City of Oregon City Council met June 25.
Here is the minutes provided by the council:
Present: Mayor Ken Williams
Commissioner Melanie Cozzi
Commissioner Tim Krug
Commissioner Terry Schuster
Commissioner Kurt Wilson
City Clerk/Treasurer Charlene Ruthe
City Attorney Paul Chadwick
Chief Darin DeHaan
Commissioner Terry Schuster started the pledge of allegiance.
Public Comment
Donna Mann, representative of Rockin River Festival, thanked the City Council and City Employees for their support. Since the weather hasn’t been good to the festival, they will be considering a different date in the future and will be looking into restructuring the festival. Mayor Williams thanked the committee for their efforts. Festival do bring people to the community.
Doug Raney, 1303 Illinois Street, thinks that it’s a bad idea to bring chickens into the city limits. They will bring other animals and be noisy.
Darlene Raney, 1303 Illinois Street, thinks it’s also a bad idea to bring chickens into the city limits. Put them next to a house that has a dog, the dog is probably going to bark. They will smell, be dirty, and bring other animals into the city limits such as coyotes. They belong on a farm in the country. Who is going to keep the area for them clean? Totally against them.
Commissioner Melanie Cozzi moved to approve the June 11, 2019 minutes, Seconded by Commissioner Kurt Wilson.
Discussion: Mayor Williams had two corrections on the minutes. The motion to table the Chicken Ordinance doesn’t need the wording to amend the motion, need to take that out. The tree program was brought up by Commissioner Schuster not the Mayor and the program is something the school would consider.
Roll Call: Cozzi, Krug, Schuster, Wilson, Williams. No Nays.
Commissioner Terry Schuster moved to approve the payroll in the amount of $47,458.01 and current warrants as listed:
Azavar Audit, $2.97
Blackhawk Hills Regional Council, $30.00
Casper’s Home Inspection LLC, $1,720.00
Charlene Ruthe, $86.81
Cheryl Hilton, $40.00
Cintas, $114.06
City of Oregon, $95.99
City of Oregon, $5,000.00
City of Oregon, $48,900.00
Comcast, $106.90
ComEd, $7,208.35
Dave Kent, $40.00
Digital Alley, $12,165.00
Dustin Runyon, $40.00
Hagemann Horticulture LLC, $1,531.00
Harvard State Bank, $899.21
Illinois Rural Water Association, $503.72
Israel Carreno, $207.94
James Morris, $40.00
Jeff Pennington, $40.00
Joseph Brooks, $40.00
Josh Lee, $40.00
Kristine Tesnow, $40.00
Kunes Country Auto Group, $1,207.35
Laser Labs Inc., $191.85
Martin & Company, $1,990.98
Mary Elliott, $40.00
Matt Kalnins, $40.00
Mobile Electronics, $187.50
Moring Disposal, $410.00
MCS Advertising, $75.00
Moring Disposal, $63.00
NAPA, $195.24
Nikolas Manthei, $40.00
PF Pettibone & Co., $283.70
Polland Water, $1,086.82
Polo Cooperative Assoc., $3,990.24
Postmaster, $579.60
Randy Cropp, $40.00
Ray O’Herron C0., $411.56
Rush Power Systems, $589.38
Scott Wallace, $40.00
Shawn Melville, $40.00
Sigma-Aldrich, $327.68
Steve Mattas, $40.00
Stillman BancCorp, $675.48
Tad Dominski, $40.00
Traffic Control & Protection Inc., $136.20
Verizon, $679.23
Village of Progress, $1.069.60
Wastewater Management of Northern Illinois, $8,025.00
Willett Hofmann & Assoc, $9,694.50
WIPFLI, $14,750.00
Seconded by Commissioner Tim Krug.
Roll Call: Cozzi, Krug, Schuster, Wilson, Williams. No Nays.
Commissioner Kurt Wilson moved to approve the Plan Commission recommendation to allow Chickens in the City Limits Ordinance No. 2019-104, Seconded by Commissioner Melanie Cozzi.
Discussion: Commissioner Krug handed out information about chickens. He is concerned about other critters coming into town, noise, smell, distance from other residents, and cleanliness. Chickens can bring diseases. Best left to industrial farmers. He feels they would be a liability risk to the city. Bring the question to the voters at the next general election.
Commissioner Wilson said, we already have other animals in town. He just saw a coyote close to a Rochelle subdivision, so they are everywhere.
Commissioner Schuster suggested that residents who want them would need to get approval from all neighbors, limit the number of permits per year, and possibly try for a year and see how it goes.
Mayor Williams surveyed the area communities: Byron NO, Sycamore NO, Sterling YES, reduced number and made the distances be 25 feet from the lot line, Fulton YES need approval from neighbors. We are trying to make the city a place to live, work, and play. Balance it out if only have a handful want them out of the 1,600 residential homes, we have in the city limits.
Roll Call: Cozzi and Wilson. Nays: Krug, Schuster, Williams.
Commissioner Terry Schuster presented the Council with the Budget for fiscal year 2019-2020. Any questions or concerns feel free to either call or email him. The general fund balance is down by 35% because of the tough winter we had which uses more salt, fuel, overtime, and contractors to get the job done. With two employees retiring have hired replacements at a lower salary. School Resource Officer was put into place this past school year, the school is paying 70% and city to paying 30%. A steady increase in sales tax and the 1% tax is helping fund the public affairs account. Commissioner Schuster feels we are in a good place and glad that we do have funds set aside for a rainy day.
Chief DeHaan handed out the violations the Community Service Officer has written this month. Construction on City Hall should be completed in about two weeks.
At the next Council meeting, Commissioner Tim Krug will be bringing bids for a new street sweeper.
City Clerk reminded everyone the Economic Development meeting will be changed from July 2nd to Wednesday July 10th at 5:00 pm.
Mayor Williams thanked Jay’s Drive-In for providing the ice cream cups at the Concert in Park. He also thanked the Plan Commission members for the time they took on the chicken ordinance.
Commissioner Kurt Wilson moved to adjourn the meeting, Seconded by Commissioner Melanie Cozzi.
Roll Call: Cozzi, Krug, Schuster, Wilson, Williams. No Nays.
Adjourn: 6:16 P.M.http://cityoforegon.org/resident-information/agendaminutes/
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