North Egypt News

City of West Frankfort City Council met March 10.

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 City Clerk.

2. Mayor Jordan Asked For Approval Of The Minutes From The February 25, 2020 Council Meeting. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Chambers. 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 $541,460.84. The Mayor Stated I Would Like To Note That We Have A $270,000.00 For Our Liability Insurance Which Is Included In This Amount. 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 Approval To Accept The Resignations Of James Trogolo And Nathan Burnett From The West Frankfort Police Department. The Mayor Stated These Two Officers Were Excellent Officers And Were Given The Chance To Go To The Illinois State Police. Commissioner Harkins Stated They Were Good Offiers And I Wish Them The Best Of Luck And Hope That Everything Works Out For Them. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

5. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Resolution Authorizing An Agreement Richard Glodich D/B/A Seara, Inc. For Redevleopment Of Certrain Property Utilizing Tax Increment Financing. This Matter Was Tabled.

6. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding A Donation To The Old King Coal Committee. The Mayor Stated In The Years Past We Have Given Them $5,000.00; This Comes From The Money We Get From Gaming Or We Take It From The Hotel/Motel. Last Year We Gave Them $10,000.00 So Whatever The Council Would Like To Do. I Think They Would Like To Have The $10,000.00 We Gave Them Last Year Because It Helps Them Get Some Acts In Here And To Bring In People To Be On The Main Stage. Commissioner Chambers Stated I Will Make A Motion To Approve The $10,000.00. Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

7. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Resolution Authorizing The City Of West Frankfort To Enter Into An Application For Construction Permit For The Division Of Public Water Supplies. The Mayor Stated This Is An Ongoing Application That We Are Working With The Water Department And Our Engineering Firm Brown & Roberts. What We Are Trying To Do Is Work Through A Process So That We Can Replace The Water Meters In The City And We Can Go To A System Where The Meters Will Be Able To Be Read As You Drive By Or We Can Have The Meters That Would Be Read From Antennas Where They Would Electronically Read Them. I Want To Thank Jim White For All The Work He Has Done On This. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

8. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Resolution Authorizing The City Of West Frankfort To Enter Into An Agreement For Techinical Services And Assistance Between Franklin County 1-57 Enterprise Zone And Moran Economic Development, Lcc. The Mayor Stated We Haven't Really Done An Official Announcement, Our Enterprize Zone Agreement Was Renewed On January 1, 2020. We Are Now In An Agreement Group With West City, City Of Benton And The Franklin County Board. We Me The Last Two Fridays And Have Been In Discussions With Keith Moran He Will Be Our Administrator And Anything We Do With The Zone Will Be Up To His Approval. He Is The One That Did The Application For Us And The Agreement Will Be For What Ever Work He Does For Us We Will Be Responsible To Pay Him, His Rate Is $95.00 An Hour. If He Does Work For The Enitire Zone Then Each One Of The Entities Will Share Equally In The Cost Of That. Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

9. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding The Purchase Of A New Outdoor Warning Siren System On Industrial Park Road. Fire Chief, Jody Allen Stated They Repaired Our Siren Once And The Top Of It Is Really Old And The First Rain We Had It Got Set Off And Shot Sparks. The Mayor Stated This System That We Have Has Been In Place Longer Than I Have Been Around. This Is $26,000.00 To Replace That System And It Will Be Brand New. The Mayor Asked If There Were Any Grants For Something Like This? Jody Stated I Haven't Heard Of Any From Ryan. Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Chambers. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

10. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding The Hosting Of City's Email Accounts By 4siwi, Llc In The Amount Of $4,870.80. The Mayor Stated Our Email Accounts Are Currently With Sinc And We Are Going To Switch Over To 4siwi. Commissioner Simpson Asked The City Clerk If She Was Recommending, We Do This? The City Clerk Stated I Think It Would Be Cost Efficient, Yes. Commissioner Simpson Asked If They Do A Good Job? The City Clerk Stated They Do. Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

11. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice From Skuta Construction, Inc. In The Amount Of $1,650.00 For The West Frankfort Sewer Department. Commissioner Warren Stated By Parker Reedy And The Special Ed Office And Things Like That They Couldn't Flush And It Needed To Be Cleaned Out. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Chambers. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

12. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice From A.J.Gallagher Risk Management Services, Inc. In The Amount Of $16,851.00 Regarding Endorsement Changes Regarding The Sewer Treatment Plant. The Mayor Stated We Have A Grant For 8.2 Million Dollars And Of That We Payed 2 Million And We Got 6.2 We Don't Have To Pay Back. The Reason We Did That Was To Raise The Sewer Plant Up Above The Flood Zone. We Thought If We Did This, We Wouldn't Have To Carry Flood Insurance And That Isn't True. They Require Us To Carry Flood Insurance Out There And So We Got An Endorsement From Our Insurance Company At The Above Cost. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

13. Officer Reports:

Chief Allen Read The Fire Department's Report.

Chief Prudent Read The Police Department's Report.

