Motion passes. We do have one public comment. Jim Blackburn. Members of the City Council, Mayor Miller and Mr. Boyer, I thank you for the opportunity to address you tonight on an item that is near and dear to my heart and that is number 14 on your agenda for this evening.


That would be the water main extension to Open Bible. It feels like I'm finally going to get the opportunity to scratch an itch that's been there for about 25 years.


And I thank you for addressing the issue now rather than later. It should have been done 20 years ago, but here we are tonight.


A little history on that if I could please. Police. They originally submitted plans about 2000, or about 1999. Yeah, it's been that long. And they were granted a variance at that time by community development. They put a sprinkler system in as required under the building code, required by the fire department.


They were granted a variance then by community development because quite simply they couldn't and Hook it up to anything.


At that time United Water was in charge of water and sewer, Director Trueblood I believe at the time.


We talked at quite length about it and he thought that that would fit into their three to five year plan.


I guess it didn't quite make it. So it does my heart good to see that it's finally getting addressed.


I guess this is a case of better late than never but if you want to try and find a situation that requires it more I think you'd be hard pressed to do so.


That is a daycare center, that is very young children, maybe some of our own children or in my case grandchildren might be out there.


And that is to me the purpose of what city government, state government, national government does.


is there here to take care of people who can't take care of themselves and I think that's exactly many of the children that are housed do their education, do daycare at Open Bible I realize this issue is going to be terribly expensive as is most everything else except for maybe my hourly wage but so be it. I would Gravel I would beg I would plead don't let this opportunity go by you've got it front and center it needs to be taken care of and I commend you for the courage to look into it now to address the issue and to not push it down the road and let somebody else deal with it do I have leave to answer any questions or how would you like to proceed no all right then I'll sit down and shut up Next, we have the Proclamation for the Recognizing October as Manufacturing Month, presented by Mayor Miller Okay, so on behalf of the City, the Proclamation B. Killing Manufacturing Month, whereas the City of Freeport acknowledges the importance of manufacturing industry as a key driver for local, state, and national economy, contributing


to innovation, job creation, and sustainable economic growth. And whereas Illinois is home to over 18,000 manufacturing firms representing a diverse range of industries, including advanced machinery, food processing, plastics, and metal, positioning Illinois as one of the leading manufacturing states in the nation, and whereas manufacturing accounts for over 12 percent of Illinois' total economic output, contributing to nearly $107 billion annually to the state's economy, supporting over 550,000 jobs and indirectly generating many more in logistics, supply chain management, and business services.


And whereas in Freeport and Stevenson County, the manufacturing industry provides more than Fripport is proud of its rich manufacturing heritage and continues to foster innovation through educational and workforce development initiatives that help prepare local students and workers for careers in manufacturing.


And whereas the designation of October as Manufacturing Month in Illinois as part of and others. The importance of modern manufacturing and its critical role in rebuilding and growing resilient local economies. And whereas Manufacturing Month provides an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the manufacturing sector, recognize the contributions of manufacturers in Freeport's economic success, and promote awareness of careers in this dynamic industry.


and so on. Therefore, I, Jodi Miller, Mayor of the City, declare October 2024 as Manufacturing Month and encourage all of our citizens to recognize the importance of this vital industry and its contribution to our community. Thank you.


Thank you very much. And as I stand before you this evening, you obviously can see that and I am not a manufacturer, but we do interface with many manufacturers as an economic development organization, and I just want to highlight Manufacturing Month to bring to light the importance of that sector here.


It supplies over 5,000 jobs, good paying jobs, and that is one of the largest employment sectors that we have in Stevenson County.


So thank you very much for your time and I look forward to the next agenda item.


Our next agenda item, Greater Freeport Partnership Quarterly Presentation to Council, presented by Andrea Schultz-Winter.


Thank you very much, sorry as I get situated here. Tonight's presentation will highlight the activities in the third quarter and again these are going to be organized.


My presentation this evening will be organized in relationship to the key focused areas that were outlined in our strategic plan.


That is also how the third quarter report that was included in the packet is also organized.


and those are business retention and expansion, new business development and attraction, marketing the region, visitor attraction, advocacy and policy, and building the partnerships capacity.


In the last quarter, we've been on 14 business retention visits. These are key for the partnership to understand what is happening with our businesses, what their strengths, what their weaknesses, what their current hurdles are.


and as we continually hear, workforce is their number one issue. Primarily workforce attraction is the issue that they're having. There are generally a limited number of workers to pool from. Our population has not increased in some time. Oftentimes when they're attracting new talent to the area, it is difficult to do so because child care, one of the key things and the next one is the quality housing that many families need is not abundant here.


Also looking at quality housing, it's difficult to find housing that meets their price range.


Oftentimes, employers are saying that they are losing candidates to positions because of those key factors.


Additionally, specifically maintenance technicians is a key position that many manufacturers, many and John. We do know, luckily, Highland Community College has many courses that speak to and train manufacturing technicians, but it's just finding enough students to enroll in those programs so that there's enough output to fill all these positions. Okay. The next is, we continually hear that Greenfield site development is a priority, not only for attracting new businesses to our area, but also that existing businesses have a place to expand.


That is why the partnership will be submitting a grant application to the state of Illinois for the regional site readiness grant opportunity.


McEvoy. If awarded, this grant would pay for studies and preparation for future site development along key corridors.


So more to come. We will be submitting this application at the end of this week.


We continue to work on enterprise zone boundary expansion for a future development and investment that will happen outside of LENA.


Again, the enterprise zone is an incentive zone that the partnership administers. of this zone span within City of Freeport, rural Stevenson County and stretch over to Joe Davis County and encompass areas of Hanover and East Dubuque.


We are currently... We are currently conducting a Stevenson County Business Survey. This is to understand the challenges that businesses here are facing both locally and within their industry.


The survey has been open since late September and will close the end of October where we will analyze results and report out.


The beginning of October we hosted Upstairs Downtown Workshop with Illinois Main Street to understand upper story residential opportunities.


We understand that this is a key redevelopment strategy in downtown Freeport for multiple reasons.


Quality apartments or condos are needed. That is a housing typology that is needed here.


Miller. More people living in downtown will support downtown businesses and reinvestment in businesses will increase property values which will correlate to increase tax revenue and it will ensure that buildings are being maintained. Our next steps coming out of this workshop will be working with the City of Freeport to assemble property owners to discuss their buildings on a case-by-case business, case-by-case basis. This was a very well attended Workshop. We had a cross-reference or cross-section of real estate agents, bankers, building owners, city officials, county officials, small-scale developers.


It was a productive afternoon. Last, we continue to market our services to entrepreneurs and small business to help with their business development process.


In the last quarter, we met with 12 entrepreneurs. Eight of these and others. These individuals were either women or persons of color and they represented various businesses from many different sectors in all stages of development.


As mentioned before, some of the workforce challenges that we heard from our business retention visits are child care and housing.


So how are we addressing those and what is the activity that the partnership has done in the last quarter to try to meet those needs?


So we do understand that fortunately and unfortunately that the child care, the lack of child care is not a unique issue to Freeport.


We're not alone in this struggle. But what we do know is that there are other communities in this region that is also struggling with this, but they've come up with some creative solutions.


So we're talking with those communities, most specifically Dubuque and Mount Carroll. and I will be attending a tour of Dubuque's Bright Minds campus with two child care providers. The Bright Minds campus is a collaborative effort both public and private between the YMCA, Dubuque public schools and other organizations to provide wraparound child care services, includes preschool as well as before and after school care. Additionally, with the redevelopment of what was formerly Shimer College, there and Jodi.


The project is being developed. We hope to tour that facility and talk with the developers and stakeholders in that community to understand how they're bringing that project to fruition, what things we can extract from both those communities, both those projects and what would work here in Freeport and Stevenson County. As mentioned before manufacturing is a key sector in Stevenson County.


We have residential areas in the city of Freeport that are also in the enterprise zone, which is a great incentive tool to help lower the cost of new construction of homes in that area.


In the last quarter, we've met with two developers looking to purchase sites in two different areas.


They're currently in the process working through the acquisition of those properties with the intent to build single-family homes.


Homes. We're continually to connect them with bankers, city officials, utility companies, anything we can do to move that process along. Next, as mentioned, manufacturing is a key sector here. So it's critical that we understand or our children understand that there are great opportunities and great places to work right here in Freeport and Stevenson County. One of the key ways that we're doing this is helping coordinate Manufacturing Day, which happens every October.


Miller. This is an opportunity for Freeport and other area high school students to tour local facilities, get in the plant, really understand that the new age of manufacturing is not your parents or your grandparents' manufacturing.


It's clean facilities, we're working with a lot of technology and robotics and automation. These are successful, very highly technical careers that can be very rewarding and there's Lennon, and a lot of career ladder opportunities within local companies.


High school students will have an opportunity to tour the facility and then end the day at Highland Community College where there will be a career expo and a keynote address from the CEO of New Way Strokeso, Mark Braun.


Lastly, we were really proud to work with the Yield Program and form a partnership with and I have been working with Goodwill Industries that has led to funding for two more years of the Yield program.


Now we're all familiar with the Goodwill Industry in terms of things that you donate or you purchase there, but Goodwill Industries, and this is maybe not known to everyone, they do have a workforce development component that they do.


