NW Illinois News

City of Morrison City Council met March 9.

Here is the minutes provided by the council:

The Morrison City Council met in Special Session beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Room of Odell Library, 307 S. Madison St., Mayor Everett Pannier called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. Acting City Clerk Kim Ewoldsen recorded the minutes.

Aldermen present on roll call were: Ken Mahaffey, Harvey Zuidema, Mick Welding, Vern Tervelt, Kevin Bruckner Jr. and Arlyn Deets. Absent: Dale Eizenga and Josh West.

Also present were: Barry Dykhuizen - City Administrator, Brian Melton - Chief of Police and Lori Matlack - Director of Public Services.

Public Comment

Mayor Pannier opened the meeting tonight by saying the meeting was called for down here (library) by the council. We have some people that want to speak. This is just a public input time for discussion about leaf burning and yard waste burning. We will start now and go through people who want to speak. There were five yes's that wanted to speak and 5 maybes. With that we will get started with the public input. Please use the microphone and state your name.

Cindy Johnson: Good evening my name is Cindy Johnson. I am a nurse practitioner at Morrison Community Hospital. She wanted to say that she lives in Clinton, but practices in Morrison and sees patients everyday impacted by leaf burning. She sees patients at the walk in clinic and skilled care. She works almost every Saturday and almost every Saturday she sees someone that suffers as a result of leaf burning. You don't know fear until you have looked in a child's eyes suffering an asthma attack or panic on the look of a mother who is helpless to try to help their child breathe. It is not just children or people with asthma. She has also seen elderly patients and those with COPD whose condition is exacerbated during leaf burning time. It could be prevented. It is an unnecessary fear that people that we can help and would improve the overall community's health by stopping leaf burning. Encourages the council to support a burning ban as it would improve the community's overall health.

Linda Wetzell is not for leaf burning, she doesn't mind bagging the leaves. She has big branches where she lives and it would be nice to be able to burn the wood so it doesn't smoke like leaves. When there is water on High Street there is trouble with its drainage and she couldn't even get bags of leaves or yard waste to the street from her property. Then what does she do with it? Last summer she couldn't get her waste to the street. She had 22 bags of leaves already waiting for pick up now so bagging is no problem, but she would like to be able to burn the sticks, twigs and branches.

Doug Pannier is in favor of banning the leaf ban. He lives on Ridgewood Drive and he knows the council is faced with a difficult decision as they won't be able to please everyone. Doug is very sympathetic to those who have asthma and part of Morrison's appeal are trees with their beauty and fall color. Outside of burning, bagging and mulching are about your only alternatives. Bagging and mulching leaves is a good alternative if you have a small yard. He has 12 mature oak trees on his property and he does a combination of composting, mulching and burning. They shed leaves constantly in fact they still are. For those with larger yards you do have a need to burn. I do believe for the small yards mulching and bagging are the best. Will the cost be difficult for taxpayers to swallow? Right now the State of Illinois is inundating taxpayers with motor vehicle taxes, license plate taxes and now double taxing on a car if you trade it in. The income tax could possibly go up this fall if it passes and there is a point of no return where you can't keep coming to the consumer. Illinois has the second highest property tax in the nation and people are fleeing because of that and we need to keep in mind if we are going to do some of these things the financial cost of doing so as well as the health issues. So if you went out to look for a truck you are going to have to man, buy it and have a city crew on it for 2 or 3 months to keep up. I'm not sure what that cost is. Right now I have a suggestion instead of burning three times a week: burn once on Saturdays. 8 am to sunset that eliminates two days a week that you aren't burning. You can also hold citizens accountable and if they are burning wet leaves and they are smoldering fine them. Now that will add stress to Brian and his crew but you have to make people responsible. Wet leaves don't burn, you have to burn them. I think you need to hold people accountable. You need to investigate the ability to have a third party come in and handle pick up. I don't know if Moring has that capability, but if they do we need to investigate the cost of inquiring that equipment but that's going to come at a cost to taxpayers. Before you do that maybe look at additional fees.

Question by Alderman West: Does the current ordinance prevent burning on windy days? It's at your own risk, right? Mayor Pannier confirmed that was correct.

