REGULAR MEETING OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE VILLAGE OF TAMPICO
July 19, 2016 – 7:00 PM Reagan Community Center
Mayor Kristine L. Hill called the Regular Meeting of the Tampico Village Council to order at 7:00 PM.
Commissioners Bruce Hill, Scott Meier, Derrick Maupin and Phalen Vancil were present.
Police Chief Terry Strike and Officer Brian Oostenryk were also present. Village Clerk Kathy Leathers recorded the written and audio minutes. The meeting was also digitally video recorded.
Mayor Hill led those present in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Minutes of the June 21, 2016 Regular Meeting were approved as presented.
Matt Hansen, Willett, Hofmann & Associates, Inc., was present to address the council on project plans for the next step in replacing the Village’s aging infrastructure. The engineer made sure council members had copies of the handouts detailing the project options. Hansen told the council he has met a few times with Commissioner Maupin, Commissioner Vancil and Public Works Superintendent, Tom Pierce. He said they are taking a look at the water side of the system. Hansen told them primarily the focus has been on the treatment plant and the waste water side since there were so many EPA issues. Hansen stated they are taking a look at the water system side, to see what can be done to make some improvements there. He said the biggest ones are in the distribution system and it’s size. He said there are valve issues, size of the mains and breaks in the system so they are looking at trying to correct those issues. He reported the first meeting they had, they took a look at the entire system, at replacing quadrants of the system; looking at the total system. Hansen said after they reviewed those, they narrowed it down to what they felt the village could afford and then take a look at basically the worst areas and focus on those.
At the second meeting, Hansen said, they reviewed several options that are printed on the handouts. He directed the council’s attention to their handouts and the attached maps. Hansen said the first option is the northwest quadrant of the village that were thought to be the worst area from Washington Street over to Benton and then from Fourth down to Market Street. Hansen said the first estimate focuses on those streets and if they would take a look at that quadrant, it doesn’t actually include Market Street in the original cost estimate. Hansen said from there, they added to that base project, [see 7a], will basically include Market Street and getting the mains and services replaced in the downtown area and also Benton Street from Market all the way down to the water tower. Next, [see 7b], they basically added to 7a going down Benton Street all the way down to Kimball Street to try to get a connection there to the main on Kimball. Hansen reported 7c, takes in all the way down Kimball and then up to Washington, looping the whole west side tied in. Hansen said the last option they ran, is the northwest area, down to Kimball. He said they also looked at running out Kimball in front of the school because that is a largest water customer the village has there. He said those are the options they looked at.
Hansen directed the council’s attention back to the first page of the handout. He said it is a summary of the project options and their costs. Detailed there are options 7, 7a through 7d. He said as for project costs in the first column, those are costs construction, contingencies and engineering costs. Hanson continued with the next three columns under Rural Development, [the program they are initially looking at], for grant money and low interest loan money with that program. The first column is the grant amount, the second the loan amount and the third is the annual payment. He said the column that is labeled Surplus Revenue for Debt Payment is taking a look at the last few sheets and he took a look at the Village’s budgets for the water and sewer accounts and what the village’s current expenses are and he came up with a new budget. Hansen said, he tried to find out what is still available in the existing budget with current water / sewer rates with no change. He said that money would be used to repay a loan through Rural Development. Hansen said what he came up with is roughly $50,000.00 or a little more, built in to the budget, that could be used for this water system improvement.
