Oh, I got it.
I didn't want to interrupt the conversation.
Oh, no.
I just slid it in under there.
Yeah, I was going to say you.
Okay, so we got Parker on every day.
Rachel in yet?
No.
She's coming.
There she is.
Hold on.
She's here now.
Coming your way again.
Good evening.
Linda, could you please give the invocation?
Let us bow our heads.
Dear God, I praise you and I thank you for your love, mercy, and grace and that you see all you hear all and know all your word says and thus the lord builds the house the builders labor in vain unless the lord watches over the city the guards stand watch in vain therefore we come to you tonight to seek your face and ask you to build and guard our city pour out your spirit of knowledge and revelation over those who are seated here may all things done tonight be connected in a state of justice fulfillment and delight free from defects Huffines.
Please join me in congratulating all of you who have come to this meeting today for the first time.
This is an opportunity for all of us, promoting the health of this city.
May this meeting be conducted in peace, friendliness, quietness, and tranquility.
I bind all authority that links us to chaos and loose the Holy Spirit to rule and reign here in Jesus' name.
I release Luke 24, 36, peace, shalom, to you all in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Before I officially call this meeting to order, I want to remind this Council that we have been elected to serve the residents of Freeport, not to push personal agendas or create unnecessary distractions.
Our job is to focus on policy, infrastructure, economic development, and public safety.
That is the purpose of these meetings.
City Council's role is to set the vision and the direction for Freeport.
It is the City Manager's role to implement that vision by directing our staff and allocating Huffines.
Thank you.
And John.
I would like to encourage all of us to work together to manage department decisions instead of trusting the professionals that we've hired to do their jobs.
The antagonistic tone and the constant personal attacks towards staff and leadership are unacceptable.
We need to remain professional, keep our discussions on topic, and conduct city business efficiently.
I would encourage all of us to lead by example, work together, and to stay committed to the task at hand, which is serving the people of Freeport.
So with that, I'll officially call this meeting to order.
Madam Clerk, would you please take the roll?
Mayor Miller?
Here.
Alderpersons, Klemm?
Here.
Monroe?
Here.
Simmons?
Here.
Parker?
Here.
Stacy?
Here.
Shadle?
Here.
Sanders?
Here.
And Sellers?
And I'm glad to lead you to the flag of the United States of America.
Item number one is the approval of the agenda, however, we will not be having item number 23, which is executive.
And then also, just so you're aware, we're slightly out of order tonight.
Normally, you know, it's our rules that we go second reading of ordinances, first three ordinances and resolutions.
However, tonight, we are going to have the resolution to hire the MSA to be conducted directly after their presentation.
So that way they don't have to wait the entire evening to have their resolution come up.
So with that, is there a motion to approve the agenda?
So moved.
Second.
The motion made by Alderman Monroe, seconded by Alderman Sellers.
All those in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
That motion passes.
Item number two is the approve of the minutes from the regular meeting on February 18th, 2025.
Is there a motion?
Sommel.
Second.
We have a motion made by Alderman Shadle, seconded by Alderman Parker.
All those in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
That motion passes.
Public comment.
We have two.
Bill Schramm, you have three minutes.
Some of you, I know, some of you I don't know.
I'm a resident of Freeport.
My parents moved here when I was 10 years old and I've lived here most of my life except for a and a couple years I spent with the United States government called the U. S. Army.
But I'm here tonight to say I am pleased to see the city of Freeport is taking steps to secure our community's water future with a purchase of the property for well 12.
The city's commitment providing safe, clean drinking water is evident in the speed and efficiency with which they are getting the job done.
From the lead service line remediation efforts to the construction of the new water treatment plant on Burchard Hill.
The city has demonstrated a clear dedication to protecting public health and modernizing our water infrastructure.
The process, the progress made in such a short time is truly commendable and I fully support these efforts to ensure a reliable and substantial water supply for our community.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Next, Wendy Slayton.
You have three minutes.
My name is Wendy Slayton.
I'm a current resident of Freeport, Illinois, and I'm very happy to be here.
I love Freeport and everything that it's done.
I'm currently on a community block grant, and I am very, very anxious for it to go further.
But right now we're talking about the MSA.
The MSA is definitely a good idea for all of us for the residents of Freeport.
It improves the quality of life for the current residents by ensuring homes are safe, sanitary and structurally sound.
It also attracts and retains responsible homeowners.
The investment demonstrates the commitment to the wellbeing of our neighborhoods, making Freeport a more desirable place to live.
Number three, strengthening our community.
Home ownership fosters a sense of pride and stability leading to greater civic engagement and more cohesive community.
Number four, increasing community value.
Rehabilitation of our homes increases the property values in the area, thus improving the overall value of the community.
I am confident that this initiative will contribute significantly to the betterment of Freeport, creating a more vibrant and prosperous future for us all and all of our residents.
I urge that the grant and the IHDA is recognized and prospered.
Thank you.
That concludes public comments.
Number four is the consent agenda.
The consent agenda is considered to be routine in nature and acted as one motion.
Unless there's a member of the council that would like to have something removed for further discussion.
Seeing none, we've got the consent agenda consisting of approving to receive and place on file the board and commission minutes from the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners dated January 28th, 2025, the Greater Freeport Partnerships Annual Report for 2024, the Police Department Report January 25th, Greater Freeport Partnerships Monthly Report for February 2025, approval of the finance bills payable in the total of $2,780,624.53, and the approval of payroll for pay period ending February 22nd, 2025 in the total of $709,166.14.
Is there a motion to approve?
So moved.
Second.
We have a motion made by Alderman Shadle, seconded by Alderman Klemm.
Discussion?
Madam Clerk, please take the roll.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
Aye.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders?
Aye.
Sellers?
Aye.
And Simmons?
Aye.
The motion passes 8 to 0.
Item number five is the presentation.
Could you please read this for the record?
Presentation regarding resolution to approve grant writing and implementation services for the Illinois Housing Development Authority or IDA, home repair and accessibility program for up to $1.2 million.
Thank you.
Tara Walters, thank you.
Thank you.
Good evening Mayor Miller, city council members as well as city I'm a Community Development Administrator with MSA Professional Services.
I'm here with my colleague, Christina Tranel, who is a Community Development Specialist.
We are here to provide the City Council with information regarding IDA's Home Repair and Accessibility Grant Program.
That is open now.
So, some program basics.
Applications are due.
Applications are due March 14th of this year at 3 PM so I understand that is 10 to 11 days away the which I'll call it a trap from here on out throughout the presentation for shortness sake the program is designed to assist low and very low income homeowners which is defined at less than or greater sorry less than or equal to 80% of the area median income the program will provide Huffines.
This is round two of IDA's Home Repair and Accessibility Grant Program.
This current round is offering $16 million in funding available.
The funding comes from the Illinois Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and applicants, so the City of Freeport, if they were to apply, they can request a minimum of $400,000.
The program guidelines do not specify a maximum ceiling, but we'll talk about that in our presentation.
And the program is a two-year program term, so if awarded, the city would have two years to spend the funds.
For definition purposes, I'd just like to outline what the eligible project costs are, because we'll talk about them in more detail.
First being hard construction costs, your typical construction expenses, tangible brick and mortar type costs.
There's also soft construction costs, which examples include title searches, recording fees, termite or insect inspections.
There's also project delivery, which includes activities, intaking applications from participants in the program and homeowners, some income verification, cost estimates and work write-ups once inspectors get involved, as well as the inspections themselves and permit fees.
And there's also administrative costs that are grant eligible.
And this includes general management, oversight, project management, coordination, grant reporting, overhead costs.
Through the program, there are three project types, full rehab, accessibility, and roof only.
I've lumped full rehab and accessibility together because the same criteria follow for both programs.
Under full rehab and accessibility, homeowners may receive up to $50,000 from the HREP funds to cover hard and soft construction.
They also can get project delivery costs per home, not exceeding 15% of the construction costs.
So if you're at the 50,000, 15% of that would be 7,500.
If costs do not meet 50,000, it would be 15% of whatever those construction costs would be.
This assistance is provided to homeowners in the form of a five-year forgivable loan, which is forgiven at 1.60th per month over the loan period.