Cheryl Geiger - I contacted the American Lung Association and the Respiratory Health Association to ask what kind of pollutants that result from burning leaves and I do want to say that leaf burning does not just impact people with asthma. Even adults and children not living with lung or heart disease. In fact it can cause others to have burning or stinging in their eyes, nose and throat or coughing, wheezing and difficulty breathing. We have to remember children may be especially vulnerable to the long term effects as their respiratory rates are

higher than adults and pound for pound they can breathe 50% more air than adults. Children's lungs are therefore exposed to more air proportionately than adults. So what's in the air? The particulates make up the majority of the pollutants. They are small enough in size they can reach the lungs where the gas exchanges occur. Particles that are small enough they can be absorbed into the bloodstream. These particulates can be toxic. Toxic chemicals that adhere to the particles. Then there are the hydrocarbons and leaf smoke contains 7 which are known to cause cancer. 85% of the hydrocarbons given off by leaf burning are small enough to reach the deepest portion of the lungs and can be absorbed in the bloodstream. Carbon monoxide combines with the hemoglobin in the bloodstream reduces the blood's oxygen carrying capacity. Relatively low levels of carbon monoxide can cause dizziness, headaches, and fatigue. Most of the carbon monoxide inhaled goes right into the bloodstream. Benzopyrene is the chemical byproduct of burning and has been shown to cause cancer in animals and a huge factor in lung cancer caused by cigarette smoke is also found in the smoke of burning leaves. There are well documented ways to take care of these needs without burning and we have already listed them. The composting, mulching, collecting for community composting. Leaf burning is already banned in a number of communities throughout the region. Many of thos bands have been in place for decades in order to protect the health of all the community's residents. The respiratory health association says the burden on lung health is not only from burning it causes too great of a negative impact for communities to ignore. The organizations listed above support the banning of leaf burning and I too support it on a local level. I share this with you especially the testimony from the Respiratory Association as several members of my family and friends and I all have difficulty and struggle during leaf burning. Council has three goals 1) quality of life, but this is diminished if the citizens of Morrison cannot play outside and as was said before burning is optional breathing is not.

Traci Banks-Geiger - I was raised in Morrison and moved away when I was 18 and lived in Chicago; I got married to a man from Morrison and moved back 9 years ago with their three children. This is her third time presenting to the board and I have talked to you about the fact that I don't have respiratory health issues. When I grew up leaves were burned and it didn't bother me and I was ignorant to the problems people did have with leaf burning or the struggles others faced until it became a variable in her life. My husband has problems with asthma, my mother in law, Cheryl Geiger, who just spoke has trouble with asthma and now my 12 year old daughter has problems with asthma. I can truly tell you I raised my 12 year old daughter in Chicago proper and she has a harder time breathing here in Morrison, IL during leaf burning season than she did when we lived in Chicago, IL. If she has an issue one of the days that residents can burn it often takes her daughter days to recover, then there is burning again. So it wasn't as if she could play outside the two days when there wasn't burning. Her lung respiratory health is greatly affected by it. There are times we have offered her an asthma treatment and there have been times when it doesn't work. And as Cindy Johnson so eloquently said there is nothing more horrifying than have your child look at you breathe and all you can do is watch you can't help them. So after you try treatments the only thing you can do is take them to the hospital and hope that what they provide can help. As I said before it takes days for her to recover. So she has spent a lot of her younger years not able to play outside during the season of leaf burning. And we do have a small yard 

I empathize with anyone that does have a large yard. But even still with our windows shut we can smell the smoke. Not only do I worry about my husband, my mother in law and my daughter, I worry about friends or family members with respiratory problems. I worry about elderly folks who are on oxygen or those that are not on oxygen. People with immune system problems and children as well who are greatly impacted. Additionally I have talked about the fact that leaf burning does produce carcinogens known cancer causes. There has been research done that my mother in law shared from science and reputable organizations that have that data and many surrounding communities have banned leaf burning. It's bad for the environment and we have also offered alternatives to burning. I am grateful for the person who spoke up and brought up alternatives. Obviously finances are variable. We talked about yes you can mulch, you can rake and bag. Maybe identify a community site or composting. So there are alternatives. I love the idea of sticks. We are not saying to take campfires off the list, or a backyard fire with sticks just not leaves. It is the leaves that cause the smoke. I'm going to end this now by saying I have shared with you three people that are deeply loved by me, my mother in law, my husband and my daughter. I would like each of you to identify three people in your lives that you love that would be impacted. I want you to think of them coming to you because they can't breathe which is a basic and fundamental thing we all need. And with the response being, does my yard look nice? Is that adequate for you? It's not for me. If people have yards that have lots of leaves bag the front yard, mulch the backyard. Or leave the backyard if no one is going to see it. It's hard for me when I have to tell my daughter I came to these meetings and I worry that the aesthetics will take priority over her health. I'm asking that you consider a full ban within city limits. I was able to collect 69 signatures from residents that support this request. You all received the list but five more people signed it that were outside of city limits so I took those out. So 69 people support a ban like this. I don't understand only having burns on Saturdays because that's when children play. It's not a viable option to me so I'm just asking you to consider what's been shared with you. Just because it's how it's always been done doesn't mean we should continue to do this if it's in the best interest and health of our citizens. Thank you for your time.