A lot of that is based out of Rockford. And they became a hub, or they received grant dollars from the State of Illinois to administer, I'm going to get this program name wrong if I don't read it. Illinois Climate Works pre-apprenticeship program in our area.


So it's a pre-apprenticeship program and understanding that and the goals of the program has and the goals of the yield program we were able to make the connection and say that the yield program can be a service provider and receive grant dollars from the state through Goodwill Industries to help fund their program.


So they hope to the the partnership has been established and they that will lead to funding for the next two years In business attraction in the last quarter, we've received 29 economic development leads 19 of those leads have come from Intersect, Illinois or the state's business attraction arm From those 19, we were able to respond to five leads because we had sites or existing buildings that met the company's needs.


14 of those, unfortunately, we were not able to meet because of some combination of what's listed.


They were heavy water user, heavier water user than the City of Freeport could support.


We lacked sites that were large enough or buildings that met certain characteristics, Taylor, самые, 8, 12, 20, 26, 29, 30, 40, 60, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 36, 3, 2, 1.


And in our next paragraph, we're going to focus on the McColl, who's going to talk about marketing the region.


Good evening. So to continue to talk about some of the work that we're doing under those focus areas, one, in marketing the region, that is a three-faceted approach.


It talks about how we are marketing for future investment from developers and businesses, how we're marketing to future residents or people who could live or move here, and then and also how we are marketing the partnership and the services and resources that we can provide to people who are here or could come here.


That middle one that I talked about was about reaching people who can come here.


And through that initiative and another local business owner, we came up with the Stevenson County Area Advocate Program because we already have ambassadors, so now we have to have advocates just to separate the two.


This program gets a list of deeds from the county on a monthly basis. And then we reach out to those new property owners and send them a postcard with a welcome to the area.


They can scan that QR code to set up a coffee meeting with myself or future advocates to talk about what's going on in Freeport, answer questions, ask them why they moved here.


Where are they working? Why did they come here? Are they looking for employment, childcare, and answer those questions?


We've been running this program since March. We've sent out about 500 postcards so far, and we've had about 12 meetings.


We had one kind of in-person meeting at our office, and then we have been able to meet with other ones one-on-one.


So far, we've met with people who have moved from fairly local places like Winnebago or Savannah, and then people who moved from North Carolina, New Jersey, who I really had a hard time understanding that guy, and then Florida as well.


All moving here for various reasons and talk about the jobs they have, talk about the jobs maybe that they're looking for, and just to hear the enthusiasm they have about living here is contagious.


And I invite anybody who is interested in becoming an advocate to let me know because because we are always looking for more people to reach out.


We are also creating a 12-month printed calendar while we as an organization and so many other people continue to try to find...


and so many other people continue to try to find other ways to let people know of all of the amazing things that happen here.


We're still missing a segment of population who don't get online and who don't get on social media.


So instead, we are doing a 12-month printed calendar. It's going to be available for the first time at the Senior Expo next Thursday.


And there'll be 800 of them printed and they will be available for free to anybody who wishes to pick one up.


Music on Chicago and Cruise Night were two, well there were two Music on Chicago's in third quarter and then of course Cruise Night continued to be great opportunities for our residents to feel a connection to the community a lot of people come out whether you're a car enthusiast or music enthusiast or you just need to get out and enjoy those opportunities it's a really both of the events that we're talking about here are great to see for all ages interests it's such a cross section of the community and it's been fantastic to see all of those continue to grow.


The partnership was awarded the Matthew Marvin Community Impact Award from the Foundation for Northwest Illinois for our work in economic development.


If you'll remember, over the past two years, we have been fortunate to have funding from the Community Foundation to support local businesses during the holiday season and then also through our Basecamp program.


and then our rebranding campaign focuses on the strategic initiatives that Andrea talked about earlier and I'm going to see if technology is going to be my friend tonight and see if Fiddle, let me play this video and oh you can see it but we might not have sound and if you can't hear it I'll send it to everybody tomorrow if you haven't been able to see it.


We're really highlighting our mission, vision, and inclusion statement that the partnership adopted earlier this year, as well as our board members and some great footage from different places within the community, just kind of showing that the partnership is here for all, and our services continue to be a benefit to various audiences across the county and the city.


No, apologize, no sound. You get to look at great pictures. And then I'll send that out so you can hear it in its entirety tomorrow. It's only a minute, so hopefully it won't take up too much of your time.


All right, visitor attraction. Our tourism season is heavy in second quarter, third quarter, holy cow.


the state's tourism attraction numbers as is everything with the state are lagged so we found out about our 2023 visitor spending numbers in august of this year and for a third year in a row so ever since covid we have seen tourism spending in stevenson county continue to grow and continue to break new records this year at 52 million dollars when we talk about visitor It's not just sales tax dollars or hotel motel tax dollars.


This is also what visitors are spending at local restaurants, in boutiques, in our gas stations, in our grocery stores.


So this is also a study that comes out of Longwoods International who is hired by the state of Illinois to create these independent studies.


Our campaign this year is called Choose Your Adventure. Hopefully you, well, maybe I'll include that in the email tomorrow too.


Brown too, we'll just send you all the videos. We've had a great response from our videos this year that highlighted a number of attractions, restaurants, and shopping destinations between multiple digital platforms.


It's been viewed over 500,000 times across YouTube, Meta, and Google. And using those and so many other tools, we continue to promote our tourism partners while also sending them grant opportunities so they can be as productive as possible with the funds that they have because we know most of them are nonprofit as well.


Since Bill is not able to join us tonight, I'm also gonna touch on partnership membership.


This falls within the partnership capacity key focus area. We were able to gain 15 new members to the partnership in the third quarter, the breakdown shown there.


And we continue to have a really fantastic retention rates of nearly 95% again in the third quarter, but overall 96.5% in the year.


So we're very proud of those numbers on people who just goes to show the value that they place on their membership and they continue to renew once they have joined.


Thank you for your attention and we're happy to take any questions you might have.


Madam Mayor, excuse me, Stacy, still yours, if I could make a comment. I was able to attend your Upstairs Downtown presentation along with Rob. The Mayor was there, there were a couple other people from Community Development were there. It was a very good program. I I talked to the Fire Chief next day, and one of the things I was happy that the two presenters brought up, especially the one that was the building person, was what is required for that upstairs use, because it's so difficult to fill because of square foot, access to get in and out of the building, all that kind of stuff, and the new ways that they had to and take a look at how they could make something fire safe and still maybe not have a sprinkler system in it, but have another means of access and other stuff.


I thought it was great that way because they not only presented the really good things about it, but they presented that before you start into this, you know, take a look at these things and here's where you can get them at.


Thank you for that comment. and I think it kind of the afternoon got into the weeds a little bit, but I think when you're looking at figuring out how to make these projects work, it comes into the devil really is in the details and understanding like fire exiting.


Can you do that without having sprinklers? What does the code say? Is there a change of use?


What other materials are there? What's your travel distance, time and to an exit? So all of those things are really specific and project to project.


I think that that is kind of when we have interviews and kind of meetings with individual building owners, those are the types of questions we're going to get to pretty quickly to see how their project could work.


Could I add something, Casey? Sure. The other thing that I just want to note, and I know I noted it last time and stuff, one of the things that you guys do and have to do that costs you or takes up a whole amount of time is all the requests that you get from the state of Illinois for new businesses that are coming to the state.


You know, right off the bat, there's many of them that you can't do, but you have to go through everything to make sure that a business does or doesn't qualify for something we have. I know that's a lot of work.


Thank you. Yes, we do. I mean, we vet each opportunity that comes to us. We really think critically about the spaces, the buildings we have. Could any of them fit the criteria? Could they be retrofitted? What sites might work?


and others. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. and others that have water and sewer and all the infrastructure to them, that's another reason why we're writing the grant to pursue planning for future sites, so thank you, I mean it is, yeah, it is work, and we're continuing to dedicate it to it.


Thank you. Thank you. Do you? Okay. If this doesn't work out, I'll let you know. Thank you. Thank you. Item number nine, discussion regarding placing an order for a replacement fire engine. Presented by Chief Miller.


Yes, thank you Madam Chair. So this year when we were working on preparing our budget for a presentation to council, part of the planning process is looking at medium range planning.


What are needs going to be going forward in the future? What do we have right now that is in good shape, okay shape, or bad shape? So staff and myself got together and we were we're doing this medium range planning and we looked at our vehicle replacement schedule that was presented to council about two and a half years ago and was lacking prior to that.


And that's how we got into trouble with old outdated vehicles that were in disrepair.


So with the support of council, we've come a long ways and I'm very proud of the decisions Council has made thus far. So looking at our replacement cycle, we recognized We recognized Engine 1, which is located at Park Boulevard, the short aerial truck, is 14 years old right now and would be due for replacement and downgraded into reserve status in 4 years.


So looking at the new pumper or fire engine we just received, we ordered that two years ago.


Talking with the folks who are on that piece of equipment or assigned there, guys that are on our truck committee, we discussed instead of going with a small aerial device, just replacing that one with a pumper.


