Macon Reporter

Village of Warrensburg Village Board met Feb. 21.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

CALL TO ORDER:  Mayor Riley called the meeting to order at the Warrensburg Village Hall on Tuesday, February 21, 2023 at 5:30 p.m., reminding everyone the meeting was being recorded.  

THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE was recited. 

ROLL CALL:  Present:  Mayor Riley, Trustee Fisher, Trustee Hackl, Trustee Hood, Trustee Netherton & Trustee Oakley.  Also present were Chief Wheeler, Atty Jankowicz, Public Works K. Crosier & VAC Hundley.  Trustee Freeman was absent.

MAYOR’S COMMENTS:  Mayor Riley let the board they would be voting later on regarding an agreement with Rise Broadband.  He wanted to update the board on a couple things in regards to Rise.  In return for allowing them to set up a shed between the Village Hall & Police Department, they will be providing free internet service to the Village of Warrensburg entities.  Secondly, they were looking for a place to stage their equipment during the install.  They will be utilizing part of the property at the sewer plant.

Milano & Grunloh reached out to him late this afternoon letting him know the Village of Warrensburg was removed from the FEIN list.  VAC Hundley will be working with them tomorrow to rectify this issue in order to apply for the IEPA Grant before April 11th.

PUBLIC COMMENTS:  Mr. Hawkins asked when the water main project will be started or worked on.  Mayor Riley stated it would most likely be next year.

NEW BUSINESS:   Nothing.

ENGINEER:  Stephanie Brown was in attendance and reported she had attended the IRWA Conference that day.  There is lots of funding becoming available.  However, the “word of the day” is discretionary.  Most of the state agencies are getting access to these funds.  There are going to be some mandated IEPA regulations coming. 

The SRTS project is officially on the list for bid letting on March 10th.  The advertisement for observation services has been posted in the Herald & Review. 

REVIEW/APPROVAL OF MINUTES:  A motion was made by Trustee Hood, seconded by Trustee Hackl to approve the minutes of the February 6, 2023 regular meeting.  Motion carried. 

VILLAGE ADMINISTRATIVE CLERK:  Trustee Oakley moved and Trustee Hood seconded to approve the Balance Sheet, pay the bills and make the appropriate transfers for February 21, 2023.  A simple change had been made on the balance sheet to offset the line items for the vehicles.  Since the ARPA Funds can be used for basically anything, Trustee Oakley had asked to show under the Police section, the amount of the loan.  He suggested to keep those ARPA funds in mind for any future projects as there is a deadline for those funds to be used and reported.  Mayor Riley asked about the invoice for Gunther Salt.  Roll call vote:  Yes – Trustees Oakley, Hood, Netherton, Fisher & Hackl.  No - none.  Motion carried. 

FINANCE:  Trustee Oakley moved and Trustee Hood seconded to terminate the Aramark services effective December 31, 2023.  He explained what was happening with them.  Notice has to be provided to them at least 60 days prior to the end of the contract.  Atty Jankowicz suggested it be sent at any time, making sure it’s registered mail with return receipt requested.  Roll call vote:  Yes – Trustees Fisher, Oakley, Hackl, Hood, & Netherton.  No – none.  Motion carried.

Trustee Oakley asked at the prior meeting to have the budget worksheets prepared as soon as possible and asked if anyone had any to turn over tonight.  He would like to target getting the budget approved at the first meeting in April.

BUILDING:  Trustee Netherton didn’t have anything.  VAC Hundley mentioned she had asked the building inspector to check on 3 or 4 locations which had been mentioned in an unsigned letter Mayor Riley had received.  She doesn’t know whether he has had a chance to do that or not.  Mayor Riley went on to explain about the letter and how he didn’t give much weight to it since it wasn’t signed.  

POLICE:  Trustee Fisher mentioned there has been approximately 290 persons looked at the vehicle on Facebook marketplace but there wasn’t any way to tell if they were municipalities or not.  There was one municipality who came today to take a look at the vehicle and ILEAS put it on one of their notification systems.  It was also added to the IL Municipal League website.  The bid deadline is March 20.

Chief Wheeler didn’t have anything for the meeting.

SEWER:  Trustee Hackl reported on the transfer switch for the sewer generator.  He checked with Doug Dean, who has worked on generators, and he didn’t feel the Village needed to replace the transfer switch at this time.  If it is needed to be run for 2 or 3 days, there is a way for Bodine to override it for that.  It is automatically tested every Monday. 

Kenny Crosier reported 6 of the cylinders were picked up today.  There is supposedly a leak in the 7th cylinder and they won’t take it.  DPW Allen is supposed to continue looking into it.

Trustee Oakley asked about the generator transfer switch to clarify that if it were to fail, there is a work around but a 3rd party would be needed to handle that. 

Mayor Riley asked if Doug Dean had come out to look at it and Trustee Hackl mentioned he had just talked with him over the phone.  Mayor Riley asked if he would be able to do the maintenance on that generator and Trustee Hackl stated, it’s too big for him to handle and probably wouldn’t be the one to provide the work around if it was needed.  Mayor Riley questioned whether the board should be thinking about replacing the generator transfer switch since Bodine indicated there would be at least 22 weeks before the parts would be in once ordered.  Trustee Hackl responded by saying that many of the parts for this particular component can’t be replaced or not made any longer since it’s an electronic portion of the generator.  It was recommended we just hold off doing anything for now.  Mayor Riley mentioned maybe some prices could be looked into prior to the new budget, in order to have things in place for the next fiscal year.

