Good evening. Evelyn, could you please give the invocation?

Let's bow our heads. Father God, your word says in 1st Timothy 2.1, therefore I exhort first of all that supplication, prayers, intercessions, and giving thanks be made for all men and women. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, I lift every council member that sits in the seat of authority up to you. I pray that you, Father, will give their Huffman.

Thank you, Father, for your wisdom to govern our city with character and integrity.

Father, thank you for directing our city council members on the five agenda discussions tonight.

In the name of Jesus Christ, I bind every hindrance that would try to stop whatever your plan is for discussion tonight and in the future.

Father, you know the end of all things.

Every word spoken by this council, or members of this city, must be spoken with respect and in order in Jesus Christ holy and matchless name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Evelyn, and we'll officially call this committee of the whole meeting to order. Madam Clerk, could you please take the role? Mayor Miller? Here.

Alderpersons, Klemm? Here. Johnson? Here. Simmons is absent. Parker? Here. Stacy will be marked absent for the moment. Shadle? Here. Sanders? Here. And Sellers is absent.

I'll need a motion for Alderman Stacy to attend remotely. Is there such a motion?

So moved. I'll second. We have a motion made by Alderman Shadle, seconded by Alderman Johnson.

They all have to be roll call when somebody's attending remotely, Mayor.

Okay. Could you please take the roll on that?

Klemm? Aye. Johnson? Here. Parker? Aye. Shadle? Aye. And Sanders? Aye.

the motion passes five to zero you want to see if she's on yeah okay then if you could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance led by Alderman Shadle and And item number four is the approval of the agenda. Is there such a motion?

So moved. Second.

Yeah.

Motion made by Alderman Klemm, seconded by Alderman Shadle. Madam Clerk, could you please take the role?

Shadle? Aye.

Sanders? Aye. Klemm? Aye.

Johnson? Aye.

Parker? Aye.

And Stacy?

What is this vote for?

The agenda.

Huffines.

Do you accept the agenda?

Yes, ma'am.

Aye.

The motion passes six to zero.

Number five, there's a typo in the minutes.

It should actually say Joy Sellers encouraged everyone to support the Shoot Hoops Not Guns event on Wednesday, July 16th, 2025 at Highland Community College sponsored by the Boys and Girls Club.

So with that, I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes from the Committee of and the whole meeting held on July 14th, 2025 as amended.

I so move.

Second.

The motion made by Johnson, seconded by Shadle.

Madam Clerk, could you please take the roll?

Shadle.

Aye.

Sanders.

Aye.

Klemm.

Aye.

Johnson.

Aye.

Parker.

Aye.

Stacy.

I did not hear what the mayor said.

I'm asking for- What am I voting on?

I'm asking for an approval of the amended minutes for the committee of the whole.

There was a typo that just used the word there in the wrong place.

Thank you, and the motion passes six to zero.

Item number six is public comment.

Rhonda Scott.

Good evening, Rhonda Scott from Fourth Ward.

I'm here to speak about the lift station.

You're going to have a discussion on it tonight, so I wanted to be part of that Huffines.

Thank you for that discussion and let you know my opinion that we absolutely do not need a Lyft station at this point.

The Lyft station is being built within the Lamb Road TIF.

Those funds are to be spent on the Lamb Road development.

That's where Wal-Mart and Menards are and a few industries.

It was set up as an industrial TIF.

It has not really grown as an industrial TIF.

However, the businesses out there have been flushing their toilets just fine for the last 19 years and now we want to spend the The excess fund of about three million dollars to put in a lift station. Why?

This is what you need to really seriously consider. Why are we spending taxpayer dollars?

So that Fehr Graham can get a project to build a lift station for what?

I want to let you know that there in the past has been this agenda to put water and sewer out to the airport. The way this could fit in is that we would put the water and sewer out there and then flush the sewer from the airport down to the lift station which the taxpayers are going to be paying for with these property taxes and then pump it up to our wastewater treatment facility. We do not We do not need to be spending any money on a lift station and we definitely do not need to be spending more money on water and sewer for the airport.

This has been a county fantasy.

It has been propped up by politicians that our county political system has been endorsing and it's against the taxpayers' best interests and I recommend that we do not spend, it's It's in fact a taxpayer abuse to be spending TIF funds to put a lift station out there for a development that it's going to be closing that TIF expires in 2026.

And we're just now talking about putting a lift station to lift crap out of there.

It isn't right.

That ends public comment.

Item number seven is discussion regarding municipal electrical aggregation program presented by Mike Mudge, but he's not here.

So what's the pleasure of the council?

and I think we moved it to the next September cow or?

I would say yes.

Do we need the bow down there? No.

Okay. We'll just put it on the September agenda.

And same for item number 8, which is the discussion regarding community solar with Illinois shines.

That was also a Mike Mudge presentation.

So we'll move that to the next meeting as well.

on Walnut Avenue. Darren Stiegel. Good evening everybody. So I was asked to provide some maps and some information on the Walnut Road lift station. The proposed location is right here at the corner of the landfill. Our current sewer runs from the Lamb Road area through the back of the landfill along this perimeter and under the river and ties to a manhole in this vicinity.

This current line with the settlement of the landfill is inverted and actually pushes uphill Hill, right through this area right here.

We've done numerous inspections on it and flow is continuously trapped here to make it around.

Some of our heaviest industrial flows are from the Lab Road District.

A matter of fact, Snack King is our largest industrial user.