So we looked at the exact same pumper that we just took delivery on, and I reached out to the salesmen that worked with us on that, and I said, for that exact truck, how long would it take to provide that to go to manufacturing?


He shocked me by saying four years. Their building schedule right now is four years out.


So if we placed an order today, we would not see it for anywhere between 46 and a half to 49 and a half months, so let's just call it four years.


So it's okay, so that's quite a distance. You have to do some really accurate planning for the future with those bill times.


So then I went further to ask, what is the cost for replacing that same exact vehicle we just took delivery on?


And not only was I shocked with the built times of four years, I was even more shocked with the cost that has escalated in two years.


We placed the order for our new engine two years ago and it came in just under $900,000.


Ordering one today, at today's money, that same exact vehicle is $1.2 million, so it's gone up 16.5% per year for the last two years, $300,000.


Like, oh my God, if it's gone up that much in these past two years, how much is it going to go up going forward?


So if we continue to wait longer, it's going to be exponentially more expensive. So then, digging deeper, what are the scheduled price increases? What are we looking at for those timeframes?


Historically, they used to do a large, somewhat large price increase after the first of the year, January, February-ish.


It'd be five to seven percent. speaking with the salesman there was one September which we've missed but the next scheduled one is November 1st that's a one and a half percent price increase and there's another one February of 25 all these will be 1.5 percent price increases so there's one November 1st another one scheduled for February another one in May August and November I'm like this is just crazy economics here. So looking at avoiding price increases just from now in calendar year 2025, those 1.5 percent increases compounded on top of each other comes out to $92,000. So this is a huge acquisition for the city, for the fire department. So I thought, you know, this warrants bringing to the council and and having a discussion on what the desire of council is in terms of a long-term replacement, making a four-year commitment, or at least placing an order for this vehicle and looking four years into the future.


So each of those 1.5% increases equals $18,405, and many more, and they take about six to eight months to once it goes to production to actually deliver a finished product.


Also placing that order, we don't have to commit any money to it at this time.


It's just a written purchase order signed by myself and the City Manager and we get on that build list.


So going through the Fire Capital Improvement Fund, we would have the opportunity to allocate $300,000 a year for the next four years, so when that vehicle is ready for delivery, Michelle can write them a check and pay for it.


So no money commitment right now. We avoid any subsequent price increases. We lock in the price at today's dollars instead of future dollars and we are on that build list for delivery in four years.


So and then one last area I want to touch upon is the vehicle that we're speaking about replacing.


Again, it's a 2010 short aerial. It has 86,498 miles on it. That's of last week.


With commercial trucks like this, I'm sure most of you are aware, they also come with hour meters because there's so much idle time sitting on the street, sitting at fire scenes, sitting on various calls. Those hours are calculated at, for each hour, it equals 61 travel miles. And this is a commercial vehicle standard. It's not something I came up with.


This is what Helm uses, this is what other commercial truck dealers and repair shops calculate at.


So that vehicle has 9,027 hours on it. So doing the math, 9,027 times 61 miles, the equivalent of that, that equals 550,647 miles.


Getting the two together equals 637,145 combined miles. So by virtue of a good maintenance program, taking care of our vehicles, washing them, keeping the salt off of them, we look to get anywhere between 12 to 15 years in a frontline service and then another 5 to 7 years in reserve status, depending on the condition of the Hall, and its usage. So I'm confident that this engine one that we're looking to replace will fill in that five to seven years at least at a minimum in reserve status. So after ordering, if it's counsel's will, after ordering this one, we're going to be set up well into the future with our emergency response vehicles, the large trucks.


May I ask you to make a comment? Chief, I understand where you're going. Sorry about that. You're requesting that we give the clearance to sign off on it right now at the current price.


and others. Thank you. We're talking about earlier before the costs start escalating each year.


That's the reason for this discussion, yes, and if council agrees that this represents a cost savings, this would be up to you to desire to move it to the next council meeting or you could approve a resolution and the next day we could place this order and avoid the November 1st pricing.


And this locks it in, right? Yes, it does. and the Councilor. I was hoping you were talking about that, that any procedures that we follow with locking it in, we'll get status reports on the report on the product that we're purchasing.


Absolutely. So, if there would be any changes between now and just prior to assembly meeting, and certainly I would communicate to the council.


But quite honestly, about three years and two months, pending there's no changes in that, there won't be a whole lot of activity on that.


So what happens with these is about eight to nine months prior to going to assembly, the truck committee will meet with the manufacturer and they'll go over about a 19 two-sided page Build List and going line by line by line through every single thing to make sure the needs are covered, the features are anticipated and planned for.


And then once it goes past that, then it goes to engineering, then it goes to production.


At that point, we're kind of locked in. But until then... And what was the estimation cost again, about a million?


Point, it's on the, on the notes, the precise. the precise cost at this time is $1,227,000.


There are options for some prepayment discounts. So we did this actually with the aerial truck, the ladder truck and the engine, we prepaid it.


But in this particular vehicle, 100% prepayment upfront would save $122,913. but a 50 percent prepayment option which would represent $613,500 would reduce the overall cost of the vehicle by $61,456. So in some cases, the prepayment discounts have exceeded what interest accrual would be on that kind of capital, that kind of money.


We'd be actually paying it off with the interest. We'd be paying it down, getting, I think they said somewhere around 20% return on our prepayment amount.


Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Chief Miller, did you say that we could budget $30,000 a year for four years?


One more zero. $300,000. $300,000. Yeah. and is that if we can do that or are we able to do that?


I would defer to Michelle but I believe are we able to budget 300,000 a year for the next four years?


The funds that will be used to purchase the truck come out of the Fire Cap Improvement Fund, which is mostly ambulance revenues that are generated.


And that fund currently has like $2 million in it. So it would just be a matter of calculating, like Chief said, you know, the prepayment, is the money there?


Yes, the money is there. Is the prepayment worth it? Could I make more than that if I invested it in the bank or do we pay it?


Right. We wait to pay it. Wait right out, yeah. We just have to do the math, which it sounds like they already did the math.


Okay, so the city would be willing to allow this purchase to go forth paid in full and not finance it, but pay it off in full at the end of the four years.


We could do it either way. This fund happens to have a fund balance that is dedicated, the majority of it is dedicated to the fire department.


And the funds are available there. It's just a matter of seeing if this is how you'd like to proceed and also evaluating if the prepayment discount is worth it financially.


Will that be pay as we go with the purchase of this item? I mean, will we be able to retain this item as our property as we pay the payments per year?


So, again, as we outlined, there's three different options that we could do to consider this.


We could pay the full amount, the $1.27 million, and save that $300,000 over four years, which would give us $1.2-ish, or we could take advantage of some of these prepayment discounts, again, to pay the whole thing in full.


And I don't know if finance would be comfortable depleting that fund that much. But if we prepay the entire amount that would represent a savings of $122,913.


If we wanted to be conservative and pay half of it at the time we signed the purchase order that would represent a savings of $61,456 and still leaving a good amount within that account.


So again, those are three options. The saving the 300,000 per year, that would cover the full amount due at delivery.


So we wouldn't have to put anything down till then. but once they say, hey, your truck is done, Michelle has to write a real large check.


Okay, because what I'm hearing is that we will pay in increments, but the product is not completed until after four years?


That's correct. Okay. That's the reason why I'm bringing it up to the council now because it's such a projected purchase and acquisition.


Right, okay. Chief Miller, what would be your first choice for us to choose the option?


The payment option? Again, my subject matter expertise is in the vehicle and fire suppression, and I would certainly like to get with the finance director and see what that fund looks like.


And certainly, I would not be enthusiastic about financing a large portion of it, perhaps part of it, some of it, depending on where that fund balance lies.


But that's certainly something we could have prepared for council next meeting if it's the desire to go forward and avoid price increases and lock in at today's dollars, dollar amount.


and Michelle you might have to answer this one. So if it was paid off in full, the benefit in doing that or the advantage to doing that, would that monies be put back into that same account?


Holt. The money's gained from paying it off. It just wouldn't be expended at the higher level. We would retain those funds. Retain. Okay. And so do I understand the city to be saying that you can't really give us an answer tonight. You need next week to determine if We could purchase this and pay it off in full.


I guess I would like to confer with Chief and find out. I mean, my comfort just giving him half, but I would like to run the numbers because there is a value to having the money in our account if we, you know, if an emergency repair comes We don't want to run that fund too low.


So I would like the opportunity to talk to Chief, and this would need to come back to Council for a regular approval anyway, anyway, besides tonight.


Sounds good, sounds good. Yes. I would like a motion, make a motion to bring to the next meeting the options on purchasing the fire truck and the financing available for it. That way Michelle and like the Chief said they would have time to get together to get what they believe to be the best options at this time.


Yes, second that. Could you also think, add to, because this is really about the authorization of placing and it's not so much the financial end of it but are we going to place an order so that would have actually have to be on the next council meeting in order to make that November deadline.


I would make that alteration that we bring forward the option to commit to purchase of firetruck for Park Boulevard station and move the other one into reserve when it comes and the financing to be figured out between the Chief and the Finance Department.


I second that. I second that. We have a motion. We have a second. All in favor?


Aye. Aye. Nay. Motion passes. Thank you. Item number 10, discussion regarding 2025 Street Project presented by Mayor Boyer, I'm sorry, City Manager Boyer.