Mayor Pannier: Questions? That's all the yeses that signed up do any of those signed up as maybes want to talk? There were a couple of people that came in after we picked up the sign up sheet. You may still speak.

I'm Lindsey Buis. I live out by the sports complex so I am not technically in city limits. A couple of people about asthma. I don't think you can understand the impact that can have on someone until you experience it firsthand. I didn't grow up with it, no one I knew had it. My five year old and four year old son now have it. We go to the emergency room probably once a month. When the leaf burning starts it becomes quite an issue. Just driving to my mom's in town there have been experiences where the leaf burning is so bad you cannot see through the road to turn at an intersection. They say the mulching in large yards. We have 5 acres surrounded by large trees. We mulch it all. There are lots of branches and we do burn most of those. The problem with burning the leaves is that people throw other stuff in there so out by us I know I can smell things. We close the windows but you can smell it's not just leaves stuff is getting hidden in it. We need to police it but it is an issue and that's why I came tonight.

Mr. Ron Williams - I am a retired healthcare professional. I would like to speak to the notion that I do not support a ban on leaf burning. I do suggest perhaps that there is a reasonable common ground with a compromise with a reasonable result. But there are serious concerns for those affected, certainly maybe they can remain inside during leaf burning. There are microfilters available for the home heating and cooling system that can remove residue. Folks here have mentioned that. Also while leaf burning listening to the presentation there has been a lot of evidence and suggestions where certain things are present but we don't know indeed that is a fact. Certain folks find their compromise by the leaves but a compromise is deserved on both sides of the fence for this. And that's why I am here and I would like to encourage the city council to find common ground to find the best interest for both parties involved with this issue.

Alderman West Question: You are a former healthcare professional. Mr. Williams: Yes. Alderman West: Do you disagree with the health ramifications assessment that were shared earlier? Mr. Williams: There are health ramifications you have to clearly see what their compromise is for the people but the freedoms of the others. But that requires a combination. The real world says it's a danger to get in my car and drive to Clinton, but I choose the risk to do that. Likewise for most things in life. Burning residue is one of those things. Where we get to is tonight where we are engaged in discussions to look at these options. Alderman West: So you are saying it's a question for maintenance on one hand and weighing it against health ramifications. Is it collecting, composting, disposing then it needs to go back to city council. People that want compost certainly as an average gardener I compost everything in my backyard. Whichever nothing leaves my property. I burn and I use the ashes on the garden. Am I selective in my burning yes. I try to consider the lives of my neighbors and avoid doing it when windy or damp as it will create a lot of smoke for them. It might be an inconvenience to myself but that's secondary to good stewardship and treating my neighbors in a respectful way. Thank you.

Wayne Richards: I have been a resident for 9 years. I try to dispose of my leaves by means of my pick up and also burning. I am also an asthmatic on top of it. I have been an asthmatic since I was 12 years old. I believe a complete ban does not solve the issue completely for everybody there has to be a compromise. That's all I have to say.

Mayor Pannier: I'm curious and I didn't ask the others. Are there other symptoms that trigger your asthma? Mr. Richards: Yes, like extreme exercise, the leaf burning too, but I'm not willing to just eliminate the leaf burning all together.

Arlyn Pessman: We live at 1708 Ridgewood Drive. I have an acre lot with 20 trees and all but 3 or 4 of them are white oak trees. They have a lot of leaves, sticks and branches. I do not burn the leaves I compost most of those. I'm more for not banning sticks and leaves. We need to reach a compromise. Can you burn brush or sticks? When I do burn I'm very careful about the wind direction. When wind is to the west and northwest to blow out to the fields in an open timber and not toward neighboring homes. He talked to Doug yesterday. I agree with Doug Panniers position of finding a compromise. Alderman West Question: So as a person with an acre and 20 white oak trees and someone who does both. If there was a ban would you be able to adjust your twig and brush burning not leaf if burning if it is manageable? If twig and brush burning was still allowed is that acceptable to you? Mr. Pessman said yes. Thank you.