So the lift station is proposed to be placed here.

There'll be a connection to the Gravity Line that comes from the Walmart all the way to Route 26 line and every business over there that and a lot of people.

The river runs parallel to the river here all the way around the edge of Freeport. Why is this project necessary? The inverted line that's in the landfill that carries all the industrial flow is in the landfill. It would take significant more dollars to dig that line up and Parrott. It's very deep. Some of the manholes here in the back of the landfill are over 30 feet deep to access. Plus, if anybody knows anything, landfill two and three was an unregulated landfill. So back in the early days of the landfill, anything could be put in that landfill.

Landfill number four was a regulated one and has a liner and a liner cap in it where this This is just a clay, two and three are just a clay bottom, so we would have a very tough situation trying to dig up that landfill to replace those lines.

Again, currently all of the flow from the entire Lamb Road district, which includes all the businesses on Lamb Road, Walmart, Snack King, Menards, all of the flow goes We're going to go through this line right here by the Veterans Park.

This would also include our leachate system that comes out of landfill two and three.

So anybody that doesn't know that, it's the technical term for garbage juice that comes out of two and three.

Because it's unregulated, we have to monitor the garbage juice continuously for what is coming out of the unregulated landfill.

So that system will also be pumped by this new lift station.

Kirk, I think there's some questions on what will be fed by this, if you could go to the next slide.

So this, there's a bunch of numbers on here.

So when we first developed Lamb Road, there was all of this acreage that was in the permit to fulfill Lamb Road.

So Baileyville is here.

Yes, this is Airport Road.

This could go all the way out to Mill Race.

So when we resize the lift station, the 500 acres here in the green were cut off, while the 375 acres of Lamb Road, the 570 acres, to the east, Curt, if you can go to the next slide.

And also, the west development was also pulled in, in case this were developed.

So there's 140 acres here.

There's another 400 acres going to the west.

There's a 20 acre site that had already been parceled out up here on the corner, which the sewer will be running right along Forest Road right here.

And there's another 215 acres to the west that will all be able to come to this new lift station.

Additionally, there's already 200 acres in this site development that all drain here now.

Snack King is our largest user, they contribute about 140,000 gallons a day just from Snack King alone.

So this line would contribute to one of our heaviest industrial lines that is sent every day to the city.

The new lift station will have pumps that are able to flow 2,700 gallons per minute and they're 100 horsepower.

So they'll be open up for future development.

It also could have a wet well attachment to it in the future had encased that area grow bigger that it could just be added, like bolted onto it to add more flow.

The force main is 16 inch and it's about $4,000, sorry, 4,000 feet of this project.

There's also a gravity main that's about 1,500 feet that's part of this project to tie in and basically abandon and place the existing line.

Now the existing line, let's talk about that for a second.

Curt, can you go back to the first picture please?

So right back here in the back of the landfill, the laterals that come out of the landfill connect back here.

That's how the landfills completely drain now.

So that line from the laterals on will stay active so it can continue to drain like it normally has been.

The inverted section again runs through here and that's something that we just can't overcome this time. With that I'll take any questions anybody has. I think I covered it all. I'm a manager, Boyer, if you have anything to include in that. I think it did a pretty good job communicating what's going on here. I just wanted to also just highlight the fact that if we're able to as we move on and develop areas south of town this will be a necessary piece of infrastructure to have in place so we have a place for the water treatment plant to drain as well.

Yeah, thank you. So I did forget to mention that the new water treatment plant that's being built out at the corner of Forest Road and Park will also go to this landfill that a complete area was designed to drain to this basin as well.

So then basically you're talking about having real possibility of shovel ready sites.

Potentially yes. Yep. You got to do this is step one. Step two and three will have water and sewer out there. So now step three and four would be to obtain land or parcels or development area that somebody could go to and between the two sites they there's industrial and residential that are possibilities within that development. We've calculated. I mean, I believe it's you don't go off of every measurement that's on that map, but it's a the total of about 1,820 acres total that could come to this station.

So it's a large, large development area that could benefit Freeport for many years to come if development were to happen either residentially or commercially or industrial in that area.

Alderman Johnson.

Yeah, I just had a question or two here.

What are the adverse effects or dangers if this lift station isn't built or isn't in place?

Did you say you had a few questions first? Yeah and I was I was just going to ask doesn't the lift stations help keep the contaminated water from getting in mixing with our other water like drinking water too? Don't they help get rid of? So I'll answer number one. The dangers are that the landfill lateral breaks more or inverts more and doesn't allow the Lamb Road Tip District to drain.

that would put us in an emergency situation we have no other bypass we have no other work around for it currently as the landfill settles it appears that the inversion is continuing to be more and more and more which you know that was installed many years before we were around here so I can't speak to when and if but we're already having issues with debris and solids Miller.

We're going to be having to get an EPA permit to dig up an unregulated landfill that is going to create a lot more havoc than this project itself.

So in the long term, this is the best solution not to have to get in the landfill.

As we've discussed as a group here, the landfill, especially two and three being unregulated, that's never going away for Freeport.

We can't undo what has been done.

That is going to be a continual carrying cost and a continuing monitoring cost and probably even more maximum contaminant levels and things like that that are brought in over time for that landfill itself.

So the lift station question is protecting waters.

So basically this is a giant pump system to pump sanitary waste to our system to get it to the interceptor.

So what we would end up having is if we don't put this in place, the Lamb Road area, especially Snack King, which is our largest provider, could potentially run into an issue of production.