Mayor Jordan Read The Code Department's Report

14.Building And Sign Permits:

The Mayor Stated We Have A Building Permit For Megan Winneger At 1684 Avery Street. Our Code Enforcement Officer, Cw Stilley Has Looked At This And It Looks Like It Is All Okay. A Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

15. Emergency Approval:

The Mayor Stated Roger Has Been Looking For A Bucket Truck For The Purchase Of A Bucket Truck For The Street Department. Roger Has To Borrow The Park's Truck When He Needs It And It Is On A Limited Basis. There Was An Auction Over The Weekend And There Was A Truck That Came Available That Fits Our Needs. We Have The Ability To Buy This Bucket Truck It Is A 2001 Ford For $10,500.00. It Came Up On A Short Notice That Is Why Is For Emergency Approval. I Would Like To Ask For The Ability To Do An Emergency Purchase On This. Commissioner Chambers Stated We Do Need This For Many Things, We Borrow The Park's A Lot And They Are Very Generous To Let Us Use It. I Think This Would Make Everybodys Like A Lot Easier And A Lot Safer.

Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

16.Mayors Comments:

There Is A Lot Of Things Going On In The State. The Governor Has A Tax That He Is Trying To Pass And One Of The Things He Is Talking About Is If The Tax Is Approved, We Receive Money From The Income Tax From The State (Local Government Disbursement Fund) That Is The Money That All Local Governments Get From The State. It Is By Population They Set It And The Amount, So For Each Person We Have In The Census We Receive An Amount For That Person. If The Tax Increase Doesn't Go Through, They Will Take Money Away From Us And We Won't Get The Full Amount. I Just Want To Go On The Record To Say That Is The Money That Is Best Spent. Local Governements Are More Responsible Than Anybody Because We Are Here Talking About The Things, We Are Making Purchases For And If They Reduce That Then Is Reduces Our Ability To Operate. I Want You To Be Aware They Did The Same Thing For The Schools.

17. Commissioner Comments:

Commissioner Harkins Stated The Police And Fire Departments Are Doing A Fine Job As Usual. I Know We Are In A Little Bit Of A Bind In The Police Department Right Now, But It Will Improve.

Commissioner Simpson Stated We Lost Two Good Police Men, Hopefully We Will Gain Two. I Am Looking Forward To The New Facility That We Are Going To Be Moving Into Next Month. April 10th Is The Move So We Will Be At The New Facility For The First Meeting In April.

Commissioner Chambers Stated I Want To Thank Everybody For The Purchase Of The Bucket Truck, We Have Been Talking About That For About Then Years And It Hasn't Been Financially Feasible. The City Council Doesn't Do The Easter Egg Hunt In Town But The City Has Always Purchased The Easter Eggs For The Easter Egg Hunt And This Year Some Of The Volunteers On The Park Board Are Bringing Back The Easter Egg Hunt To The Park. We Talked About It And Decided We Didn't Want To Compete With Them Because It Should Have Always Been At The Park, But The Park Canceled Having It So We Brought It Back In Another Location. We Want To Support Them And Have Asked Everybody To Try And Go To The Event At The Park. If It Goes Well For Them Possibly The City Can Help Them In The Future. The Street Department Did A Great Job On The Building Across From Cvs.

Commissioner Warren Stated The Water And Sewer Departmens Are Doing Well. We Have A Lake Committee Meeting Thursday Night If Anybody Is Interested It Is At 6:00 Right Here.

The Mayor Stated We Lost One Of Our Landmarks Here In West Frankfort. Kenny Beard Was Hit By A Car On Rt. 37 And Passed Away. I Want To Say To John And Amy Prudent And To Jim And Darla Sloan For Taking Care Of Him. They Had A Funeral For Him On Saturday And It Was Packed. It Was Beautiful And So Many People Pitched In. I Just Want To Say Thank You To Everyone For Making Him Feel Loved.

18.Audience Questions Or Comments:

Jennifer From Republic Services Is Here To Talk To Us, Jennifer Stated They Are A Trash And Recycling Company And About Five Years Ago They Lost The City Contract. I Just Wanted Everyone To Know We Are Interested In Bidding When It Come Up And We Are Looking Forward To The Opportunity. If You Have Any Questions, Concerns Or Ideas Get Ahold Of Me Please.

Don Reedle Asked About The Replacing Of The Water Meters With An Electronic System? The Mayor Stated Most Of The Communities Around Us Have Them. There Is Technology Available Where The Water Meter Has A Radio Transmitter On It. The Mayor Continued To Explain All The Different Options And The Assistance We Can Get To Help Out With The Cost.

19. Mayor Jordan Asked For Approval To Go Into Executive Session To Discuss Contract Negotiations, Personnel, Land Acquisition And/Or Pending Litigation, With Possible Action. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners Along With The Mayor Voted Yes. Motion Carried. The Council Went Into Executive Session At 6:48 P.M.

20. The Council Returned To Open Session At 7:29 P.M. On A Motion By Commissioner Harkins, Seconded By Commissioner Chambers. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners Along With Mayor Jordan Voted To Return To Open Session. Motion Carried.

21. With No Further Business To Be Discussed, The Meeting Was Adjourned On A Motion By Commissioner Harkins At 7:29 P.M.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I3oc4E0o_qhDLwpkbqfpNZc6Ze0calHuvYILqBp-gZQ/edit