Tina VanBuren: I live at the corner of Base St. here in Morrison. I grew up here and married and moved away and came back. I came back 15 years ago and now my mother passed away 8 months ago from cancer of the lungs. I'm not for or against it as my parents have a large yard and they mulched. I have a large estate now and have bags. But if something comes down like a large branch we try to be respectful of what we are going to do. We don't want to add extra costs to the residents of the city by taking on extra fees to our city water or trash bills or anything else that will make people move away from our town. The next thing you know they are going to be saying you can't use a grill, or a smoker, or backyard fire yet we don't look at the fact that the landfill also burns 24/7. There are carcinogens in the air from that smoke. We get it just sitting there because of what's in the air from the landfill. Like I said we need to be compromisable as Mr. Pannier said that maybe you pick one day out of the week. Maybe a Thursday one week and a Saturday two weeks after that twice a month. So that you can have your cake and eat it too. Just something that we can do for both, but I feel sorry for the people that have children that suffer. I also have a child that suffers from asthma. But it's more than just smoke that caused his asthma and it wasn't just because of the smoke that he had asthma. When we lived out in the State of Utah it was the pine trees. So what do you do with that? You can't cut them all down so you learn to live with it. I'm not saying to do that but you have to be compromisable and I hope those that need it can still get the care they need.

Chuck Finley: I have lived 15 years on the south end of town. I don't believe that banning the burning inside city limits will help as much as some people think. Just yesterday my wife and I took a bike ride around town and there must have been a burn on the west side of town because the entire West side of town is up in smoke. Alderman West: About 5-6:00? Mr. Finley: Yes. City limits are so close to the city and the city is not that big. You can still burn outside the city limits and there are no times no dates affected because it is outside of the city limits and that affects the city. Normally where I live if I smell smoke and it's a no burn day it's coming from outside of town. I have a 1 acre lot with some large trees on it and my trees don't shed when I want them too. I can't just harvest all the leaves and get rid of them in one shot. My oak tree doesn't start shedding until like November. And the paper bag thing it quits

by November, right? So that's useless to me. Then what? And I get most of the leaves from everybody west of me because my fence is against the schools. At any rate I can live with a leaf burning ban if we don't ban burning sticks and you have a place for me to take the leaves but if it's going to cost me a lot more to get rid of them like buying more bags or if I have to pay to haul to the dump or whatever then I'm against that. But you can find me a place where I can take the leaves and get rid of them but I'd still like to burn sticks and wood debris from the trees. Alderman West Question: So if the city would allow the sticks and debris to be burned for example to be picked up or taken to the city quarry that would be fine with you? Mr. Finley: Yes, I would do that. I have the means, the equipment, the large bags.

Comment from the crowd: Most of us don't have the means to do that. Alderman West: Would you be happy if you could take to a city site? Mr. Finley, Yes I can live with a burn ban if he can still burn sticks and the city could pick up leaves at no additional cost. What about the handicapped? I don't mean any disrespect to any of the handicapped or those with asthma. There are other ways to take care of asthma and it is not right to stay inside on burn day. A lot of those people have learned to deal with it over their lifetime. There are clean air systems installed in houses and things like that. Some of those people have them already. I know that it's not right to stay inside on burn day but I still think if we can't come up with a reasonable plan for leaves then we have to still be able to burn some wood. And you have to remember in the late fall one saturday might get one Saturday a month where it is viable to burn leaves. Could be rain or 30 mile an hour wind. Thank you. I appreciate your time.

Amanda Cook: I live on Hazel/Ridgewood one side of the road is city limits and one is country but apparently I have to abide by city rules. So I think I have a say in it a little bit. I guess Traci said she was ignorant to the effects of burning as I was growing up. I moved away. I lived in Chicago and we couldn't burn anything in Chicago and I know that city has more money. We swept to the curb but there were definitely days when it was too wet. So I have been doing a lot of research because it feels like if we ban this we at least need to have a solution for other people as to what other options we can do. I don't feel like you can just take