If we can't take the flows through there, they will back up.

We will get violations eventually.

And we're going to have to deal with this one way or the other.

Wendell.

It's not of a matter of if, it's when we will have to deal with it.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Alderman Sanders?

Yes, Darren, when did this proposal come out and when was this study to bring such a proposal to the council in order for us to recognize this type of a project to make an assessment on whether or not it's feasible for something that's been in existence for over 20 some years and there has not been any complications during these times and then to modify the system now because of possibilities, that's what we're saying, because of other avenues or other developments can come in play, we don't cap our hand off, but the point of the matter is how long have this study's been going on and the purpose of this study at this time and how come the council is not read into that study and how come.

to that study and how come we have not seen hard copies of that study because you jumping around with these, with this laser beam does not impress me at all because it doesn't tell me anything, okay?

And so my whole thing is if I'm gonna make a decision or the citizens of Freeport make a decision, they wanna make sure that their council members are very well in tune with what you're doing and if they come to us, if our constituents come to us and ask us, what's going on out there?

And do we necessarily have to pay for something like that if it's not necessary?

I haven't found the reason why we have to modify anything at this point this year or anytime soon until we have done a complete study to prove anything and the rest of the board.

So I'm just wondering, is there anything different than why we, why so much of an emergency to put this lift station in for any pumping at all?

Because there is no pumping going on out there at this present time that I know of.

And I'm wondering why are we putting in a lift station to do any kind of pumping, modifications to get water lifted, is the only thing I'm listening to from you is what the possibilities, why it is that we wanna do such a thing, but the thing about it is council is not well in tune with what's going on and when did this proposal come to date or when it come up?

I don't recall us ever talking about proposing a lift station for that area.

So I'm just wondering why is this that we're moving on such a thing and the fact that anyone would entertain that.

I just don't believe the citizens of Freeport would entertain that because they can't find an emergency reason or a reason for that.

If it's $3 million or whatever it is that's going to reconstruct that area, for what purpose?

For draining sewer water when it's draining already?

I just can't see the people of Freeport doing that just yet.

Okay, Alderman Shadle would like to have a response and then city manager.

Thank you.

Has this been talked about for a year and a half or two years?

It's been on the floor, been at the council.

Anybody that's paying attention knows about it.

Yeah, I resent that.

It has been in the capital plan.

I resent that because you didn't bring me up to date.

This happened a year or so ago.

So to retain that kind of information, you was just loaded with it.

Okay.

City manager?

I just wanted to remind everybody, it's been in the capital plan for a couple of years.

So we've not only- Yeah, capital for a couple of years.

That's what I'm getting at.

That's the part I'm missing.

Yes, it's been in the capital plan for a couple of years.

And as we've discussed, as Darren's outlined, as far as we have a very heavy water user out there that basically we're at limitation on what's available in terms of flow because of the inverted section.

And that's in part due to the fact that they are very diligent in helping us by necking down their flow, but the capacity is needed.

And I'm guessing back in the day when this was all done, there was always an intent to put in some type of lift station here, just due to the volume of flow that's available there.

And so as we build out, we need additional capacity so that we can then convey that back and the wastewater plant.

Did you want to add to that or are you good?

I would echo Rob's and Greg's sentiment.

It's been talked about for two years.

The project's completely done, designed, permitted, ready for construction.

It's been bid.

I mean, we've talked about this numerous times.

This line has issues.

This isn't a creation just to add another station.

it's a repair and a permanent fix to a problem that we're having.

Again, it's designed, permitted by the EPA.

We're not going to get a permit to dig up the landfill.

There isn't another resolution here.

We have the creek crossing to deal with.

And frankly, the sewer that was put in there, which I don't know the era, was not a good plan to put a landfill on top of it.

So unfortunately, I didn't do that.

I didn't make the problem.

I'm just trying to help find a solution for it.

We have a bid that we've already bid the project.

We have a potential awarder tonight, excuse me, on the 18th.

And it was brought to this meeting to just re-talk about why it is that we're here because there's been so much gossip about how we got here.

So we're here to clarify the error.

Alderman Sanders, did you want to?

Yeah, it would be very appreciated to the citizens of Freeport who relies on our understanding of the process when putting projects together and bringing us up to date and up to speed.

The people of the city of Freeport needs, they're not sitting in their homes with a retainer mindset that they should hold on to any information for two years.

That's not gonna happen, but it would be respectful and considerate of our staff to keep us up to date, keep us up to breath so we'll know that it's coming.

And one other thing is too, I just wanted to find out whether or not we voted on this thing.

If we voted on it, then I don't have no argument with it.

If it passed, then I have no argument with it.

But if it's being reintroduced to us, then I have a problem with it because we have not set back to re-evaluate what it is that we're proposing at this moment.

Manager Boyer.

Alderman Sanders, we do have any opportunity throughout the month to get together and talk about what's on the agenda.

I do so with Alderman Shadle and Alderman Klemm and Alderperson Johnson and also Alderperson Sellers.

we talk about these things during those conversations and I know we've met but it's been a very long time since we've met but we did have a conversation this morning or this afternoon briefly that would have been another opportunity however we really need to spend some time with you and me and the mayor going over the agendas so that you're not feeling caught flat-footed on what's coming before council so and that's why we're having this discussion and I You know, I sit back and I listen how Ralph is speaking about how it's been in the capital plan for a couple of years now and then he's guessing about this and he's guessing about about that. And it's like, if you, city manager Boyer, know so much, instead of guessing, you will be explaining this to us instead of daring. It's crazy how we continue not to organize what needs to happen in our city first. We can put this type of money, we can

into a lift station, but our streets are continue to be crap.

