Macon Reporter

City of Maroa City Council met May 20.

Here is the minutes provided by the council:

Meeting called to order by Clerk Edwards at 6:29 pm. Roll call taken by Clerk Edwards. Alderwoman Estep, Alderman Kissinger, Peart, Edwards and Wilkey, Administrator Ted Agee and Mayor Meador are present, Clerk Edwards and Treasurer Modro-Peters are present. Alderwoman Bogle is absent.

Clerk Edwards leads the meeting in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Previous Meeting Minutes Clerk Edwards presents the meeting minutes to the council. Mayor Meador asks if everyone had a chance to look at the minutes. Alderman Edwards makes a motion to accept the April meeting minutes, seconded by Alderman Kissinger, Alderwoman Estep, Alderman Kissinger, Edwards and Wilkey vote aye, Alderman Peart abstains and Alderwoman Bogle is absent, motion carried.

Police Report Chief Gaddy is present. Chief Gaddy presents his monthly report to the council and updated ordinance violations that were served in the past week. Chief Gaddy states that he will work on cars in the upcoming week. Alderman Edwards asks if Tombaugh has been served, Chief Gaddy states that yes, they have been served. They were served on the grass/weeds, house and junk in the yard. Chief has served the Tombaugli's and Dodie Junkert as she is also listed as an owner of the property. Chief states that he will get a notice to the bank too since there is a mortgage on the property. Mayor Meador presents pictures of the property that he was given tonight and states that he has spoken to our attorney, and the process is going. Ted Agee, Admin., will get an inspector out there to inspect the property, if it costs more to fix than the property value, then we will get a demolition order, Mr. Tombaugh had made no effort to this point to clean up the property. Alderman Edwards asks if we can get a demo order for the Miller property as well, it will be hard to get due to the type of building it is, per Superintendent Hoffman, Mayor Meador addresses Doris Baker, owner of the property at 225 N Wood Street. Mr. Baker states that he would like to have the home demolished, Mrs. Baker asks for any assistance that the city could give for demolition and get some names to them. Superintendent Hoffman states that he will get them some names. Mr, Baker asks if they do not want to do it and let the city take over what needs to be done, Mayor Meador states that he would need to discuss with the Attorney, and he is not present tonight. Chief Gaddy states that they are asking for more time, Mayor Meador states that the fees may be waived if the time frame is acceptable. The tenant has moved out, but they did not know that until they got the notice regarding the home. Mayor Meador states that the fines will be held off until July 1.

John Leach discusses with the council the issues about his property at 329 W Main Street. Chief Gaddy statest that the roof is falling in on the house and he was issued a notice of dangerous building. Mr. Leach states that he was not talked to about the status of the building. He knows it needs to be tore down and has discussed with Chris to tear it down. He does not feel he should have been served with papers before one of the council or officers talked to him, Mr. Leach would like for the council to talk to the person before serving any type of notice since everyone knows everyone. Chief Gaddy states that from the police department side, he has Clerk Edwards call many people many times, he has to follow the ordinance and issue the citations accordingly. Mayor Meador states that he did not know that we issued a notice to tear down the house, Chief states that he follows the ordinance and issued a notice that it needs to be taken care of, Chief states that if he is asked about a property then he has to show that he followed the ordinance and issued a notice. Mayor Meador asks if there is a way to give the notices ready to be served to the council and if they know someone on the list that is being served, they may be contacted, Chief Gaddy states that is up to the council but he is following the ordinance and issuing notices but if the council wants to change that he will follow their direction. Alderman Wilkey states that there was nothing taken care of so now the council made a decision to serve them all. Alderman Wilkey states that maybe the Chief could just email the council and let them know who is on the list, Chie will do what council directs him to do, Clerk Edwards states, so it will only be people on the list that someone knows that will be contacted, the rest will be served. Alderman Wilkey states no, it is just that the Chief will send the list and if someone has already discussed the issue then let Chief know, if not then serve them. Chief Gaddy states that he has some who he is directed to be served immediately, Chief asks how long he is to wait for a reply before he serves the person, Mayor Meador states that if no one replies within 48 hours, then send out the notices. Alderman Wilkey states that just to clarify, Chief Gaddy has done everything that he has been directed to do.

Chief Gaddy states that Mashburn property is having an issue. He shares a wall with Cunningham and is not able to comply because of Cunningham. It will become a civil matter but Chief just wants the council to be aware that the building will not be tore down as soon as Mashburn would like.

Attorney Report Attorney Jankowicz is not present.

Mayor Meador states that Attorney Jankowicz has been in contact with the State and will have a plan and

cost to clean up the trailer park at the next meeting.

Mayor Meador discusses the status of the old Coastal building and there were a couple of interested people in the property, but the owner did not want to sell so Mayor Meador has instructed Attorney Jankowicz to proceed with the legal proceedings and get the demolition order for the building.

Mayor Meador states that there has been no action on the Tombaugh property so Attorney Jankowicz will move forward with the legal proceedings for the property.

Mayor Meador states that the grant that we applied for last year, he has gotten it put back in for another review by some of the Legislators that he reached out to and will know by the end of the month if we can get some monies to fix up the Wood Street sidewalks,

Engineer's Report Ron Legner, Engineer is not present.

