Yeah. It's five o'clock on February 12th. This is the meeting of the Public Works Committee.

And I would like to call ahead and call the meeting to order. Item 2.0 is the approval of the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda?

So moved.

Moved by Mr. Moderow, seconded by Mr. Jogerst. Any discussion?

With that, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Motion is approved.

Item 3.0 is the review and approval of the meeting minutes from the last meeting that was January 8th, 2026. Is there a motion to approve the meeting minutes?

Sure. Yes.

Moved by Mr. Jogerst, seconded by Mr. Moderow. Any discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Motion is approved.

4.0 is the approval of the claims. We have $82,898.30. It's a pleasure to the committee.

I'll make a motion to approve the claims. I have a motion to approve the claims. Is there a second?

Second by Mr. Moderow. Any discussion? I do have a question. Go for it.

I saw that we paid Arcelot for your new facilities, and we also paid the animal hospital.

Yes, because the animals are still, it's going to be probably two payments for a few months, because they're still over there too.

You don't have the crating?

Right, we don't have the tendrils.

Thank you.

It's up to the puppies, now the puppies are at the museum.

Thank you.

Yes.

Any other discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor of opening the claims, say aye.

Aye. Motion is approved.

5.0 is the public comment. I don't see anyone here tonight.

We'll start with the Department of the Reports, Animal Control.

Okay. So we started taking in the cats again.

We had 21 intakes, 6 were surrenders, 4 were city transfers, 3 were county strays and 8, we had 2 separate owners passing away, 1 had 6 cats.

Outcomes, we had 10 transferred to rescue, 2 are adopted, 1 was reclaimed and we have 8 adoptables.

Dogs, we only took 6 in, 1 surrendered, 3 county, 2 cities, 3 are adoptable, 1 was rescued.

The two that are on strike full-time, they actually were county dogs that the owners opt to sign them over.

And I believe both of them will be going to Friends Grabber either Friday or next week.

They were, one was a Border Collie, one was a Border Collie mix.

Know anybody that is fluent in Spanish?

The one loves when you talk to her in Spanish because her old family was.

and they tested out at the college and she just lit up when somebody started talking to her in her language she actually knows.

So hopefully somebody that knows can maybe take her because I think that would be ideal for her.

Current inventory as of this report was 10 adoptable cats, 2 pregnant, those 2 actually have been transferred to a rescue already.

10 Adoptable Dogs, our two Jessica Jones court case dogs.

Her court date has now been pre-trial set for 3-4.

So we've had these dogs since 7-17 of 24.

Andrew, crisis six, running at large tickets are on for 1-22.

He was supposed to be getting an attorney, a different attorney.

Other things, Ben and Jerry who are one of our longest, two of our longest residents were adopted together. They're doing wonderful.

Facebook and Pet Finders is all current on all our adoptable cats and dogs.

And I try like if it's one that we've had for a while, I always share them when I add new because they get lost in the shuffle.

I also enrolled in an online shelter training in enrichment and that's also in your packet, kind of the outline of the program.

And then I put in the breakdown of the donations from 25, 26, and the GoFundMe.

The GoFundMe all will technically be in the 26 because we haven't withdrawn any.

So it will go into the 26 once we start withdrawing.

I do have, I think, two more $250 checks that came in, and then, um, minors training in, outside of Lena, he's going to donate $5,000 for kennels, so we should be getting that next week, I believe.

We talked quite a bit.

I reached out to Freepod and they're going to do an interview with me on Wednesday of next week about the new building.

They just reached out to me today, actually.

One of the new stations reached out, but they never, after we talked to liability, they never reached back out.

At least that one's local so hopefully that will get us more public. Otherwise that's it for that. Plans were just the two rents and then the updated intake is updated with new bolts on it. I got that Tuesday I think it was for their January.

January and December are usually the slow months. It picks back up on February for intakes.

Oh, I really have. Any questions?

How long is that course supposed to run?

The course is actually open for a year for me.

