NW Illinois News

City of Polo City Council met July 1.

Here are the minutes provided by the council:

1. Invocation.

2. Pledge of Allegiance.

3. Call to order- Mayor Knapp called the meeting to order.

4. Mayor Knapp called roll call and the following members of the Council answered present: Alderman Keith Chesnut, Alderman Larry Weaver, Alderman Thomas Bardell, Alderman James Busser, and Alderman Randy Schoon.

Absent: Alderman Joseph Kochsmeier.

Alderman Kochsmeier arrived at 7:31 PM.

5. Motion to approve the Consent Agenda

Motion made by Alderman Schoon seconded by Alderman Busser to approve the following items on the Consent Agenda:

A. Minutes from the June 17, 2024 Council Meeting.

Motion carried 5-0. Yes- Chesnut, Weaver, Bardell, Busser, and Schoon.

6. Mayor Knapp opened Public Comment and the following persons provided comments: Members of the public are welcome to speak at this time but are limited to only 3 minutes.

Beth Sundman asked the council if she and other members of the community could paint artwork at the center of town (Mason Street and Franklin Ave) between the crosswalks. This would help with slowing down cars and builds a sense of community. She would be working with the Polo Public Library and PACT. PACT receives donated paint which they would use for this project. Beth would organize all the volunteers. The only assistance they would need from the city would be to have the street blocked off for a couple of hours at a time. The Council asked Beth if she could provide a draft of the proposed artwork. Beth will provide this at the next council meeting.

7. Committee Reports

➢ Alderman Chesnut- None.

➢ Alderman Weaver- None.

➢ Alderman Bardell- Lizzy is doing a nice job at the pool. She is handling the issues pretty well.

➢ Alderman Schoon- Shout out to Kendall and the guys for helping Randy with the BDD holes. Gathering information for the Street Scape grant. He is uncomfortable with the grant writer from Ogle County; he is worried about meeting the deadline. He talked to different grant writer to see if he would be willing to help us apply for this grant. He charges $70 an hour. Randy received two different quotes from Willett Hofmann & Associates for the grant. The first one is paving from Division to Green Street which is 1.9 million and city costs $491,000 or we can do Mason to Locust and Division and Green Street for a project cost of $2.7 million and the city portion grows to $696,000.

➢ Alderman Busser- None.

➢ Alderman Kochsmeier- None.

➢ Police Chief Matt Coppotelli- Central Square is live and they are working out the bugs.

➢ City Clerk Bartelt- None.

➢ Public Works Director Kendall Kyker- The guys are almost done with SURF internet. Kendall is very proud of the guys for working so hard to get all the JULIE’s done.

8. Items Removed from Consent Agenda

NONE

9. Old Business- Discussion/Action Items

A. Consideration & Possible Action on the City of Polo's Gas Renewal Provider.

Alderman Bardell made a motion to approve moving forward with the index NGI with Santanna, seconded by Alderman Chesnut.

Motion carried 5-0. Yes- Chesnut, Weaver, Bardell, Busser, Schoon.

B. Consideration & Possible Action on ordinance 24-08, an ordinance amending Chapter 78 Schedules III and IV and Chapter 79 Schedule I. (second reading)

Alderman Chesnut made a motion to approve ordinance 24-08, seconded by Alderman Weaver. Motion carried 5-0. Yes- Weaver, Bardell, Busser, Schoon, Chesnut.

10. New Business- Discussion/Action Items

A. Consideration & Possible Action on Ordinance 24-10, 2024/2025 Appropriation Budget. (first reading) The Polo City Council accepted the first reading of ordinance 24-10.

B. Consideration & Possible Action on hiring a temporary replacement for City Collector Sydney Bartelt.

Alderman Schoon made a motion to approve hiring Paula Diehl at $22 an hour, seconded by Alderman Chesnut. Motion carried 5-0. Yes- Bardell, Busser, Schoon, Chesnut, Weaver.

C. Consideration & Possible Action on asbestos mitigation at Congress School.

The Council needs to decide how to decide to move forward on the asbestos mitigation. The consensus of the council is to move forward with putting this project out for bid.

D. Consideration & Possible Action on diversifying City Funds to multiple banks.

Alderman Bardell made a motion to leave $500 in a savings account at Blackhawk Area Credit Union and move the City’s clearing from First State Bank Shannon Polo to Sterling Federal Bank, seconded by Alderman Weaver. Motion carried 6-0. Yes- Kochsmeier, Busser, Schoon, Chesnut, Weaver, Bardell.

E. Consideration & Possible Action on OSLAD Grant for West Side Park.

Mayor Knapp asked the public if they had any input on the OSLAD grant for the proposed playground equipment at West Side Park.

There was no input from the public at this time.

F. Consideration & Possible Action on hiring a full-time police officer.

This will be discussed in closed session.

11. Other Items for Discussion & Information

There was a zoning board of appeals meeting that was held on Thursday, June 20th at 7:00 PM. The consensus of the council is to approve the zoning board of appeals decision.

Alderman Schoon received a call from Robby from Genesis Power. He found a generator that would work well for our new water plant. The cost for the generator is $40,000. Robby would like an answer as soon as possible. We will schedule another council meeting on Friday, July 5th at 5:00 PM to get this approved.

Motion made by Alderman Bardell to go into closed session at 7:51 PM, seconded by Alderman Busser. Motion carried 6-0. Yes- Schoon, Chesnut, Weaver, Bardell, Kochsmeier, Busser.

The Polo City Council returned to open session at 8:25 PM.

The Polo City Council held a lengthy discussion about how they wanted to proceed with updating the Polo Code of Ordinances. Chief Coppotelli stated that a lot of the ordinances are not able to be enforced or outdated. There was a suggestion on starting with the City of Oregon’s code of ordinances and making adjustments to fit Polo. The Polo City Council would like to think about how they would like to proceed with this process.

12. Adjournment

Motion by Alderman Bardell, second by Alderman Schoon to adjourn from regular session at 8:53 p.m. Motion carried 6-0.

https://core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/3619/Polo/4593128/07152024_Agenda_Packet-website.pdf