Administrator Report Ted Agee, Administrator is present, and he presents and discusses his report,

Zoning/Public Works Mike Hoffman, Superintendent, is present. Superintendent Hoffman states that the hydrants were flushed

and will do again in the fall.

There were a lot of items picked up at the clean-up. Superintendent Hoffman stated that Larry suggested that we get another group to pick up as the fire department is not able to help as much anymore. Mayor Meador states that we will try to get others to help.

Old Business

New Business Mayor Meador thanks the outgoing City Council members, Erick Peart, Wayne Kissinger and Jason

Edwards for their service and hard work

Clerk Edwards swears in the new council and welcomes them to the council, Monica Estep, Tyler Jackson and Blake West. Jeremiah Grider is not present, he is at Guard duty and will be sworn in at the next months meeting. The present council members are seated.

Mayor Meador makes appointments to the Zoning Board, updating their term, Brad Wilkey for a term to 4/30/2023 and Doug Kennedy for a term to 4/30/2022, Alderman West makes a motion to appoint Brad Wilkey until 4/30/2023 and Doug Kennedy until 4/30/2022 to the Zoning Board, seconded by Alderwoman Estep. Alderwoman Estep, Alderman West, Alderman Jackson vote aye, Alderman Wilkey abstains, and Alderwoman Bogle is absent, motion carried.

Clerk Edwards discusses the update to the website. At budget time last year, Alderman Wilkey and Clerk Edwards had discussed updating the website, it was not put into the budget, this year it is in the budget in parts, Cybernautic will do the update for us for $7,480 with a 20% website. Clerk Edwards states that this is the initial website that was started over 10 years ago. It is not user friendly at this time, City of LeRoy has recently updated and that is like what we will do. Ted Agee, Administrator discussed another option and it would be that we need to stay with Cybernautic for the.gov but we could purchase maroaillinois.com and the search engine will point it to the.com site when looking up. It is more labor intensive. More detailed work behind the scenes and would take a while to get completed. To get it done sooner, Cybernautic would be the way to go. Tabled until next meeting.

Superintendent Hoffman discusses his interviews for summer help. He recommends the hiring of Anthony Campbell and Chase Larson. They will work approximately 20-30 hours a week at $10 per hour, Alderman Wilkey makes a motion to hire Anthony Campbell and Chase Larson for summer help starting 6/1/2019-7/31/2019 at a pay rate of $10 per hour with a limit of 20 - 30 hours a week, seconded by Alderman West. All council members present vote aye, motion carried.

Mayor Mcador discussed the fence to extend the beer garden. Code is 4' but Mayor Meador suggests that

they allow a 6' fence to be allowed since it is a beer garden, Alderman West makes a motion to allow

'garden fence at Full House to be extended to the side yard and be 6 tall, seconded by Alderman Jackson, All council members present yote aye, motion carried.

Ted Agee, Administrator is making a recommendation to promote Kevin McCullough to the assistant superintendent of public works. He is doing the same work as the superintendent. If Mike is not there, Kevin assumes the responsibility, Kevin is testing to get the certificates needed for public works. Kevin is training with the Clinton Water Department to do the lab testing, it will save us money. We will no longer have to send it out for testing. Would like to discuss wages in closed session, Alderman Wilkey states that we will need to create that position first. Will discuss in closed session.

Citizen Comments Mark Behrends states that in January it was discussed that Linden Street would be repaved, what is the status of this, Superintendent Hoffman states that the Engineer looked at it and it is a base issue but nothing more has been done. It is needed to be repaired but decision needs to be made as to what to do to fix the issue. When is dries up then we will dig up and see what needs to be done. Alderman Wilkey states that we replaced a section a few years ago and it has held up so it would not be wise to just patch, it needs to be replaced. Alderman Wilkey states that this year would be Ward II rock and chip so could skip it and use some of that money towards that project. Superintendent Hoffman will get informal bids for concrete and asphalt and bring to the June meeting.

Mark Behrends gave a handout discussing the Administrators position and reads the letter. It was to be followed up in February and to the date it has not been done. Mayor Meador states that the continuation of the position was in the budget. In June it will be one year that Mr. Agee has held the position, he will write his own report card and report to us in June, He will have to be able to sell his position. Mayor Meador states that he has already paid for his position when you hear what he has done.

Committee reports

Bills Clerk Edwards presents the bills to the council. Mayor Meador asks if everyone has looked at the bills, Alderman Wilkey makes a motion to pay the May bills, seconded by Alderman West. All council members present vote aye, motion carried.

Closed Session Alderman Wilkey makes a motion to move to closed session for 5 ILCS 120/2 0(1) appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees of public body, seconded by Alderwoman Estep. All council members present vote aye, meeting moved to closed session at 7:45 pm.

Return to open session at 8:30 pm.

Mayor Meador asks if there is a motion to adjourn, Alderman Jackson makes a motion to adjourn at 8:31 pm, seconded by Alderman Wilkey. All council members present vote aye, motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 8:31 pm. Adjourn

https://maroaillinois.gov/file/631/May%2020%202019%20Meeting%20minutes.pdf