this away and not have any other solutions for them. A lot of people had some good points. Mulching: that's what I do. I back up to a woods. My neighbors have oak trees so it blows into my yard but we mulch we don't bag we don't do anything. But also I brought up about the dump at the quarry that's just one of the places I thought about but if you have problems getting to it I thought of why not FFA or some other groups in Morrison they are always looking for donations. They have trailers so that's a possibility of maybe opening that up and having that as a possibility for those people that can't afford it. They could come pick it up and do a small donation they choose. So I think that's definitely an option. I work with the school and there is always a group of some type looking for a profit. Other ones I also have worked with might do it for free. I agree sticks are fine but it's the leaves that are the problem. My son has asthma. Recently it's been scary super scary and my father has copd and is on oxygen and he cannot leave his home when people burn. Myself I work outside, I do photography and I can't do it. I have had to call off or change locations. I can't work outside, I get migraines, you can't breathe. My clients can't breathe so it's hard to say to only burn on Saturdays but it's not a solution in my eyes because that's when most people are out. It's when the kids play that's when I go out and do a lot of my photography and that's when a lot of other people are out - that's when people have their day off. So if that's your solution I don't think it will work as Traci had mentioned when you have asthma and have an attack it causes problems for days. My neighbors were burning one day and a few days later she went for a run and came home and thought her house was on fire. They had been burning a day or two before and it had ignited and I came home and was freaking out because all my windows were open and all my laundry was out and everything was filled with smoke. And in that short amount of time it can happen and I don't think people should have to close up their houses and if we are going to have an expense of we don't want to spend money to pick this up then those suffering shouldn't have to buy special purification systems for their houses to get purified air. It's kind of like having a smoking section in restaurants which we all know is not separate and we all have dealt with in the last ten years or whatever. I remember when Isle of Rhodes had a smoking section you could go in there and the whole place smelled like smoke. It didn't work and it's the same thing. And yes you will get some from the country but there's nothing you can do about that. You can't control wind but the little bit that we can do would help. I think if we can come up with a solution besides mulching and composting maybe we just need to educate our town on different options I think some people don't even know those options are out there.

John Grigsby: I am moving here from Dixon. We are moving into the Van Buren property on Base St. I think the yard waste guys are really upset with us and we cleaned up the yard last year and cleaned up a lot of leaves and put a lot of bags out there. I don't know where the leaves came from, not all of them came from that yard. The resolve for that I'm not sure. I'm retired from the Air Force and when we lived in base housing if you didn't clean up your yard you got written up. I don't know if we can find someone for not raking their leaves. We have got to make this place a nice pretty place so people can come here and say hey this is a nice place to live. But if you have leaves everywhere and people sitting inside and watching tv I'm sure there are a lot of people that can't go out and rake their leaves but there are a lot of people that can. I'm not too crazy about the burn thing because we have come over here to visit her mom and dad when they were still alive and my eyes burned. I couldn't see to drive back home to Dixon. It's crazy. So when I'm out there raking the yard I'm not seeing leaves come down out there so I'm raking someone else's leaves. I try to keep the leaves in our yard in our yard. We don't want them to be in the neighbors yard we don't want them to be across the street. We want to clean them up and work with the neighbors if we can. I don't know if you can fine for not doing your yard. I would think that could be an option. I've got too much military like I said if we didn't do it we were written up. I cut my grass one day and three days later I got written up. I just cut it three days ago but everybody in this town that owns a house needs to take care of their yards and if they need help maybe they can ask the neighbors if they can help and maybe they can work together to get it done. If they put the leaves in paper bags what do they do with the paper bags after they empty them? I would think they could bring those back to us so we can reuse them again. Those paper bags can get expensive. I think now I have 12 plastic containers we fill then they are all up in a line and I'm sure when they come around the corner to collect them I'm sure the workers go here we go again. There's really not a resolve against mother nature. She's not very friendly with some things. I don't want anybody to get sick from burning. But there's got to be a way. That's all I have. Thank you.