Hansen detailed the next column labeled Revenue Surplus/ (Shortage), if the annual loan payment for option #1 is taken, there is a $50.000.00 surplus in the budget, the loan repayment would be $31,953.00 leaving a surplus in the budget of $18,047.00. Hansen said what they tried to do is to find and maximize the project, to get the largest water system project done and still be within the village’s current budget and rate structure. Hansen said they are looking to get the Surplus/Shortage down as close as possible to $.00. He reported it maximizes the project the village can do and really won’t have any impact on water / sewer rates. The last column, he explained, cost increase to user for increase per month. Hansen said when you go down through there are only two options; with the first three options there is no increase. Hansen told them if they want to consider 7c or 7d there would be a minor increase, although with 7d, if they looked at $56,716.00 debt payment, the village is really closer to $58-$59,000.00 surplus in their budget. Hansen told them, technically, if they wanted to do 7d, it could be done without an increase. Hansen continued saying all the options they have looked at, and Pierce’s opinion from working on the system, Pierce felt it was important when the village does the water main replacement, that they do the water service replacement all the way from the new water main to the property line. Hansen said it would be a new connection off the main, and they would run new service to the property line, new shut-off boxes and they would tie in the customer service at the property line. Hansen said regardless of what’s existing for size, whether it’s an inch or three-quarters for residential, the project would run a new one inch service to the property line and then if they have to reduce down to three-quarters they will be able to and in the future if the property owner ever wanted to replace their water service they could increase the size to the one inch. Mayor Hill said that’s good to know, we have to start some where. Commissioner Maupin told the council these were their initial starts. He said they just wanted to see what everybody thought. Hansen told them the option they are looking at, and they are looking at replacing somewhere around 12,000 feet of water main. Maupin said it comes up to just over a quarter of the town. Hansen said a lot of the existing is the older transite pipe, which is tough to work with. He said once it breaks, it’s really tough to repair. Hansen said the other big thing, and that’s kind of throughout town, and it be resolved, Pierce has big trouble isolating areas around town when there is a water main break. Hansen stated additional valving will be put into the system so basically Pierce will be able to isolate it block by block and well in the future after the new mains are installed, if there would ever be an issue public works can isolate the problem sections block by block. Mayor Hill said she liked that it would avoid town wide boil orders. Hansen told her it will take fewer people out of service.
Hansen reported from the committee’s stand point, he thinks they are leaning toward either project 7b or 7d option. He said the 7b option will replace everything in that northwest area of the village, including the downtown water mains, and services to the downtown businesses and everything on Benton also south of Market Street or extend it out to the 7d option would actually take it out and down Kimball Street in front of the school. Maupin said he was leaning toward getting the water main out to the school just because it is the biggest use of the system. Maupin said the only thing he thinks was not mentioned is the village will have a loan payment falling off in the next couple of years so that extra for option 7d could essentially be absorbed by the loan payment that falls off. He stated the village would only have to cut it that close for a couple of years until the loan payment falls away. Mayor Hill said she thinks the village needs to be aggressive with this especially since it has been a big issue for a long time.
Hansen next told the council of scheduling issues. He said they are looking at Rural Development. He stated the EPA has not moved. They were going to do the waste water first and then maybe come to the water where they were going to put forgiveness of principal back into the program. Hansen reported it was supposed to go to the waste water first and then water. He said that was supposed to be done in January and it’s still not done. Hansen told them, right now, at least from a financing stand point, the EPA is still at a 20-year loan and looking at bumping it up to 30-year loans, whether it’s a small community, large community, these projects are costing more and more and the EPA is taking a look at water / sewer rates and the only way to keep them down is to allow longer financing. He told them Rural Development is a 40-year loan, that’s the down side to it, the positives are, at least with this type of project, they will be putting in facilities that will have a greater than a 40-year life to it. Hansen said he is always reluctant to use Rural Development if he is already having to replace some components of the project and he’s still paying off the first. Hansen said in this case, everything they are putting in the ground is going to have longevity past 40-years. Hansen told them it does have a grant component to it and technically they won’t know if they’re qualified until they make the application and they take a look at it. There are several criteria that goes into it, they take a look at the household income in the community, they take a look at the water rates in this case. He said those things are in the village’s favor to get grant funds. The maximum anyone can get is a million dollars in grants through their program or up to 50% of the project