There's also a roof only option.
So if homeowners just need a roof, everything else is up to code and public health and safety standards are met within the home and on the exterior.
These homeowners can receive up to 25,000 for the roof.
Again, project delivery is at 15%.
So, and the assistance for a roof only option is given as a form of a three-year forgivable loan.
So the maximum grant request for the city for the roof only option would be $28,750 per home.
So what makes a property within the city eligible to participate with these funds?
The property must be the sole residence of all homeowners on the deed.
The property must be current on the mortgage.
The property value must not exceed the property value limit which is established by IDA and for Stephenson County, it's 209,000.
The property must be held in fee simple title, meaning no contract for deed and no ownership held in trust.
The title must also be clear of mechanics liens and tax liens.
A property is ineligible if taxes have been sold to a tax buyer and properties with open foreclosure Miller, or Foreclosure cases are also ineligible.
The property must be able to record the item mortgage on the property, and it also must be owner, occupied, and single-family residents.
What are some ineligible property types?
No reverse mortgages, no investment properties, again, no ownership in a trust or contract for deed situation, no properties that are primarily used for business, meaning that We've got 50% or more of the floor space within the residence is used for business.
And then also the IDA mortgage, so this five-year or three-year forgivable loan must be the first or the second position lien on the property.
In certain circumstances, we can get written approval depending on those circumstances from IDA to allow the IDA mortgage to be the third lien.
And lastly, ineligible properties involving conflicts of interest.
They must be avoided at all costs.
For example, the grantee being the city of Freeport may not enroll an employee's house in their HRAP program.
So what does this forgivable loan look like to the homeowner?
The homeowner does not have to pay back the loan at any period unless they sell the house or the ownership is transferred.
So the loan balance will be due out at the net proceeds upon sale or transfer of the property if such an event occurs within that five-year or three-year time frame.
The cash out, a cashing out will not be permitted during the loan period unless the unforgiven loan balance is paid in full.
And then loans will be secured by a mortgage recorded against the property.
So all homeowners will be required to sign a forgivable five-year or three-year promissory Rennow, based on the project type and construction costs with IDA.
In terms of application scoring criteria, so what is IDA looking for?
This is a competitive grant program.
There is 16 million available statewide.
So we have to convince the Illinois Housing Development Authority that the City of Freeport deserves this money and can use it wisely.
They will score it based on organization and team capacity.
So that would include the City of Freeport's previous management and team experience with housing rehabilitation type programs.
The points will be awarded for this criteria that clearly show a team is in place to effectively administer and oversee the program.
If the staff or city does not have the capacity to effectively administer the program, they can contract with a third party contractor who does have said experience.
It's also scored on the city's work plan and budget and cost control, just ensuring that your program is cost effective and you have a reasonable budget.
Again, the reasonable budget comes into play.
The city would only have two years to spend these funds.
So feasibly, how much can we get done in two years?
So points would be awarded under this criteria for applicants that demonstrate a systematic approach to ensuring reasonable costs and efforts to target areas of greatest need.
Third criteria is program need, impact, and demand.
So the application needs to provide evidence supporting the need and the demand for the program, including data analysis, letters of support, and evidence of community input.
And then lastly, readiness to proceed.
If IDA were to turn around and say, yep, here's your money, how quickly can you mobilize and hit the ground running and administer your program?
If the city decides to apply, some recommendations on how that application package would be in discussions with Director Duckman.
I would recommend that you request the full rehab project type instead of divvying it out based on accessibility and roof only.
This allows for the most flexibility when you're actually administering the program.
So if we apply for 17 full rehab projects and we get into the weeds and figure out, oh, this homeowner actually needs more accessibility type activity or work done to their house.
We can always transfer it to an accessibility project type.
And similarly with roof only, if we approach it as a full rehab and find out later after inspections, they only need a roof.
We can always transfer the project to a three year forgivable loan with a roof only.
And my recommendation for how many homes, I believe the city would be able to, you know, and the other two are the two that are in the budget.
The one that will feasibly get done in two years would be 17 homes.
What that looks like budget-wise or a budget request would be the construction, hard and soft would be $850,000.
That's at the maximum $50,000 per home for a full rehab project type.
That would allow for project delivery, 15% of and another 48,875.
For $48,875, which is 5% of your construction and project delivery request, totaling a total grant request at $1,026,375.
So what does this look like if the city were awarded and how the steps it takes to get to construction?
So IDA, the applications are due in March.
IDA intends to review applications until June or July once awards are announced, the programs will get, you know, their grant agreement and be able to start doing the work and expending funds in August of 2025.
So that gives us till July of 2027.
So what does the participant selection process look like?
Who is going to get these funds or benefit from these funds from the city?
So the grant is awarded to the city.
The city can then contract with the third party vendor to administer the program.
That's when the third party administrator would work with the city to develop a participant selection plan.
Once you develop your participant selection plan there are things within that plan that are already not only recommended but required by IDA but we can play around with the details in terms of media, outreach, application intake, things like that.
Once we develop our participant selection plan it's sent to IDA for review to ensure that it complies with regulations.
We then, once they approve that, we can market the program to the public, develop an interested participant list.
So anybody that, any homeowner that contacts the city wants seeing, you know, the social media posts or letter in the mail.
However, the city decides to market the program, they would be put on a list on a first come first serve basis in order of correspondence.
Then the administrator would take that list and have everyone on that list fill out a pre-application form, which is very basic information, what they believe they make for income, how many people in the household, are you current on your mortgage, things like that.
Once the pre-application forms are in, we then can begin scheduling interviews and that's when eligibility will really become important or will determine homeowner eligibility.
So IDA has a process in which to schedule interviews to make it fair.
They would involve three calls or emails within 48 hours in the order that you have in your intended participant list.
If no response within that 48 hours, you would send a certified letter in the mail.
After 10 days and still no response, you would then remove that participant from the interested participant list and they essentially forfeit their ability to use program funds.
And we would also send a letter informing them that they've been removed from the list.
If you are able to get ahold of somebody, you then schedule an interview and at this interview is when we determine income and income is calculated based on IDA's income calculator as well as a level of home inspection.
So the home inspection is important because when I would be there, in taking everybody's income information, figuring out which documents you know we need in order to process this.
The income calculations after I would finish them would be sent to IDA to review so we would get the final say from IDA but the home inspection we only have fifty thousand dollars and priority has to go to code violations and public health and safety type work.
So the home inspection would be important simply because if a home needs a lot more than fifty thousand dollars to bring it up to code it's just not a feasible project for these funds.
Once the income calculations are approved by IDA, the city would then take them and rank them determining participant eligibility and then moving forward with program administration.
A note at the bottom, once the city does submit their participant selection plan, it can be amended.
So say this is our plan, we're doing this and and something isn't working any longer, something that's not going to jeopardize the fairness of the participant selection, but maybe something in the process that needs to change, we can always amend it with IDA approval.
A little more information on the income calculator.
So how does IDA calculate income?
It's calculated for all household members over the age of 18.
Income includes earned income.
So the full amount before any payroll deductions of wages and salaries, overtime pay, commissions, fees, tips, and bonuses, and other compensation for personal services.
It also includes assets, which is derived income such as checking and savings account balances, certificates of deposit, stocks, value of home, etc., as well as unearned income, so benefits including pensions, social security benefits.
The income calculator also takes into consideration adjustments and deductions.
So the number of dependents, childcare deductions, disability, elderly and disabled.
The application due March 14th asks the applicant to describe your procedures and mechanisms for intake and selection, including how your organization will prioritize eligible participants in your program.
If the city moves forward with the application, I would recommend to stay in line with IDA's recommendations by prioritizing households or homeowners that have a household income of less than or equal to 50% of the area median income.
This would not only ease the administrative burden and some of the administrative costs to process the number of applications when it's open citywide, it would also prioritize the most in need homeowners and households.
So what is 50% area median income?
So Stephenson County, one person household is 28,500, two person household 32,600 and so on so forth.
They're highlighted on this table.
Eight person household is $53,750.
And again, people in the household are only people over 18.
So then if we have, so say we're doing 17 homes, we're going to write the application and request 17 homes.
However, if one of the homes is less than 50,000, we could always add to it.
