This is all based again on the current increases, however, we're looking at the budget and putting together a plan for for increases. We just don't know what those will be. So I'd like to move down to 6165, which is contracted equipment repair and maintenance. Again, this one here we haven't used and I don't know if we'll end up needing to use it. But we want to go ahead and keep it there in case we require some some type of equipment repair and maintenance.
We have an equipment rental. We have $1,000 in here. In the past we've had up to $3,000 and we purchased our own mini excavator a couple years ago and that's kind of made it accessible to the cemetery for digging graves and it's been very useful but we want to go ahead and keep that $1,000 in case we need to rent a pulverizer for the dirt or something like that.
moving down to 70-10 machinery and equipment over a thousand we've got
three thousand dollars for our Ferris zero-turn mowers we're including some
upgrades for those. Any questions on cemetery? You said mowing? Yes, mowers the
they're Ferris mowers there are zero turn mowers and we have like I said about
26 acres out there that we have to mow weekly and we have two or three I think
we have three total mowers but two really nice ones that the guys use and
they can go quickly. Yes. Are we budgeting anything for grave sites for the veterans?
As far as upgrading things or cleaning or what do you mean? No I thought that we
We used to have grave sites available for veterans.
And we do.
We do.
Dovie probably can speak to that.
That's different than this.
Yes.
But go ahead, Dovie.
Veterans are not charged for their burial site.
They are charged for the grave opening.
So there's just no revenue to the city.
And I guess any normal expense, the excavator or anything, any normal burial expense.
Dovie, what's a normal bearer? What's a normal? A plot is six hundred and eighty six dollars. So we don't charge veterans for that?
Or infants. There's an infant aisle that the grave is free as well.
Okay, any other questions on cemetery? All right, I'd like to move on to forestry.
Again, back to the wages, same story there. I'm gonna move down to
We're in good shape there. Contracted vehicle repair and maintenance. We're budgeting $10,000 for our clam truck repair and inspection. We have one of the most important piece of equipment for the Forestry Department, the clam truck. And it is rather old, and it does require a lot of maintenance. We've been doing a good job of doing that in-house. Unfortunately, certain components on that require
Skillsets that we don't have, you know, mostly hydraulic. It's got a fancy hydraulic swivel on it
So when that stuff gets to leak in we take the thing we take off the cylinders or whatever it is that we're that
That's hydraulically powered and we send those out and get them repaired. And so that's what this is about
And I'd like to just scoot down to 67 65 tree assistance
So the tree assistance is our contracted tree budget. So this year like the last well since I've been here, which is
May the fifth year we contract remove some of the largest scariest trees in the
city one reason for that is we don't have the equipment to take down trees of a
certain size a very large size and two they can be very hazardous so we
contract those out for those reasons and we're budgeting about a hundred
thousand dollars again this year and last year we did the same yep and am I
My understanding that 50, just a little over half, was used this year?
No, no. All the bills probably haven't arrived yet.
But what you have, year to date, is 50,143.
Yes, that's correct. That's what we've used so far.
Yeah, our tree contract for this year, the bill hasn't come yet, so the trees that are on here are just emergency trees.
We have another tree contract that's going to put that line item over budget this year because we've had so many storm trees this year.
Yeah, what was that, March, where we had that big?
We had two different storms that we had. One had like 28 trees we had to take down and another one we had like 30 trees we had to take down and our crews couldn't handle all of it.
It was just, it was too much and some of them are just too big.
So the good news is the faster the more of these things we keep removing the
fewer we're gonna have coming down and wind storms however I think the first
year I was here I mean we would just get a normal thunderstorm blowing through and
our guys would be out there I think I I think in 2020 we had a storm sometime in
July and I think we had 20 trees come down that storm and the more we've been
taking down these trees on contract the less we've had come down during storms
it's surprising to a very large tree can cost upwards of $10,000 to remove yeah
they get very expensive okay with that machinery over $1,000 we're looking at
purchasing a new saw this year for $1,500 and a grinder chopper attachment for the
skid steer or the or the mini excavator and what that's gonna allow us to do is
takeout brush along the dry, you know, along the road siding. So especially
Henderson Road is a real problem. There's a lot of brush there. It's very steep.
There's not a great way to get to that. This grinder will allow us to more
efficiently remove all the debris that grows up along the road siding. So we're
planning to purchase that in 25. And then last, we've got a couple of trim saws. So
it's equipment under a thousand. A couple of trim saws, or a trim saw and a pull saw.
So trim saws are small and by the way the saws we buy they're magnesium framed we
use a lot of they're used quite a bit and they're built for continuous use not
like your normal home chainsaw. Any questions on forestry? All right I'd like
to go to animal control.
Thank you, Kurt.
Again, wages.
And there's really not a whole lot here
besides wages and withholdings.
We are budgeting some nominal amounts for equipment
and maintenance, repair, and fuel, and vet services,
and machinery.
This year, we're looking to get a tranquilizer gun.
When you have a very aggressive dog,
It's nice to have an extra tool in your tool belt
that you can take a dog down without it getting
the person in harm's way.
The last couple of years, we bought some new snares.
But having an extra capability is going to be good.
So we budgeted for that this year.
Any questions on animal control?