Thank you, Mrs. Chairman, and I'll take the promotion. Anyway, just kind of reviewing 2025, we went over the five-year plan, and each year we're going to bring back.


H. year we're going to bring back that plan for discussion and review with council. So I'd like to take a moment tonight and just kind of discuss the 2025 year street program and then I'm going to ask Darren to jump in on any questions or additional information that's important to the subject. So I'm going to kind of start from right and move left across the map here. So the main one of the main projects for next year is Carroll Avenue. That would be from South Adams to East Empire, approximately 3,000 feet at a cost of about $1.6 million.


So on Carroll, the water main I think is the oldest in the city, is that what you mentioned to me?


Yep. 1880 Water Main. Yes. Yep. And so the water main will be replaced and that is an area with railroad ties buried causing the washboarding down the middle of it.


and so those will be removed when we do the reconstruction to make sure that it lasts.


Darren, did you have any comments on, you wanted to add on the Carroll Reconstruct for next year?


No, just the reconstruct will be curb to curb and ADA ramps. We will not be going right away to right away.


The money that's shown there is just water main and pavement replacement and some curb patching.


It will not be blowing up the entire section like we did on Adams. I just want to clarify that, and that would be the largest project of next year, and it would likely be a contractor-led project due to the difficulty of the street, and it's wider than our equipment can handle for paving, so that would be similar to what we're doing on Ridge and Westwood this year, where we'd be hiring that out as one completed project from start to finish by a contractor.


Anyway, in addition to Carol, we'll be doing South Black Hawk from West Empire to West Dewey Street. That will not be the entire section. It'll just be that primary section from the school. That's looking at about 1,300 feet and that would include new water main and any kind of repair, base repairs at an estimate of about $615,000. Do you have any comments on that one?


Blackhawk is one of the streets that we've had the most water main breaks on in the last 12 months. Last year I think we had six or seven breaks in a matter of two months there. It's a 1954 spun cast and it's been a problem for the school district there and a problem for the residents. So what you see there is basically about two full blocks of replacement and that that era of pipe is is kind of limited to those two blocks on Blackhawk.


Can I ask this question? We're not there yet. In the process of replacing those manes, are we targeting the areas where you repaired them, made repairs to be replaced?


Fully replaced. OK, got you. OK. I believe the question was, I think Larry was saying, hey, are we going to take out the pipe that has the band clamps in it?


Yes. Yes, we'll be removing it. I'm going to skip over to Hans. So Hans, South Hans from Meadows to South Street is scheduled for repaving next year. That'll be a mill and overlay at about 1,400 feet and about $370,000. It'll work pretty much just like this last year with Dirk Drive. If anybody's driven down Dirk, it'll be very similar to Dirk. So in addition to that, we've got West Cleveland Avenue, so from South Berchard to Locust Avenue, approximately 2,600 feet.


Again, that'll just be a mill and overlay, and we're estimating that about 500,000. And I think that includes where we had installed new water main several years ago for the new water treatment plant, and also a bad section between West and Locust that's also falling apart there.


A couple other priorities, North Greenfield from West Stevenson to Laurel, that's approximately 2400 feet, and it should cost about $550,000. That's a heavily traveled area through that neighborhood, and then we'll also be working on and resurfacing West Stevenson from North Greenfield to Park Boulevard.


just a point of information here once we complete the Greenfield section that'll from Laurel all the way to Pearl City Road will be easily traveled very nice pavement there and then on Stevenson you've got a lot of tree canopy that's very difficult very hard on the roads themselves whenever you have tree canopy you have moisture that tends to be retained and when you get moisture you You get potholes, you get problems with the pavement surface and that retains moisture.


So to replace that section from Park Boulevard to Greenfield is on next year's program.


I've got a few alternates. Excuse me. The lift station moves through that area, doesn't it?


What's that? Waste treatment and water, is that right? Park Street lift station goes up Park Street.


How about the water mains? and John. There's water main there as well. And we're talking about replacing water?


No, on that section it's completely just a resurfacing project. If you've been over that way right now, there's old, about two feet below the surface, there's old railroad ties, they're buried there, there used to be rail cars that ran on Stevenson, that's why you see the rippling of the pavement.


The old railroad trails ties are disintegrating under the pavement, they're actually just rotting in place and that creates the ripples from the stops and starts.


Well the lift station goes up through there as well right? Force Main? Force Main, that's correct. So the Force Main is on Park Boulevard? Yeah, that's what I know and are we have we been doing any repairs on that Force Main lately? No, about five years ago we had a large break on Park Street that was south towards the Laurel but we haven't had any repairs.


as alternates and as budget allows for things are going smoothly and we can afford to do so we've added three potential streets here South Harvey that one was added it needs water main it is a dead end and that's created a lot of accumulation of sediment in that pipe and it creates constant water quality and many other issues for the residents on that street. Also, we're including Willow. We have an area on Willow that needs water main replacement there. It is expected that when we are completed on Ridge, we've got the water main replaced. What happens generally is you've got the next closest areas will then start to break water main. So we're looking at replacing water main on Willow and repaving that as an alternate. And then also on Dewey Street.


We're originally scheduled for 26. However, if time and resources permit, that one will need water main and driving surface, so that would need a full reconstruct there.


So that is the plan for 2025. As I mentioned before, this year has been a very busy year. 2025 will also be busy, but not as busy, so that would actually be okay for a lot of the staff.


Yes? Do I understand that Dewey already have the ramps? They already have the lead-free?


The lead services are completed on Dewey. I don't know about the ramps. Yeah, the ramps are not done. Ramps are not? No. Okay. But they do not need a water main? They does need a water main. Dewey does not. Oh, Dewey doesn't. Okay. No, we did the lead services this year.


So there's a plethora of bad pavement conditions throughout the city. However, Dewey is on here because it is really poor and what ends up happening with our water main cuts is once those services have been replaced, it creates problems during plowing and it can cause some problems and make the road condition worse and quicker.


So if resources allow, Dewey will just need ramps and paving. Yeah, ramps and paving, a little bit of curb. There's only like four ramps or eight ramps. Yeah, eight ramps.


but one of the biggest issues that we have on Dewey Street and you're going to see as we move around town Dewey has an extreme amount of trees that are in the parkway that need to be removed the parkway trees are killing the pavement structure because it never is allowed to dry out and so as we're going through these projects we are removing not all but a lot of the parkway trees that the city Owens to try to increase the quality of the pavement yeah are we also going to be completing curves because of runoff and property runoffs I mean when when the property the property adjacent to the street or parallel to the street when it Well, they've when it when it pours or storm or whatever you tend to get a lot of sediment in those storm sewers because of the runoff on properties that don't have curves or yeah it doesn't have the curve approachments and pavements and things like that to help funnel that water properly without the deterioration of homeowners property because of the rainwater if we're not doing anything with that that's what we're gonna end up with possibly again throughout the year when you start,


when you start putting that pavement through there, we'll get a lot of sediment in those storm sewers and I hate for it to be destroying people's property because there's no drainage ditch, proper drainage ditches for the adjacent homes or the homes that are parallel to the street or the ditch.


How did you get a chance to look at that and visual the fact that these types of runoff will create problems for homeowners?


Darren, I'd like to just go ahead and answer that. Just to give you a back of the napkin, Larry, it's $116,000 to do new curb on Dewey.


Yeah, well, I'm just thinking about the fact that we have erosion. I'm with you. We'll patch back in the stuff that's bad, but...


Well, we've got a whole side of the street, some parts of the street, without the curve.


And that's where, and there's homes that, erosion, there's home erosion when that water is pouring like that because it ends up in front of people's homes if the streets are not level properly, the driveways are not level property, and you get a lot of settlement, We get a lot of water settling in these driveways and then that creates insects, bugs or mosquitoes or whatever the case may be.


And I'm just wondering, have you got a chance to look at that? Larry will look at it.


Okay. All right. Was there ever curbs there? On Dewey? There are curbs on Dewey.


They're buried because the street's been overlaid three or four times. it's going to be very similar to the other streets that we've attacked that's overlaid the curbs that are there are going to not be able to be exposed they're at the brick level I assume that's under that street and so we we will have to overlay curbs again when we go back just like we've had to do in other areas they're not exposed we can't expose them the grinding process alone will not salvage that curb yeah because you know I was brought to get to that So curbs would be added to Dewey?


Curb patching would be added to be able to overlay the street. Curb patching, so we would go in and fix areas that were missing or that are destroyed, you know, 20 feet or 10 feet at a time, but there was no intent here to replace every piece of curb on Dewey.


It would be theoretically impossible to do that. I mean, it's possible, but just not with the funding that we currently have.


Well, I just don't want my constituents complaining about erosion on their property because we didn't We didn't put anything to prevent that. That's what I'm getting at. I don't want them calling me talking about Hey, I got water backing up in my driveway My my soil is washing away and all of these kinds of things and that's all I'm concerned about right now Will there be drainage?