And this process allows for that to happen.
So if more than 17 participants are eligible in this less than 50% threshold, the city would hold a lottery to determine the recipient of those funds.
If less than 17 participants are eligible, we would then bump up the income threshold to less than or equal to 80%, which is viable or recommended by IDA.
And that way, if houses are done, we use less than $50,000, so we can go to the next one on the list.
The lottery system would ensure that the eligible participants are fairly considered.
Any questions?
Questions?
Darren?
Hi Tara, how are you?
Good, how are you?
Good presentation.
I would like a couple clarifications just for city questions.
Can any of the money be spent in the flood zone or a flood way?
In a flood way?
Flood way or a flood zone?
Freeport has quite a few homes that are in the flood way, so I think I know the answer.
I just wanted to ask that out loud.
Sure.
I do not have that answer on hand.
Right now but I will definitely research it and provide it to the city okay another question I had is this for only owner occupied properties not landlords correct correct and I think you stated this but let's pretend that a house has a value of only ten thousand dollars and fifty thousand dollars won't bring it up to code they will not end up qualifying for the program correct Scott.
Thank you.
With recommendation from a housing, you know, a certified housing inspector.
Yep.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Alderman Stacey.
Why did we, if this was something we wanted to consider, why didn't we restart on the 21st?
Why are we starting 11 days behind?
Sure.
The program information, it opened up on February 5th.
I got the information out to the city.
We didn't talk about it seriously until probably last week or the week before when we were talking about housing rehab efforts within the city.
And that's when Wayne and I said, yep, this is something we need to take to council.
It's an opportunity that's out there.
We need to be ready to go for it if the council so chooses.
So I also want to add there, too, that that would be six weeks Ida gives.
6 Weeks IDA gives the community to make a decision to apply.
They call it a notice of applications or notice of funding opportunity and that came out on February 5th and so Tara and I had several conversations about grant capacity, the community development block grant, where we were at with that current efforts and ultimately were talking about bringing it to the last council meeting in February.
I want to thank you, Tara.
You did an excellent job with this presentation.
We felt that it would be better to come better prepared March 3rd.
We worked, you know, I know typically this council has a lot of questions, so we really wanted to make sure working on this presentation, we didn't want to be hasty and not have answers.
So I give you a lot of credit, Tara, for coming out and really putting a lot of effort Spitz, Carrie, Casey, John, Jeff, Ray, Ryley, and so on.
So for us, we felt that we needed to be more involved in this.
And it's really important that everybody who is standing in front of us be aware of you and how this work is going to go on.
So it's going to cost us $6,500 to go after this money, but there's no guarantee that Who's the third-party vendor that'll manage the program?
Is that MSA?
I would recommend it be MSA because we've worked with the city on existing housing rehab programs.
So in terms of an experienced grant administrator, it would behoove the city to work with somebody else.
Awesome.
It is not the city is able to work with whomever.
I would just recommend it be with MSA.
No, that sounds great.
So the way I understood your presentation that this could apply to new home builds Such as maybe, you know, maybe tiny homes or manufactured homes that are put on Empty lots in our community.
Is that correct?
That is correct.
There is a new home property value Threshold as well.
The existing home was two hundred nine thousand and there is a new home number.
I believe it's It's more than two hundred thousand.
Okay, but I can pull that Winslow.
That's fair enough if you want to pull that up.
This next one should be pretty easy.
Who's authorized to do the home inspections?
Does the person go out and get their own home inspector?
Does the city?
How do we do that?
So when you do contract with a third party grant administrator such as MSA, we would sub-consult with a lead certified housing inspector.
Okay, thank you.
Any other questions?
Yes.
Does this have anything to do with why the city wanted to purchase that property that was brought to the council last meeting?
City Manager Boyer?
Not specifically.
I don't understand that answer.
Well, if it can be used for something like this, I don't, you know, infill housing, that and Denney.
They would be great for it.
But that wasn't specifically what we were getting it for.
It was either infill housing or some commercial property development.
Okay.
I also noticed that Brittany had already signed, the team leader had already signed.
It's typical practice for the professional services agreements we send to clients.
That means it's been reviewed at the MSA level and we're ready to move forward once makes a decision and executes the contract.
What's gonna be in play to keep from having another incident like 1010 South Adams?
She would have no idea what you're talking about there.
Yes, she does.
She was here.
Well, I can answer that.
There's different guidelines for IDA, which I thought you did an excellent job talking about how IDA has its own calculator right there, and you can go look at how they actually calculate what income is and that's it.
IDA sends a spreadsheet, there's the link, they fill in the spreadsheet based on the data that's given to them and if they fall within the parameters of area median income, they qualify for the grant and that's what IDA looks at, IDA reviews it and you gotta remember, IDA's talking about the state of Illinois and helping out people which is really what this grant is about.
There's no, you know, MSA and TARA approached me about this grant opportunity and it's really to bring help to people that are in need.
They live in their homes, they're low income and you know, no government program's perfect but they've been doing this for a long time and they have a standardized form and it's really just meant to get people in the most need, the help that they can.
Time.
The need is going to extend past what is available.
You know, we're going to request up to a million dollars.
We may not get up to a million dollars.
You might only get 400,000, but should we stop?
Should we quit?
I mean, somebody is going to need these funds.
We just had a community member up here, Wendy Slayton.
She's telling you that the community is telling you we need help.
Should we stop because you know what?
We don't have enough money and just say we're not going to do 17 homes or 10 homes because we can't bring aid to everybody.
I think it's worth trying.
I think it's something you should look into yourself and think that it's probably worth trying to help our community.
Director Duckman, you were the first person pertaining to that other grant that said you would never go after another grant because you don't want the responsibility.
You didn't want the responsibility of the last one.
That's why it fell in others' hands.
I deny it, saying it that.
Of course you would.
Let's not throw out unfounded accusations.
But now it's like the people, and if we can only help this many compared to that many.
Well, I mean, it's pretty clear what the IDA guidelines are.
And I'm trying to bring an opportunity to help the community.
And if honestly and I'm not I'm being very respectful here and saying it if if this council thinks that IDA has unfair practices maybe it's just not the right grant for our community if that's what you're saying I mean if you if you feel that way I'm being very honest but I'm telling you that I believe in my role is to bring as much aid as I can to the community and I think this is a good program and I think it could help I think we can bring some aid to our community I'm not down speaking Stacy you've had like seven at all there are other older person but now Now all we have is 11 days.
If it was so important, why you didn't come?
It's just the application is 11 days.
This whole process, the grant award will probably come at some point.
IDA will make its decision.
Right now what we're talking about is $6,500 to retain MSA to write the grant application.
And IDA will review it and they'll make a determination whether the city can move forward and then there will be plenty of time for We're marketing this program, processing applications, determining income.
All this being talked about today is to write the grant.
It's writing the grant application.
Yeah, I just want to say I do really like the program, and I think I agree with you, Wayne.
So many people out there that is really looking for help to get their roofs done, their windows done, doors done, whatever they can get done to their house.
I also think that you know we got to look at if there's grants out there that we can go after and help That's what we're supposed to be doing.
I guess that's what his department is supposed to be doing so I do think that is something that we need to Go after and help people in our community because it goes all over the city of Freeport, correct?
So anybody that other grant just went for a certain area this can go anywhere so anybody can get help So I think it's it's a good idea D. I really do.
Alderman Klemm?
I just have one question, and it was the fact of reaching out to people after the grants were selected and so on and so forth.
Are there extra grants selected in case somebody falls out from not being able to be, well, it was listed more so as sending them out a letter or three phone calls or three emails or something like that We would have a list our intended participant list that would likely have a lot more folks than we need to reach out to so once you know once we don't get we go through the appropriate processes and don't get a response for somebody we just move on down to the next one thank you any other another discussion thank you for your presentation we move on to item number six which is the adoption of resolution 2025 30 madam clerk could you please read this for the record resolution to approve an agreement with MSA professional services to provide IDA home repair and accessibility program grant writing Services.
Director Duckman.
Thank you, Madam Mayor.
So what this resolution would.
So what this resolution is discussing is moving forward with MSA.
We just saw their presentation.
