City of West Frankfort City Council met July 23.
Here is the minutes provided by the council:
1. Mayor Jordan Called The Meeting To Order At 6:00 P.M. Requesting A Roll Call. All Commissioners Were In Attendance, Along With The City Attorney And Deputy City Clerk
2. Mayor Jordan Asked For Approval Of The Minutes From The July 9, 2019 Council Meeting. Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
3. Mayor Jordan Next Asked For Approval To Pay City Bills And Payroll In The Amount Of $323,988.51. Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
4. The Next Item Was A Presentation By Josh Gross, Fair Manager Of The Duquoin State Fair. N/A
5. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Resolution To Jonathan & Joelyn Raby For Redevelopment Of Certain Property Utilizing Tax Increment Financing Located In The City Of West Frankfort, Illinois. The Mayor Stated This Is A Tif Agreement For The Property That We Call The Pharis Building. They Are Requesting This To Do Some Repairs On The Building. The Project Is Estimated To Be Around $51,500.00 And The City Has Approved A $25,000.00 Eligible Cost Of This. The City Is Asking Permission For The Council To Approve This Tif Agreement Which Will Give Them A Reimbursement Limit Of $25,000.00 Representing 50% Of The Tif Eligible Cost. Jonathan Raby Stated The Building Has Been Sitting Vacant For A Long Time. We Have Been There For 4 12 Years With Our Shop And It's Steadily Grown. There Were Three Of Us. With Me On The Hair Side And Two Others On The Tattoo Side And Now We Have Grown And There Are Five Of Us On The Hair Side And One On The Tattoo Side. With That Business Steadily Growing Our Plan Is To Renovate The Other Two Units To Be Able To Get Some Businesses Going In There. Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
6. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Resolution Authorizing An Amended Tif Agreement. The Mayor Stated This Is An Agreement The City Made Back In March With Mai, Llc Properties. This Is The Quest Fitness Center And We Are Going To Modify Our Payment Schedule To Them. The Original Agreement We Agreed On A Payback First Of All They Are Going To Purchase The Property From The City And We Are Going To Reimburse Them For The Cost Of The Purchase That Was $80,000.00, Once Construction Has Begun Out There Then We Will Pay Them For The Cost Of The Purchase Price From Tif. The Eligible Cost For The Rest Of The Project Amounted To Somewhere Around $41,500.00. We Were Going To Pay That $41500.00 Over A Ten Year Period In Increments And Now We Are Going To Modify It To Once The Project Is Completed We Are Going To Give Thema Reimbursement Of $20,750.00 And Then The Remaining $20,750.00 Will Be Divided Up Over A Four Year Period. This Will Give Them Their Money Back A Little Quicker And It's Going To Help Them With The Cost Of Getting It Up And Going. The Same Amounts Of Money Are Involved We Are Just Going To Give It Back Quicker. Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
7. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Resolution Authorizing An Agreement With America's Best Value Inn, For The Provision Of Tax Increment Financing Assistance. The City Attorney Stated I Had A Conversation With Keith Moran Today And He Indicated To Me That This Wasn't Ready To Go Yet. This Matter Was Tabled. Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Table, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Table, Motion Carried.
8. The Next Item Was Approval To Accept Bids And Award Projects For Demolition.
A.) The First Location Is 201 S. Parkhill. The Bid From Joplin Salvage Was $2,450.00, Mbr Wrecking Was $17,800.00 And Neat Cut Lawn Care Was $3,575.00. Commissioner Chambers Stated I Make A Motion To Approve The Bid From Joplin Salvage. Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
B.) The Next Location Is 601 S. Mulberry. The Bid From Joplin Salvage Was $3,250.00, Mbr Wrecking $22,300.00 And Neat Cut Lawn Care $3,875.00. Commissioner Simpson Stated I Make A Motion To Approve The Bid From Joplin Salvage. Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
C.) The Next Location Is 713 S. Logan. The Bid From Joplin Salvage Was $3,500.00, Mbr Wrecking $24,900.00 And Neat Cut Lawn Care $4,220.00. Commissioner Chambers Stated I Make A Motion To Accept Joplin Salvage Bid. Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
D.) The Next Property Is 1304 W. Oak. The Bid From Joplin Salvage Was $1,800.00, Mbr Wrecking $19,600.00 And Neat Cut Lawn Care $3,185.00. Commissioner Simpson Statedi Make A Motion To Go With Joplin Salvage. Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Chambers. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
E.) The Next Property Is 1707 E. Poplar. The Bid From Joplin Salvage Was $4,725.00, Mbr Wrecking $22,600.00 And Neat Cut Lawn Care $4,950.00. Commissioner Chambers Stated I Make A Motion To Accept Joplin Salvage. Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
The Mayor Stated I Would Like To Ask Our Attorney Before We Go And Demolish These. 1707 E. Poplar The Last Time I Was Up There, There Were People Living In That House. We Need To Check On That. City Attorney Stated Who Is It? Commissioner Chambers State The Carter's. The City Attorney Stated I Thought They Got Out? Commissioner Chambers Stated I Received A Message About A Week Ago And I Referred It To The Mayor, The Mayor Stated We Need To Make Sure They Are Out Before It's Demolished.
