REGULAR MEETING OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL
OF THE VILLAGE OF TAMPICO
June 5, 2018
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 Tim Church, Al Wildman, Scott Meier and Todd Tornow were present. Police Chief Terry Strike and Assistant Clerk Jamie McIntire were also present. Village Clerk, Kathy Leathers, recorded the written and audio minutes. The meeting was also video recorded.
Mayor Hill led those present in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Minutes of the May 15, 2018 Regular Meeting were approved as presented.
Reports of Village Officials
Mayor Hill said she had Mediacom on her list of items to speak on, but since Mediacom is here she’ll let them speak for themselves. James Friske, the Director of Marketing for Mediacom, took the floor. He said first of all, I want to thank the Village for allowing us the use of your Council Room today. We had about half of our customers here in town show up today, so we chatted with them. We will be contacting the rest of them soon. To word it quickly, it took us forever, but we found a piece of fiber we leased. It got us within 4 or 5 miles of Tampico. It took a while, but we finally got that lease done. We built 4 miles of fiber optics directly in town. On the 19th, here in the gymnasium, we’re going to have an open house for everyone. Everyone is welcome. We’re going to have our technicians, directors, my entire marketing team and some customer service representatives to answer any and all questions that anyone may have. They’ll have information on services coming, what we already offer and what’s available to them today. At that point everything will be ready to go. Today, it’s the same Mediacom that it has been for the last 35 years. Come June 12th, it will be a night and day change for existing customers. All those customers will be taken care of first. I apologize to anyone that doesn’t have service now and would like to get service, but you will be taken care of after them. We’ll be bringing all of the full-blown services here to Tampico that we have everyone else in the company. There will be a full slate of digital channels, including over 100 HD channels.There will be video on demand, our TIVO multi-room DVR which you can run in up to 9 rooms. That’s where you can record a show and watch it in any of those rooms. It’s pretty cool. You get all the TV everywhere that’s over the top content, that’s free to the customers of the video services. As far as internet, which I know everyone is itching for, we start at 60 megs. We go up to 100. We have a 200, we have a 500, and for those who are itching for it we have 1 gig internet service. Come around the 19th, Tampico will become the next community that we can provide a 1 gig service to. Every home we can provide service to in town can get 1 gig. That means businesses too. If you’re a business and want those speeds, we can get those to you. There will be some different options for services for businesses. We’re also bringing phone services, which is different then what we have here currently. Your local calling area will be all 50 states and Canada, including Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It comes will caller I.D., call waiting and 3 way calling all built in. You can also keep your existing phone number. All of that will be available to everyone at our open house here come the 19th. We will be doing a lot of re-wiring in town. You’ll never actually witness any construction because the town is good to go for all these services. We just had to get the fiber optics in so we can provide all these other channels and services. Outside of the 100 HD channels, 80 brand new channels that are not duplicates of the HD channels, will be coming in. We’re excited. We’ve been fighting for this for the past couple of years. We’ve been trying to get Tampico on our list because towns like Tampico are our bread and butter. We provide for small towns, that’s what Mediacom does. We are here to provide the same services that you can get in Chicago for here in town. That way you can run businesses and even small businesses from your home. We had a couple people today asking “when can I
get hooked up with your internet service”. There was a lady who has a business in Sterling that I was talking to that we’re going to help, so it should be pretty cool. Are there any questions you have for us?
Mayor Hill asked so they can just get phone if they just want phone? Friske said you can just get phone if you just want phone, you can just get video services if you just want video services, you can just do internet if you just want internet. You can do a mixture of the 3, 2 of the 3 or 3 of the 3. It is entirely up to you. There are different packages for video services just like there is for internet. You can customize that and build it up. So if you want no TV and just phone and internet, we can do that. If you want to get everything under the sun for TV but very little internet and phone service, we can do that. It’s entirely up to what the individual would like.
Mayor Hill said I also heard today that you had a customer that was immobile and you were going out to visit them at home because they could not get in here. So if there is someone with special needs that cannot physically get up here, you’ll try to work with them. Friske said we’re going to try to do our best in every one of those situations. I did walk next door to make sure that her television was compatible to the service, and it was not a problem. Mayor Hill said but I mean for someone who is in a wheel chair and can’t get out. I don’t want people to be discouraged and not sign up because they can’t come in. Friske said we’re scheduled to be here the 19th for the Open House, and we’re all signed up for having a tent here during you Tampico Festive Days weekend to answer any questions. Eventually we will have some door knockers for those who either didn’t sign up, just to make sure we had some face to face communication. Mayor Hill said they did all their peddler permits, so they’re all legal. Friske said yes, and we just want to make sure everyone knows that we will be coming. We’ll all be in uniforms that say Mediacom Extreme on them. We’ll all have ID’s. Clerk Leathers said we’ll also make sure they have copies of the permits with them. Friske asked if there were any other questions.