Oh, but we don't have an account for our streets.

It pisses me off that we have gone 25 plus years.

Now we're gonna put the car before the horse because what if, what if, what if?

Why aren't we dealing with what's true and not the what if?

And I do have a question.

How will the nursing home benefit from this lift station?

Since the nursing home was threw up in my face today, how is it going to benefit the nursing home?

How will it benefit the nursing home?

Darren, would you want to answer that?

Their flow will go into the lift station.

No, City Manager Boyer.

No, I just directed Darren Siegel to answer it.

Yes, because City Manager Boyer can't.

You're out of order. Could you just let him finish and then if Rob wants to add something, he can.

The nursing home flow will go into the new lift station.

The nursing home flow would go into the new lift station.

Manager Boyer, you want to add anything?

The nursing home flow. The sewer flow.

Okay. So they wouldn't necessarily benefit from it. They would just have a different angle to connect to it.

to connect to it. It's not like the nursing home needs this.

Their flow goes in the same line that Snack King and everybody else does.

So if the issues continue to happen, their service will be backed up as well.

Would you would you like your second?

Alderman Stacey, would you like your second round of questioning?

Yes, I want my second round.

OK, go ahead. Yes.

OK, you know.

I'm tired of it talking about who's meeting and who's not meeting.

I'm willing to meet behind closed doors and not keep my constituents and the public informed.

And that's what meeting behind closed doors do.

I want stuff addressed on the floor so that the community and the constituents know exactly what's going on.

Next year, this tip is scheduled to close, but Lord forbid if you put something back into taxpayers hands. So let's use it up now.

I should be there, but I can't be there.

Tired of excuses being made to spend money and not organizing what should be concentrated off first.

Things are created two and three years ago for such a time as this and they were expected to have all the answers. Some of this stuff started before we were even seated at the table, Alderman Sanders.

Not all, but some.

and this is just another way money into a project where everybody is going to be paid well but the constituents of free court.

Is there any other discussion?

Alderman Klemm.

I'd just like to bring up that, you know, over the years and this is many years, there's been a lot of discussion regarding the landfill and how it has changed and what we've had to do with it.

Every few years or possibly there and would know more, I remember at one point it was every year, the state of Illinois keep coming up with new regulations of what had to be done to monitor the landfill and the leachate off the landfill and everything else.

I remember one year we were all ready to grow trees on top of it and that was legal with the state and that'd solve all the problems in the world and two years later it was to tear all those trees down. We never did that. But this project in this area has been discussed for years and years. I want to bring up a little bit and it's been mentioned by some people, the airport and some of the facilities out there.

If we take a look and go back to the presentation that Greater Freeport Partnership did, we One of the things that they mentioned was the availability of jobs and the availability of expansion at some of these places.

Snack King had announced at a business after hours that I was at, probably a year and a half ago or better, that they were looking at putting in a new warehouse there.

In that thing, we mentioned that Snack King is the biggest user of water out there.

We've got other facilities out there that use a bunch of water and there is one of the only places in all this acreage around and everything else to build things and to expand on stuff.

We mentioned the airport, you know, everybody flies in and out with Piper Cubs, it's a little more than that.

Knapp. If Snack King or Wittner's at the time wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for the airport because Wittner flew in and out of it all the time. Harbor Freight wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for the airport. They used it to fly in and take a look at town and stuff. Sure, Honeywell and those places don't use it, but when we designed the second road to go into the airport, one of the things alongside that road is the layout for all commercial buildings to go up in there.

there. You know, Cliff at one point talked about a machining operation that would come over here from Rockford that was at the airport that would have been one of the places that would have taken up a good share of that land, but they couldn't do it because there's no water and sewer. There's no toilet facility at the airport. We've got an airport that has been built out to add a whole new facility for people that come in and everything else and John.

We're going to have to fix issues in that area. They're never going to come. Thank you.

» Is there any other discussion?

» Yeah. I just wanted to top it off after what he just said.

» Then we will move on to item number 10.

» Sure.

So we're trying to get everybody back up to speed and understanding of why the project need is, what the project is, how you decide to move forward is however the council decides to move forward.

It is a needed project for that area and this station was designed to last a lifetime, not just, you know, a throwaway project.

This would be a permanent lift station. We currently have nine within the city. Due to our elevation restrictions, it's just unnecessary. We do not try to design lift stations. We try to design gravity systems. There's just no way to pull this change off through a gravity system.

Okay, so we'll move on to item number 10, which is discussion regarding the construction of ADA ramps at the intersection of South Park Boulevard and Church Street. Darren.

So the council, I believe it was a little over a month ago approved an ADA commission through our transition plan that we've put together for the city and before we had the committee stood up, I received the very first grievance from a lady that lives over on Pearl City Road.

I handed out some packets so you guys can see it a little better up front but we've also put this little presentation together. So this is the intersection of Church Street and Park Street and it is currently not ADA permissible and it doesn't meet PROAG standards and I'm going to kind of go through the ramps with you just so you get an understanding of why. So this is and this is actual Monroe Clinic eye care back here.

This is what we would call their carriage ramps on page one.

Their carriage ramp is illegal by standards.

