Macon Reporter

Village of Lovington Board of Trustees met Feb. 18.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

Call to order: Acting President Brittany Bates called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m.

Pledge of Allegiance: Acting President Bates led the Pledge of Allegiance. Roll Call found the following trustees to be present: Todd Hale, Keith Stanberry, April Daily. Those who were absent were Andrea Wardrip and Mike Young. Acting President Brittany Bates and Clerk Alma Fair were also present.

Visitors and Public Comments: Harold White - he didn’t wish to speak. Donyell Morgan to speak later in the meeting.

The Village Attorney Crossman arrived around 6:30 pm

Minutes and action of Village Clerk

1. Discussion and action on the January 2025 invoices

A Motion was made by Daily and seconded by Stanberry to accept the January 2025 invoices as presented.

Discussion: none

YEA: Hale, Daily and Stanberry

No: None

Absent: Wardrip & Young

MOTION CARRIED

2. Discussion and action on January 13, 2025, Regular Meeting Minutes

A Motion was made by Daily and seconded by Stanberry to approve the January 13, 2025, Meeting minutes as presented.

Discussion: none

YEA: Daily, Stanberry and Hale

No: None

Absent: Wardrip & Young

MOTION CARRIED

3. Discussion and action on January 13, 2025, Closed Session Minutes.

A Motion was made by Daily and seconded by Hale to approve the January 13, 2025, Closed Session Minutes as presented.

Discussion: none

YEA: Stanberry, Hale and Daily

No: None

Absent: Wardrip & Young

MOTION CARRIED

Clerk Fair presented the proposed Appropriations/Budget for 2025-2026 to be voted on at the March meeting so that it can be put on display for 30 days and be voted on at the April meeting.

Daily questioned about the amount for Fireworks – she thought it was always $900. Clerk responded if the amount was in question it can be addressed when to vote for fireworks was presented at a meeting but it was going to stay on the Appropriation/Budget for at $8,000 for now.

Treasurer’s Report

1. Discussion and action January 2025 treasurer’s report

A Motion was made by Daily and seconded by Stanberry to accept the January 2025 treasurer’s report. Discussion: none

YEA: Hale, Daily and Stanberry

No: None

Absent: Wardrip & Young

MOTION CARRIED

Old Business:

1. Discussion and Action of Fencing bids for Sewer Plant

Daily questioned if we needed more bids. Our attorney responded if a bid is less than $20,000 you do not have to put it up for bids. Trustee Hale will ask for more bids and a new bid from the current bid that we have. 2. Discussion and Action on Zoning Ordinances

Daily reported that she has talked to the lady at the courthouse over zoning and since we have paid Frank from Illinois codification for a new zoning ordinance, we should not pay to have anyone else prepare it for us. She is looking at the proposed zoning ordinance from Frank. We would still need a zoning board for any hearings that we might have. We will put on the agenda for the March meeting.

3. Discussion and Action to pay off the water tower loan

Clerk Fair went over the accounts that would be used to pay off the loan.

A Motion was made by Daily and seconded by Stanberry to pay off the water tower loan. Discussion: None

YEA: Hale, Daily, Stanberry and Bates

No: None

Absent: Wardrip & Young

MOTION CARRIED

4. Discussion and Action on condemned houses

Our Attorney reported that some of these properties are getting tax deed and so we need to wait and see what happens with them.

Daily reported that the Newberry house on E State Street – they are getting bids to tear it down. 5. Discussion and Action on Brian Buxton resignation effect 12/31/24

A Motion was made by Daily and seconded by Hale to accept Brian Buxton’s resignation from the zoning board. Discussion: None

YEA: Daily, Stanberry, Bates and Hale

No: None

Absent: Wardrip & Young

MOTION CARRIED

6. Discussion and Action on Brian Yoder request to purchase RR property from the Village Attorney Crossman had prepared an ordinance declaring certain real estate surplus and a authorizing the sale thereof in the Village of Lovington. The ordinance is 2025-01

A Motion was made by Daily and seconded by Stanberry to accept the Ordinance 2025-01 with some corrections.