There already is drainage on Dewey. Like I said, the street's in such poor condition right now that the storms are filling up full of asphalt chunks and gravel and everything like that because the street is so far gone and the erosion to the street is really a homeowner issue that they should not be letting dirt come off the properties in the street. So some of that is a home maintenance issue but as improvements are made we try to improve drainage. We've tried to do that everywhere we can.


but as I started out with the street program before we physically don't have the dollars to replace every piece of curb in this town I'd love to do it we just don't have the dollars and if you drive down the street and you see it overlaid when we fix it it's probably going to be overlaid again with the current funding that we have.


Before the overall project is completed for us all the roads that were for this project then I guess we'll go back and take an evaluation of what needs to be implemented again or something we should take another look at and things like that.


Yeah, like I said, that's part of the entire design process, figuring out there's some rough cost estimates with these streets.


They're not perfect. We haven't studied them yet. We're doing the absolute best we can right now to come up with preliminary costs so we can make educated decisions As City Manager, Boyer stated, all of these streets were on the 25 or 26 list.


Other than Harvey and Harvey, we have a water main quality issue there that we really need to deal with.


Alright. Okay, thanks. Well, you said the biggest project on the list would be? Carroll Avenue.


Carol, will that be one of the first, will that be where you start or is?


We haven't made that determination yet. I mean we're going to design, the reason I wanted to bring this up tonight is we're bringing the design package forward for next council meeting to approve.


We'd like to pick up topography and survey next, basically in November. and Robert. That will help us get a head start.


If we wait longer, we'll be into, you know, December, winter months. It takes a lot more money and a lot more effort to pick up topography then.


And Carol will go from Adams to Empire. We're ending this year all the way to Empire.


Yeah, except for we will not do the Galena intersection because that's a state intersection.


So we'll stop at the return radius at Galena. so we will not get into the I-DOT throwaway there.


That is not controlled by the city and we don't wanna spend our local funds on that intersection.


So you'll stop at Galena and pick it back up? Yep, yep. Yes. If I'm doing my math right on all this, we had about 900,000 in the motor fuel tax that we talked about earlier.


The base projects without the three alternates are just under $4.2 million. That puts us, we're anticipating in the $3.3 million out of the 1% sales tax then.


Yes, I will say we're always estimating on the conservative side, so we're not exactly sure how much is going to come through until we see it. So, again, that's, yes, go ahead.


I just wanted to contribute that we received the first of the 1% just this past week and it was 307,000 so that would put us you know that's based on sales tax so you know it you know up be down you know holidays you know it goes up and goes down but you know we're looking at conservatively 3.6 I add my thank you I just wanted to I wanted to make that point that we are putting that 1% where it belongs and it is working.


So I'll clarify the funding for you temporarily because it's been a while since we've talked about this.


Not perfect numbers by any means, but the plan is to take roughly that million dollars from MFT for our city streets paving portion, estimated at the time about 3 million from the 1%, right, because we didn't want to overestimate it.


And then our water main, we have a potential Sorensen grant that's coming forward that we should know by the end of the year, and that's about 1.6 million in water main.


So between those funding sources, if you added these numbers up that I gave you, they're roughly about $5.3 million.


That gives us about a $300,000 cushion for some contingency because again, these are concept numbers, not perfect, and it depends on what costs do next year, but I think we're in the ballpark.


The one thing that I do wanna recognize is this is more streets than we had planned for next year.


We got more streets done this year than we had planned last year. The guys are doing great work.


One of the gives and takes is the water main that has to be done, reduces mileage that we can get done.


So this package here, if we did every street on here, we'll be about three miles next year on top of the six-ish miles we did this year.


And I believe we did about six last year. So we are making some ground on it and the 1% is definitely gonna help.


But we do have to address the water main, Carroll. The water main, as City Manager said, is from 1882.


On Carroll? On Carroll. The water main on, so I'm gonna repeat that. The water main on Carroll Avenue is from 1882.


That's significantly aged. What have we been doing? Depreciating water main. Yes. The water main on.


The wreckers of this. I'm sorry, Darren. Yeah. We keep records of all the main installations, yes.


Do we have scheduling appointments for replacements? We do not, because we don't have the funding to do it.


We don't have funding just to schedule replacement? No, we do not. We do not have. We have some funding and we've been addressing it through EPA loans, but we do not have a dedicated funding source.


I just want to jump in on that and in this particular case Larry to do the water main you really got to do the road as well so if you're if you're gonna replace that water main you've got to repave the street and it's kind of what we're doing right this is it right four miles a year three miles a year you know replace the water main repave the street patch in the curb do the best you can with the driveway approaches and move on so I see that there's a motion so is it D. Jodl, and Dr. D. Jodl. And that's it. Your hopes that we... No, no. So... That's what I did. The voting thing. No, it hasn't been one made, but is that what they're hoping to gain? I gave you that voting bar in case it's needed. I meant to fill you in. I apologize. We might not always need a vote, but it's there if you need to record it. Okay. Thank you. This is for your information.


Work Order is coming, you know, next week and I wanted you guys to have a preliminary blush at what's coming and have any types of discussion or questions ready.


Okay. So we'll see this next week. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Item number 11. Discussion regarding adding maintenance utility worker job to work to job description.


By City Manager Boyer Thank you, Ms. Chairman. The maintenance department for the City of Freeport is responsible for taking care of all of our utility facilities.


So that's the wastewater plant, the various water plants, pumping stations, and so on. Those folks ensure that all the water, all the facilities are in operating order and are built, basically maintained at the proper prescribed maintenance schedule.


The crews help the operators, they deliver safe, clean drinking water to the residents of Freeport and the crews also provide maintenance support to the wastewater treatment plant.


Their regular responsibilities include plumbing, electrical, building, construction, mechanical, Miller, logic controllers for automated controls.


All these tasks are done by a crew of four individuals, currently three of whom are in these positions.


So one is an entry level position, and it is the lowest paid in the public works department.


Two of these positions perform at a high skill task referred above. The final position in the current staffing of the department is a foreman position.


So essentially, what we're talking about here is we have two full-time people that are maintaining all of our facilities where we have three positions available.


They're grade 17. The trouble with the grade 17s is there's a lot of requirement for knowledge and experience, and we've had that job posted for over a year, and we have not been successful at filling it.


and what we're asking for is a grade 15 position so someone who could come in at a lower pay grade and then learn all the ropes and learn all the skills necessary to maintain the infrastructure at the city and over a period of time they would then be moved into that grade 17 position where we've been unable to fill.


So essentially what we're asking for is a new position however it is more of a and so on. So that's what we're asking for. So the grade 15 position, if filled, would move in two years to the 17.


Not necessarily two years, but after the completion of a learning syllabus. This is a position through the what union?


This is an AFSCME position. Do the union know about this position? Do they know about this want?


Yes. So essentially tonight is for us to just open up discussion to what extent it's necessary just to let counsel know that we would like to come after an additional position with the intent being it's a stair step to a higher grade. Attorney Zito. Just to piggyback off of what manager Boyer just said so to the extent that the council through a consensus tonight indicates that it's okay with with the creation of the new position.


Then we will move forward with then having the formal discussions with the union to create the position.


They've been given, you know, a heads up that this is being discussed by the city council, but then we will have to memorialize the creation of the position through our MOU with the union and then formally approve the job description by the city council as well there, so.


But again, tonight we're just looking to see if you guys are on board with creating position, then we'll move forward with the formal process of interacting and negotiating with the union.


Would it be, would it, would the union have to be for it or against it for it to move forward?


We've been collaborating with the union on it. I believe they're for it and yes they would have to be for it. Right so that would be if the council says yep we think it's a good idea to move forward with the position then we would start the discussions with the Union they would have to agree to it as well on there but that's if you guys are not in favor of it then there's no sense in talking to the Union about it so that's why we're talking about it now. I'd like to move forward with it. I would second I think we were just really kind of looking for a consensus just yeah as long as everyone no one's opposed to it right now if you're opposed to it speak up otherwise if no one speaks up then we'll just because again we have to go talk to the Union about it so but as long as everyone's okay with it then we'll go do Number 12. Discussing regarding ADA transition plan and ADA grievance policy and procedures presented by City Manager Boyer.


Thank you, Your Honor. I'm going to go ahead and move it to, I'm going to have Darren go ahead and take it from here.


So thank you. We've talked about the required ADA transition plan for probably the better part of a year. I've been trying to find different grants or opportunities to pay for this study, but it is something that is required by IDOT. It's required for any community that has more than 50 full-time or part-time employees and has a population of 20,000 or greater. It's to our motor fuel tax monies, and the study, it revolves around mobility challenged people within our community.


Freeport and most towns, most developed towns have a larger population of mobility challenged people just due to the resources that we have available here.


and many more. We have lots of mobility. People don't have vehicles or cars or transportation to get around.


One of the items that the City has right now that supports them is the Pretzel City Transit.


The ADA transition plan is a self-evaluation of all of our ADA ramps in Freeport.


Currently we have an estimated 1,900 ramps in town. Through the last few years, the city has spent significant resources at upgrading ramps.


We did a DCO project that we did about 75 ramps on, 76 I think.


This last year, I think we did about 82 on the street programs. So we've made some progress towards the replacements.


However, the plan requires that we do a self-inventory of every ramp, which means we have to have an engineer that's capable of understanding what the requirements are behind the ramps, grades, truncated domes. We have to not only inventory them, but we actually have to also take a survey point of them and create a map that's a living document for the City of Freeport that will be attached to our website that will be updated annually as we complete projects on our progress towards becoming more ADA-compliant.