Oh, okay.

It's basically go on your own.

So it's the first steps.

I just started it last week.

The first step's basically working one of your own dogs through some steps and then you take like a shelter dog to do it and then there's cat arrangements and different things.

I've always wanted to do it.

I just, this building will allow me to do it on like breaks and stuff.

I can go and start working with the animals and make them more adaptable because they'll have some basic stuff done to them.

Plus the enrichment part, I've done a lot of research on that and that makes the animals so they're not so stressed, so they're not like pacing in their page and so they show better for the people.

And when I talked to Nick, the dog trainer, we talked about, and I agree with this, I've seen it in several shelters where you don't even allow the doctors to go back into the kennel area.

You kind of screen them and find the animals and bring the animals out that you think would be best fit for their family, because then they're not seeing them.

The dogs don't show well in campus usually.

They're barking and carrying on, because there's people, there's people.

So this way you actually pick up animals and bring them out and show them.

And then if they still want to go back, then obviously you take them back, but this kind of helps.

Helps. Cats are a little different, but the dogs, they just, they're idiots. They honestly are. When people come in, it's no different than when I get home. My dogs are idiots, because they know I get home, they eat. And then we go play. So it's the same. So that program's in a kind of, and actually the program says, we'll see, I believe that they have a program where it actually teaches the dogs to be quiet in the page when people come in.

So, if that's true, it's well worth my money spent.

That was my question. You're paying for this out of your pocket?

Yeah, I pay for it, yeah.

There is no room in your budget?

Man, it's not a big deal.

Is it expensive for you?

It was like $200, I think.

You obviously don't feel like it's a fruit?

No.

I mean, not made for me.

It was actually on sale. I think it's like a $400 program. So I'm like, yep, buy now. And you got a year to do it. Yeah, and you got a year that this program is open that you can go back and look at it. And which I'm like, nice. It was open all the time because we're not gonna be in the building right away. And then I'm like, should I bought it? And I'm like, ah, I can take notes. It's fine. And they actually I'm going to give you printouts, and you actually take a test after each thing, so you get printouts, so you can use it later on, but it's only open for the year.

Oh, I thank you for taking that. It looks like it's going to be a...

Yeah, so far, I've only done a few steps, and I've been training docs since I was 12, so it's pretty interesting that I'm learning new things already, that it's interesting. I didn't think of it that way.

Any other questions?

It's been postponed so many times that, yeah, yeah, I agree.

They both get so continued with it.

That was, now it's 227, is the new portrait.

Do you have a certificate of occupancy for the new building?

Who would I get that through?

There's an email I sent you back in January that said you're free for it.

The building inspector needs to go through that building in the fire commercial before you can occupy it in any way.

Okay.

So if you have animals in there, you need to get them out.

Okay. Can you do that?

Do you want me to resend the email to you?

Yes, please.

have you applied for the Special Use Permit for the outside funds?

It was put up before we got there, though.

You're putting something up outside, aren't you?

Well, eventually, but not for a while.

It's it's about a 90 day process to get a special use permit from the city for your work. That was also an email I sent you.

But I will resend them out. OK, thank you.

I think also the Inspector from the Department of Ag is also needing to go through the building.

Yes. He said we can have the animals there though.

So have you asked him to come and do the inspection?

He says he will do it once we get the kennels in. He's been out there, yes. He's seen inside the building. He was out.

Yeah, he was out shortly after Georgia and I talked about it. He was in the area doing something and I said, hey, he came out to talk to me. He's like, I'm like, do you have time to go through it and see if you think the only thing he recommended was like a mock sink type thing to dump the shot back that we're using for the kennels into that. So they're already measured in there. They have one on order. So, He thinks the building is perfect. Way much of an upgrade than it.

What ventilation is also a criteria is how we evaluate that.

Yeah, there's actually fans, exhaust fans in there, so that one's fine.

And both the dog room, cat room, and the grooming area. That was something they added.