Commissioner Tornow said thanks for coming, that’s all I have to say. Friske said we have been trying and trying for years. We were always so close but not quite there. If this had been a larger community we might have been here a little sooner, but we’re coming now. We found that piece of fiber and are now ready to do it. It’s going to be a completely different experience. Nothing is going to be the same. Mayor Hill said welcome and thank you. The rest of the Council members also said thank you and see you on the 19th.
Mayor Hill said I have a couple other things. Our MFT Project has been processed. They will be on the bulletin June 7th and 14th. And they will be going out for bids on July 2nd I believe. All our projects for the summer are rolling out, everything was approved and Leathers just received the packet today.
Mayor Hill said we were also contacted by ComEd to remind people about Mylar balloons. They are a hazard and cause a lot of issues. If you’re going to have them keep them inside and keep a hold of them. If you want the lights out for your party go ahead and have a whole bunch and let them go, cause that’s what it’s going to cause. And also they ask that if you are planting, make sure to look it up before digging and call it in.
Mayor Hill said as far as our 50/50 raffle for the Recreation Board, we do have a permit and we’re encouraging you to support our kids. I know there’s other 50/50’s going on. We tried to get the word out early so we can help the kids and get some money for our baseball program. We’d really appreciate it that if you are buying 50/50, please buy ours. We’re trying to help the kids. We’re trying to keep these programs and parks going. We have a lot of lighting issues at the ball park that we need to address and we went through all the channels with Whiteside County to do it right. We had it for 2 years. We were able to get Christmas Lights on Main Street one year, we were able to get plaques on Main Street for the Historical Buildings the next year. Then we lost having the 50/50. I’d really like to see it get built up, so we get more people coming to our town and festivals and events.
Mayor Hill said the ball diamond maintenance is going fairly well. I do need carpenters. I need someone to build a bulletin board. I can paint, but there are a few things left out there to do.
Mayor Hill then said Republics Recycling dropped off a whole bunch of information that although we’re under contract right now, we’re not going to experience increases like a lot of other places are. More or less
we’re at odds with China. We used to send all our recycling over there. They were our export but there not
excepting it as much anymore. So, it is going to be costing us more and more. Be mindful when you’re recycling. We’re not going to increase it until a contract comes around, but this is going to happen to everyone. They said it’s hard to recycle glass. It’ll cost more for us to recycle it. They have a lot of information if you’d like to see any of it, and they are willing to come out and talk with us about what’s going on with recycling nationwide. It used to be that you’d get $4 a ton when recycling, and now it’s costing $40 a ton to get rid of it. It’s supply and demand and there’s no demand for it right now. There is a lot of information about it. It says to always recycle your paper, plastics, metal and cardboard. Never diapers, garden hoses, shoes or clothing. Your best bet with plastic bags is to take them back to the retailers.
Mayor Hill said also, we had a donation from Luke Sandrock in the amount of $250 to do some landscaping and beautification. I’m excepting any ideas for planting. We have the slab still from the old high school. I’d like to get that moved out here. It was on the front of the old high school building. There was a medallion and we had that taken off. I would like to do something with that too.
Mayor Hill said last time I forgot to mention that ComEd donated the tree that’s over at the ball diamond. The Girls Scouts helped plant it as well as the flowers in the pavilion. It’s like a $700 tree from McCormicks. It’s a Maple Autumn Fantasy and should reach up to 40 to 50 feet when it’s mature. It is a beautiful tree. I would like to thank ComEd again for giving us that for Arbor Day.
Commissioner Church said he hasn’t heard any updates from Matt Hansen in regards to the Water Main Replacement Project.
