City of Lanark City Council met Oct. 15.
Here is the minutes provided by the council:
Lanark City Council met in regular session at the Lanark City Hall at 7:03 p.m. Roll call taken by Kim Hunter, City Clerk, showed Alderpersons present were Haley Grim, Brad Knutti, Weston Burkholder, Mark Macomber and Jay VanMatre. Absent: Lance Leverton. Mayor Ken Viglietta was present and presiding.
Others present were: Kris Garnhart-Auditor, Denise Bormann-Utilities Clerk, Jason Alvarado- Maintenance Manager, Ed Mitchell-Attorney, Donalee Yenney-Treasurer, Matt Magill-Chief of Police and Kim Hunter-City Clerk.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE – was led by Alderperson Mark Macomber.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES – MOTION – was made by Alderperson Jay VanMatre and seconded by Alderperson Mark Macomber to accept the minutes of the October 1, 2019 meeting as presented. Motion carried by 5 aye votes. Absent: Alderperson Lance Leverton.
PUBLIC COMMENTS – None.
2019 LANARK CITY AUDIT – ACTION REQUIRED – Kris Garnhart, the auditor from Wipfli, handed out the City of Lanark Annual Financial Report dated March 31, 2019 to all the council and explained it. She went over the reports and answered all the questions that were asked. She went over the corrected and uncorrected misstatements regarding the Cornucopia account, it is on the city’s I.D. FEIN number but they are not on the financial statements. She went over the adjustments, there were five and she said that is very good and we should be proud. She went over the rest of the report and representation letter also. Our financial statements are on a modified cash basis. She went over the numbers on the Annual Financial Report with the council and explained them. She also went over the TIF funds. Matt Magill will post the report on the website.
UTILITY CLERK REPORT – POSSIBLE ACTION – Denise Bormann went over the new billing, she said she had no written reports but once she has six months in she will do one. For the month of August 2019 the WSG income collected was $49,166.45, September’s was $51,405.91 and October up to the 15th so far (we still have more coming in for October as bills are due on the 20th) we have collected $53,889.56. The reason for the biggest significance is in September we were issuing a lot of credits. We have a lot of people with prepay. They all don’t happen on the same month. She explained how she issued credits. She said that the people took the increase rather well. She said she had several people that didn’t know there was a senior citizen discount and they signed up for it. She said prepay is only for owner occupied. Rental properties are not eligible. Only residential, owner occupied residences are eligible. A church, a non-profit, would be eligible for prepay. Denise talked about the auto read system. They had one new meter installed at Forester Products. She explained what her procedure was for sending out shut off letters. If you are three months or more behind a letter is sent. She said she sent 25 letters out this last cycle, out of all of them only one had to be turned off, people responded to the letter either by paying it off or setting up a first time payment plan. The person who was shut off came in and paid it in full and paid the $35.00 shut off fee to have it turned back on. People do respond to the letters. She said that she collected an $800.00 lien, we are making progress on liens also. Alderperson Mark Macomber had asked about outside of Lanark rates and increases. She said they pay the increase also. They pay for the same increase in each category as the city does. Attorney Ed Mitchell talked a little about annexing of properties.
ORDINANCE TO CHANGE SALARIES – ACTION REQUIRED – MOTION- was made by Alderperson Mark Macomber and seconded by Alderperson Jay VanMatre to approve Ordinance #971 “An Ordinance Regarding The Compensation of the Mayor and Alderpersons”. The Mayor’s salary will raise from $5,000.00 to $10,000.00. The Alderpersons salaries will raise from $3,000.00 to $5,000.00. The salaries will take effect after the April 2021 election. Motion carried by 5 aye votes. Absent: Alderperson Lance Leverton. Mayor Ken apologized to three of the Alderpersons who would not be eligible until the election of April 2023 after their 4 year term is up. Attorney Ed Mitchell went over the statute with the council. You have to run through an election cycle to be eligible for the increase, that is why only half the council will be eligible for 2021 and the other half for 2023.
STANDING COMMITTEES AND BOARDS – POSSIBLE ACTION – None. Alderperson Weston Burkholder had a question regarding the Cornucopia and the city’s FEIN number. Mayor Ken Viglietta explained what has happened and said that Kris Garnhart, the auditor, instructed him to go through the council to prepare a resolution and give the resolution to the bank to remove the city’s FEIN number off of the Cornucopia account. The Cornucopia needs to close their account and open a new one with their own number. Ken said the bank is going to take it up at their meeting tomorrow morning. He wants to hear from the President of the bank, Matt Zumdahl, regarding this matter, before we have the council do anything and Ken will report back on what he had to say.
EXECUTIVE SESSION – EMPLOYMENT, COMPENSATION, REAL ESTATE – No Executive Session.