If I could, do we have anything on backup on training
and back up on our licensing back for larger animals?
We are working on with the staff that's
interested at the street department to help us out.
But right now, we're a little bit in a holding pattern
as we're waiting for the outcome on our current animal controls
health situation.
Thank you.
You said health situation stuff?
Yeah.
What does that mean?
Just health, he's out for health reasons.
Oh, we don't have no one right now.
Well, we will cover the calls over the weekend.
It's on a rotating basis,
but our permanent animal control person is not here.
Okay.
Okay, moving on with traffic engineering.
Last year, we budgeted for a new signal
and Crossing Signals at Berchard and Empire.
This year we're looking to replace or repair
the FHN crosswalk at Stevenson
and Route 75 at Honeywell.
Those signals have been in place for many, many years
and are in unreliable condition.
So we're budgeting about 60,000 for that.
Other than that, not much else to talk about
in terms of traffic engineering.
Any questions?
What did you say about Route 75?
The walk signal at 75, I get it.
Well, it's Stevenson at Honeywell, Plant 1.
Oh, OK.
That's Commercial Avenue.
Hmm?
Commercial Avenue?
Oh, OK, yes.
Again, the budget for this activity
looks so low for 24 because the bill for the Burchard
Lights is not in yet and those were just replaced about two weeks ago.
Okay with that I'd like to move on.
Okay with that I'd like to move on to street lights. So street lights, again
we're talking about the city-owned street lights, most of which are in the
downtown. We have a handful of other ones sprinkled throughout the city, but almost
all other street lights that you see out there, if they're not in the downtown,
they're most likely ComEd lights. So each year we budget for the electrical
expense. We're budgeting about $300,000 for the street light
Expense, and we're also budgeting $20,000 for repair and maintenance. Every once in a while we'll
have a large, we'll have like a ice storm or we'll have some line pull something down and we'll have
to go repair it and it can be very expensive. So any questions on street lights? How much did you say
downtown street lights were? We primarily had those replaced under a grant, a Distressed Communities
Grant. I'm sorry. If you're talking about the downtown LED lights that we installed, those were
basically free. We had those installed on a ComEd Distressed Communities Grant, and I think we spent
about $7,500 on incidentals and some additional labor, but overall we didn't have to spend anything
on those. As I recall, what do they cost a piece, sir? Those are bigger powered ones. Those are I
Miller, I think around $300 a head for the Cobra Head itself and then the labor but we've
been trying to get another distressed community grant to address some of these other ones
in the main corridors we just have not been successful yet.
Any other questions on Srila?
Yes.
Carriage Hills, that's one of our...
Yeah, Carriage Hills light that's out is because the wire's cut, don't know where it is and
and we haven't had a chance to really track that down.
OK, that's why.
Yeah, you're talking about the one across from the, well,
I'm sorry, in general, but I understand they're different.
Yeah, they had installed those pedestal lights
and the ambiance thing.
So that becomes the city's issue?
Those are the city lights.
So OK, with that, we could, yes.
I mean there's there's a handful of city-owned streetlights sprinkled out throughout the city of Freeport
But most like over 90% of them are ComEd owned
All right, I'd like to move on to motor fuel fund
So this year we're expecting to receive
We've $480,000 in the Transportation Renewal Fund and $500,000 in MFT tax allotments with an additional $50,000 in income interest and that comes out to about a million dollars.
This has all been budgeted for the 2025 street program so you look down at the next item which is expenses.
you've got 125,000 in crack ceiling which is just part of maintenance that we need to do so we can
make those new streets that we've just done last longer that's why we need to do the crack ceiling
and then rock and road material as you can see there is 900,000 those will get that money will
be expended on street reconstructs in 2025.
And that's coming from the motor fuel fund or that's coming from the street fund that is that's from motor fuel tax
Any other questions on MFT
Okay, well that concludes the budget planning session
I did have a question. Sure. On the first page. Yeah. Kurt, could you go back that up?
Sorry, at 101-141-5000. It was pertaining to us budgeting 60,000. Yeah, hang on one
second while we get backed up there. I'm just trying to understand it.
Yeah, yeah, he's backing it up. I'm just taking a minute. There you go.
There you go. Okay, so if you see on the 2024 budget, those are items that were budgeted. 2024 activity, none of them have been expended.
2025, we're not budgeting anything for Public Works. In this case, this is for the Public Works Director.
And that is because Darren is our Contract Public Works Director, and that comes out in a different place in the budget.
and that is that's why you see that at zeros so the non-bargaining are the
people that's not in a union correct and we budgeted 60,000 but we use none of it
that's correct and that'll just be re-budgeted at the end of the year and
and it'll go in when we do the re-budget.
But on 2025, it says zero.
That's because we're not spending anything
out of this account next year,
because we have a contract to Public Works Director.
It's just gonna be out of a different line item.
There was screen improvement funds we had on the agenda here yet.
I missed it.
Thank you, Michelle.
Apologies.
We'll have it ready for you next time.
That's fine.
Well, the numbers are here.
I don't have it on your sheet.
That's fine.
We don't have it.
We'll catch it next.
That's fine.
Any other discussion?
any other discussion thank you any any public comments nobody here would make
a motion for adjournment motion by Clem second by Parker all in favor aye opposed
we are adjourned