costs so obviously the two projects the village is looking at, they would try to max them out to get the maximum amount of grant funds that they can through the program. Hansen said they, [Rural Development], accept applications year round so the first step in the process is similar to an EPA loan program. He said they have engineers as well on their staff and basically you submit an engineering report as well as some other application documentation. They will review it when it comes in, if everything looks good, and meets the criteria, an award letter will be sent out and from there the village is free to proceed with getting all the permits. Mayor Hill asked Hansen what the turn around is now because for a while it was really long. Hansen told her not too long. He said the EPA is generally longer with their program just because they get more applications. Hansen told her the last one they did with Rural Development, once they submitted it, was about a three month process before they heard whether they were qualified through the program. Hansen told them the idea, maybe this year work on getting the application in to them. Next year, he said, early next year, hopefully, the village will hear positively back and can get financing through the grant funding through them and then work at getting the design and permitting completed next year and then try to gear up towards either very late fall or early winter or late 2017, early 2018, to bid it. Hansen said they find that winter bidding gets the most competitive bids. Hansen told the council if everything worked out right it would be a 2018 project and it would be done in one construction season. Commissioner Maupin said that’s what they have been working on. Maupin said he hoped the council would get a chance to discuss it at the next meeting after they have had a chance to look over everything and see what they think. Mayor Hill asked Maupin if it would make a difference getting pushed back another month. Maupin told her there is plenty of time. Hansen said what he had told Maupin and Vancil if the council took a look at when they did the condition report several years ago on the waste water system and then take a look at the funding the village was able to obtain for the waste water treatment plant and Market Street, some of the grants and forgiveness of principal the village received. Hansen stated if the village gets this funding it will really be getting a lot of infrastructure replaced. Hansen said he knows it was a big rate increase after they did the condition report and were faced with the things that needed to be done, but he knows they are getting more done with that rate increase than what was originally thought. Mayor Hill said the village was a bit ahead of the game because the council is seeing more communities now coming up to the rate the village initially put in place. Maupin said that is one of the first things they discussed at the first meeting. He said back when the village raised it they were one of the highest and now there are fifteen other towns around that have more expensive rates that we do. Hansen said the average rates they are able to track are getting right around $70.00 per month, with water and sewer on the average. Mayor Hill stated the village has garbage and recycling in there too. Hansen also said he knows of at least five that are well over $100.00 per month. Commissioner Maupin said the village was just a head of the curve. Mayor Hill said it was scary when the council did it and it worked out. Commissioner Hill said it’s helped. Mayor Hill said absolutely and it put the village in line to consider projects like this.
Mayor Hill and the council thanked Hansen and asked if anyone had any questions for him. Resident Rob Sigel had a question about the budget. He said a couple months ago money was taken out of the water / sewer fund to pay for some other stuff. He asked when they figured on this budget was that already subtracted from that, was that the whole count? Mayor Hill told him that was already taken into consideration. Mayor Hill said that was when the village’s other money was not coming in from the state. Sigel said he understood. Mayor Hill told him the village was still sitting well enough with a cushion. Commissioner Maupin said it is budgeted in every year for a certain amount of that money to come back to the village to pay for some other things related to it. Sigel said this one they had to vote on. Commissioner Maupin and Mayor Hill told Sigel the council does vote on it each time. Maupin said they had to take an extra one this year but there is a normal amount that comes back and they do every year. Sigel asked if it was just in the water and sewer or in any department? Maupin told him water and sewer. Maupin stated a set amount is taken from water and a set amount is taken from sewer every year. Sigel said he pays several water bills and wanted to see where his money is going.
Remarks from Guests:
Mayor Hill called on Al Morthland since he was next on the agenda. Morthland said according to the Open Meetings Act, citizens have the right to call board members on their actions and conduct. Morthland asked the mayor if the city council paid the mayor to go talk to his son. Mayor Hill told Morthland they were not going to discuss that. Morthland asked why not? Mayor Hill told him they weren’t going to discuss that. Morthland accused the mayor of being afraid to discuss it. Mayor Hill told him there was no reason to discuss it. She told him if he would like to meet with her, she would set up a meeting with him. She told him she would set up a meeting with him and he could invite anyone he wished to that meeting. She told him again it was not the time or place for this. Morthland said “Why ain’t it?”. He said it concerns the board and everyone in the room. Mayor Hill said no and asked him if he had anything else.