You can no longer send a handicapped person out into traffic with no crossing across the street from them.

In this particular instance, there isn't one across the street from them.

So if we did a construction project in this area, we would remove this ramp permanently because a handicapped person would not know that they couldn't cross the street with that type of ramp now.

So those are deemed illegal by PROAC standards.

Curt, can you please go to the next page?

So this is the corner over by St. John's Church.

I just wanted to highlight that ramp doesn't exist here like it should.

And then St. John's at one time installed a sidewalk to nowhere, it actually stops.

It's never been connected nor the school system that's down here, Carl Sandburg.

They don't have a sidewalk either, but it does start at the end of the residential property all the way down on Church Street.

So this is a connectivity issue for mobility challenge people that we have to overcome in Freeport.

But currently our ordinances say that St. John's Church own this issue and Carl Sandburg owns the issue on their property.

The city does not own the sidewalk.

This is the corner of St. John's Church.

As you can see, we have full head curb rounding the entire intersection.

This would need to be a lowered elevated ramp with a truncated dome tile in order for it to be transversable.

This particular wedge here goes out onto Park Street.

again, these are not legal pro by pro ag standards because there's no sidewalk connection across the street from this.

So again, having a ramp here sends somebody that's disabled out into traffic with nowhere to go.

Currently handy or excuse me, disabled people that try to use this ramp can't go up it.

So they actually go out here in traffic and head north on Park Street till they get to the first driveway out in traffic.

That's their only option to access here.

the next slide please so this is that same intersection from a distance so someone that's going across the street cannot get across this ramp and then this is an illegal ramp so they actually drive their mobility scooter or wheelchair actually right down the roadway here Park Street's one of our heaviest and fastest streets in town and the grievant provided this intersection specifically as a problem for their loved one to actually access this area.

Next slide, please.

So this is the ramp on the corner.

So here's another ramp that goes to nowhere.

These are illegal.

Currently, the grievance is trying to access this through a mobility scooter to try to get out onto the street.

As you can see, this sidewalk here is raged.

The city owns this piece of the sidewalk of the ADA corner at every intersection.

We are responsible for this mechanism right here.

So this tilted up sidewalk, this platform has to be 2% in each direction in order to meet code.

This does not.

This leg of the ramp has to be, well, this one's illegal, but it would have to be under 8%.

This kind of crook in it is totally illegal.

can you go to the next slide please so this is looking south on this street so here we have another ramp area that is not created for a handicapped person to come off that's a full curb head and you can see the the slope of the condition of the existing concrete ramp here so neither side of this crossing is considered legal to the city standards or to the pro-ag standards that being said, they're legal as is, they just don't meet our standards for mobility challenge people.

This is why the grievance process and the committee was formed to address these type of issues.

Next slide, please.

So I wanted to show you just for your information, these are a couple pictures of areas that are compliant that have had replacements.

So this is the kind of sidewalk crossing that we would suggest at park.

going out into park but coming across church. Here's the truncated dome. These are required by law at every crossing now and as you can see the ramps are sloped down to under 8% and have a resting spot for people that are mobility challenged as they cross streets.

It should be noted that this area here also has to be under 2% and the crossing that goes Rhoads, John, and the others.

The number of those across the street here has to be under 5%.

Next slide, please.

Here's another one that we did last year.

We had some record photos of ones that have been replaced.

Again, this is a fully compliant sidewalk.

A lot of the new series have these, so they call them head walls on them.

That's for people that have sight issues so they can tap those as they know they're getting up to the truncated dome.

Going straight across and they feel for the other side of the ramp when they come across to make sure that they're getting there.

Next slide please.

Here's another one that was done recently.

Again, you can see a typical double crossing, so this would be something that will go on each side.

Again, the city's responsible by PROAG codes is that we have to fix this entire corner and 15 feet back in each direction on the sidewalk as the updates are done.

That is the standard.

that's a federal standard.

Anytime we use state or federal money on any street project, even local money now, we have to make that upgrade as we hit those intersections.

And here's, this is an alternate, this is considered somewhere that has an open space.

So this I believe might be over by Westwood where it opens up for school kids.

Again, see how the truncated dome goes all the way across?

That's the signal to somebody that's mobility challenged Huffines.

And then our standard requires, actually Proag does as well, the new sidewalks have to be put at five feet wide and then reduced back to whatever's there so you can kind of see the changes that were made at this intersection.

The reason the commission was created was to address issues like the one we're talking about.

and Jodi can file a grievance.

Once the grievances are filed, it will go to the ADA commission.

And we're just talking about this tonight because on the next meeting, there's going to be a proposal to repair park and church.

We currently don't have funding for that in the budget.

So it's the council's pleasure to help find funding or what we're gonna do.

I have talked to the petitioner and they understand they would be excited to see this change happen and as a community we should want it to happen.

The park and church intersection has a handful of items that I wanna point out.

A, it's next to a church, it's next to an eye doctor, it's in the safe routes to school and the petitioner lives less than 900 feet away from this intersection.

Alderman Sanders.

Yeah, Darren, I have to agree with you on a lot of your points that you're making and it would be efficient for us as the city to look at that to give you an honest proposal to go forth with something of that nature to reconstruct those areas for remodification and not only that, to make sure that those sidewalks and those ADA ramps are meeting the slope of those ramps.

I can see where it starts off and then I can see the slope of those ramps.

