REGULAR MEETING OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE VILLAGE OF TAMPICO
August 7, 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 Sergeant Boyd VanDellen 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 July 17, 2018 Regular Meeting were approved as presented.
Reports of Village Officials
Mayor Hill had reported earlier she had met with ComEd to get the Village’s load shed reports. She has also contacted them about a program where they will come out here and assess along with Dennis Electric and go through all the Village’s buildings and show us better ways to save more energy, including funding and grants the Village can be included in if we do this assessment. She said it’s free and she’s invited them to come do that sometime. She said if you see them going around, it’s not a new project, it’s an opportunity. She told the Council we have done the SEDAC and we’ve done all the energy reviews so they are going to compare to see how far we’ve come since that has been done because we have changed quite a few things. She said that would pretty much be all of our buildings.
Mayor Hill reported this is the Day Care’s last week. She said last week was their little party. The Council had probably seen they had a neat little water slide here at the lot out back. Mayor Hill said we were able to get water out there to them. They had a really good time. Mayor Hill said there is a lot of excitement, a lot of the parents want to see it come back next year. It sounded like it went really well. They will have a board meeting in September to go over the budget, where they stand, what they can do better, what works. The Mayor said we will be hearing from them this fall.
Mayor Hill thanked Cornerstone Insurance and Tyler Sandrock for the donation to landscape the front of the Village’s building and also to Larry McCormick for doing the design plan with his people and donating the little concrete bench out there. Mayor Hill thought that was very sweet. She said Bruce and Tom helped too. She advised she and her Mom spent a weekend down here trying to cleanup, get the grounds all finished up and planted, then the guys mulched it in. Hill thinks it’s a nice addition. She told them right now they’re working on putting river rock over on the other side so it drains better and it won’t get so grown up. It will have a much better look out front.
Mayor Hill reported Bud Thompson is going to be coming here, he’s already come out and looked at the building. He loves to paint – that’s his passion and Mayor Hill has invited him to
do a mural along with the landscaping. Something with a Reagan theme. She said Thompson is pretty excited about doing that. Thompson will have some sketches and proposals of things
to put there. Mayor Hill thought it would be a nice addition to the whole landscape. She said she called the girls in the office and got their blessing and then she called Thompson.
The Rec Board met on July 25th and was very productive. They have planned a Trivia Night for the first part of October. They wanted to do it on the 20th but the company was already booked. So they are looking at the first two Friday’s. She said Don Jenson is taking care of that. She said they will start selling 50/50 tickets as soon as they get their permit back, [from the county]. She said they sent everything in already and that way when they do their fundraisers this fall, they can start promoting their tickets and hopefully get that jackpot up even better. Hill said they are also going to have a family kickball tournament on January 25th which will kickoff the 2019 season with sign up and fun night for families to come in and maybe have brats, concessions and different things going on there since winter is kind of slow. It’s a good opportunity for families.
Mayor Hill told the Council they will be doing cleanup of the park on Wednesday, the 22nd. Basically what that entails is they will be trying to get the front of the concession stand finished and seal all the benches before the weather gets any worse. She said they still have Fall League that plays one night a week over there and then they do special events too. She reported there are still things going on out there but they have come so far, they don’t want to step back and let things get out of hand again. Rain date for that would be Saturday morning. Mayor Hill said, we have received several compliments on how nice the grounds look this year and would like to thank all that have helped make this happen.
The Recreation Committee also voted to set a registration cap of $100.00 for larger families so more kids have opportunities to play especially if there are three or four kids in a family. This way they won’t have to pick which kids can and can’t play. Mayor Hill said the Board didn’t officially have anything on their registrations but now they do. There will be assistance available for families. There is a foundation that would help families that need assistance to sign up their kids, but this will be first come / first served basis and reviewed by the Board for eligibility. She advised, everyone will get reviewed first come / first served and with available funding. Mayor Hill said they know they are helping people that are in need.
Mayor Hill and Commissioner Church turned the discussion to water bills. Mayor Hill reported Public Works Superintendent, Tom Pierce, came to her with his concerns about once the Village shuts people’s water off, they come in and pay a little, we end up turning them back on. Hill said these valves are old and fortunately none of them have broken yet but it could end up costing the Village more to replace the valve than what they owe on their water bill. Mayor Hill and Commissioner Church agreed that once they are shut off, they cannot be turned back on until they are completely current. She said it’s written in Village Ordinance that way. The Village is not hard-hearted, if someone is having a hardship and they can only pay a little bit, but they’re keeping up with it and working with the Village, that’s fine. Hill advised, once you’re shut off, you’re done. You have to pay it in full. It needs to be a money order or cash. She said we’ve had checks bounce all over the place and we don’t know about it right away.
Commissioner Church said another thing he would like to do is when a renter gets behind on their water bill, he’d like to send a letter to the homeowner and tell them that their renters are behind on their water bill. He said if the tenant does not pay it, if they skip town and they owe money, that water is not being turned back on. Commissioner Meier said at least the
owner is aware of it. Mayor Hill said sometimes they don’t know. Commissioner Church said it shouldn’t be turned back on until it’s paid even it they have new renters coming in. The Village can’t keep taking hits. Mayor Hill and the other council members agreed. Clerk
Leathers told them the Village Utilities Clerk does not allow the water to be turned on or put in someone else’s name until the bill is paid. Mayor Hill said the Village does have a couple that are in a different name than the owners now. Commissioner Church said he just talked to a homeowner tonight who said sometimes he just doesn’t get it. Mayor Hill thinks that’s very fair to make that our policy, that they are notified. Commissioner Meier said if they’re at least 2 months behind. Mayor Hill said even like a month we should start letting them know because two months, we start shutting them off. She said we have to give them a little time. Leathers suggested once it’s delinquent on the 15th of the month, we should send the letters out. Mayor Hill thinks it will be worth it in the long run to recoup some of the money that we do end up losing. Church said he would just like the homeowner to be advised too. Mayor Hill said the Village worked to try to get that in the ordinance at one time. Commissioner Meier said he was thinking it was a while back. Mayor Hill advised the council can look into that to see if we need to add a little addendum to our ordinance too, to make it have a little more bite to it, too. She said the landlords might want to start including that in their rent and then they know it’s paid. But then you have the problem if somebody goes over, then who pays for the overage.
Mayor Hill said that’s all she had for reports.
There were no other reports.
Remarks from Guests
There were no remarks.
Unfinished Business
Commissioner Church said he had been gone, was there anything new on the water main replacement? Mayor Hill told him she just received a letter, she has a copy for him, from Willett, Hofmann she wants to look over before it’s presented because there’s some easements still out. Church will look over and the two will discuss the matter next week before the next meeting to find out what’s going on. Hill doesn’t want to jump in and say something she’s not prepared for. She reported she thinks everything else is going pretty good.
New Business
There was no new business.
Building Permits issued by Zoning Administrator, Ron Kuepker, were: 206 S. Washington – Dwelling roof, 105 E. Third – House and Garage siding.
Communications
Clerk Leathers reported receiving a letter from Mediacom. They will be adjusting their rates.
Bills were ordered paid on a motion by Commissioner Tornow with a second by Commissioner Church. “Yes” votes were Church, Wildman, Meier, Tornow and Mayor Hill. The motion carried.
There being no other business, the meeting adjourned at 7:11 PM. The next Regular Meeting of the Tampico Village Council will be Tuesday, August 21, 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 21st DAY OF AUGUST, 2018
**These minutes are not official until signed, dated and sealed by the Village Clerk**
