I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for
which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Madam Clerk, please call the roll.
Ted Odendahl.
Here.
Kathy Wilken.
Here.
Kathy Altensey.
Here.
Here. We have a quorum. The first of our minutes is the approval of minutes for the April 20th, 2026 meeting. I need motion and a second please.
So moved.
Any second?
I'll second it.
Motion by Altensey, second by Wilken. Please have a look at the minutes if you haven't done so already.
I like that bigger font.
Me too.
Yeah.
It's like you're not going like this.
I like it too because I'm getting old myself. I'm black. Nice.
It's raining? Oh my goodness. Yeah, it's supposed to. Oh, I didn't get my rain barrel all in.
Are there any questions on the minutes? No, I digressed. Sorry.
Okay. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. The next order being is
approval of Bill's payable. And motion to second please. Motion to approve. I need a
second. I'll second it. Motion by Odendahl, second by Wilken. Please take a look at the
Bill's payable if you haven't done so already.
I have a question. Yes. The Resume Genius, is that? Resume Genius is for the jumping
Wilkins, Altensey, Odendahl, Sellers,
Sellers?
Aye.
Motion passed.
McIlwain?
All right.
We just did the bills.
Did you have any questions on claim to demand?
No, I saw them already.
I didn't have any questions.
Okay.
So, can I put you down as a yes?
Yes, you can.
Thank you.
All right.
The next item is the supervisor's report.
I don't have anything to hand out.
And that's the supervisor's report.
So, can I put you down as a yes? Yes, you can. Thank you.
All right. The next order of business is the supervisor's report. I don't have anything
to hand out, and that's the report. I will have some jump start numbers for you guys
for the next meeting and probably some client numbers for you guys, too. Okay? All right.
Next order of business is the assessor's report. I have nothing to report tonight either.
Well, I will mention that we being the yield program is planting some trees and these are
to be large trees so they need to be a friend appropriately but if anyone in the town wants
We've got a shade tree. We will come to our house and if they need help planting, we'll plant it for them.
Is there a cross to have?
No.
What kind of trees are they?
Primarily oaks, although there are some other kinds, but they are all, well all, we've got four smaller bushes, but all the others are large shade trees.
If you could have someone send some sort of write up for that right there, I could put it on our Facebook page so everybody can see it.
We can do that.
I've got something. The pretzel meal prep is up and running again for the pantries.
And so if anybody wants to come and help us pack up the meal prep bags on Thursday at the Y at 915
What's your head count as far as how many?
Well, last time we did it, we had, I think we had over 600 bags that we packed and we
took to different places and I think we're up and we had got enough money through donations
to do at least that much again and probably a little bit more.
Food pantries probably really need it.
Yeah, they do.
So it's different food pantries we're doing.
And we've got, what, four of them, right?
Oh, there's more than that.
Because there's little church ones, too.
So we're doing some of the smaller church,
like New Jerusalem, and well, the big ones,
like Salvation Army, and FACC, and yeah.
Mount Calvary.
Mount Calvary is another one that we're doing.
I think we do have for the high school as well, that we did that before, so I think we're doing the high school pantry, and I know there's some other ones, too, that we're doing, but I don't want to hang them at the top of my head, so.
Okay.
I'm sorry, tell me again when you're...
Thursday, this coming Thursday at 915 at the YMCA, so just come in and they'll point you where you need to go.
At the main building, yeah. We'll have it all set up and we have to go and pick up the food from all these on Thursday morning.
They take it over to the Y and then we get to busy.
Keeps you off the streets, right?
Keeps me busy, yeah.
So, if you can come and help, we'd appreciate it. If you can't, it's okay, too.
That's a good cause.
Yeah, do we know, I know that they made the change to SNAP recipients, like the job work requirements kicking in, or started May 1st.
Do we have any idea of what the impact would be on Freeport and what profile a recipient
would be affected?
I was going to look before I came here, but I didn't have time today, so.
I don't know.
Okay.
I know we have a significant amount of people in this area that are seeking disability or
or pending disability. I don't know how that's going to affect those individuals. But I know
that this, I think it's 20 hours a week, this is going to, I don't know how it's going to
affect around here. I don't know yet. But I'm sure we're going to start seeing some increased
phone calls. Folks are going to be trying to find places to go because that's the thing.
You don't have a whole lot of places that are taking people to do community service
things.
Right.
And a lot of it happened because everybody's so afraid of liability.
Nobody wants nobody to go in and tweak a muscle, tweak a bag or do something to get hurt, and
all of a sudden you're in insurance and they take that into consideration as well.