Brad Wiemken, Tampico Recreation Board, told the council he wondered why the bill for fencing was paid late and there was $400.00 in late fees. Village Clerk, Kathy Leathers, told Wiemken there was not enough money in the ball diamond accounts to pay it at the time it came due. She told him the Village Council approved $4,200.00 but the final bill she received was closer to $6,500.00. She said there was not enough money to pay the entire bill and still have enough money to operate on. Wiemken still questioned the late fees. Leathers told him it has all been paid. Wiemken just wanted to make sure it got turned in and paid. Leathers told him it cut things pretty close for their account.
Commissioner Maupin told the council he has been working with Rob Naples to start a winter or late fall basketball league here. Maupin said it’s the whole deal, referees, stats, men’s basketball league. Maupin said Naples has been wanting to rent out the gym and they have agreed on dates and he will set the time as he knows more, how many teams are involved. Maupin said they have already blocked off the dates. Maupin said Naples has agreed to a monthly rental and the council just has to make sure the agreement is okay and then they would just come down and sign the agreement, pay the deposit and it will be ready to go. Mayor Hill asked about concessions and Maupin told her they will take care of concessions themselves. Maupin said they usually give the concessions, a portion of the concessions back to the town. Mayor Hill told those present who are not familiar with this league, that he has run this league in Mt Carroll and they have been very successful. Maupin said the league has players in Sterling and Rock Falls and he is hoping there will be better turn out here since it is closer in proximity to those areas. Maupin said the league is looking to expand into two other towns and he would like to see this succeed as much as Naples does. On a motion by Commissioner Meier with a second by Commissioner Vancil approval was given to a rental agreement with Rob Naples for a Men’s Basketball league at $300.00 per month. “Yes” votes were Maupin, Hill, Meier, Vancil and Mayor Hill. The motion carried.
On a motion by Commissioner Maupin and a second by Commissioner Vancil to approve the two year land lease agreement with Mediacom Illinois, LLC. “Yes” votes were Maupin, Hill, Meier, Vancil and Mayor Hill. The motion carried.
The village council next discussed a resignation letter they received from Denise McLoughlin from the Tampico Historic Preservation Advisory Committee. McLoughlin said she is proud of the group’s accomplishments and will be available for consultation on the downtown buildings if needed. Mayor Hill told council members McLoughlin has resigned due to medical and time issues.The Mayor said McLoughlin is a very busy person and there is only so much of her to go around so she had to pick something to let go and it just happened to be this group. The Mayor stated she still assists with the Historical Society and their website. The council accepted her resignation on a motion by Commissioner Hill and a second by Commissioner Meier. “Yes” votes were Maupin, Hill, Meier, Vancil and Mayor Hill. The motion carried. Mayor Hill said she also wants to look into reducing the members of that group, even though more people can come and volunteer and be part of it, but reduce it down because they have five now and it’s really hard to get five people together. The Mayor is hoping to reduce it down to a board of three. She said that way they can keep working together and move forward without having to recruit people but volunteers are always welcome to help.
Commissioner Vancil motioned, second by Commissioner Maupin that Resolution No. R02-16-07-19 Determining the Need for Confidentiality or Release of Closed Meeting Minutes from January 1, 2016 through June 30, 2016 be passed, approved and in full force and effect from and after its passage. “Yes” votes were Maupin, Hill, Meier, Vancil and Mayor Hill. The motion carried. The closed meeting minutes from January 19, 2016 and May 11, 2016 will remain closed.
Discussion turned to approving Resolution No. 03-16-07-09 to Adopt the Whiteside County Multi-Jurisdictional All Hazards Mitigation Plan. Mayor Hill said they, she and Commissioner Hill, have attended the meetings so the village could be a part of this county-wide plan so the village could get assistance with FEMA and with grants and actually get plans in advance to help the village in case there is an emergency or a disaster in town. She said the resolution is the final step that needs to be sent in so the village is included in the plan. The plan was approved on a motion by Commissioner Meier and seconded by Commissioner Hill. “Yes” votes were Maupin, Hill, Meier, Vancil and Mayor Hill. The motion carried. Mayor Hill and Commissioner Hill said they put several things on the list including a water tower, heating / cooling centers, a natural gas generator.