Noreen Urban: I bag and mulch 95% of all my leaves and I also have three neighbors who leave theirs on the ground which means I get those. And I bag and mulch those too. I have several trees and leaves that fall into November. The other 5% are in my backyard. I have a fence in my backyard that abuts up to the railroad tracks. The branches that fall from that, the leaves that fall from that and blow into my hard I continually have to clean it up and I mulch all of it. I think my biggest concern is two issues here is the leaf burning in the fall and that's one separate issue and then there is the branch issue and the brush issue and to me its two different issues. I think we need to discuss it as two different issues .I foresee the three days of burning but if you look over a calendar year over how many days you can burn safely you're really down to not that many. If you bring it to one day a week you will have the whole town in smoke so the three days was a nice compromise. In the 28 years I have lived here, when the burning effect went from 5 days to 3 days a massive amount of people stopped burning. We walk all over town and we can tell when people are burning. In the fall there are people burning and I don't really think it's that many people but I could be wrong. In my area there is not that many people burning the leaves. Same thing with brush fires -- the same amount of people with brush piles in this town is a lot. A lot of people in town have brush piles that have to stay. I have too many branches that come down that's why it has to stay - that's why it's two separate issues. How are people with big yards supposed to handle it? I have a lot of gardens in my backyard and I bag and mulch all that. I put out more leaves and the city can probably tell you how many I put out there because I put them out there because they see them out there. But you still have to get them there. Carrying the sticks up there is impossible. My neighbor last week in all the wind had sticks come down. They came down everyday because the wind blew. I know I didn't come down and talk with notes tonight but I just want you to consider that these are two separate issues and maybe even if you go down to two days a week in the fall I know it's going to hurt some but for those that live in an area where they have massive trees in their backyard it will help because somehow they can't carry everything to the curb then look at the rest of the year as another policy but don't lump it all as one policy. Thank you.

Linday Buis: I actually have two questions. Is there a concern with the leaves getting into the drainage system? Mayor Pannier: Yes. Ms. Buis: The other question is for the people as to why they don't mulch. I can tell you I have a lot of leaves and we can mulch. Someone from the crowd: Remember I said I had three neighbors who don't handle their leaves. I can't possibly mulch all of that but I do it pretty much every third day. I would invite any of you to my yard because I cannot mulch it when it gets too much. I mulch it once and go over my yard two or three times and I have a bad knee. It's a lot of work.

Mayor Pannier: Does anyone have a last parting comment? Traci Banks Geiger: When we started this conversation it was about leaves. We did not have fire pits or burn pits that was never obtainable I think. I'll take responsibility for bringing this issue to the table. But that was never a request we had; it was specific to leaves nothing more - it was specific to leaves.

Kathy Schmidt: We live up on Hilltop Drive and we have a large lot. We have trees, we have brush, we have leaves and like everyone else we have the neighbor's leaves too. We are responsible, we mulch - we compost to the best we can. Brush is a big deal and we need to burn. We need to be able to burn brush. We have fire pits. We'd like to burn our fire pit but we try to be responsible to our neighbors. We try to be responsible by not burning when they are wet. If there are leaves we try to wait for a dry day or a day when it is not blowing. When the city made a compromise in 2012 to three days I thought it was a win-win. It was a compromise for those that need to burn and those that need us not to burn. It was good. Sometimes you have to wait until 3:00 on Tuesdays to burn and you only get like two hours of daylight to burn. Then if it rains on Saturday then you have to wait until 3:00 on the next Tuesday. It makes it very hard. I want to help them and do it responsibly too. I just want you to consider a compromise.

Alderman West: I'm just wondering if it seems to me we get so much more rain than we used to. I mean it rains all summer, it rains in the fall and it's probably generating more smoke when you burn than otherwise it used to be. It's compounding the issue. Ms. Schmidt: I guess my question is I hear people saying during the leaf burning season. What is that season? What is it going to be? Is it April to September? People are burning now and cleaning up their yards now from leaves that accumulated over the winter.

Alderman Tervelt Question/Statement: He's done some research with the City of Clinton. The City of Clinton has a 45 day spring burning and they burn 3 days a week and they also have time during the fall to burn. Ms. Schmidt: No burning of any kind? Or just brush or leaf?

In Tervelt: I talked to some of the firefighters. From April 1 to 5/15 there's spring burning and from 10/1 to 11/15 there's fall burning. And there are three day burning days within that time frame and I don't know if that's something that could be looked at here. I live down by the old golf course and five of my neighbors are horrified that we might stop burning because we have a lot of trees. Right now I have a fence line that's probably three foot deep with trees.