So we're keeping an eye out, keeping our ears out, and trying to stay ahead of this if we
can.
All right.
Yes, I know Rockford kind of had projected a number.
I haven't seen anything for Freeport, I'll just wonder if maybe you had or anyone else.
What I could do is, it's difficult to get a hold of a live person at DHS.
Very hard to get a hold of a live person, so I will talk to Billie Jo, she might have
a contact there so that we can talk to and say, hey, what is going to be the potential
impact for the Freeport area, and see if we can get some information for you guys.
Is the office still open here in Freeport?
I think so, but it's not a lot of people working there.
No.
A lot of retires.
Yeah.
So, usually when you call, you are getting...
and so forth, getting electronic voices and all that stuff and, you know, they encourage
everyone to do everything online.
They told us that we encourage everyone to go online to do things.
They don't encourage people to come to the office or to call.
So I'll see if we can track down some information for the board.
I'll definitely give it a shot.
I'm curious, Kelvin, I don't know if you've heard anything in this regard, but I was getting the impression that when they estimate how many people may lose benefits, that a lot of cases they're thinking people are going to lose benefits not because they're not eligible, but because they just can't navigate the new system, and I don't know if you've heard.
I've heard, yes, because people are not understanding the requirements, also something where there
are some people who have disabilities and might get caught in that requirement, but
it was kind of unclear how that scenario actually plays out, like what form of disability would
But the question is, where?
Yeah, and how are you going to get there?
Right, and who's going to monitor it?
Because you don't have enough people working at DHS to monitor this stuff.
So who's going to monitor this stuff?
So the big question is, where?
And I know for us, if you are a pending disability,
going through the disability process,
you're not eligible for community working training.
Is that the same rule for DHS? Yeah. We don't know. This is very unclear.
And I think the part where I'm more concerned with is are there people that might get, are
there people who have a legit real need that might get caught in the cracks of this work
environment where like someone's disabled, they realistically they can't, but yet the
environment's such worth making them. Yes. So that's the way to make a life. If someone's
And it used to be, years ago, that when someone was going through the disability process,
Do we still do work for other townships as far as getting them a 245 grant and then when
their disability kicks in, they pay township back.
Right, yes, we still do that, but during that process, they're not eligible for community
work and training because they're pending or seeking disability.
I mean, it's not the fact you're telling us, well, I'm one with a disability.
Well, until you show us that you're actually doing it, you're eligible for community working training.
But the second we get the information that you are actually pending disability,
you're no longer eligible for community working training.
So how does that translate over to DHS? We all follow the same rules.
So if that's the case, if someone is paying disability or is disabled,
how does that work for them? Yeah.
Well, if we do find that there is a gap
of a set of people where there is a realistic need.
A person would like to see if that's a gap that Township could possibly fill.
Already working on it, Kelvin. Okay, cool. Already working on it.
Yeah, perfect. Already working on it. He's taller than you,
and he's ten steps ahead of you.
We've had that discussion, my staff and I. What about the ones who fall through the cracks?
You're going to have some that are going to fall through the cracks.
Perfect. Already working on it.
Alright. Anything else, Justice?
Any other business coming forward? Oh, any public comments?
Shade Oil. You guys all know me. I just wanted to
put out there that, you know, along with all the people that are
going to be in need here, the high school is doing a shoe drive.
They're collecting shoes. You can just drop them off on tour. They got a big box out there. You can do that.
The second thing that I wanted to talk about is communication. Something that I've always appreciated about the Township is that you guys have the conversation in the room.
It's respectful, all of that. You guys get information to the people as they're watching.
Some of the people are growing increasingly frustrated in community because we're not getting that information in other places.
So if you guys have information that you can relay, I like hearing that you're going to post stuff to Facebook and stuff like that.
People gain access to information in all different ways. So if you guys can keep up the conversations and post or send out information in various ways.
I know I appreciate it because if I'm stuck in the gym all day, I don't necessarily get everything through some communications that other people do.
so you know if you guys can just keep up those conversations and get as much
information out there to the people as possible I would appreciate it I know
there's some other places that need to do that but I won't bring that right here
so thank you guys.
Thank you. Any other public comments? Any other minutes coming for the town?
Seeing that there is none, I intend a motion to adjourn until Monday May 18th, 2026 at 4.30pm.
So moved. Second. Motion by Mcllwain, Sellers, Ryan, Odendahl. All in favor?
Aye. Any opposed? Meeting adjourned. Thank you guys. Thanks Mike.