Village of Tampico Board And Trustees met March 7.
Here is the minutes as provided by the Board:
Mayor Kristine L. Hill called the Regular Meeting of the Tampico Village Council to order at 7:00 PM.
Commissioners Derrick Maupin, Bruce Hill, Scott Meier and Phalen Vancil were present. Police Chief Terry Strike was in attendance and Village Clerk, Kathy Leathers, recorded the written and audio minutes. The meeting was also video recorded.
Mayor Hill led those present in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Minutes of the February 21, 2017 Regular Meeting were approved as presented.
Reports of Village Officials
Mayor Hill said she spoke with the representative from ComEd about the coming Smart Meters. They’ll be starting in April, and the work should be complete in May. ComEd asks that if your meter is in a locked area, call the number that is given in the letters they’re sending out. There will be 3 letters sent and Mayor Hill believes the first letter has already been mailed out. Once you find the number on the letter, call and arrange for someone to be there to let ComEd in to your locked meter. Mayor Hill wanted to remind everyone that ComEd does not do any work without their company vehicles, uniforms and badges. If you have any questions, please call the police department. Mayor Hill said they will not be asking for money or anything else besides access to change the meters out. It’s real easy and quick. They pop on and off and are basically like fancy radios.
Mayor Hill said village resident Sandra Tornow has spoke about having a garage sale in the RCC gym on April 22nd. Mayor Hill believes that Prophetstown is having their town wide garage sales on April 29th if people who are interested would like to start planning for around that date. Ours will not be a town wide garage sale, but we can try having it at the same time as Prophetstown. It may draw more people. Village Clerk Kathy Leathers will ask Utilities Clerk Anna Wetzell to check in with Tornow about the date.
Commissioner Bruce Hill addressed the village’s waste site on the edge of town off Hahnaman Rd. He believes there are people using it that are not supposed to. The only people that are able to use it are people from the Village of Tampico. Commissioner Hill asks that if anyone notices people using it that are not from the village, please contact him or Police Chief Terry Strike. Commissioner Hill has caught a couple people there and asked them to leave.
Commissioner Hill then spoke about the damage occurring at Booth Park. He said the waste cans have been damaged, among other things, and the door to the restrooms has been kicked in. Commissioner Hill thinks the village should get a camera for the park to help prevent that from continuing. Mayor Hill asked the village to be watchful of the park, and call in when you see these things happening to try and stop the nonsense.
Commissioner Hill has been working with the fire department, trying to figure out why the siren hasn’t been going off. He said this should have been taken care of over a year ago. The Siren has not been tested on the first Tuesday of the month and was not activated during a recent high wind weather condition.
Mayor Hill asked Commissioner Phalen Vancil about the baseball sign up. Commissioner Vancil said it went well, and there will be another baseball sign up this weekend.
Remarks from Guests
Village resident Rob Sigel said he agrees with Commissioner Hill on the siren issue. Sigel said there was suppose to be a state wide test today at 10:00am. Commissioner Hill agreed. Mayor Hill said the fire department told her they weren’t toned out to do it in the recent storm, and Whiteside is supposed to be in control of it. Commissioner Hill is going to call Whiteside tomorrow to check into this further. He’s already spoke with them a couple times but things haven’t been properly taken care of by the Fire Department. Mayor Hill said the council is pushing the issue because they care for the village’s safety.
Unfinished Business
The council began reviewing the 2017-2018 First Draft Appropriations Ordinance / Budget. Commissioner Meier asked if there is an estimate for the tree trimming on his budget sheet. Mayor Hill said the company she is in contact with gave an estimate of the work taking about 3 days, and it’ll cost $1,800 per day. Mayor Hill said if it’s done sooner than that, the village won’t be charged that full amount. The charge is based on the company’s crew coming in and checking every street on the list given at previous meetings. Mayor Hill said the company is pretty intensive and doesn’t waste any time. If a village resident argues with the company about touching their tree, they will move on and the villages attorney will send that resident a letter saying they are now liable for their own tree on the Village’s right of way. Mayor Hill said that Public Works Superintendent Tom Pierce has the list of streets and trees and will be going around with the company when the work is done. If anyone has any questions about trees on the list, feel free to call in to Village Hall. Commissioner Hill said this company isn’t going to come in and hack these trees up. They are going to try to shape them nicely.