And it would be in the amount of $6,500 for them to write a grant application for the IDA Home Repair and Accessibility Program.
And staff recommends moving forward with the resolution.
Is there a motion to adopt?
So moved.
Second.
We have a motion made by Alderman Parker, seconded by Alderman Sellers.
Discussion on the resolution.
Madam Clerk, please take the roll.
Excuse me.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
No.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders?
No.
Sellers?
Aye.
Klemm?
Aye.
Monroe?
Aye.
Simmons?
Aye.
The motion passes six to two.
Item number seven is service awards.
Manager Boyer.
Thank you, Your Honor.
I'm going to turn this over to Darren for Brandon Wells and then Chief Shenberger for Emily.
Yeah, thank you.
I'll do Brandon Wells.
He's not here tonight.
He had a family event that he couldn't make it, but Brandon Wells has been with the Public Works Department for 15 years.
Brandon has worked for the city in the maintenance department.
His first position was maintenance electrician and serves as the maintenance foreman today.
Brandon and his team are responsible for maintaining the water plants, wells, wastewater treatment plant, all of our lift stations and ensuring the facilities are functioning and properly running 24-7.
Brandon and his highly Branden has a wide variety of specialized maintenance skills, including but not limited to electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and building repairs.
Branden is highly motivated, enjoys tough challenges that we seem to have plenty of.
He manages routine preventative maintenance and performs significant repairs to equipment and to the facility.
He humbly goes about his day and daily tasks, and Branden has no tasks that's beneath him within the city.
He's also a great teacher of his craft and enjoys passing his skills on to others.
Brandon performs his task at a high level consistently and provides high value to the city utility.
You might ask how he provides that.
Many of the repairs that Brandon does saves the city's thousands of dollars in cost of outside people to come in and do that.
Him and his team provide significant value and tackle many projects that are beyond our He oversees most of the repairs at all the facilities and provides significant savings regularly.
We appreciate his 15 years of faithful service and wish him the best.
Thank you.
Chief.
Thank you, Mayor.
I'd like to recognize Emily Danikis for her five years of service with the City of Freeport.
Emily actually started off as a member of our Police Explorer program and then she transitioned as a member of our Freeport Police Department Auxiliary Unit when she became old enough.
About five years ago, Emily was hired as a telecommunicator in the Dispatch Center and during her time with the City of Freeport, she's established herself as a dependable and valued employee.
And Emily also serves in other capacities, that being a trainer, so she trains new telecommunicators who are going through that training process, and again, she could not be here tonight because of a prior commitment, but I just want to express my sincere thanks to her for her commitment to the Dispatch Center and the City of Freeport.
Thank you.
Item number eight is an appointment.
Could you please read this?
Appointment of Roger Scholz to the Library Board for a three-year term effective through May 31, 2028.
Is there a motion to approve?
So moved.
Second.
A motion made by Alderman Klemm, seconded by Alderman Monroe.
Any discussion?
Madam Clerk?
Why did you choose this gentleman?
I'm sorry, can you repeat that?
Why did you choose this gentleman?
He's willing to serve.
He's been on the board previously, back I think 20 years ago.
He seems to be a good fit.
Talked about it with Director Huffines and she agrees.
And for the record, he's also a local Arthur.
That was my question.
If there's no further discussion, Madam Clerk, please take the role.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
Aye.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders?
Aye.
Sellers?
Aye.
Klemm?
Aye.
Monroe?
Aye.
Simmons?
Aye.
And the motion is approved, eight to zero.
And item number nine is the second reading of of Ordinance 2025-12, could you please read this?
Ordinance amending chapters 1248 and 1252 of the Zoning Code of the City of Freeport concerning storage facilities in business and agricultural districts.
Director Duckman.
Thank you, Madam Mayor.
So in this second reading, I'll just give a recap of what we talked about in the last meeting.
So essentially what is going on here is storage facilities were, currently they're allowed and the B3 district, the agricultural district, and they are also allowed by a special use permit in the B2 zoning districts.
So what this is proposing is to only allow storage facilities like a CubeSmart, for example, in the manufacturing districts.
And just a little recap, what drove this, we brought this to our planning commission Mets, David, and Richard.
So we're working to have a virtual workshop on February 13th which was recommended by approval of 6 to 0.
What has spurred this is, we've had several expansions in the past year, several self storage facilities.
We've seen a large increase in our retail areas and we anticipate that it could potentially grow and continue to grow and take over areas where we really could use some more variety in our retail.
And Settler.
We have a lot of work to do to make sure that we have a lot of people who are going to be able to come to our retail, especially considering that these self-storage facilities take up large geographic areas.
So with that being said, staff is recommending approval in line with our planning commission of this ordinance.
Thank you.
Any further discussion?
Madam Clerk, please take the roll.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
Aye.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders?
Aye.
Sellers?
Aye.
The ordinance passes 8 to 0 and item number 10 is the second reading of ordinance 2025 11 could you please read this ordinance approving hanger leases for a 1 Dennis Miller h1 Alexander blocker J Matt van Bergen l1 Ron Jansen l2 heritage aviation l3 Rob to campy doing business as tangle 34 l5 Paul Oda Bouda, L7, Pam Mannes, M1, John Eink, M3, Greg Manuel, M4, Ken and Paula Irwin, M8, David Hayes, and N10, John Staben.
Manager Boyer.
Thank you, honor.
Just following up, this is cleaning up the leases situation at the airport.
We have the new lease format, which was approved by council, and these individuals were reviewed last council meeting and staff request moving forward with these leases there any discussion on these particular leases Alderman Stacey yes hanger l3 Rob Tecumple and then it says tango 34 LLC different hanger so this is two hangers when we sent the leases out, his came back in a different hanger, so it's not two hangers, he just was previously not an L3, he's moved to a different hanger, which is L3.
Any other discussion?
Madam Clerk, please take the roll.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
Aye.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders?
Aye.
Kessler.
Aye.
And Simmons.
Aye.
The ordinance passes 8-0.
Item number 11 is the first reading of Ordinance 2025-13, could you please read this?
This is the next batch of hangers that have come back in.
This is an ordinance approving those, E-1, Propwash, K-8, the Champ Club, New Lease, so they've not previously been in K-8 before, L-6, KCS, LLC, KCS is also in L-8, M-6, David Slye, N1 Howard Norman, N9 Tim Mickle.
Manager Boyer.
Thank your honor.
Again we have been getting these in as rapidly as possible.
This is the second batch that's come through.
Staff requests a suspension of the rules and approval of these leases.
Is there a motion to move this forward?
Second.
Motion made by Alderman Klemm, seconded by Alderman Monroe.
Alderman Monroe.
Thank you Madam Mayor.
This is How many of these are still outstanding after this batch goes through?
I mailed out 50.
Madam Clerk?
I mailed out 50.
So I haven't done a count, but this isn't half.
No.
Thank you.
Go ahead.
Why do some hangers have the holder's name and some have the listed business?
Why if if they have a business aren't, isn't the business listed?
Alderman Stacy, my guess is that these are private airplane, you know, pleasure aircraft, where the other ones are listed under a business.
Dovie, did you have something else?
Yeah, if they provide a business name, it's listed.
If they don't provide a business name, then they're leased under the individual's name.
Any further discussion?
As per requested is there if anyone would like to motion motion to suspend the rules second Alderman Monroe seconded by Alderman Sellers a suspension of the rules is non debatable and was passed by two-thirds majority madam clerk would you please take the role on the suspension only Parker aye Stacy aye Aye. Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders?
Aye.
Sellers?
Aye.
Klemm?
Aye.
Monroe?
Aye.
And Simmons?
Aye.
Okay then now before you council would be the final reading for the ordinance 2025-13 if there's no further discussion.
Madam Clerk please take the roll.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
Aye.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders?
Aye.
Sellers?
Aye.
Klemm?
Aye.
Monroe?
Aye.
And Simmons?
Aye.
This ordinance has passed 8 to 0.
And item number 12 is the first reading of ordinance 2025-14.
Could you please read this?
Ordinance adopting the official zoning map of the city of Freeport.
Thank you.
Director Duckman.
Thank you Madam Mayor.