Now I'm looking at the slopes, I'm saying, well, that's too fast for a person for a wheelchair.

even with some folks, if they're just running or trotting, it would be a little bit too fast, it can lose their footing.

But I agree with you when it comes to reconstructing those areas, especially the part where sidewalks have no, the sidewalk to no end or however you put that, I see that all over the city.

And I think we should look at that even more, you know, for homeowners, residents, or whatever, who would love to have sidewalks to be connected from one block to the next block, you know, I can see that happening.

And so I think we should look at all of the areas and find the fundings, look where the fundings could be accumulated from and work from there.

But one thing I do like for you to do if you don't mind doing that, and John.

So, we're keeping us abreast to all that you're coming up with, yeah, you know, just bringing it to us, let us know where you're at, what your intents are, and that kind of thing.

So part of the ADA commission is the commission can't move forward with any repairs without council approval, so every one of these grievance or petitioners will come to the city after it goes to the ADA commission.

You will actually make the final decision, the commission's just a recommendation to fix.

A couple points I want to make from some of your questions there. So the City of Freeport has over 1,500 ADA ramps. We only have about 25% compliant currently. Rob and I went to a meeting with the District 2 IDOT. Last year they replaced 300 ramps in our entire district, which our district is very large. It goes from East Butte to Rockford to Peoria to the Quad Cities. The city of Freeport has replaced 322 ramps in the last three years not counting any that we've replaced this year and I will tell you there's been a lot of complaints in town that that Fehr Graham or I designed ramps wrong and they have to be ripped out. That is strictly untrue. The ramps that have been replaced were built by the contractors wrong and our inspection practices that you pay us for make us go out and check and the contractor removes and replaces those for free when they build them wrong.

That's the quality assurance of the inspection.

We had one project last year that had 76...

and John.

I have a question about the project last year that had 76, two years ago, excuse me, had 76 ramps on it and 38 of them had to be replaced at no cost of the city based on them being built wrong. That has nothing to do with your engineer. That's the quality assurance you're paying us to make sure it happens on the jobs. One other thing I'd like to point out to something that you said. The city has a I believe we have 20,000 annually.

We do removals for free and we pay up a portion towards the new sidewalk that is put in if you replace your whole sidewalk.

We don't have a ton of participation in that program.

We are going to try to revamp it for 2026 and advertise it more.

We have a lot of sidewalk that is owned by homeowners that needs to be addressed.

The city has codes and ordinances that we can back that up with, but we haven't got to that point yet because we know that it's a problem for people to replace so much sidewalk.

But we have to look at connectivity.

People that have disabilities have just as much rights to transverse those towns as anybody that walks, and we have to provide access to them to whatever means necessary to get them from A to B.

And so that is part of the plan, but just so you know too, Larry, we are replacing ramps as we do street projects and they're expensive, right?

They're somewhere between 12 and $20,000 to replace each corner.

Those are incorporated into our 1% street plan and we are executing that where they exist because it's required by law, okay?

So outside of that funding, we don't have other funding sitting around to just go pick other ramps to do.

I don't have the exact number, but I think we're doing around 40 ramps this year between all the different street and water main projects.

So we are doing a significant amount of ramp work.

Very good.

Any other discussion?

I just wanted to add that also the nursing home is right by there that I used to work at and we use those streets a lot when we walk people outside to give them fresh air.

So that's important also.

Okay, then we'll move on to item number 10, which is the discussion regarding transportation services agreement to sell Pretzel City Transit punch Cards at the library.

Director Huffines.

Thank you.

The library is always seeking collaborations and partners to help improve the services and resources that we provide to our community.

Pretzel City Transit is heavily used by library users.

We are seeking to make access to ride vouchers and punch cards more accessible by becoming a location for people to purchase vouchers and We provide inventory reports to the city upon request and the library will compensate the city monthly for all vouchers and punch cards sold.

There's no financial impact to the city or the library and the city staff recommend approving the agreement with the Freeport Public Library and in the strategic plan, it supports strong public and private partnerships.

a couple of things to note.

The vouchers are $3 a piece and punch cards are $60.

The punch cards are available for up to 21 rides.

You get 21 punches on those cards.

We are just in another place to purchase.

That's what we're seeking.

So currently you can purchase at Highland Community College and Pretzel City Transit office, but those are the only two locations in the city to purchase.

Any discussion?

Alderman Sanders?

Yeah, just a quick question.

When did this come into form for the library?

About a week or two ago.

About a week or two ago?

Yep.

Is that a notification that was distributed throughout the city?

No.

So before we do any type of marketing or telling anybody that we're looking into doing this, we need to make sure that the city's on board.

So that's why we bring it to the COW.

And if you guys are agreeable to it and we're not getting a lot of dissension, then I'm gonna move forward and take it to the library board.

There's no diverting from this regular work ethics of the transit present personal duties.

They're still gonna be functioning throughout the city, regardless of whether they're being used for the library or not.

They're going to be functional all throughout the city.

Correct.

Okay.

So, we're just a place that is, people are often calling for rides or dropped off at the library.

So, it's just a logical space in place for them to buy the vouchers.

Okay.

That's all it is.

Okay.

Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

Lemon Johnson?

Deer, for one thing, because a lot of people, they could come downtown, go to the library, whatever, with getting the vouchers there and get their vouchers there.

And I did discuss with Ashley, too, I know a lot of times when you ride the pretzel bus, you have to register, and I asked her if they would have to register there before they get their vouchers, and she said no, that when they would call for their rides and set up the times for their rides, that's when they would register their name and all the information that they have to have when you ride the Pretzel City bus.