The idea behind IDOT is to put together a living document of a 20-year plan to try to help with these mobility challenges.


We also have to put together a grievance policy and a committee to evaluate these grievance policies.


So, in case that we have an area that is underserved, people have the right to have a grievance and file it with the city and a committee needs to evaluate that and determine how we will move forward to address those particular handicap areas.


and other areas. Again, IDOT has this tied to our motor fuel tax money, which we generally get somewhere between $900,000 and $1.1 million with the motor fuel tax money to the City of Freeport annually. So this is, I guess, a requirement, but not a large requirement that they're wanting these evaluations done. Again, we have quite a few ramps that we've We've done in the last say two to three years that are compliant but we have numerous ramps that are not compliant and as we go around and fix our streets which we have been doing we have to fix these ramps and we have to update the plan and we have to work our way around town.


I will tell you honestly up front there's going to be no 20 year plan that's going to fix every ADA ramp in Freeport that's not going to happen we don't have those kind We have funds right now, but this planning will also help us towards efforts to get more funds towards ramps.


So that's one of the reasons they're requiring it. Right now, we've been working with ramp.


Rob and I have been for approximately the last year and a half. We know, based on some survey data, that about 60% of our mobility challenged residents live between Park Street and Clark Street on Glena Avenue.


that's a high concentration of them. Another area of concentration that they made us aware of was around Hans Drive, which is down around Berchard and South Street.


And then 10% are various areas around the community. Currently, forgive me if I said this already, it's estimated that we have about 1,900 ramps in Freeport.


I'm gonna guess that we have about 20% compliance at this point. There's five main parts to an ADA plan. It's the transition plan itself, which is usually a large planning document, the data collection, self evaluations, which we're coming up with a program, if you will, to make it so it's even at every location.


There's annual updates to this program, but we don't have to update the plan, the entire plan every year. We just need to update the map on which ones are compliant or not.


Again, we have to come up with a commission to evaluate any grievances and make sure that we are providing Proag, which is our standard for being compliant on ramp construction.


So with that, I'll take any questions. Yeah, I'm sorry. I almost got lost in that whole discussion you was making.


the previews of the drafting of the plan of the ADA ramps would you present council with a preview draft of those of that plan or those plans I should say and the mapping so of those ADA ramps in placement on maps where we can see the location of these ramps within our within the We're requiring when you go to these meetings that any basically tax money that's spent on streets needs to make the ramps compliant.


It used to be years ago when we just did mill and overlays, we weren't required to do the ramps because the ramps are so expensive.


We're somewhere in that $6,000 to $10,000 per ramp, so they add up pretty fast.


but we don't have a choice in it anymore unless there's a technical difficulty with building one.


For instance, we had one downtown that we were going to replace but it has a giant vault under it and it's going to cost probably a hundred thousand dollars to do that one corner and so we deemed it as technically unfeasible at this time. We just don't have the funds to to do that ramp.


Well, excuse me for a minute. You're gonna draft the plans for this for this particular project, right? The first thing we need to do is collect the data. That's the most important because we're probably about 10 months behind the 8-ball on this one because I've been trying to find somewhere to fund this plan. So the reason I wanted to discuss it more in detail tonight is I intend to bring a Work Order for the next council meeting to review to start this plan. We're wrapping up the 2024 street season and I would like to get out and get these areas all surveyed while the weather's decent and we'll make it easier and then we'll work on the plan during the winter months and then again we'll we'll create a commission. Just kind of like the library, our commission will create a commission, a review policy, all that will be adopted by the city at the end. It makes sense.


Yep. That makes sense. Okay, so we look forward to getting this data here soon. How soon are you?


Probably take us, if we get a signed work order next week, it'll probably take us the better part of the last two months of the year to collect just the data in the physical data in the city and then probably two to three months to create the plan and get a final version that can and the other members of the public.


I'm going to ask you to come and be reviewed and adopted. Okay. All right. Thank you.


What is something like this going to cost? Initially, I thought it was going to be around 95,000, but I believe that it will be cheaper than that.


T, to get a better known number of ramps to figure out how many hours the data is going to take.


I am hopeful that we can get it down. It won't be huge, but maybe down to about 85,000.


I'm hoping by the time we can bring it next week. It is a lot of survey data.


It is a lot of man hours to create this and also to create a policy that is going to be inclusive of not only the city, but ramp has to be part of this plan.


and we have to make it as a plan that we can live with as far as having a commission that's reasonable, right?


We don't have the funding to just, you know, do an entire area town because we have to, so we have to have some reasonability in the plan to give us time to work at areas that are challenged.


If we're able to get it down to the $85,000, will that include collecting the data and...


Yes, I intend to do full everything with just a review by the Council and then the City with Rob, Jodi, and the Council will have to help create a commission.


Obviously, it's very hard to get people to serve on committees, so we will be looking, somebody has to be in charge of the committee, and most communities, it's the Public Works Director that is the head of this program, and then as grievances are brought in, you have meetings to decide how you're going to resolve this, and I'm not suggesting this for this cycle, this budget cycle, I'm trying to accelerate this so it doesn't lock up any of our MFT funding.


That's the most important thing now. I admittedly have drugged my feet long enough and couldn't find a funding opportunity to pay for this because I didn't really want to pay for it ourselves.


But at this point, I don't think we have anything but a choice to move forward with it because our MFT monies are too valuable to the projects that we're doing.


And then what I would say is I think we'll be fine for next year because by the time we get this done and approved by council and get it to IDOT, we'll probably be through most of the construction season next year.


and we'll start having to budget a line item for some of these grievances that may or may not come in so we have some funding to address some specific issues.


Okay. Okay. All right, so again, I plan to bring a work order to the next meeting and really I've heard you say that numerous times you wanted to be educated about things prior to the work orders coming so that's the intent of these items tonight.


Okay. So that would be at the October 21st meeting. Okay. And that was number 12.


Moving to 13, Discussion. to 13, Discussion Regarding Ordinance Approving Amendment to Lease Amendment with Thank You for Solar Array at Landfill, presented by Director Duckman.


Thank you Alderperson, Stacey. I can see that Attorney Zito has got his hand up.


I'm sorry. That's all right. I can, so this item we're going to, our staff is going to ask for it to be removed from discussion tonight. It's not ready to go. I was hoping to get some some answers from Amoresco, but I have not heard back from their attorney as of today. So we're not quite ready with what the plan of what the plan go forward is going to be. So we don't even know if we need this amendment or not. So it depends on when I hear back from them. Thank you. Item number 14.


Discussion regarding the Water Main Extension Project on West Stevenson Street and specifically the consideration of rescinding resolution number R2024-95 approving an agreement with Fehr Graham, to provide design engineering services related to the Open Bible Church Water Main Extension Project.


Okay, so I have had discussion with Darren, Director Darren, Attorney Zito, Ms. Anderson, and because it was voted on and approved, I can't just pull it back.


That's where rescinding it came in it. And it was said that it was going to take about a year to design it, but I find out that in less than three weeks it's been designed and already at the EPA for approval.


I don't know how you do that. I don't know how you say something is going to take a year to design and then it's designed and completed in two weeks.


but that's where we're at with this. So I just have some questions. City Clerk, Anderson, and a member to the Council for the September 3rd meeting referencing the Open Bible Water Main Extension, City Manager Boyer stated through a series of documents the information details the City agreed upon regarding the Water Main Extension in 1999 to be installed between three to five years.


So my question is, have you found any ordinance, variants, written agreement, resolution, council minutes or executive sessions regarding recording references to Open Bible Watermain Extension?


I have I have not looked thoroughly. I have not been directed to do that thoroughly. I don't know what memo you're speaking of. Are you sure it was from me?


There was a memo in the September 3rd meeting referencing the Open Bible Water main extension.


City Manager Boyer stated it and he stated that through a series of documents or information Detailed, and maybe I addressed this to you, maybe I should have been addressing it to you, City Manager Boyer.


Do you have any of this information, details the city agreed upon regarding the Watermain Extension in 1999 to be installed in three to five years?


Have you found any ordinance variants written, agreements, resolutions, council minutes, or executive sessions regarding this matter?


Former Chief Blackburn came and discussed that at public comments tonight. He said that during his conversations with, at the time, United Water, that there is agreement with him and the and the head of the water sewer commission at the time that it would be a three to five year project I think he stated as much tonight and he stated that that agreement came from the community development person at that time no he was talking about the head of the water sewer commission at the time Head of the Water Sewer Depot. Okay. Alderman, Stacy, I think one thing we're getting mixed up is it wasn't water and sewer at that time. It was United Water that handled it. Right, correct. So we know it wasn't totally handled by city. That's the only thing I want to bring.


I'm very aware of what Mr. Blackburn, I think, said tonight, but let's also recap on when Mayor Goetz came to the council, who was the mayor during the 1999 year who said that nothing never came to the council.


Nothing never hit the council floor. Nothing was discussed pertaining to this matter. Mayor, and so I don't expect you to have an answer as to why that is, because we was not even under a City Manager at that time, we had a full-time Mayor, but it disturbs me me that something so important could be thought that it's going to be moved forward even by open Bible and they not have the decency to even bring it to the Council.