Remarks from Guests
Greg Cole was present to speak on behalf of the Tampico Mens Club. Cole said we’ve been offered the opportunity to run the Queen of Hearts at Arnie’s Happy Spot. We’re currently looking into the legal parts of it. What we need from the city, since our Club is based in Tampico and even though the event takes place in Deer Grove, is a Resolution stating that it’s ok to have the Queen of Hearts in the town of Tampico even though we’re not in Tampico. But we are affiliated with Tampico. And Deer Grove has to do the same. We can’t apply for a permit until this is done. Mayor Hill asked who is going to prepare the ordinance? That’s one of my main concerns. It’s costly for us to go through our attorney and have the ordinance done. I do have to have it run through our attorney, and I don’t want to have to cost us anymore. The permit for the 50/50 was $5 but as far as an ordinance, who is going to cover our attorney fee to make sure our attorney is happy with it so then we can present it to the board for a vote. Cole said so we need to pay for an attorney to draft one up. Mayor Hill said yes but we still have to have our attorney go over it. I don’t want to be assuming that cost because he is $200 an hour, and it might take a quick half an hour but our attorney does have to look over it. Cole said in order to do this the Men’s Club would have to be a not for profit for at least 5 years. Mayor Hill said and you have that covered. Cole said if we’re not totally legal to do this, we aren’t going to worry about doing up the resolution. It’s hard to tell what kind of money we’ll make off of this. If we get back 60% of it, we have to donate 35% of that back. The thing about the Happy Spot is they have the room for the event. They want to take care of all the advertising. We have to show up that night and lease the building for that night and have our meeting there that night to make it all legal. Mayor Hill said I hope it goes well. I just want to be fiscally responsible with the tax payer’s money and make sure, since we don’t know if there is anything in it for us, to make sure that we’re covered. Cole said they would be donating to the town. Mayor Hill said I really hope so. Like I said, we had that 50/50 and we were building it up really good then we didn’t have it anymore and Men’s Club took it. Now we have to start from scratch again and hopefully get it going again. Cole said 50/50’s are pocket change compared to this. We just need this simple resolution saying we can do this event with no name attached to it. Mayor Hill said but when it is passed by the board it is our responsibility. Cole said I’ll get one done up before the next meeting. Mayor Hill said ok, then we can put it on the Agenda to look over it and discuss it. We can always put it on tentatively until we here that you have it all together and ready to go. Then we can also present what Mr. Shirk would cost as well. I want that covered. Cole said I’m not sure how big of a hurry we are to getting this done. Mayor Hill said I wouldn’t hesitate because with is being summer, a lot of times we’ll reduce meetings with vacations and sometimes we don’t have enough. I’d be very mindful to try to get it
done as soon as possible. Just let us know and we’ll see what we can do. Mayor Hill and the Council thanked Greg Cole for coming in.
Unfinished Business
There was no Unfinished Business to discuss at this time.
New Business
There was no New Business to discuss at this time.
Building Permits issued by Zoning Administrator, Ron Kuepker, were 210 North Main Street – New Roof.
Communications
Clerk Leathers said the State of Illinois has passed their budget. The Illinois Municipal League is down there all the time trying to watch out for the interest of Municipalities. One of the good things they did when they passed this new budget is they were taking 10% of the local government funds that the municipalities receive, and they’ve reduced that down to 5%. So we’ll get a little bit more. They also reduced the Sales Tax Administrative Fee from 2% to 1.5%. It’s kind of hard when the General Fund is limited so much in their funds. We don’t get a whole lot with property taxes. We count on that money from the State to do our projects with the buildings and stuff like that. It’s getting to be where the payments are late again, but maybe that 5% will make a big difference. It’s a good thing to stick with the Illinois Municipal League. Mayor Hill said they fight for us. Leathers said they can also explain things in a language we can understand. Mayor Hill said under our maintenance agreement with the State of Illinois we also got $1,736.31 for Main Street.
Bills were ordered paid on a motion by Commissioner Wildman with a second by Commissioner Meier. “Yes” votes were Church, Wildman, Meier, Tornow and Mayor Hill. The motion carried.
Mayor Hill said I have one more thing. Toby Johnson was severally injured in an accident. He was our Commissioner and he is doing very well. He’s critical but they said he spoke a little today. He is in a lot of pain and has a long road ahead. Our thoughts and prayers are with him. He did a lot for our community. Our good friend is in trouble and needs our help. So please, prayers for Toby and his family. And also the family of Logan Dewald. It’s hard for that poor kid as well. It’s a hardship for everyone.
The meeting adjourned at 7:25 PM. The next Regular Meeting of the Tampico Village Council will be Tuesday, June 19, 2018 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 19th DAY OF June, 2018
**These minutes are not official until signed, dated and sealed by the Village Clerk**