So I do think it's a good idea for the people.

It'd be handy for the people to come to the library to get the vouchers there.

Also, I wanted to ask one question.

Do you know, does it take more than one voucher to go certain distances, or is it just one voucher per ride?

Do you have any idea?

I didn't know.

As far as I'm aware, the voucher would be used in the city limit.

but outside the city limit, it might take more than that.

Yeah, I didn't know if you knew, I wasn't sure, so, okay.

Make sure to address that, yeah.

Any other discussion?

Thank you, Ashley.

Then we will move on to item number 12, which is public comment.

Madam Clerk, you have something to read to the record.

Yes, this one was received via email from Rebecca Peters.

I appreciate this opportunity to address the comments made by Alderman Sanders regarding Alderman Parker during the July 1st City Council meeting.

I need to acknowledge that this is not the first time any council member has made inappropriate comments during a meeting, and Alderman Sanders is not the only one who has made them.

However, the remarks made on the 21st were particularly offensive, rude, and had no bearing whatsoever on what was happening during the meeting.

I'm not going to repeat them, but they were unnecessary Huffines.

Thank you for your time and attention in this matter, Becky Peters.

Thank you.

Are there other public comments?

Rhonda?

In the first comments, I gave you my opinion, now I want to give you some facts.

First of all, Mr. Stegall, which presented the presentation with his laser and a map, He is not an engineer and he didn't bring you any studies showing that we have a problem with solid waste getting stuck there.

If he has them, they should be brought.

But we need studies proving that there's a need for this project.

What he is is he's a salesman for Fehr Graham who pitches projects to you all so you will vote to give his company money, the company that pays him.

It's a conflict of interest for him to be sitting here as our public works person recommending to you what projects we need for the people of Freeport.

He is paid by Fehr Graham and this is wrong.

The second fact is this has not been brought before for two years.

It's on the cow.

It's up for discussion.

This has not been on the agenda.

This was a lie.

This is BS.

Quit lying.

In order to do a project like this, with Lamb Road TIF funds, it must be included in the Lamb Road TIF report that is filed with the State Comptroller.

You can look at those reports, every report, up to the one that was current.

We report up to the one that was currently filed in 2023.

There is not a single mention of a lift.

This is total BS.

And yes, there is no need for one because we are losing industry out there.

We lost Honeywell.

We do not have anybody coming asking to put a factory or anything out there.

So this is total BS.

Do not buy into it.

Now, what's the sales pitch from our marketing person over here?

It's for the future.

People are going to want to come to Freeport.

Look, we've got 500 and 400 acres we could develop.

We've got an airport that could be something.

How many years have we heard this BS about the airport, how it's going to be the future of Freeport?

People, we are dying.

We are shriveling up, and we've got a clique of five here who are ruining our city.

Take a look at those Lamb Road TIF reports.

is not a lift station in there, they should not even be allowed to use those funds without that going into the TIF report with public approval and that meeting is every October of the year.

Thank you.

Next.

Hi, my name is Cheryl Altman and I'd like to thank a few, at least three Aldermen's for sticking up for us.

When you guys stand up and say the Pledge of Allegiance, it's liberty and justice for all.

This has meaning of being treated fairly and properly, not happening.

Some of you aldermen just are here to kiss the city's butt, but you know, that's okay.

Also the sidewalks, it's a great idea, but in 95% of your pictures, did you see the potholes?

Can you imagine a blind person or a wheelchair trying to get a hold of those potholes getting stuck or tripping?

The sidewalks are great, I agree with that, but until the streets are fixed, what good What is it? Also, Rob, next time you guys come on my property, better make sure I'm there. Because when I talk to you, you did me dirty. So you got two of my houses on winter.

One tenant moved out, didn't know about it. The next house next door, you guys thought was mine, but I sold it. So you're trying to come at me. So next time you guys better have somebody there, you better come with warmth. That's all I'm telling you. Because There's a lot of people on here. Mayor, you're one of them. Rob, Wayne, and some of the aldermen. You're about as useless as tits on a board.

Next. Good evening, Freeport. I want to start this off on a positive note. I want to thank you for your support.

I'm talking to the director of the library. Your support for the coloring books that you have bought.

that symbolizes the heroes in our community that have been killed or murdered or in an accident that was never a justice was never brought forth.

Money isn't enough to cover the life of my nephew. Neither is it enough to cover the lives the life of a young man named Michael who mother is a hairdresser here across the street from all these. So I want to thank you for the support that Huffines.

Thank you very much for giving this family.

As far as the issues that we're talking about in regards to mill race, I have to wonder how much of a connection this Lyft is going to have or has with the mill race project, We have a lot of issues with the airport, with putting water out there, with the weed farm, all of which is taxpayer dollars that have been, are being negotiated at these tables to come out of our pockets, most of which we don't use.

of that area that used the airport are business people who are in the 1%.

Most of us here aren't in the 1%.

I'd like to also say that we pay taxes in this town.

And when you ride down Iroquois, and I invite any of you that are willing to look at the truth to ride down Iroquois.

And when you ride down Iroquois, you're gonna see two houses sitting on a corner across from each other.

One of them is so filled with trees and weeds and bushes that you can't see the address on the house and you can't see the house.

It goes from around the corner on Iroquois, back around the corner, and these bushes are taller than I am.