So the state of Illinois requires communities to publish annually their zoning maps and also to publish any or discuss if there was any zoning map and John.
I'm going to move to the next item, which is the zoning map amendments and in the year of 2024, I have it up here.
I can turn off the lights if necessary, but essentially there were zero map amendments in the year of 2024.
So with this being stated and with the zoning map in front of you, staff is recommending moving this ordinance forward for a second reading.
We have a motion made by Alderman Monroe, seconded by Alderman Sellers.
Discussion on the ordinance.
Seeing none, we'll move on to item number 13, which is the first reading of ordinance 2025-16.
Could you please read this?
Ordinance approving the acquisition of real property interests, including land and easements, along Fairgrounds Road for well number 12.
Thank you, Manager Boyer.
Thank Your Honor.
As discussed February 10th in closed session, city staff is recommending moving forward with the purchase of a property approximately seven acres south of Crate Park.
We'll have the map up here shortly.
Maybe we have it up there.
As you know, the City of Freeport's water system has been systematically upgraded since we were first made aware of forever chemicals in in our main water plant source water at Brick Street.
Since then, we have gone offline on the Brick Street plant, have been developing new source water and filtration capacity that has recently come to a conclusion on the Burchard plant at Burchard Hill.
We have one more well and treatment plant that is necessary to ensure that we have redundant capacity in place.
And so staff has been working for the last year trying to find a location for that.
We located the best, not only quality of water, We then reached out and worked up an option agreement with the property owners and we are ready to move forward to ensure that we receive grant funding that's available and whether it's $5 million in forgivable loans, another $7 million in emergent contaminants money, we're interested in moving along rapidly from the standpoint of making sure that those funds we actually receive given the change in administration.
So staff is asking for a suspension of $5 million.
Settler.
I just want to emphasize the importance of this moving forward.
We are planning on going out to bed at the end of the month with well house number 12 and it's imperative that we have the property in place in order to get the forgiveness and and the emergent contaminants money.
Again, Rob rounded, it's $12.2 million are on the line.
And this plan property, not this exact property, but property was planned in the 2025 budget for this purchase.
Why it's taken so long is a city manager and I have been working on real estate in that corridor for probably over six months and had to move from property to property because we had significant issues trying to gain enough property to build the structure and the well that we need in a quality area.
This area's been tested.
We feel that we'll have significant good water quality like we did at well 11.
It's 6,500 feet away and also has the yellow creek as the aquifer foundation to the well that we'll be drilling there.
So if anybody doesn't know, this is on the curves out on Fairgrounds Road and Park.
City Manager.
And one last thing, just the city provided $9,500 in the first option agreement with the landowners and that is non-refundable.
So I would like to move forward as not part of the purchase price.
Alderman Monroe.
Thank you, Madam Mayor.
Even though Director Steekle didn't really sell me on the Yellow Creek, Yummy Water, I will make a motion to suspend the rules and move this forward.
Second.
We have a motion made by Alderman Monroe, seconded by Alderman Sellers for suspension of the rules.
Again, that's non-debatable and must pass by two-thirds majority.
Madam Clerk, would you please take the roll on the suspension only?
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
Aye.
Shadle?
Aye.
Klemm, Monroe, and Simmons.
The suspension of the rules passes eight to zero.
So now before you is the final passage for this ordinance Alderman Stacey.
Yes I would like to know how much is this gonna cost us.
Manager Boyer?
Approximately $22,000 an acre.
Baker, 22,000 an acre correct yes and that includes the earnest money as well and how many acres are we looking at so we originally asked for ten but we were able to get the work done that we needed for seven so we renegotiated with the owner and and seven was all we need any other discussion yes one more let me see If anybody else has, because you've already used your two.
If no one objects.
OK, Alderman Stacey.
Without having this property, Darren, I'm sorry, Director, and without knowing how many acres, how did we budget for something like this?
So anybody can easily research what commercial type properties Gofer in Stephenson County and in the city.
And so we took a stab at what it might cost or what the max value we were willing to pay for properties.
There was two other properties that city manager and I negotiated on.
One of them was a half a million dollars an acre, and another one was $50,000 an acre.
So we deemed them unaffordable and way beyond our budget.
Jett.
$20,000 Would be high for farm ground, but not for commercial ground.
And this opportunity gives us a lot of legs for the future growth of Freeport.
And the attributes, as I discussed in executive session, to this property weigh into the price.
So it's one of the areas of Freeport that doesn't flood, right?
So we want to get just like Wellhouse 11, we need to place this in somewhere that's not low ground.
The attributes to the Yellow Creek, one of the reasons that we like that is the water source is permanent and it filters through the ground layers.
And we are drilling down to 1,300 feet is the expectation for this well, similar to well 11.
So the attributes that come with the property and the future expansion to Freeport is significantly beneficial to this property.
I will also remind everyone this well in particular will feed 70 percent of the people in Freeport because it feeds the low zone which is our largest population of zone.
It's our business district, the down south, the east side, so we will be pumping.
The east side.
So we will be pumping that water across across Walnut Avenue and and to the east part of town.
Did you say 70?
About 70% Yeah, because it's most of our commercial businesses and and most of our downtown area and to the east and that's where we need the extra capacity at.
There's no further discussion.
The ordinance passes 8-0.
Item 14 is the adoption of Resolution 2025-26.
Resolution approving a Memorandum of Understanding, or MLU, with Mississippi Centers for Supervision and a police social worker while obtaining masters of social work degree.
Thank you.
Chief Shenberger.
Thank you.
In October of 2024, the police social worker at that time resigned his position with the Freeport Police Department to pursue a position with the U. S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
Human Resources advertised for the open position of police social worker.
After the initial posting, the police department received interest from one applicant that was prepared to offer employment to the applicant.
And John.
However, the applicant declined to accept a position with another agency.
The open position was posted a second time and HR received interest from one applicant.
The applicant is local and obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Applied Psychology and Criminal Law and Justice from University of Illinois Chicago in 2023.
She also had over two years of employment in the social services field and is a member of the United States Army National Guard.
The applicant anticipates receiving her masters of social work in July, 2026.
The police social worker position was offered to this applicant and she started her role on February 10th, 2025.
The Freeport Police Department reached out to Mississippi Centers to have a licensed clinical social worker supervise the new police social worker on a weekly basis until she obtains her masters of social work in July of 2026.
In 2022, the Freeport Police Department hired and the police social worker under similar circumstances who also required supervision from an LCSW until she received her certification.
The police social worker will also work closely with the Stephenson County Sheriff's Office social worker.
The supervision of a police social worker until she obtains her masters of social work is not uncommon.
According to the National Association of Social Workers and Association of Social Work Boards, Working under an LCSW supervisor is important to the profession to have assurance that all social workers are equipped with the necessary skills to deliver competent and ethical social work services.
Professional supervision is defined as the relationship between a supervisor and a supervisee in which the responsibility and accountability for the development of competence, demeanor, and ethical practice take place.
The supervisor is responsible for providing direction to the supervisee who applies social work theory, standardized knowledge, skills, competency, and applicable ethical content in the practice setting.
The supervisor and the supervisee both share responsibility for carrying out their role in this collaborative process.
This MOU with Mississippi centers includes one two-hour session per week at no cost.
Suttman.
Any time spent by Mississippi over two hours a week could be subject to a charge of $40 an hour.
However, it's not anticipated that this will be necessary.
Thank you.
Is there a motion to adopt?
So moved.
Second.
A motion made by Alderman Shadle, seconded by Alderman Klemm.
Questions on the resolution?
Madam Clerk, please take the roll.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
Aye.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders?
Monroe is absent.
Simmons, since you're returning, Alderperson Monroe, do you want to vote or not?
Okay, thank you.
That is eight to zero and the resolution is adopted.
Item number 15 is the adoption of resolution 2025-27.
Could you please read?
Resolution approving an agreement with Fehr Graham to provide civil engineering services related to IDOT surface transportation program, Graham, Urban Portion, which is STU, STU Funded Street Improvements Program.
Manager Boyer?
Thank you, Your Honor.
So February 10th, we discussed the various FAU applicable routes.
These are federal routes that we can use federal funding for.
They are very particular about how work is done, and we're trying to make a point of using these funds for mill and overlay projects.