9. The Next Item Was Approval Of An Extension Of Waste Removal Contract. The Mayor Stated We Are Currently Operating Under A Contract With Bulldog Waste For Our Trash Service. We Had Met With Them Early In The Year And To My Knowledge We Haven't Had Any Problems With Bulldog So We Talked About Extending The Contract For Several Years, Recycling And Totes. As It Grew Closer To The Time Of Contract Renewal There Was Some Discussion That Maybe We Needed To Put This Out For Bids. What Had Happened Was The Time Period It Takes Us To Get Bids, Advertise And Draw Up Specifications Wasn't Going To Be Possible. What I Am Asking Is To Extend The Current Contract We Have With Them At The Same Level It Was For One Year. During This Year We Can Evaluate Their Performance. Commissioner Simpson Stated Are They In Agreement With Extending This For One Year. The Mayor Stated Yes. They Were In Agreement With Keeping The Prices The Same So There Is No Increase For This Year. We Need To Talk About The People Who Abuse The Benefits. We Have People Who Will Put Out Twenty Five Trash Cans And Bring Their Trash From Other Places Because The Trash Company Has Move In Move Out Services. We Need To Draw Up An Addendum To That And Figure Out What Would Be Considered A Normal Amount Of Trash Cans And Anything Beyond That We Will Set An Extra Fee For. I Don't Want Them To Be Abused Because They Will Pick Up Couches Without Charging Extra. I Think As A Protection To Them And To Keep People From Abusing The City Having Addendum's To The Contract That Will Protect Them And The City. Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
10. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding Approval Of A Liquor License Application. The Mayor Stated This Is A Change Of Ownership For The Liquor Barrel. Liquor Barrel Changed Hands And This Is The Application To Do That. This Is Simply Ownership Transfer In A Current Place Of Business. Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Chambers. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
11. The Next Item Was Approval Of An Ordinance For A Stop Sign At The Intersection Of E. Garland And S. Mcclelland Streets, Facing East And West. The Mayor Stated We Passed This At The Last Council Meeting And This Is The Ordinance Approving That Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
12. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice From Coe Equipment, Inc. In The Amount Of $2,574.63 Regarding Repairs To The Vactor For The West Frankfort Sewer Department. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Chambers. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
13. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice From A&W Plumbing & Heating, Inc. In The Amount Of $2,155.76 Regarding Installation Of 3-Compartment Sink For The West Frankfort Incubator. The Mayor Stated This Is A Repair For The Wallace Electric Area For Repairing A Sink. Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
14.Building And Sign Permits:
N/A
15. Mayors Comments:
The Mayor Stated Our New Codes Officer Cw Stilley Is Going A Wonderful Job. He Is Working Hard To Resolve Some Things. We Are Applying For A Grant To Help Us Pay To Tear Down All These Old Buildings And I Was Given Something Today That I Wanted To Share, Since 2005 The City Has Paid Almost Half A Million Dollars To Tear Down Buildings In This Community. What We Are Trying To Do Is Apply For The Ability To Tear Down Another Three Hundred Homes At A Cost Of Somewhere Around Two Million Dollars. If We Can Get This Grant It Will Repay Us For The Amount Of Money That We Have Spent To Tear Down The Houses In The Past. When I Was At An Iml Meeting I Talked To The Mayor Of Centralia And He Had Told Me They Received This Grant So I Asked Cw To Call Centralia And Ask Them About That And Through That Conversation He Got A Lot Of Information. I Was Talking To Keith Moran About The Tif Agreements We Just Passed And I Asked Him If He Had Any Knowledge About That Grant And He Said He Could Be Helpful With Getting This Grant Prepared. We Are Going To Be Working On That. The Five Structures We Approved To Demolish Tonight Will Also Be Included In That Grant. I Had The Pleasure Of Attending The Iml Meeting Friday Afternoon And Saturday Morning In Macomb Illinois. The President Of Iml Hosted That Meeting And While I Was At The Meeting I Was Talking To Them About The Problems We Are Having With Our Fire Truck With One In The Shop And He Asked If We Wanted To Buy One And That Is Where Jody Is Right Now Looking At It. They Have A 2006 Engine And They Bought A New One And Had Two Identical Trucks So They Are Selling One. Hopefully Next Council Meeting We Will Have Some Information About That. Last Council Meeting The Council Authorized Us To Repair Engine One But If We Felt Like That Was Something We Didn't Need To Do And We Wanted To Buy Another Truck Then We Could Withdraw That, At This Point I Still Think We Should Probably Repair Engine One. We Have A Truck That Is A 1991 And This Truck Is A 2006 So Hopefully That Will Work Out Or It Won't. Everybody Has Been Provided With A Packet That Talks About Adult Use Cannabis Resource From The Iml. This Gives Information About The New Law That Takes Place In January Of 2020 About Marijuana. The Question Is Will We Participate Or Not? I Wanted To Start The Conversation Because I Don't Feel That I Am Qualified To Make That Decision On Behalf Of Our Community. This Is Seven Months Away So Sometime Before January 1, 2020 We Need To Decide If We Are Going To Be In Or Out. There Are Sample Ordinances In The Packet That Have Been Pre-Prepared. The City's Involvement Will Be Just At The Fact That We Allow It To Happen. We Can't Stop The Train, We Can Prevent The Train From Coming Through West Frankfort But The Train Will Still Be Running. The State Is In Charge Of All Of This And Will Pick The Sites And Approve Everything. The City Will Be Able To Write A Permit Similar To A Liquor License That Will Have A Fee On It If There Is A Dispensary In West Frankfort We Will Get 3% Tax On The Sale Of Whatever They Sell.