So are you telling me that there is a paper out there based upon what Mr. Blackburn said tonight that there is a signed document out there that you can produce?


As far as I understand it, there was a commitment made by the head of the Water Sewer Commission at the time that a 3 and 5 year time horizon would be fine for budgeting that water main extension to the open Bible and in that area for this fire suppression system.


Well, it was the handshake and the comment was made through the community development. And so the community development person have that kind of power, again, without bringing anything to the council floor.


This was between the head of the Water and Sewer Commission and also the manager for United Water who ran the utility for the city of Freeport not not community development community development only required that the structure be built with the appropriate fire suppression as of code in 1998 or whenever the thing was constructed but it was said that the community development shook the hands of the principal don't know about that and made the deal I don't think that anything I think Community Development produced a waiver to allow the city time to hook up the water.


Attorney Zito? Rob, correct me if my understanding is wrong, but my understanding is that where community development came in is that they granted a waiver or granted I think the term that was used that night was a variance there as far as the construction of the building because normally they would need to have constructed the building with the sprinkler system in right and then connected it right and where the waiver came in or the variance it was where Community Development signed off and said, no, you can go ahead and build the building now, operate it, use it, as long as you put in the sprinkler system and we know that it's going to be hooked up in three to five years, we'll go ahead and let you build the building. We'll issue you the building permit there, so I think that's the variance where the Community Development Director is. So then there's written statement out there pertaining to a variance and a waiver.


Are you asking me? Yes. I haven't personally seen it, but I think it's out there, yeah.


Okay, so can we put forth an effort to find that? Sure. Okay, thank you. My second question, City Manager Boyer, did the issue arise after Open Bible failed its mandated DCFS State Fire Inspection on May 28, 2024.


I have to ask the Chief to confirm that for you. So my understanding is State Fire Marshal went out there, conducted their annual inspection, and determined that the suppression system in there was not fed by any kind of water supply.


So he indicated that was a violation and also said that he would be interested in working with the facility and granted them one year in which to make arrangements to have that complied with.


Okay. Can anyone tell me how did they go 25 years with yearly mandated inspections and they were past.


I won't go into this whole thing now, but I happen to represent the area where Open Bible is in. So I've had discussions with Open Bible and had a lengthy discussion with Jennifer Fuller, who is the head of it. The fire inspection on that building, and Chief, Tell me if I'm wrong, it's mandated by the state every three years it has to be done.


And there was a person out there, she was there from 2006, so from 2006 till this year, every three years there was a person out there to inspect the facility.


They made them change fire doors at one period of time, there were swinging doors that went between the, what would be the sanctuary out into the educational wing, they had them I'm changed to regular fire doors that they had to be.


And they also had them specifically put a sign on the sprinkler system that it was not connected to city water, that the system was not connected to water.


And that was told to them by the fire marshal. So the city, so it had been expected every three years which was their policy.


Every three years was the policy. Not every year. every three years for a childhood facility, child care facility.


Alderman Sanders. Every three years, were they in compliance with that water sprinkling system with no water?


Excuse me, Larry, I didn't hear your first paper. I'm sorry. That's OK. Was the open Bible study building in compliance every three years when they came out to inspect that property to make sure that it was taken, unless they just was given a pass, is that what took place?


No. They was given a pass. There was no, was there a stamp saying that the inspection was completed and they was in compliance?


Is that what we're saying? I would assume that would be the thing and that can surely be checked, but they had them specifically make changes and every change, everything that they suggested that has been taking place. And we must find the paper trail, see who's signing off on it, and then we can have further discussion in regards to how we got here and who's coming to keep feeding this notion that the city is liable for any parts of that, you know.


I'm just having this discussion because we're spending money with no one responsible or have the rights to ask the city to help fund something that the taxpayers are paying for, especially if it's a Bible study or anything like that.


because we're spending money if it's just going to sit there and the building is not in compliance or the property is not in compliance but they're getting this, there's violations going on, I'll put it like that and we got to get to the root of it, we need to get to the root of it because there's a paper trail and I like to see that paper trail because that will give us whatever it is that we're looking for to make sure that everything is and a court in to what the fire marshals in the state of Illinois wants this particular establishment to have. So we're not going to be passing any more violations every three years because I need to see that. I want to see what is that all about because we have not gotten in that area. I was told a whole different type of story and I was fed a bunch and others.


And I don't appreciate that. And so my thing is we better come into order here about this particular discussion that we're having because we're not fully invested our time and efforts into discovering what it is that we're talking about until we have the paperwork to talk about it, you know.


I think we're wasting a lot of time with that. Let me give you a little information I found, and this may be a little helter-skelter to you because I wrote it a couple different times, but like I said, I do represent Open Bible, Open Bible area, I want to tell you that the market in the child care facilities over the last year, last years have considerably changed.


And if you're not familiar with this, I want to tell you that there's 1700 kids, 1700 children every day in Carroll, Joe Davis, and Steveson County that have absolutely no daycare, no place to go.


Okay? That's one thing. and others. The second thing that is a critical problem here in this area, they even go as far as to the Y brought it up at their morning meeting a couple weeks ago, that this was really referred to these three places as a desert because there wasn't places available for them to go.


Another big issue for the teaching industry is that when teachers become pregnant, many and many more.


Many of them end up going out of the trade because they have no place to take their kids for daycare.


There are only a couple places that even handle kids zero to two. Every daycare facility in the City of Freeport has waiting lists.


Okay? I'll just give you kind of a rundown. It may take a couple minutes if you want to tell me to shut up.


But that's off the topic. That's off the topic right now. No, it isn't off the topic.


I'm telling you, it's a daycare facility that's got people out there that have got...


It's a daycare facility that, come May 28th, its year will be up. It's a daycare facility that didn't need, didn't do what it needed to do for 25 years.


It's a daycare facility that have put kids in endangerment. And that's your opinion. For 25 years.


and now they expect the City of Freeport and our tax dollars to and many more. I want to talk about the tax dollars to make their situation right. City Manager Boyer, will the city force the, I don't know, 9, 10 or 11 residents in that area to connect to city water? If so, would it be at their expense or will the also bear the cost.


Will Open Bible be required to pay for its hookup, yes or no? Darren? Yeah, I'd be glad to answer that.


So per our codes and ordinances, every house that we would go by that is not served would be served.


We've done that on every project that we've done. That is the city cost of building it, but we would only connect to their right of way like we do with everyone else.


And then it's their responsibility to connect to that point. Once we run into their property, it's considered ready to serve.


And so those customers would be ready to serve and get a ready to serve invoice until they connect, at which time they would just go to a normal connection fee.


Open Bible per our codes and ordinances, by the way, per our codes and ordinances, we do not charge residential customers to hook up at the time of construction.


That's in our codes. So if we build a new main, anybody that connects at that time does not pay the connection fee.


If they choose not to do it, then they pay the connection fee at a later date if they waive that opportunity while we're there.


And what is that connection fee? It depends on where the water main is, but I believe it's $1,600 for a close side and $3,200 for a long side service, they call it, I believe that's in our code.


and then Open Bible is a commercial account so they would pay a commercial fee to connect but that's a different size service because they're going to probably need a six inch service to connect out there.


And what is the commercial fee cost? I couldn't tell you that off top my head but Darren, I just want to jump on that.


Excuse me? I'm sorry. I didn't hear what he was saying. I'm not sure what the commercial six inch connection fee is off the top my head.


I've been working on some residential ones lately. As far as I know, it was installed at the same time that the building was constructed, So we inspected that, right? Because if we put a water box down there, then we would have a paper trail of that water box for a temporary possible hookup.


No, there's no water box. It's just a connection pipe that's ran to the street. It's connected to nothing. Is it generating an invoice? A monthly invoice. It does not generate a monthly Invoice? No, it's not served. We can't charge for something. We're not there yet. Okay. All right. I just want to make sure that we don't stick something down there. Yeah. So could you please get me a cost for commercial? The commercial fee hookup? Yep. I can because that won't be on city's tax dollars. That'd be on open Bible. Open Bible.


Ivo. Okay, City Manager Boyer or Public Works Director, Darren Stigl, isn't the average cost to connect to the city between $10,000 to $12,000? You just said it's $16,000 to $32,000. For water. For water. So the $10,000 to $12,000. That would be a whole new service Rans, and then we waive the connection fee if they connect at the time that we're building, right?


So that 10 to 12,000 would be waived if they connected at the time? No, they would have to hire a plumber to pay their portion of the fee from the Buffalo and the right of way into their home.


So that cost becomes their own, which they negotiate with a plumber and that depends on how far they have to go to their house, what the materials are.


We don't pay that at all. Our initial connection to each house could be averaged at, I don't know, probably $5,000, maybe $6,000 to get everything set so they're ready to serve.


Talking to the constituents, all over, and this is a sad situation, but I'm still going I'm going to say it's not our job to use our tax payer money and fix this issue.


I have not once heard Open Bible agree to meet halfway or anything. Yes, it is unclear where would this money come from?


I proposed in September that we could use it, use the Capital Improvement Fund to build it and construct it and then we could potentially repay the Capital Improvement Fund with any, with the equivalent amount of funds coming from the per-flournate compound litigation that we should be seeing some.