REPORTS-EMPLOYEES, ATTORNEY, CLERK, TREASURER, ALDERPERSONS AND MAYOR – Jason Alvarado- said he had just ordered salt today, he has an approval with a State Contract. He ordered 250 tons for $77.15 a ton. He had requested 425 tons. There is a storage fee if we get more. He said we had a main break, he called Jason DeMichele. It was leaking for about a month. They couldn’t find where it was. It was on West Lanark Avenue. They did a chlorine test to try and find it. They ended up calling the Illinois Rural Water Association and they found the leak with their equipment and computer. It took them a half an hour to find it. The water was running a half block away from where the leak was. It was free to do as we are members of their organization and we can also borrow equipment and cameras. Jason also said the new Christmas lights are here and he needs to put up new brackets. Alderperson Haley Grim had questions regarding issues with the light poles and safety issues to make sure it was okay to proceed with the project. Matt Magill said that Scott’s Electric had gone through them and fixed the problem. Mayor Ken said Haley was correct on that there were issues at one time and to put it on her capital improvement list for this coming year, she said it is on Lance’s list. Ed Mitchell said the lights were all out in between the buildings where his office is and should be looked at. Jason will check it out. Matt Magill- passed out his Code Enforcement Tracking Report thru 10-14-19 and went over it with the city council and answered the council’s questions. He asked if we should do a city mailer soon with the odd/even parking for winter plowing. We will get it out in our next billing. Denise said we can get them mailed out with the billing by the 30th or 31st of October. Halloween is coming and they will be passing out treats. He has hired new part-time officers. He said Christian Ponall was hired months ago and he just hired Ken Myers and Jim Haag. Ed Mitchell- reported that he has filed for a tax exemption on the Reed property on the 8th of October, 2019 and maybe they will pro-rate. He said he has sent a letter to Tim Chapman regarding his water bill. He has paid his water bill now. He said he has a loan from the Cornerstone Credit Union and should be ready by the end of the month. Alderperson Brad Knutti asked what is happening with the Kosier property. Ed said he has filed suit against them, the first appearance is November 25th, 2019. Hubbles to Homes has been sued. Kim Hunter- read a thank you e-mail from Deb Throop regarding the Heritage Center. She also told the council we had a Make-A-Wish request from the Make-A-Wish Foundation for a 13 year old girl to have a Princess Party for a Shannon resident at the Heritage Center and they had asked if we could waive the $60.00 rental fee. We granted their wish and waived the fee. Donalee Yenney- said we received a check from Glen Fox’s attorney for the lawnmowing for $450.00. He owes another $25.00 as it has been mowed one more time. Ed Mitchell said that they said they will take care of the tree on the Fox property also. Donalee also said she received a bill from the Fire Department in her in-box and Mayor Ken said he had put it there. She was wanting more information about what the bill was for. Ken said we were going to pay for the adapters. He asked Alderperson Brad Knutti if that was what we were paying for and were we paying for the five foot finder poles too. Ken said that he didn’t remember the poles. Brad said we were going to pay for both. Ken asked Brad if he would approve the bill for Donalee and he said sure. Brad said it had already been approved through the city council awhile ago. Donalee will pay it. The amount is $12,014.14. Ken Viglietta- said Shelly Dambman said that there is still a flooding problem at her rental. He said Shelly wants the city to pay for her carpet and demanding action. It flooded before and this is new carpet she has put in. Ken said he would let the council know. Ken asked Brad if he could help him with this and Brad said he could look back at some e-mails regarding this issue, he said we were working with WHK at that time. Ken said that it floods all the time and it should not be a rental. Ken said there is a dumpster at the cemetery now. They are trying to decide if they want to cap off the water line or get rid of it after the house is torn down. He said, Janie Dollinger, the librarian, has been getting compliments about our city. Alderperson Mark Macomber asked when would we be getting a financial report from the library. Ken asked Kim if she could ask J.L. Hunter, the President of the Library Board, to come to a council meeting with a financial report for the library. She said she would ask him. Ken said that Brad will be going to a Com Ed meeting on Thursday, October 17th and that he will report back with a report. Ken asked Alderperson Weston Burkholder how the security cameras are coming and he said they are working on it. Ken said that he will be going to a Blackhawk Hills Regional Council Fall Conference on October 25th and will report back to the city council. Ken said Mr. Aaron Golden from the IML called and said we had no right changing insurance without consulting him first. He also wanted a copy of our new contract with our new insurance company. Ken told him we have been unhappy with them not wanting to cover claims and the issue with the bonding. Mr. Golden also sent an e-mail with a quote we could have had by cutting the price about $5,000.00. IML wouldn’t help Jason Alvarado with the OSHA information he needed such as training records. The next council meeting will be on November 5th, 2019. Ken said that we have traditionally been cancelling the second council meeting in November for the Thanksgiving holiday and the second council meeting in December for the Christmas holiday. He asked the council if they would like to continue the tradition and if they would like to have committee meetings and work on the employees handbook, they can do it during this time. It needs to be worked on as some issues have come up and we need clarification on policies. Matt Magill says he has his handbook in current digital form and will e-mail it to Donalee for the police department. Matt says he has been working on it for about 4 years now. The Personnel committee is, Mark Macomber-Chair, Haley Grim and Lance Leverton. The council agreed to keep the tradition of having the second meetings in November and December cancelled for the Holidays this year. Haley Grim- asked if we were going to do anymore meetings or trainings regarding the National Disaster meeting we had, such as group meetings. Ken said he thought he meant to encourage our own group meetings or forums and to invite the leader back if we need help. Mark Macomber- wanted to know where we are at with the Cornerstone Group. Ed Mitchell said he would have something for the next meeting. Brad Knutti- said he was going to the Annual Joint Operating Center Drill for Commonwealth Edison meeting from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, October 17th.
ADJOURNMENT – MOTION – was made by Alderperson Weston Burkholder and seconded by Alderperson Mark Macomber to adjourn at 8:37 p.m. Motion carried by 5 aye votes. Absent: Alderperson Lance Leverton.
https://lanarkil.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/City-Council-Minutes-10-15-2019.pdf
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