16.Commissioner Comments:
Commissioner Harkins Stated I Am Waiting On A Report From Jody On The Fire Truck In Macomb.
Commissioner Simpson State I Am Glad To See The Number Of Tif Agreements We Are Making For People Trying To Improve Really Reflects Good On The Community. I Am Glad That We Still Have Some Money To Do That With.
Commissioner Warren Stated The Water And Sewer Department's Are Doing Great. We Had A Lake Committee Meeting And If Anybody Is Interested The Next Meeting Is August 15' Here In This Office At 6:00pm. There Has Been Some Mowing Out There, Lights Fixed And Some Boards Repaired. They Now Have A News Letter They Send Out And Are In The Process Of Getting Internet Out There. The Caretaker Has Moved Out And The House Should Be Demolished Soon. The Mayor Stated Mike Roberts Is Going To Do An Inspection On The Old Lake And New Lake.
Commissioner Chambers Stated Roger Is Doing A Good Job This Is Mft Season Where He Has Half As Much Time To Do And Twice As Much Stuff. I See We Have A Lot Of Sidewalk Forms Down For A Lot Of The Projects And People Are Excited About That. Roger And I Went Out And We Are Going To Be Able To Help The Housing With Their Parking And Maintain Our Handicap Accessibility That We Need. I Am Hopeful That Roger, The Mayor And Myself Can Talk About The Trash Situation And Get A Better Plan If We Have To Vote Again. There Are Probably A Lot Of Things That We Could Be Doing Better Specifically With The Amount Of Stuff That People Can Put Out. I Personally Love The Idea Of The Big Trash Cans For Everyone To Have A Giant Trash Can That Animals Can't Get Into Just Means Less Trash Blowing Down The Road. I Know That Will Be A Topic Of Discussion Because It Will Cost More. Take A Look At John And Joelyn, They Decided To Start A Business In The Middle Of A Time Where Not A Lot Of People Are Starting Businesses, The Economy Isn't Great And It's Hard To Start Up A New Business From Scratch. To Be 25 Years Old And Start A Business And They Had A Business Partner Who Decided To Go A Different Direction So They Took Over The Entire Business And Then Decided To Buy The Building And Put So Much Hope And Optimism Into West Frankfort. I Think It Is Amazing, I Love That Building It Is A Piece Of History And I Think It Is Amazing You Guys Did This. They Just Had A Big Event There With Hundreds Of People With Music And Food. We Need More People To Believe In Our Town The Way You Guys Do. I Hope You Can Fill The Entire Building With People Like That.
Joelyn Stated I Appreciate Everything You Have Done For Us Tara, When We Moved Back To West Frankfort From Nashville The Lord Put Us Right Next Door To Tara For Awhile. I Think You Have Been In That Position Of Encouragement And You Care For The Town So It Rubs Off
On Other People, Commissioner Chambers Stated When People Step Up And Do Things Like What You Guys Are Doing,
I Think It Gets Us All Excited Again. 17. Audience Questions Or Comments:
Kevin Cook Representing The Elk's Club Stated We Are Making Some Changes And We Have A New Board. We Were Hoping You Would Consider Us To Be Open Until 2am Because We Are Losing A Lot Of Our Gamblers To The Bars. We Have A Lot Of Events And Karaoke On The Weekends And Our Members Don't Want To Go To The Bar And Drink. The Mayor Stated We Have Talked About That And I Looked Into The Liquor Ordinances And It Does Exclude Clubs From Being Open The Same Hours As Class "A" You Are A Class "C". I Think We Should Consider It I Don't Have A Problem With It.
Isabelle Asked If Someone Could Come And Mow The Lot By Her House. The City Attorney Stated The First Week Of August Is When We Can Get The Demolition Order.
18. With No Further Business To Be Discussed, The Meeting Was Adjourned On A Motion By Commissioner Harkins At 6:55 P.M.
http://www.westfrankfort-il.com/web_files/forms/July%2023,%202019.pdf
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