So those projects were identified as Lincoln Boulevard from Locust to West, Stephenson Street from Locust to Sunset, Adams Avenue from Exchange to Float, and Walnut Avenue from Empire to South.
So that is the list of projects we're hoping to do.
However, because we have to do an environmental study, we'd like to move forward with design on this, even though construction won't begin until 2026.
So staff requests, council move forward with this agreement with Fehr Graham to move forward.
The total cost of the agreement is $218,150 and that will prepare us for utilization of these funds in the 2026 construction season.
Is there a motion to adopt?
So moved.
Second.
A motion made by Alderman Klemm, seconded by Alderman Shadle.
Discussion on the resolution?
Madam.
I have a question.
Alderman Stacy.
Okay, this is a grant that will pay $2.5 million.
It is not per se in a grant.
This is funds that are dispersed through IDOT, but they have to be dispersed in a specific way with a very high level of parameters.
So unfortunately, we were hoping to deploy these funds this year, but because of the environmental study that needs to be done, I think it's an or 9 month process, so these will end up being deployed in 26, but we still need to get the work done now so we can deploy these funds in 26.
Alderman Stacey.
Okay, so we currently have two contracts with Fehr Graham, Water Works Director and Master Service contract.
Why wouldn't one of those cover this cost to go after this money?
Those are different projects.
So the public works director, I believe that's what you're referring to, that is dealing with the day-to-day management and working with the superintendents and the employees day-to-day.
This is actually design and preparation for the STU funds to be deployed next year.
It's just a completely different thing.
I don't know if Darren wants to.
But the second contract that we have with Fehr Graham.
So we do multiple contracts with the city every year.
The public works director is exactly what Rob said.
That's me running the day to day of public works with the superintendents.
So that's a standalone contract.
The master service agreement is small contracts, things Huffines that we help the fire department with or the police department or specific things, building issues, other grants that we go after, smaller projects.
Whenever we get into big projects, we do standalone contracts for them.
It defines the scope of the project better than the master service agreement.
If we could add this money on to the master service agreement, but when it comes to IDOT or EPA or anything that's federally funded, has money in it, Fowler, and they like to see stand-alone contracts for just that project alone.
So to be honest with you, this is a more transparent way of bringing it to the council and to the floor so everybody can see the contracts rather than just the day-to-day stuff that are, I don't want to say they're meaningless, but they're much smaller items like helping the fire chief get a grant for windows or helping the police station with their canopy that fell down, things like that.
That's what the master service contract is for.
OK, so this is not going to happen until 2026.
The construction won't.
The design process needs to start now if we want to get the project constructed.
And we budgeted for this?
We have engineering budgets for it, and all the expense won't come this year.
Some of it will come this year, and some of it will come in 26.
I would say this project was not budgeted for like it is shown today, because we didn't We didn't know that we were going to be able to get this money when we did budgets, right?
So that's what I said in the memo.
This is a chance to get two and a half million dollars, but we have to support the engineering ourselves.
So I already have the negotiations done with IDOT.
We will get this funding, maybe even a little bit more because it's a cost estimate.
It's not perfect, right?
It's 10,000 feet at the moment.
But if we don't move forward with the engineering now, this will not be constructed in 26 because the McClendon, John, and John.
I'm glad that we're not going to be constructed in 26 because the ESR alone is a nine-month process.
Thank you for being truthful.
Yep.
Alderman Klemm.
Darren, what's the environmental issue?
It's being pushed down from the federal government.
We went to a seminar about it, but anything that has a dollar of federal money tied to it anymore is going to end up and John.
It's something that the government is pushing down through all their agencies.
That and archaeological studies are the new buzzwords, and unfortunately, they're very expensive to do.
We're working on some drainage issues over in the Sioux Basin, and we were just notified that we have to do an archaeological study to look for arrowheads and Indian findings because it came up on some reports.
It's a hot buzz item within the engineering world and again the seminar that we went to said any project that has one dollar of federal funds in it is going to retire those two options to be done moving forward.
Thank you.
Any other discussion on this resolution?
Seeing none, Madam Clerk, please take the roll.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
Aye.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders?
Aye.
And Simmons.
The resolution is adopted 8 to 0.
Item number 16 is the adoption of resolution 2025-28.
Could you please read this?
Resolution ratifying emergency demolition of the structure located at 402 to 404 East Shawnee Street by Elbar and Sun Earthworks.
Director Duckman.
Thank you Madam Mayor.
So we're bringing this back up to council for approval.
It is the Emergency Demolition of 402-404-E Shawnee.
This property was declared a chronic nuisance on May 16th of 2024.
The city posted a notice for the Statutory Fast Track Demolition on September 3rd of 2024.
And then due to the immediate health and safety concerns, I solicited bids for the demolition of this property on December 11th, 2024 from three contractors.
In the memorandum, I posted the solicited bids as well as the return bids.
The bids are listed below and are provided to you and they were Elburn Sun Earthworks provided a bid in the amount of $19,700.
Northern Illinois Service Company provided a bid for $29,837 and Fisher Excavating did not respond to the request for bid.
The city moved forward with the demolition from Alberts on Earthworks, which was met the statutory requirement of 120 days from the posting or the statutory fast track demolition and staff recommends approval of this resolution.
Is there a motion to approve this resolution?
Second.
A motion made by Alderman Parker, seconded by Alderman Shadle.
Discussion on the resolution?
Alderman Stacey?
Oldham and Stacy.
What was the real emergency?
What was the emergency?
Oh, gosh.
I mean, I think I talked about that for an hour a couple weeks ago.
But I think the biggest emergency here when we talk about public safety is our fire department had two arson calls on this property, confirmed arson calls from our fire marshal.
It's a very serious matter.
When we're talking about the safety of our community, we also know that the property did and I have insurance.
So when you have a fire hazard that had two incidents of arson on it, and then since I've been in this position, I've been called several times on that property from the community saying, hey, somebody's been in the property, somebody's breaking in.
So the true nature of the emergency for several reasons.
But I believe the biggest threat to the community Connolly, Dave, Joe, and the Department of Public Health.
We had a lot of blunders.
It was hard to make out.
We had a lot of blunders.
We could not get a message.
We got the information that we needed.
We had a lot of blunders.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
Let's start with a quick question.
Huffines.
But you stated it multiple times.
But here we are May, August, September, October, December, and you never once thought of coming to council like you do with every other demo.
Why didn't that occur?
And two, when did the city actually take ownership of the property?
A couple of questions there.
Well, first answer is, this is now the second, well, I guess I'd say the third time I've talked about this demolition, right?
We talked about it at a cowl.
We talked about the emergency demolition.
Just please answer the two questions I asked.
That's all I'm asking.
Okay, well, that's my first answer.
So this is the third time we've talked about this demolition.
So that's my answer to your first question.
After the fact.
Yes.
Now, we're going to talk about the second question being, remind me of the second question so I can answer it.
So the first one, why didn't you come to the council before you demoed the house with basically a structured agreement?
Everything in place like we have every other demo we've done in the city.
Why didn't you do that?
Because clearly there was an opportunity through November and December to do that.
No, I would say there wasn't.
I would say it was done as an emergency demolition, which is what I talk about in the memo, which Walsh is what I talked about.
I believe it was in February.
So that's my answer there.
This was done as an emergency demolition.
I've stated that multiple times.
Stand behind that.
I could talk again.
I could talk at length if you'd like about what an emergency demolition is and what the requirements are.
I can go on and on about that.
Do you want me to answer your second question?
Yeah.
When did we take possession of the property?
The city does not own this property and a fast-track demolition the city does not own a property a fast-track demolition that's why you post notice to the property owners saying hey you've left this property vacant you've left it abandoned and you left it as a nuisance to the proper to this community and if you don't fix it or demolish it yourself the city is going to because it's a nuisance and a threat to the community and that's exactly what we told the property owner and we told it to multiple property owners this is not the and Stacey.
That's the first one we've done.
Alderman Sellers?
I just want some clarification on, is this to just pay Albert and Sons for the work is done because the house is gone?
So we can't change that.
So this is to pay them for demoing the property?
This is 100% correct.