Kenny Crosier mentioned the gentleman from IRWA said there were going to be more on-site testing by ILEPA.

STREETS:   Trustee Hood moved and Trustee Oakley seconded to go into closed session at the end of the meeting to discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of an employee pursuant to 5ILCS 120/2 (C)(1).  Roll call vote:  Yes – Trustees Hood, Fisher, Hackl, Oakley & Netherton.  No – none.  Motion carried.

WATER:  Trustee Freeman was absent.  An email had been received from Milano & Grunloh regarding the EPA grant application and questions which need to be answered.  There are income surveys which will be dropped off within the next couple of days.  The village will need a 75% response rate of those in the target area, which is N. Main St, North St, and West St.  The surveys will need to be completed in the next two weeks. 

There is documentation regarding boil orders, operator’s log, letters from residents, etc.  There is also some internal work in the grant portals which needs to be completed. 

Trustee Oakley asked if this was a change in the approach previously discussed.  It is.  This is applying for an EPA grant instead of obtaining a loan.  The deadline for the grant submission is April 11, 2023. 

Mayor Riley asked if the board would like to speak with Seth Flach since he said he would be available to answer any questions. 

Trustee Oakley asked what is involved in the survey.  Since this had been done recently in Latham, Kenny Crosier said the survey didn’t amount to much.  Atty Jankowicz mentioned some communities that have done this in the past, have made sure the residents understand the information will not be available to the board and have offered an inducement to complete the survey.   

Mayor Riley entertained an emergency motion in order to move forward.  Trustee Fisher moved and Trustee Hackl seconded to approve the DCEO Grant Application. 

Seth Flach was contacted via phone and one of the first questions was in regards to the LMI ratio.  He was also asked about the $1,200.00 for the ability to expedite the EPA review time.  Typically, the review process is 70 – 75 days for a non-fee permit applicant.  Without an EPA permit, there is automatically a 20-point deduction on the grant application.  Trustee Hackl asked if there was a 100% guarantee that they will do the review in 30-35 days if we pay the $1,200.00.  Seth stated the EPA gives that guarantee.  Trustee Hackl asked if we would receive the $1,200.00 back if they don’t get the review completed in that time frame and Seth responded we would get it back or give the Village a letter stating the review process was not completed, which could be included in the grant application. 

He explained what the FEIN lock was which was mentioned in the email.  DCEO placed this lock on approximately 800 municipalities which did not have their GATA Portal up to date and/or their SAM.gov information active.  Since we are that lock list, DCEO has extended the application deadline to April 11, 2023. 

There has to be a public hearing in the next 6 weeks and during that hearing, it would be explained how the application process will work.  If the Village receives this grant, we would only have to pay the administration and engineering services. 

Seth explained the Village could add approximately 2,000 or 3,000 feet of pipe to the construction costs to apply for the $1.5M grant. 

Trustee Oakley if the bottom line was the Village would either be approved or not approved.  That is correct.  He followed up by asking if there was an advantage to applying for a lower amount.

Trustee Hackl asked if we do add additional pipe, does it have to be continuous to what is proposed and it does not.  The Village would just have to do the surveys for the additional area.  Depending on the LMI for area, that portion could be denied or dropped off. 

Mayor Riley asked if this grant application would be congruent with the loan application process.  Yes, if the Village would be unsuccessful for the grant application, then we could continue with the loan. 

Mayor Riley and Seth clarified we can only apply for the construction costs.

Trustee Oakley clarified we need 75% of the homes in the project to respond and out of that, 51% need to meet the LMI threshold. 

Seth mentioned that with an April 11 deadline, it’s going to take a lot of effort to pull everything together.

Mayor Riley asked what the biggest obstacle usually is to the residents’ completing the income surveys.  Mostly, the residents just don’t want to release that info to the Village.  Mayor Riley asked if other municipalities offered some type of incentive to complete the survey.  The survey has to be signed by a Village official.  Seth suggested it be stressed to the residents that this is for a grant instead of a loan; therefore, the water quality can be improved without an increase to their rates to pay for a loan.

Roll call vote on the grant application:  Yes – Trustees Hackl, Oakley, Fisher, Netherton, & Hood.  No – none.  Motion carried.

Trustee Hood moved and Trustee Fisher seconded to pay the IEPA $1,200.00 to expedite the permit review and offer an incentive of $50.00 credit on their water/sewer bill to complete the survey.  Trustee Hackl asked if those trustees who are residing within this project should abstain from the vote.  Atty Jankowicz mentioned the should.  Trustees Oakley & Fisher stated they would decline the incentive.  Roll call vote:  Yes – Trustees Oakley, Netherton, Hood, Fisher & Hackl.  No – none.  Motion carried. 

PUBLIC WORKS:   Kenny Crosier didn’t have anything further.

VILLAGE ATTORNEY:  Atty Jankowicz passed out Ordinance #783, which is a right-of-way use agreement with Skybeam LLC, d/b/a Rise Broadband for internet services in the Village.  A motion was made by Trustee Oakley, seconded by Trustee Netherton to approve Ordinance #783.  Roll call vote:  Yes - Trustees Netherton, Fisher, Hackl, Oakley & Hood.  No – none.  Motion carried. 

OTHER AND/OR OLD BUSINESS: 

The board left for closed session at 7:00 p.m.

The board returned to open session at 7:43 p.m.

Trustee Hackl moved and Trustee Netherton seconded to adjourn.  Motion carried.

The meeting adjourned at 7:44 p.m. 

https://warrensburgil.com/meeting-info/