Mayor Pannier: Any other final comments? The intent here was to have, and I appreciate all of you in coming and sharing your opinions and do believe the council does as well. The intent was for them to listen and to learn and hopefully we can come up with a decision at our next meeting which is the 23rd and either at that time we can say we want the same , we want a different ordinance or whatever it is. But I want to approach this from the standpoint that we do something right so I'm not all enthused. I set the date of March way back in December or November because I wanted to get started. But I know people are already trying to think about burning stuff from the winter so if we do it next week or the week after it's no critical thing. The point is what are we going to do going forward and how much warning do we need to give if we install a different ordinance or do we keep the same one. The petition represents probably 5% of the households in town. I'm not exactly sure how the other 95% feels. If i had to guess I would say half of them don't really care and half of them probably have the opinion to keep burning. We will have to work through that as a council. We have ordinances from other cities to look at. Some ban all burning some ban just leaf burning like it was brought up. I didn't ask everyone if they had other asthma triggers because I know if you have asthma you do have other triggers for it. I'm sure the leaf burning the smoke is the most obvious and the most critical that you may have. I had asthma up to age 10 and somehow by the miracle of having a major surgery I never had it after that and no one knew why. I have three acres in town so you know where my concern is - what am I going to do with it. But you can see where my concern is. Not always is government a democracy in terms of majority rules sometimes there are other factors that come into play and that's what the council is going to have to make a decision on as we move forward. Thank you for coming for this, you are welcome to stay for the next part of our agenda.

Report of City Officers/Report of Department Heads: None

Consent Agenda Alderman Zuidema requested item 3 Bills Payable be removed from the consent agenda. He has questions on repairs that he wants to discuss. Alderman Eizenga made a motion to approve the following items on the consent agenda:

1. February 24, 2020 Regular Session Minutes 

2. March 4, 2020 Special Meeting Session Minutes 

4. Board and Commission Report 

5. Jr. Achievement Proclamation 

6. Refer Rezoning Request Parcel #08-12-401-002 to Planning and Zoning

Alderman Zuidema wanted to question several things relating to equipment maintenance. He indicated he had questions regarding the bills total $956.10, $640.35 and $726.36 for repairs to mowers and skid loader. Alderman Zuidema was inquiring about normal maintenance, who maintains maintenance records and more. Lori Matlack, Public Services Director, reported that she was aware of a few of the issues. Alderman West inquired as to if the City kept a previous maintenance log. Lori Matlack reported that we are working on establishing one. She just became aware of a software program Rock falls uses for equipment information. Mayor Pannier asked why he was not given the bills in question prior to the council meeting so they could have researched the questions and been prepared for answers. Alderman Zuidema expressed concern over being able to share information with the council. Mayor Pannier asked that in the future if there are questions about bills to please bring them to his attention prior to the meeting so they can be properly addressed. Alderman West made a motion to approve Item 3 of the consent agenda. Alderman Deets seconded the motion. Voting: Ayes: Eizenga, Mahaffey, Zuidema, Welding, West, Tervelt, Bruckner, Deets. Nayes: None. Motion Carried.

Items for Consideration and Possible Action 

1. Approve Morrison Sports Complex Event Agreement: City Administrator Dykhuizen mentioned that there was a draft agreement in the council packet. One change was made based on comments at the prior council meeting. The cost to rent the facility was changed to $300 and subject to city council discretion. Alderman Tervelt is concerned even that fee is too high and people will look to other towns to host events. He further indicated he spoke with someone who said it was unfair to provide a registration fee and deposit. Alderman West asked if the deposit was for events that were cancelled. City Administrator Dykhuizen said the philosophy behind the fee is that in many instances the fields are reserved months in advance and if a tournament is cancelled the city receives no fees. Alderman West felt if a group actually holds a tournament then the city should return the fee. Alderman Zuidema felt that would be a hassle. Alderman Eizenga clarified that if you reserved the fields and held the event you would not receive a penalty. Alderman

Administrator Dykhuizen reiterated the council could choose to make the deposit refundable or applied to the deposit fee. Alderman West made a motion to amend the event agreement showing the $50 deposit would go toward rental. Alderman Eizenga seconded the motion. Alderman Deets seconded the motion. Voting: Ayes: Eizenga, Mahaffey, Zuidema, Welding, West, Tervelt, Bruckner, Deets. Nayes: None. Motion Carried.