This is to pay them for the demolition of the property, yes.
Alderman Stacy?
And the other members of the community.
So, was this a fast track demo or was it an emergency demo?
Both.
Because we've never heard emergency until now.
You've always just said fast track.
Correct.
And when I actually brought up in January an emergency board up of the hotel which also had a threat of a fire in January.
So, whenever there's a threat of a fire to I'm going to stand behind a demolition as fast as I can or a board up as fast as I can as long as there if there is a threat of fire in this community I'm going to stand behind the quickest action I can possible to protect this community from a fire threat.
So I did it in January for the hotel.
I solicited bids from three contractors.
I'm sorry.
I said I'm not talking about the hotel.
Well, I mean, you asked if I'd ever done an emergency action in the past.
And the answer to that question is yes.
That's not what I said.
I said, was this a fast track demo or was it an emergency demo?
And when was the fires?
It's both.
So it's both emergency and fast track.
And when were the fires?
The last fires were in 2021.
So if it was such a big hazardous to the community, we're in 24.
Miller.
I gave, I gave the property owner the opportunity to fix it.
And they did nothing.
Oh, they did a whole lot.
Did they?
Yes.
Enlighten me.
I, my question for you.
I'd like.
Let's get back on topic, please.
This is about paying a contractor that has already done the work.
If there's questions on that, I will.
That was not approved for.
No, I've also, and I will also state that, and I said it in the last time this came up for Resolution, and I will say it again, if any council member would like to go to City Manager Boyer and do an investigation into how I work, I stand behind my work, and I always will.
And if the way I operate is looked at as being deceitful, dishonest, inappropriate, etc., I stand behind that.
And if there's some disciplinary action up to termination, I stand behind that.
And if that's the decision of my manager, I respect that.
My manager, I respect that.
I'm not going to fight that.
But I've proposed, and I've laid out everything I've done as part of this six-year process that was going on before me.
And ultimately, I stand behind my decisions.
And I do not believe the contractor should be punished for a decision that I made for the demolition of a property.
Alderman Monroe.
Thank you, Madam Mayor.
One final question.
You said you've done many fast track or emergency demolitions.
Can you give an example of one?
Many, many fast track demolitions, yes.
This is the one emergency demolition that I can speak of.
I said I did another emergency action of a board up of a hotel in January.
So I've done two emergency actions since I've sat in this seat, both related to fire.
And I brought both of them to council after the fact.
Okay, so if there's no more discussion on paying this bill, Madam Clerk, please take the roll.
Parker?
Aye.
Stacy?
No.
Shadle?
Aye.
Sanders?
No.
Sellers?
Aye.
Klemm?
Aye.
Monroe?
No.
Simmons?
No.
We have a four to four to tie.
Mayor?
I believe Mayor Miller should be disqualified from voting on this matter due to the significant conflict of interest.
Specifically, Mayor Miller is related to the party that is set to receive the funds and has a financial interest in their business.
This situation violates our ethical standards and contravenes several legal provisions.
Illinois Administrative Code 44-3, Admin Code 7000-. 30 Defines a conflict of interest as a situation where person and authority may benefit financially from a decision made in that capacity including indirect benefits to family members or associated businesses also the City of Freeport employee handbook while it primarily is for city employees emphasizes the city's commitment to an ethical conduct stating that no Karnes, DeVos, Huff, John, DeGeneres, Bill, Mike, Tai, Whittle, Richard, and many others.
I think a good employee should use their position to promote a personal business interest and this reflects the city's stance against conflicts of interest.
In light of these considerations, I respectfully request that the chair disqualify themselves from voting on this matter to uphold our organization's integrity and comply with applicable laws of federal, state, and local ordinances.
I'm not a city employee, I'm an elected official, and I believe at the last one you actually abstained, but what would have been your reason?
I don't even think you said it.
So if I choose to vote, I believe that's my right.
I object to this commentary.
I appeal the decision of the chair then.
What do we do with an appeal?
I don't know what that is.
Adam Clark?
Can we have the definition of a family member?
I think the owner is your first cousin once has a crash here, or that is a mystery.
They're being ROI-reported.
When that was removed, is that correct?
Well, and it's a person that's been doing business with the city for many, many years.
Prior.
You have no interest in the business.
Any direction.
And you have no interest, financial interest in the business.
None.
It's your Uncle and your cousin.
I believe I know who my relatives are.
It's not an Uncle.
We don't have a parliamentary ruling by the by the chair here like as to whether or not you know who gets to speak or or this or that that you could you know appeal the decision there statue says that when there's a vote when there's a tie the mayor gets to cast cast the vote on that she casts the vote but I'm appealing that vote under the Roberts rules as well as the rules of this chamber which she so eloquently tried to say we needed to follow earlier this Cronenberg.
Well, I guess I'm not sure as far as when you're asking for a motion to reconsider the vote.
No, I'm objecting to her vote in general.
She's engaging in a decision where a member has a personal interest that can lead to a violation of state and local ordinances, potentially resulting in legal consequences for the individual and the city.
Alderman Rowe, I guess my response would be to that is just as with any elected official, someone feels they should abstain they have the right to abstain but you're not obligated to abstain if you don't want to I'm very I'm not obligated so my vote stands Alderman Klemm I just like to I just like to bring up the fact that this project was posted to the community for bidding anybody could bid it Elber I like to rebut all of that, this whole commentary that you guys are demonstrating before the public here and yeah, I resent the fact that you questioned ethics at the very beginning of our council meeting.
Miller.
I think it was very inappropriate for you to project that kind of comment or salutation or whatever.
It wasn't a salutation, but the fact that you're making it and didn't give an explanation to why you're making it.
And where did you pull that out of your hat is what got me perturbed right now, because it's like you pull that out from somewhere but no one was able to rebut you on the whole circumstances.
And so, and when I'm sitting here listening to you're doing it again, you're out of order.
And I have a right to say that you're out of order and reject whatever your sentiments are about the voting cast casting that took just taking place.
Yeah, you should be repealed because if there is a conflict of interest and the council have an interest in wanting to investigate it, then we should have that opportunity to do so.
And so, while we're talking about it, I just don't get how it is that you can vote for something that has a conflict of interest.
You as as the mayor trying to break a conflict of interest I don't see how you can do that okay then the conversation is done we'll move on to item number 17 which is the adoption of resolution 2025-29 could you please read this resolution approving a customer work agreement with ComEd to upgrade street lights here yeah so at the last meeting um I was tasked I'm not going to go through through the whole memo, but I was tasked to work on the list of high crime areas in the city of Freeport and get lights replaced.
I received a list from Cecelia and from Chief Shenberger.
I went through the list.
We went block by block over the list with ComEd.
They actually came out and did a survey.
I authorized an agreement for 63 light replacements at a cost of $23,562.
We authorized that last week.
You guys decided at the last meeting it was an emergency to move this forward.
The estimated increase in light cost is $5 a month to the rental and upkeep account Holt, and less than $3 a month per light in the electrical cost.
Each one of the lights will be 149-watt LED similar to the Cobrahead lights that are downtown.
I've been working with ComEd trying to get an installation date.
I got an update for them late this afternoon that the lights are on order, but it's going to be 90 days to receive them.
Thomas, they received them.
They will start the installs on Oak Avenue in the areas identified in the memo.
We researched solar lights.
I had a couple calls today with some lighting options.
I have a breakout of those lights.
Ultimately, anywhere that we currently have ComEd lighting in our city where there's existing poles and existing arms to put the and the Cobra heads on, the existing lights are about 50% cheaper over a 20-year period than solar lights would be, and in my research today talking to a couple companies, solar lights are good installation practices when there is an existing ComEd or they're underground and you have to set new poles.
They admitted that they can't compete on the cost of that full term.
So the breakout over So the breakout over a 20 year period, a ComEd 40 to 60 watt light, which is our standard that we have all over Freeport, cost the city about $2,400 in rental cost and in upkeep cost and lighting cost as well.
So those lights have a $10 rental cost per month and about $5 in electricity per month to our what they call our tower account.
Fowler.
The 149-watt ones will have a cost of $15 per month and an average estimated electrical cost of $8 per month.