So the registration receipts are down $3,000 for our monthly goal and we were we were down in December as well. So you blame that just on December and January always seems to be the slow months for some. I know like December is probably because Christmas, but January is usually slow and then it picks up. I said, I think 200 notices out last week, so and like the notices on I know are getting to people because they're coming in or they're paying online so they're definitely getting there because I always write on the notices like if I'm doing like let's say Lena doesn't give our takes out and I get all their review certificates on Friday I send a notice usually on Tuesday because I give them a little time they just got it done and then I write on the date that I sent the notice and I've noticed that the The mail's actually getting there and they're actually doing it almost right away when they get it.

So, even though Lynette does give them a sheet that says how you can pay, sometimes they just think that, you know, yeah, well, they catch it.

But they, I don't think they realize they still email us their certificates.

So, same way with TLC.

The six dogs that you brought in, were they registered?

The county dogs?

Yeah.

You had six intake, right?

We had...

One surrender, three county strays, two cities.

The...

So none of those...

While the...

The three county dogs, the two of them that were signed over, actually one was from Wisconsin, So, with that show on this revenue sheet, it's a pickup? Is that where you would list that?

Yes. If we had pickup, yes. So, but we didn't have anybody reclaim. Yeah, we didn't have in December either. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the problem. We don't know. Pickups are hard because you, we can go months with all these strays coming in, like starting spring, March. We get all, you know, it starts opening up again and dogs are running and then we have nobody reclaim any of them.

So these dogs, you took them straight to the Freeport Animal Hospital for the rabies shot?

Yes. The county ones that I picked up? No. The six that we took in, they're housed at the Animal Hospital, but we don't, the vaccinations get done at the college if we do anything.

but if they're like adopted or reclaimed then they have to have their rabies shot and they have to be registered. So, I'm confused. Yeah, I'm confused too. If they came in. The intake means like, so one was surrendered over. I can't remember which dog that was. Three were picked up as county streets. One was the Border Collie. The other one was the Border Collie mix.

Hicks, those dogs weren't reclaimed, so there's no registration for those dogs until they get adopted.

But more than likely, they're going to transfer to friends forever.

So we'll eventually see it if they're adopted in our county, we'll get that registration.

But right now, there are properties still.

And then the two city dogs, I'm assuming they're probably too up for adoption.

Why did the city bring us dogs?

Because if we didn't take them, they were going to be put down.

So we kind of, they're full, we have a little bit more room, but that's going to change with the new building.

They're going to have to, we're going to have to have an agreement, a contract with them.

Bank Account Fund 16. We haven't been getting an update on that for the last couple of months.

I can tell you that the fund balance is around $21,000. Unfortunately, that balance contains all the donation money as well, so it's blended with our regular operational money, which is Doe, and the GoFundMe. Yes. So that one hasn't been, but yes, the rest would be.

Which leads me to another thing is I've asked for the donation report to be itemized. It was in our meeting minutes we just approved that I asked for it last month. The sheet that I have, the last time I have an updated detailed donation was from the 19th of November.

Someone from the committee has seen something other than I have.

How do you want it to break down?

Just like what you were doing.

And then you stop.

Last thing I'm going to bring up is our website.

I've asked again and again and again to keep that donation page going and it's not on there.

I've just looked again today, and our fundraiser page has got information on there from back in October with the Bina Brewing Company.

Anyone else have any other questions?

No? Okay, thank you.

Before we move on to Highway, I'm going to pull a request to enter into an Executive Session.

I'm going to state 5 ILCS 122C, which is the Employment Matters, the Appointment, Employment, Compensation, Discipline, Performance, or Dismissal of specific employees.

Employees. So with that, I would like to make a motion to go into executive session. I will need a second and a hold on it. Second. I have a second from Mr. Newton. Is there any discussion about it? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Roll call. Roll call. Sorry. Mr. Newton? Aye. Mr. Jogerst?

or Mr. Moderow, sorry, Mr. Jogerst, and Ms. Williams.

Thank you.