2. Approve Morrison Sports Complex Field Use Agreement: Alderman Tervelt said he had the same issue with the second agreement in terms of waiving the registration fee if an entity followed through with the tournament. City Administrator Dykhuizen said in that instance the team(s) would basically get to use the fields for free and that the document had been changed to $50 following the direction of the council at the last meeting. Mayor Pannier questioned the council if it should be $25. Alderman Welding shared that on page 45 of the council packet it said it was $25 nonrefundable. Alderman Tervelt and Alderman Eizenga continued discussion and said many teams don't reserve if available they just go play with no fee paid. Mayor Pannier asked if the council was suggesting to eliminate the fee? City Administrator Dykhuizen shared that the city does not charge MYBS to use the fields nor does the city charge the schools for use of the fields. Alderman Eizenga made a motion to approve as presented. Alderman Deets seconded the motion. Voting: Ayes: Eizenga, Mahaffey, Zuidema, Welding, West, Bruckner, Deets. Nayes: Tervelt. Motion

3. Approve June 13th Department of Fun Event and Usage Agreement: Amanda Cook was in attendance representing Morrison on the Move's Department of Fun group. They submitted an agreement requesting approval for use of the sports complex for their June 13th event. Alderman Mahaffey asked about insurance and indicated that he would prefer to see the form come from the actual not for profit entity and seeing how the Department of Fun is not yet established they needed to work with another entity. Amanda Cook indicated they were working on insurance, but they were advised to ask the City if they could use their insurance company. Alderman Welding also spoke up as he is part of the group and said their sole purpose is to just get clarification so they can move forward with planning. Alderman West made a motion to table the approval until more information was available. Alderman Eizenga seconded the motion. Voting: Ayes: Eizenga, Mahaffey,

4. Approve Dog Park Location - East of Kiwanis Park: Nick Volkmann and Karla Burn were in attendance to answer any questions about the proposed location of the dog park. Nick Volkmann provided the council with the history of their efforts to make the dog park a reality since they first approached the council November 25, 2019. Mayor Pannier asked if the intent of the group was to pursue grants. Mr. Volkmann confirmed that was the intent and there was no cost to the city. Alderman Welding made a motion to approve the ocation of the dog park East of Kiwanis Park. Alderman Bruckner seconded the motion. Additional Discussion: Alderman Zuidema asked if the city should keep the property for something else. Mayor Pannier indicated it could not be used for the cemetery as it had previously been a dump. Alderman West praised the group indicating it's a nice area and he hoped this would cause more people to use that park. Mr. Volkmann reiterated why that location was the best choice over other options such as French Creek or the location by the old sewer plant. He also mentioned speaking to the group in Sterling that had just completed this project and knew the size and costs which are similar to this project. He also stated the project would be done in phases as funding was available. Alderman Tervelt mentioned that the city had a large amount of fencing the group should consider looking at for their use. Voting: Ayes: Eizenga, Mahaffey, Zuidema, Welding, West, Tervelt, Bruckner, Deets. Nayes: None. Motion Carried.

5. Approve Memorandum of Understanding for Morrison Fury Use of Waterworks Park:

Mayor Pannier explained to the council the Fury's use of the park would allow for some additional support from volunteers to maintain that facility for public use. Mayor Pannier asked how many teams were planning to use the facility. Mike Anderson, a coach for the Fury, indicated there would be three teams practicing two or three times a week, but anyone could use it. It's a way for the parks to look nice. The Fury intends to post their schedule at the site or with the city so others can see when it would be available for use. He also indicated at this time they would not be holding games there, but most likely would be in the future. Alderman West was excited someone wanted to use those fields and was willing to give back to help maintain them. Alderman West made a motion to approve the memorandum of understanding. Alderman Deets seconded the motion. Voting: Ayes: Eizenga, Mahaffey, Zuidema, Welding, West, Tervelt, Bruckner, Deets. Nayes: None. Motion Carried.

Other Items for Consideration, Discussion and Information Mayor Pannier wanted to bring the video gaming opportunities to the council's attention. He has had requests for more gaming in town. He said three years ago the council made a decision to not allow any more video gaming if it was considered a parlor. It has come to his attention that some businesses (convenience stores) are struggling and asked if the city would create an ordinance to allow for more gaming. Sterling and Rock Falls have not allowed it at convenience stores they allow gaming parlors. Mayor Pannier provided information to the council this week about the city's portion of gaming revenues. Mayor Pannier asked the council if they were interested in having an ordinance where it could be in an enclosure not just roped off. Alderman Tervelt asked if this would include Sullivans. Mayor Pannier indicated it could be two subsets. Alderman West is not in favor of a change. Alderman Mahaffey said he hasn't changed his mind either; we need to keep what's here here. Mayor Pannier asked if based on what he heard here tonight for discussion should we draft an ordinance? Alderman Tervelt said yes. Mayor Pannier will have an ordinance drafted and provided to council at an upcoming meeting.

Motion to adjourn by Alderman Mahaffey seconded by Alderman Zuidema. The meeting adjourned at 8:37 p.m.

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