In the same scenario for solar lightings, if we buy 50 lights at a time, the cost of the lighting poles would be $4,100.
If we don't buy 50 at a time and let's say we buy five at a time, the cost goes to $4,600.
Each pole will cost $1,500 to install and each pole will cost an average of $580 to ship to Freeport during that purchase price.
So a 20 year comparison on a, and these were 80 watt lights is what the solar ones were, a 20 year cost on that is $7,780.
The batteries that light solar lights are only good for 10 to 12 years max and they're We're a replacement cost of $700.
The light itself is only good for 20 years and has a replacement cost today to $200 a piece.
And the photo pail cell is currently $200 a piece to replace.
And they're estimated to last for about 30 years.
So upfront cost wise and the 10 and 20 year comparison, there really wasn't any comparison.
Now, if we have subdivisions Huffines.
Thank you.
The current lights, no matter where we put them in the city of Freeport, right now in 2025, will cost $374.
The installation is included in that price and the maintenance costs that we pay will replace that light for life.
So there will be no future cost other than the maintenance that we pay monthly.
Is there a motion to adopt this resolution?
I make a motion.
Second it.
A motion made by Alderman Stacy, seconded by Alderman Sanders.
Discussion on the resolution, Alderman Sanders.
Yeah, Director Darin.
We're talking about the installation of these lights and everything.
But are there going to be, Are we able to get the effectiveness and the brightness from these lights?
Are we talking LED type lights and the looms are going to be at the highest peak of the looms that we can receive from these lightings that we're purchasing of that price?
Yeah, so 149 watt light in the Cobra Head style, the widest looms or the strongest looms you can get is 18,000 looms.
And that's what we've ordered with ComEd.
They actually wanted to order, I think it was a 15,000 loom and I told them no to go to the brighter lights.
I will tell you LED is brighter, right?
So I don't want to get too bright.
So you know, where we're burning earth house gas at night on Oak Street, but these should be plenty bright enough for the area.
I walked down the area myself, There's a light on this specific block of oak we keep discussing.
There's a light about every third pole, if not every other pole.
So it should be much, much brighter.
I would say anything more than that would be disruptive to the residents' properties themselves.
We did address every light on Chief's List.
It's a starting point.
I don't know that it's a finishing point, but it's a starting point.
There are programs I'm going to tell you, I have done more light research in the last week and a half than I'd like to have done in my whole life, but there's programs out there to change every light in town, but it's going to be very expensive and it'll be an added cost to every user in this town per month for the rest of our life if we want to do that.
This is a starting point.
I don't have the exact number of lights we have, but I believe it's over 1,500 lights.
K.
All right.
Hold on, Stacy.
Director Stico, will we still be cutting back trees?
Yes, we are.
A matter of fact, Pat was out on a tour this week with Rob and myself.
We went at different times.
So some of the trees, we're trying to get them clipped back.
Based, I will be honest with you, Our number one focus of trimming trees back is generally started on the streets that we're addressing this year, because we're prepping to get the streets paved and the material, and that's the first step in the process is trimming them up.
But in the crime areas, we're trying to go in those and clip all the limbs back that we can as well.
The forestry crew has been working on that with the great weather we've been having.
I just want to say, I appreciate you.
I thank you for all your hard work.
This from the beginning of my campaign had my heart and I'm just grateful for your time and effort that you have put into making this happen.
You're welcome.
Thank you.
If there's no further discussion, Madam Clerk, please take the roll.
Parker.
Aye.
Stacy.
Aye.
Shadle.
Aye.
Sanders.
Aye.
Sellers.
Aye.
Klemm.
Aye.
Monroe.
Aye.
And Simmons.
Aye.
Simmons.
The resolution is adopted eight to zero.
Reports from department heads, finance.
Thank you, community development.
Nothing tonight, Madam Mayor.
Thank you, public works.
I believe it's only 730.
Nothing tonight, thank you.
Boyer?
Nothing this evening.
Police?
I have no report.
Library?
I will take up all of their time.
On Thursday we are going to have our opening house for our exhibit titled Journey to Freedom, the Underground Railroad exhibit.
Journey to Freedom, Illinois's Underground Railroad is a new museum quality exhibit highlighting the courageous stories of freedom seekers and the multiracial conductors who assisted them on the Underground Railroad in Illinois.
The exhibit is located on the second floor of the Freeport Public Library and is open to the public, experienced selected stories of freedom seekers, conductors, and communities in Illinois that were part of the journey to freedom on the Illinois Underground Railroad.
This exhibit uses photos, videos, maps, personal stories, and illustrations created specifically for this exhibit, and visitors will learn about the people and communities who took part in this hidden history.
Highlighted stories include freedom seekers John and Eliza Little, who traveled barefoot Huffines.
This exhibit is open March 6th through April 5th for all Open Hours of the Library.
It is a collaboration between the Lincoln Douglas Society, the Greater Freeport Partnership, the library and Looking for Lincoln, which is a state organization.
Can you repeat those dates again?
March 6th through April 5th.
Thank you.
And then we have featured events that you can find on our calendar in our newsletter, but this open house is this Thursday from 4 PM to 6 PM Thank you.
I. T., City Manager.
I think, Your Honor, just wanted to report another successful Refresh Freeport event where we collected over 25 tons of garbage and over 50 mattresses.
So that's work our crews no longer have to get done with and we thank everybody for participating.
And I have nothing new this evening.
Alderman Parker.
Nothing tonight, Your Honor.
Alderman Statham.
Nothing, thank you.
Alderman Schaefer.
I'd like to mention the 6th Ward Neighborhood Watch is this Thursday night at 6 PM at Schwartz Park Boulevard.
Alderman Sanders?
Nothing.
Alderman Seller?
Yes, I would just like everyone to remember to join the Citizens Utility Board Environmental Study Group and State Representative John Cabello to learn about how to reduce your utility bills and to tap into money-saving clean energy programs.
Kessler.
It is Thursday, March 6th, 530 to 730 at the Freeport Public Library.
And thank you.
Alderman Klemm?
Just a reminder of Neighborhood Watch later this month, I'll get information out to all the constituents.
Thank you very much.
Alderman Monroe?
Nothing to nightmare.
Alderman Simmons?
No.
No, I don't.
Thank you.
That leaves us with public comment.
Are there any public comments this evening?
Take your pick whichever wants to come first.
I just want to thank Director Darren.
Can you identify yourself, please?
Makaya Stacey.
Sorry.
I just want to thank Director Darren.
I just want to thank Director Darren for all the work you've put in getting us our lights I know it's been a back-and-forth problem on the council floor But I feel like this entire time you've been set on making Freeport a better safer place, so I appreciate you.
Thank you Next My name is Kia Sanders.
I just want to say like when you when you use the word emergency that doesn't mean four years in gap Got to be raising a question.
I mean my head's too thick or maybe I'm crazy, but that doesn't mean emergency to me and then I want to know like pay somebody that is gonna have to pay me as a I don't know why you decided to you know not to tell them that there is a pending lawsuit against this city of Freeport at any given time they're gonna pay me for the stuff they stole or for knocking down my house somebody is going to pay me the fact that you showed no compassion about a citizen having a problem and you don't Don't even weigh his question, why he used the word emergency and waited four years.
And this is the only case that he does like this.
And I just want to thank Alderman Stacy and Alderman Monroe for noticing and working for the people, not just me.
I believe if it wasn't me, somebody else going through what I'm going through, they would also fight the battle.
Appreciate you.
Any other public comments?
Three minutes.
Linda Johnson.
I just want to invite the public to the meet and greet.
It's going to be March 5th, 6 to 8 at the Eagles Club to meet and greet.
There's write-in candidates for District 145, Pat Ludwig and Dennis Myers, plus all the candidates that are running for office will be at this meet and greet.
So we'd like people to come out and meet them.
Any other public comments?
Tommy?
Wayne Dickerman, do you like that picture of the agate for you?
I love Jersey Mike, so yeah, it was a good picture.
And Don Parker, I just wanted to tell you, you did a good job.
You did best of all of them in the three points.
Thank you, Tom.
Are there any other public comments this evening?
Then that concludes our meeting.
I'll take a motion for adjournment.
So moved.
All those in favor?
Aye.