Commissioner Maupin asked if everything was set up for the potential water/sewer project, or the water mains project. Commissioner Maupin said he’s lost track of all the figures when trying to put everything in his budget. Village Clerk Kathy Leathers said she received an email from Matt Hansen, Willett, Hofmann & Associates, Inc., in regards to the project. It’s on her list of things to take care of tomorrow. Commissioner Maupin said he needs to remind himself when doing the budget that this won’t be for just this year, but could spill into next year as well. Mayor Hill said it’s also good to remember to go for the grants and funding that may help to get twice as much taken care of. It’s nice when the village can pay for projects itself, but when we utilize extra money available, the village can get even more projects taken care of. Clerk Leathers is going to double check with Hansen on the engineering figures she received, because the village has paid some towards it already. Clerk Leathers said if she gets the figures figured out, she will email them to Commissioner Maupin. Mayor Hill said she understands that it’s difficult to look forward to bigger projects when we don’t know what the state is going to give us. The village needs to try to stay under what it actually makes. Mayor Hill said for a small town, we’ve done really well.
Mayor Hill began discussing the TIF District Information and said that Sharon Pepin is open to come to the April 4th meeting and discuss the TIF District further and answer any questions. The village is exploring it further to see if there are more feasible ways and possibly look into a different TIF District that isn’t as high as what Pepin is offering. Mayor Hill would like to see if Pepin is willing to renegotiate before going another direction. A TIF District could really help our community.
New Business
There was no new business to discuss.
Building Permits issued by Zoning Administrator, Ron Kuepker, were 304 E. 2nd Street – New Roof.
Communications
Clerk Leathers told the council that they each received their magazine from the Illinois Municipal League. There’s often a good read in there. The council also received their Ancel Glink question of the month which is usually pretty interesting. Clerk Leathers said there’s a refresher on the Open Meetings Act.
Bills were ordered paid on a motion by Commissioner Maupin and seconded by Commissioner Vancil. “Yes” votes were Maupin, Hill, Meier, Vancil and Mayor Hill. The motion carried.
Commissioner Maupin asked to put Revenue Ideas on the Agenda for the next meeting. Mayor Hill said someone gave her the idea to have Yoga lessons in the RCC gym. Commissioner Maupin asked if each council member can come up with 3 ideas, then it can be discussed and narrowed down to at least 2 or 3 good ideas. Mayor Hill said she would like to see the Brat Fest come back. It was a nice community event that made decent money and brought people together. Commissioner Maupin said these don’t have to be $10,000 ideas. Even just $1,000 would be great. Mayor Hill said the idea of a car show on the east play- ground has been spoken about since that gate can swing open. Commissioner Hill said the playground isn’t being used for anything else. Clerk Leathers thinks it would be fun to have a huge snowball fight on the playground with snow forts, if we ever get enough snow. Mayor Hill said the dodge ball tournament went really well for the day care fundraiser.
Mayor Hill mentioned that she’s noticed a couple TV’s on people’s curbs. She’d like to remind everyone that if they have TV’s to get rid of they can bring them to the Village Hall, get the key from the office and put them in the back building for recycling. Mayor Hill is trying to work with Prophetstown to coordinate when the trucks come so they can hopefully hit up both towns on the same day. Mayor Hill said she’d like to have another E-Recycling day in May if they can get the man power to help with it and wrap up what we already have, which is quite a bit. This will be a continuous project for the Village. Mayor Hill encourages people to call the Village Hall and schedule a time to bring your things in, especially if you can’t make it during open business hours. The village will try to work something out.
Mayor Hill then informed the council that Village employee, Art Spencer, is retiring at the end of March and wish him the best.
The meeting adjourned at 7:19 PM. The next regular meeting of the Tampico Village Council will be Tuesday, March 21, 2017 at 7:00 PM in the Reagan Community Center located at 202 W. Second Street.
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