It's the Forever Chemicals. There's a damages lawsuit between the city and 3M and BASF and DuPont.


And when those funds come in, this would be an appropriate use of that. you know because what I was told was a rainy day fun I don't know what makes up a rainy day fun well we can talk about this till whenever but I think the bottom line is if we can't come up to an agreement with them we're not gonna have a say it's gonna be in the court and there'll be a judge deciding it for us I just think that there was an agreement made 25 years ago we didn't fulfill you said may have been an agreement what I'm just going by what chief Blackburn said okay okay and he the way it sounded it was agreed upon city didn't carry we don't come up with some kind of a we don't have to do it we're gonna end up in court and we're I have a solution. I have a solution. Since it is unclear where the money for the entire project will come from, I think it is necessary that we, as a council, rescind resolution number R204-95 and draft a more responsible resolution creating a binding referendum to be placed


on the ballot for the April 4th, the April 1st, 2025 general election given the people, the taxpayers, our constituents who were here working on their behalf to give them the power to design.


Attorney Zito. just as a point of clarification so I think what your suggestion is is that you want to put into the hands of the people the decision whether or not to run the water main out to open Bible are we gonna pay for this project yes okay that decision that is different though than rescinding the fair Graham contract Boer Referendum. Yes. Is that what you're suggesting? Yes. Okay. And I'm also making a motion to move that to the October 21st council meeting.


over 21st Council meeting, that question for a vote. I second it. Darren. Yeah, so just some points of clarity.


Our contract that was approved at that meeting was only for design, not to move forward to bidding, right?


So our contract is just to get it to a bid ready set of plans that then can be shelved, discussed, Grant opportunities could be looked for.


There was no intent from the design approval that was there to move this to a bid at that time.


We took that option off when it was approved. So this contract without council approval to go to bid cannot go to bid, right?


It's just a design shovel ready. Then maybe we can chase some grant money because of the children and items out there.


I also wanna clarify the schedule. So we did say a year, but because it will take two to three months to get it ready, then it's gotta go to permitting for three months.


And then by that time, it's gonna be like April. And this is probably a two to three month construction window, depending on when it would get fit in or bid.


So by that time, we will be a full calendar year. That's generally what most projects end up taking.


And you know that. Yep. But that was not said to us. so when you said it's gonna take a year to design it, that's what I thought.


Well, I'm sorry, I deal with it all the time so I may have not spoke clearly but that's typically what a project can take.


We were asked to accelerate this one because of the children and the nature of the liability here and so we did accelerate the design because the sooner we have it designed, the sooner we can try to look for funding opportunities that may not be solely Freeport.


One other point of clarity that I want to make. I have no skin in the game. I want to be transparent. My kids went to Open Bible. I don't know anybody there that has kids anymore, but my kids went there. I never knew they didn't have a sprinkler, and it would have been during the time period.


There wasn't no sign up about the sprinkler saying, not in service? I never I if it did I didn't read it right but I do think that we have to look at this at a little bit bigger game than what we are the city of Freeport has a responsibility with our water system to serve people within our municipality if they want to be served they are within the city limits as is all the other and other people that are from A to B and I will fully admit that we made a mistake calling this the Open Bible water main expansion.


It's really to the west side of town. My question to you guys would be if this was in a different direction of town, if it went south, east or west, would we still be having this argument?


Yes we would. Because to me, if somebody's within our city limits and wants water, we have an obligation to serve them.


Ordinances say they can't have a well. Yes, you're right. Yeah, we do have to serve them if they want water.


They can't use wells. But it doesn't have to be at our expense. It doesn't have to be at our tax dollars' expense.


Well. But it does with everyone else. I mean, every water main that's put in is our expense.


and a private church slash school and they don't pay taxes but they yes they're in the city limits so you're telling me open bible pays taxes on their their church and their school like every like the church that you go to that you go to that you go it's no different So can I add to this too, please? So it's good conversation we're having here and certainly Open Bible would be a beneficiary of this water main placement out there, but what concerns me even beyond that particular facility is that span of more than 2000 feet represents seven more city fire hydrants that would go and Joe in service in there.


So right now, any kind of structure fire issue we would have between Brandmar and further west, we have no water supply.


Yeah, I see, I understand what you're saying, yeah. Seven more fire hydrants, three other parts benefits the whole area, not just open viable.


And the fire department as well. I understand that. Right. I can understand that right there.


So, it would not just be a dedicated open Bible water main ran out to them. It would be a west side of town benefit. What's odd enough is they have city sewer out there. The earth was opened up and pipes taking material away from that facility in that area exist.


Now, why can't there be pipes put in the ground that runs water to that facility?


I mean, it's like a double standard we're all discussing here and recognizing. So, their waste goes to city services and runs through city, you know...


Sewer mains. Sewer mains, and it gets, you know, handled by city services, but yet it's city limits and we don't have water out there.


It's like if we didn't have seven fire hydrants running down Stevenson with this large gap.


It's a city utility, and again, my main concern is water supply going on the west side of town.


An added benefit would just be protection to open Bible and any other structure that is within those boundaries.


Right, and what you're saying is all of that has to come by design. You have to really design those hydrants. If it has to go in place to be installed, Open Bible could be a recipient of that installation without paying anything. Is that what we're getting at?


It would certainly be hooked up to that main, which is also providing, again, seven more fire hydrants to the west side of town.


Yeah, yeah. And I'm looking at it in even a larger scope, a bigger picture, than just one particular facility.


Right. I hear you loud and clear right there, Chief. Again, it is my desire to put it into the hands of the people, and that it be placed on the ballot for the April 1st, 2025 general election.


Okay. Do we have a motion for that? No, it's no motion. Do we have any?


I think there's an order here. that was that was to move it to the April yes okay all I want to comment is you You know, within the next, say, three months, we'll have an EPA approved set.


We're not going to go to construction, but there's a lot of powerful individuals in this room having a disagreement about something that maybe if we put our efforts together, we can find a way to fund this project that has a lot of need for fire protection, for children, and find a way that it doesn't use city funds.


We've had the ability to find grants before. This story would play well with constituents and state representatives and other parties.


So maybe we can all, instead of have a big disagreement about it, find a way to work together to applaud or apply to agencies to find some kind of funding for this.


I really think due to the early childcare aspect of this project, along with the safety needs and the fire needs of the community, this is something that a lot of people here could work together to find some kind of avenue to, you know, maybe we can find a grant to fully fund it.


And hopefully the school is trying to do that and not waiting for a handout.


Really they're looking for ways of getting money to help fund this. I can't speak educated on that subject.


I have no idea what power that school or the demographic of that school would be to have to find a grant to place a public infrastructure.


And really, you know, Open Bible isn't looking for a handout. It's the city's responsibility to provide water to every constituent.


It's not a handout. It's what we need to do. We're obligated. It's just too bad that it was put in our lap and we didn't know it.


So why wasn't this done 25 years ago? Well, that's the magic question. No one has that answer.


I don't know it. I wasn't in it. You weren't in it. If it was our responsibility then, if you're saying it's our responsibility now, it was our responsibility then.


but they didn't even have the decency to bring it. and the rest of the city.


They didn't even have the decency to bring it to the Council. Mayor Getts said it never even hit the Council floor.


So who are you asking for what from and through? When you don't even go through the mayor or the Council, who works on behalf of the city and the constituents and the other one is making it run and operate as it should. But you avoid that lifeline, really the only lifeline that can give this life was avoided because the community development person shook the hands of the principal.


Now, that means let's shake some hands. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Well, if the discussion is done, you should probably call for the vote.


Yes, I want to call for the vote, but we don't even... Can we clarify what the vote's for?


Her motion is to put a referendum question on So a yes would be in favor and a no would be against On the City Council meeting for next Monday night So if you want to have a referendum on this, then you vote yes If you don't, then you vote no I just wanted to verify it But I ask that the vote be placed on for vote for vote next week.


Right. So, right. So that's your motion, right? Just so that at the next city council meeting, there will be an agenda item about authorizing a referendum question.


Yes. Right. Okay. So, and I will double check because there are certain deadlines. You did mention specifically the April 1st election date.


I will double check to make sure we haven't missed the deadline for putting a referendum on the April 1st there. So assuming we haven't missed that deadline, if this passes, then we can move forward as presented. Otherwise, we may have to take it to the next available election.


So I thought that any two people could put anything on an agenda. But this is, you're asking about an election. You're not, that's totally different subject.


Yes, but that would give Attorney Zito time to find out if we're even at...


Monday will be, yeah, I'll find out by then. If this passes, right, right, if this if this is the will of the council to go to referendum then. And so if it doesn't pass then what you're just saying it's dead?


You, well, you can, you, again, like you said... We could just bring it right back. Two people could put it right back on and see if, you know, We'll see if the vote changes.


Okay. Could I ask a question? This would be for Aaron or for Darren, one of the two.


If the contract is pulled for the design, is that what we're discussing now, Do you think he's holding it for the design also?


No, the design is completed. Okay, then forget what he said. The design is done.


That $69,000 is paid, whether we do anything or not. Yes? Excuse me. I have a suggestion.