Discussion: None

YEA: Stanberry, Bates, Hale and Daily

No: None

Absent: Wardrip & Young

MOTION CARRIED

7. Discussion and Action on Waste Management issues.

Morgan reported that Waste Management is still taking money out of the customers bank accounts and there are other problems that she has contacted them weekly about. She did have a lady from WM come into the office yesterday to talk about getting our commercial business. – Morgan is preparing new list of customers for WM. Attorney Crossman said to let them know that they should be picking up any MW tote that is by the curb.

New Business:

1. Discussion and Action on creating an ordinance on No Parking on curbed street after 2” of snow fall

It was determined that we already have an ordinance regarding this, and it states 3” of snow fall. No action taken

2. Discussion and Action on increasing rate by .25 cents per 50 gallons for bulk water sales. Since this is in a current ordinance we need to have a change to the ordinance. Clerk Fair will send the requested change to our Attorney and will vote on it next month.

3. Discussion and Action on an ordinance banning solicitors

The attorney says that this can’t be done. The ordinance was pulled up and it was decided to increase the per day fee as well as the yearly fee. Stanberry will send the requested increase to the attorney to prepare an increase to the ordinance that will be prepared for next month’s meeting.

Stanberry also reported that he and Chief Swisher are revising the requirements from the ordinance to the requirements that the Chief has for new solicitors. Our current ordinance does not prohibit clubs (school or church) from soliciting.

4. Discussion and Action on adding street lights on some of the alleys

This was requested to be put on the agenda by Trustee Young and since he is absent and no one else knows where these are needed it was suggested to be tabled until next month.

A Motion was made by Stanberry and seconded by Hale to table this until next month. Discussion: None

YEA: Hale, Daily, Stanberry and Bates

No: None

Absent: Wardrip & Young

MOTION CARRIED

Closed Session

5 ILCS 120/2 Sec.2 (c) (1) The appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of the public body or legal counsel for the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity.

A Motion was made by Stanberry and seconded by Hale to go into closed session at 7:39 pm for the purpose of 5 ILCS 120/2 Sec.2 (c) (1)

Discussion: none

YEA: Daily, Stanberry, Bates and Hale

No: None

Absent: Wardrip & Young

MOTION CARRIED

Return to Open Session

A Motion was made by Stanberry and seconded by Hale at 8:02 pm

Discussion: none

YEA: Hale, Daily, Stanberry, Bates

No: None

MOTION CARRIED

Discussion and Action if needed from Closed Session

No action was taken

DEPARTMENT REPORTS:

Acting Presidents Report – Brittany Bates

Bates reported that Clerk Fair and herself met with Andy from Farnsworth, and he said the water tower needs to washed and after talking to Donyell Morgan she thinks there is a contract

with Kauffman from Arthur to do that and this is the year to have it done. He also thought it would be a good idea to pay off the loan on the water tower.

The skate park bench needs to be repainted. It was discussed that it really isn’t up to the Village to do that.

Water & Sewer Report – Todd Hale

He will make calls for bids on the fence at the sewer plant

He then went over the other items that were at everyone’s desk, but we can’t vote on any of them because it wasn’t listed on the agenda for this month.

Park and Special Projects – Brittany Bates

The park board will be meeting on March 3 to discuss the Easter Egg hunt. And will be putting the Firework’s cost on the agenda for next month.

Police – Keith Stanberry

There was a complaint about a fox in town that was seen attacking a cat. After looking into what we could do about it - we can’t do anything about wildlife in town.

Streets and Alleys – Mike Young absent

Buildings and Grounds – April Daily

Daily reported that to hire a new employee, we need a drug and alcohol policy. Discussion brought up the fact that we might need to bring Dennis Coslow on full time. It will be on the agenda for next month.

Also, with Spring coming she recommended that Lovington residents get a sticker from the Village to put on grass bags at $1 per bag for the Village workers to pick up. Ordinance violation of the garbage totes being left on the curb that hasn’t been removed after trash pickup. Swisher recommended putting a message on the water bills and then he would give them warning them before handing out fines.

Insurance – Andrea Wardrip absent

Talking to insurance to make sure that our hydro-vac is at Atwood that it is covered by our insurance.

Miscellaneous Report – nothing to report

Adjournment:

A Motion was made by Hale to adjourn at 8:34 p.m.

YEA: all agreed

No: None

MOTION CARRIED

https://www.lovingtonil.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/02182025-agenda-mtg.pdf