Building Permits issued by Zoning Administrator, Ron Kuepker, include; a garage addition at 108 N. Fremont, re-roofing a small shed at 214 S. Benton and a new roof at 304 W. Kimball St.
Clerk Leathers advised council members she has provided them with a copy of information she received from the Illinois Municipal League. She said it’s an updated revenue estimate and financial forecast of the money the village will be receiving from the state. She said naturally it’s going to be lower than in years past but they are projecting those numbers for the 2017-2018 budget year. Leathers told them the village has had funds released, Motor Fuel Tax Funds have been coming in and Replacement Tax Funds have been coming in as well as the county tax portion the village receives. She told them she is more optimistic about how the current fiscal year is going to go. She asked them to review the information and if they had any questions they may visit the IML website for more information. She told the council, the village is probably one of the more fortunate municipalities since the state doesn’t owe as much as they do the larger communities.
Bills were ordered paid on a motion by Commissioner Maupin and a second by Commissioner Vancil. “Yes” votes were Hill, Meier, Maupin, Vancil and Mayor Hill. The motion carried.
Resident Beth Etheridge asked the council why the entire tree was taken down in the alley near her residence when she thought the village was only going to trim them up. Mayor Hill told Etheridge the trees were bad. When crews got to the trees they found both trees to be bad and the village did not want to take the chance of them coming down on Etheridge’s property.
The council was asked by Recreation Committee member, Brad Wiemken, if the port-a-potty had been removed from Booth Park. Mayor Hill told him no and they will probably leave it there for the rest of the summer for reunions or picnics and things. Clerk Leathers told Wiemken the payment will come from Parks and not Baseball Program funds. Wiemken asked if the village had looked into getting the bathrooms at the park fixed. Mayor Hill told him there is so much work to be done there and it’s not really feasible for them to be fixed right now unless the village can find some grants. Mayor Hill said if they are repaired, the village has to go handicap and it will be costly to convert them. She said she is not a fan of port-a-potties, but it’s so much cheaper to have the company come in. Vancil said he did not know the cost would be coming out of the ballpark funds. He was told just for T-ball. Vancil said still, that’s a $100.00 that he didn’t know about so they did not have that in the budget. Wiemken said it costs $245.00 to buy one so that has to be cheaper.
Resident Judy Smiley asked the council why the tornado siren did not go off the last Sunday morning. Mayor Hill told her she would have to ask the fire department. Mayor Hill said the village had turned the siren over to the fire department and Whiteside County was to have control over it now. Commissioner Hill explained after the village turned the siren over to the Fire Department, they were to get an agreement with Whiteside County and they will set the siren off. Hill said until those papers are signed Whiteside County will not set it off. He said county needs to have that legal document. Resident Rob Sigel thinks it’s kind of funny that a municipality signs off on an alarm system. Mayor Hill said the grant was obtained for that purpose and the fire department members are emergency responders. Resident Shirley Lester said she just heard the other day on the news that those sirens are to warn people who are outside. Lester said she heard it was not necessary for people in their houses, it was for people outside to take cover. Mayor Hill told those present the best defense is get it, [weather warning] on your phones and radios. Mayor Hill said she hopes the situation will be remedied shortly.
The meeting adjourned at 7:43 PM. The next regular meeting of the Tampico Village Council will be Tuesday, August 16, 2016 at 7:00 PM in the Reagan Community Center located at 202 W. Second Street.
Kathy A. Leathers
Clerk
Kristine L. Hill
Mayor
MINUTES APPROVED THIS 16th DAY OF August, 2016
**These minutes are not official until signed, dated and sealed by the Village Clerk**
