NW Illinois News

City of East Dubuque City Council met Jan. 2.

Here are the minutes provided by the council:

Please Stand for the Pledge of Allegiance

1. 24-0101 Call to Order – Mayor Digman

Start Time: 6:00 p.m.

Alderperson Belken, Alderperson Burgmeier, Alderperson Degenhardt, Alderperson Fluhr, Alderperson Meier, Alderperson Robey, Mayor Digman and Attorney Hess

2. 24-0102 Staff Reports

a. City Manager Report

May have seen folks working around town this is Sand Prairie is running their fiber through town. Had some excitement when they cut a hole at the top of Montgomery Ave when it was not sure what they were doing. Have talked with them and have set up better communication with them. This is from an agreement from 2019 between them and the City.

One of the Police Vehicles is out of service. One of the Officers hit a deer and just waiting to get it fixed. Not too serious.

Jill Pepin was able to secure an increase of the loan for the water tower. Jill was able to reverse the decision of not funding the extra money. We now have low-cost funding to cover the whole entire project.

b. Mayor Report

When you talk with Sand Prairie can you get an updated map to see where they are at and which neighborhoods they are going to. Do not think there is anything updated. Think there is just their website. Will look into it.

c. Alderperson Report

i. Belken

When is Sand Prairie supposed to be done. They have a lot of wires hanging off poles. Looking for the target date to finish this project. Will add that to the questions. They are supposed to be coming in to talk about that.

ii. Burgmeier

iii. Degenhardt

iv. Fluhr

Trains block all three crossings over the weekend for over an hour. Can we at least get them to leave one track open?

Thought this was already talked about already.

Had met with both railroads and the railroad commissioner to discuss. They are supposed to stop prior to getting to Sixth Street and wait there. So will look into this to see why this was not done.

v. Meier

vi. Robey

Page two of the payment approval report. Looking at the Origin Design charges so there is one for Wastewater Collection for $9,962.75. What is this for and when was it approved to spend that kind of money? They worked on both wastewater collection for both dispensaries. Particularly the one on Hwy 20 working with both the company and IDOT. The stormwater cannot hit the state system any harder than it does.

When that amount of money is spent it is supposed to be approved by the council first. But where approving it after the fact. Yes, but we cannot always know what it is going to be when you get into these kinds of projects. Not that these are one-time things. These dispensaries are redesigning their buildings to work with the systems. City Manager Seitz’s can take care of this so that he is able to give building permits. Can not issue a building permit without having the engineering looked at properly. We are also able to charge it back to the companies.

So, we can charge their portion of the bill to them. Yes, we can do that. With the amount of time that we have does not always allow going before the council. We have a certain amount of time from when we get the application for processing it.

Assuming the lead line is for the work they have done with the project that is also paid for. Then the misc. engineering for $7,853.50 is what. Will need to go back and see the invoice but we do ask them a lot of questions about a lot of different things. This is not a one project more of a multiple project thing.

d. City Attorney, Susan Hess

Shimkus property we are still waiting on the estate to open. This is a requirement by the title company. The buyer is still interested, and the sale is still going forward. Hope to have it wrapped up in the next 60 days.

e. Police Chief, Luke Kovacic

i. November Monthly Report

f. Public Works Director, Mark Fluhr

g. Fire Chief, Joe Heim

3. 24-0103 Speakers from the Floor

4. 24-0104 Consent Agenda (City Council Minutes 12/18/23, Public Safety Report(s), Warrants, Zoning Minutes and Correspondence)

Motion by Alderperson Burgmeier to Approve Consent Agenda (City Council 12/18/23, Public Safety Report(s), Warrants, Zoning Minutes and Correspondence) second by Alderperson Degenhardt ROLL CALL: Ayes – Alderperson Belken, Alderperson Burgmeier, Alderperson Degenhardt, Alderperson Fluhr, Alderperson Meier and Alderperson Robey Motion carried

NEW BUSINESS:

5. 24-0105 Presentation by Chandra Ravada of the East Central Intergovernmental Association and Bryan Janssen of Anderson Bogert on the Regional Quiet Zone Study in the City of East Dubuque, Jo Daviess County, Illinois / Mayor Digman, City Manager Seitz

Here to explain where they are with the Quiet Zone Study and what the next steps are. Looked into combining the two states to see what they could come up with. East Dubuque has five crossings that will be looked at. Looking at it for being a safety issue to be able to receive federal funding.

Jacob Sprengeler has worked on this project, and it is a hefty job. So, Jacob went over the project and pointed out the main things the council should look at. There are four different things the city could do to make it a quiet zone but the one most cities use is the use of medians. This is more cost effective and commonly used. Just trying to see if there would be any funding available for this kind of project.

Wondering how wide the streets will need to be with the medians. Looking to have 16 ft with the median being 3 ft. wide and min. of 60 ft of road so that the road does not get chewed up when it snows.

Wondering if it would cost East Dubuque $20,000.00 for the study. No, it would be around $3,000.00 to $5,000.00 for the study.

There still will be a need to blow the horn coming out of the tunnel. But the rest would be quiet.

The grant would cover 80% with the city responsible for 20%.

No action required.

6. 24-0106 Discussion and Possible Action to Approve A Resolution to Seek Federal Funding for Rail Crossing Upgrades in the City of East Dubuque, Jo Daviess County, Illinois / Mayor Digman, City Manager Seitz

This Resolution would authorize up to $5,000.00 from the city. They are asking for our support for this but do not want to say we will support something but come back later with a bill that is larger than expected.

Want to table until council gets final numbers.

Motion by Alderperson Robey to Table A Resolution to Seek Federal Funding for Rail Crossing Upgrades second by Alderperson Burgmeier ROLL CALL: Ayes – Alderperson Belken, Alderperson Burgmeier, Alderperson Degenhardt, Alderperson Fluhr, Alderperson Meier and Alderperson Robey Motion carried

7. 24-0107 Discussion and Possible Action to Approve A Resolution in Support of Studying the Feasibility of Reviving the Twin Cities Zephyr Amtrak Route in the City of East Dubuque, Jo Daviess County, Illinois / Mayor Digman, City Manager Seitz

Waste of time and money to fix someone else’s track. Then we would need to build a new depot and then the upkeep of the depot. Will there be enough people traveling to even be worth doing all of this?

No action was taken.

8. 24-0108 Adjourn

End Time: 7:04 p.m.

Motion by Alderperson Belken to Adjourn second by Alderperson Burgmeier ROLL CALL: Ayes – Alderperson Belken, Alderperson Burgmeier, Alderperson Degenhardt, Alderperson Fluhr, Alderperson Meier and Alderperson Robey Motion carried