It is horrible that when things are not being taken care of in this city, it appears that they always happen or don't happen on the east side and the west side of town.

As a child, I couldn't walk on the west side of town.

I couldn't knock on a door and I couldn't live on Carroll.

When I bought my first house, I bought it on Carroll because of that.

Not knowing that I was buying myself into a drug addicted area with drugs and shootings occurring almost every day.

Freeport, you need to understand that there is something that you can do to stop these shootings, the ones that are occurring on Benton, the ones that are occurring on Pleasant, the ones that are down the street from the school, the ones that are happening on Mark Drive, the ones that are happening on Porches on Spring Street, the ones that are happening on Walnut, that haven't occurred, but we have marches.

I'd like to say to you Freeport, stand up.

Don't allow them to keep doing what they're doing to us in this town.

Are there any other public comments?

All right, Alderman Sanders.

You know, I take honor in listening to our constituents and when they come to this podium to express opinions, give their acknowledgment, give their message to council and to anybody else, when I hear public sentiments are addressing issues, we just can't cast them to the side.

and I, and act as if though we didn't hear them and not take it into consideration.

When I, from now on, when counsel bring up a point about negating anything another councilman says without any official reports to back up his substantiation of anything that he might and I say, he or she better have themselves backed up with facts and fiction and that goes for everybody on this staff and this administration because from this day on after listening to what I heard today, that's exactly what councils or myself or anybody else is is gonna be pursuing those factual conversation that takes place in this government body in the council.

So when you open your mouth and you make a false statement and you don't have the answers to back it up, you have to make sure that you talk to your constituents because public is gonna acknowledge your lies and misconception and deceptions and things of that nature.

So, from here on out, I would appreciate council appreciating public sentiments, public announcement and stop casting them to the side, to the side of the road as if though they have no stake in this whole process and they do have everything to say about and we teach, we look at them as if though, oh, they don't know what they're talking about, oh, we have some Huffines.

There are some intelligent people that comes to this council to vent in their frustration of what council is not doing.

And the thing about it is some of us got our hands tied.

Why?

Because the voting apparatus does not balance.

And so people can say what they want and do as they want and get away with these kinds of things.

Huffines.

If our public comments and the public are listening tentatively about what is being said up here, they have put it all together.

Don't assume that they're not understanding what is being said and what is taking place.

We have a lot of educated people throughout this city, but a lot of them don't come forth.

Thank you Alderman Sanders, your time has expired.

Is there any other public comments this evening?

Good evening, Michelle Swalve. I just wanted to thank the library for their summer reading program and their Make It Mondays that they had this summer.

My daughter and I got to enjoy a lot of the Make It Mondays and the summer reading program. I just wanted to applaud Ms. Amanda. She did such an awesome job with those kids.

it was so busy down there because she had like 40 some kids wouldn't you say in that room but she still took the time out for each one of them to like take the time with them and it was just warmth in my heart that she cares so and then they had end of the year party and even though it was really really hot Director Huffines and her staff they did such a wonderful job putting that on and I just appreciate all the and so forth.

And I can say one more thing, sorry, and just say that we do sit out here and we do hear what is being said and we hear that there is a lot of people, some of you not doing your research before you come here and wasting our time.

So I mean we are educated out here.

Bates, and I want to thank you for your work. I'm so grateful that you guys got to start doing your research and you got to stop making rude remarks for all these people. They're doing their jobs. Start doing yours and do your research. You're getting paid.

Any other public comments? Yes, ma'am.

Oh, well, I'll just let it dangle there. It's a new fashion statement look. There we go.

Drive. This is going to be kind of different for me, but I just wanted to say thank you to whoever it was that filled in the potholes in the handicapped parking spaces down in the municipal lot, because I think I came up here and I ragged about that quite a bit.

So I want you to know that, you know, the squeaky wheel, sometimes somebody hears that squeaky wheel and they fill in the potholes. We now have four beautiful handicapped spots Johnson.

They're not exactly marked, but they're perfect down in the municipal lot.

So that's great.

Thank you very much for bringing in the ADA ramp because of reasons and for watching how the ramp ends when you go into the street because it will fling somebody out of a manual chair.

I don't know if it will fling them out of a power chair, but if you're in a manual and John.

And I know this because of experience. Also, there is one thing that someone said to me, and that was the beeping sound that you might want to look at for sight. So that when they come down, not only do they feel with the cane, the two sides, but they also hear that sound. And that was something that a friend brought up to me and said, you know, I hear this in and a friend brought up to me and said, you know, I hear this in Chicago, but we don't have it in Freeport.

We have the ability to make Freeport a place to come and take a look for tourism.

And I'm saying that again, Mayor Miller, because I do believe that Freeport has a way to bring people in for tourism.

But with tourism comes a lot of people that are in wheelchairs or visually impaired or have problems with hearing.

So the beeping is a really thing.

I keep motioning here because this is the person I usually talk to about the potholes.

Anyway, thank you very much for that.

And thank you for thinking.

Also watch for the service dogs.

Any other public comments this evening?

Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion for adjournment.

So moved.

Second.

We have a motion made by Alderman Shadle, seconded by Alderman Parker.

Madam Clerk, would you please take the roll?

Oh, I forgot about roll.

I'm so sorry. Shadle? Aye. Sanders? Aye. Klemm? Aye. Johnson? Aye. Parker? Aye. And Stacy? Do we still have her? Aye. Yeah, she said aye. Aye. Okay. Thank you. Motion.