining wall and the sidewalk they are
going to feather that back so there is no need for a retaining wall in the future. The curb line
is probably still good there and by taking those pieces out the demolition crew will feather that
back so they won’t need that high wall there. The contract is to remove everything to go back in
with top soil.
Mr. Mathon said the grass is an IDOT approved mixture and is turf grass.
Insurance:
Mayor Snyder said Alderman Bacon is not present this evening she is celebrating her 31st
Wedding Anniversary today.
Mayor Snyder said he had an issue to bring up with regard to employee insurance. As you know
we have moved to Health Alliance. One of the options for employees was a health savings
account and the city is contributing an amount toward the health savings account for those
that chose to take that option. Each employee that has a health savings account has to have an
account set up at a financial institution. The Clerk’s office decided that all the accounts would
be set up at the State Bank of Lincoln. He was contacted by some city employees to state for
whatever reason it would be more convenient for them to have an account at their own financial
institution and he believed during discussions with them there was talk about, he didn’t know if
it was the ability to do it at any financial institution.
Alderman O’Donohue said they did not commit to anything as far as the health savings account.
They said there were many options and listed some of the options and they did not say whether
they would be responsible setting up or determining the location of them or if they would be able
to determine their location.
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Mayor Snyder said I guess the employees have just come to me and asked if they had the
option to set it up or if we set it up for them. They would like to give them the option to set
it up at the institution they use. The Health Savings Account is an account that is technically
theirs and if they don’t use it in a particular year it rolls over and it’s theirs to use for health
insurance purposes. The question is whether the Council wants to, it’s not that the Clerk’s office
did anything inappropriate or wrong it’s just since it has been implemented they have some
additional flexibility.
Alderman Neitzel agreed.
Alderman Anderson said she thought originally that was the thought from the Clerk’s
perspective that it is easier to have at one institution but let’s ask Mrs. Gehlbach with regards
because she is going to be more privy to what this is going to entail from the Clerk’s office with
regards to getting. Is it a situation where once it is set up the work is done and the only thing that
is ever going to change is if we change that amount? Is it going to be a huge amount of work for
the Clerk’s office?
Mrs. Gehlbach said once it is set up it will just be like a direct deposit. Once it is stored in there
with the routing numbers and account numbers they can just go in and adjust the amount. She
said that it is set up at State Bank now and they are handling the deposit in to each of those
savings accounts once they have opened it. Barb Wood at State Bank of Lincoln is taking care
of everything with the set up etc. She said they had to have them opened by June 30.
Alderman Anderson said personally when we make changes to health insurance that gets people
worked up to begin with and this seems like and she didn’t want to downplay the amount of
effort on the Clerk’s Office but it seems like once it’s done it’s an effort that is well worth
keeping our employees happy. Personally if I was doing it I would want it at my bank too.
Alderman Neitzel said that is the way she felt too. Alderman Wilmert said if it is not a lot of
additional work then he echoed Alderman Anderson. Mayor Snyder said we are in a bit of
a crunch here and the City Clerk is gone this week. Alderman Wilmert said because of time
constraints they might have to choose one place and then the following year look at it. Alderman
O’Donohue said the City Clerk made a decision and he guessed if they voted on it it could be
overridden.
Alderman Anderson said what about if we leave it as it is right now and have a conversation
with the Clerk and find out what the parameters would be for the employees to make changes to
other institutions and then decide if we want to allow that ability to have them moved to another
institution and make it at a date maybe January 1 or something along that line so the Clerk can
participate in the conversation. This way we can still try to do the right thing for our employees.
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Mr. Bates thought there was a possibility that you could move it once a year with so much
advance notice to the Clerk’s office and only within a certain time frame. Stick with the plan
and then find out if they can move them and if so how and when.
Mayor Snyder said they have a conference call scheduled about the 3rd Street property with
regard to the clean up of that property. They have a conference call scheduled with the utilities
to find out more about what they are willing to do with regard to architectural services if we
would need to move off there permanently or temporarily so that will take place on July 7. The
utilities also have a new sampling plan.
Mr. Mathon said they are doing additional sampling in the middle of July for about a ten day
span. Part of the second round and the delay between first and second round was some of the
additional sampling points they wanted to get and EPA wanted to take a look at where on the
railroad right of way. They are in the process of getting the sampling plan approved by the
railroad back.
Alderman Tibbs asked how long this has been going on and asked why they were going to do
additional.
Mayor Snyder said they are just trying to find out the extent of the contamination. Mr. Jackson
said how far it has gone. Alderman Tibbs said what are they going to do with that piece of
property anyway since it is contaminated?
Mayor Snyder said the contaminated soil underneath the 3rd Street garage is going to have to be
taken out and remediated and replaced and they can’t do that without tearing down the buildings.
That means the street department is going to have to move either temporarily or permanently.
All of that is yet to be defined whether it is temporary or permanent. They are trying to get a
handle on how far they have to go out digging down and cleaning the soil and putting it back.
He didn’t think there was any concern that it has migrated out underneath the railroad or across
the street or anything like that and thought it was stays fairly contained but the question is just
how large was that area.
Alderman Neitzel asked if it was going into the health department. Mayor Snyder didn’t
think so. Mr. Bates said what they are doing is investigating to find out where it is. Mayor
Snyder said it is their responsibility to clean it up and we want to make sure they clean it all
up. Alderman Tibbs asked if the street and alley department was going to have to move while
they were doing this testing. Mr. Bates said not during the testing just when they finally do the
remediation. Mayor Snyder said Mr. Jackson’s guys have to work around them when they are
doing the sampling but they don’t have to move out those days. Mr. Jackson they work out of
the way those days. Mr. Bates said it takes a long time. Mayor Snyder said they have given us a
proposal that we are going to react to at the conference call about engaging architectural support
in helping us define things.
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Mayor Snyder said Canadian National Railroad which is responsible for the other line that goes
through town which crosses Route 10 and which crosses North Kickapoo and Nicholson road
they have informed us they will be fixing those crossings. They are telling them to fix those
three crossings they are probably going to have to be closed a week from a Monday to a Friday.
Mr. Mathon said that everything he has heard is they will do them individually and that they
would not have more than one crossing closed at a time. Mayor Snyder said they did not want
North Kickapoo and Route 10 closed during the Balloon Fest and they have been very slow
getting it fixed but they seem to be responsive to our calendar situations.
Fire Chief Miller said he needed on the agenda for next Tuesday was the swearing in of
probationary firefighter Chad Kern who would start July 1.
Deputy Chief Geriets said they would need to swear in Miles Craig as probationary that will be
starting on July 1 as well.
Alderman Busby made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Alderman Neitzel seconded it.
There were nine yeas (Alderman Anderson, Alderman Armbrust, Alderman Busby, Alderman
Hoinacki, Alderman Horn, Alderman Neitzel, Alderman O’Donohue, Alderman Tibbs, and
Alderman Wilmert), zero nays, and one absent (Alderman Bacon); motion carried.
The City of Lincoln Committee’s as a Whole Meeting adjourned at 8:05 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Risa Riggs
Recording Secretary
City of Lincoln