North Egypt News

City of West Frankfort City Council met May 26.

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 May 12, 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 $195,224.16. 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 Discussion, With Possible Action, Covid-19 Related Issues And Reopening. The Mayor Stated What We Have Is A Proclamation That Was Written By The City Of Marion And I Would Like To Discuss This. Anticipating That The Governor Is Going To Allow Us To Move Into Phase 3 Friday Which Will Give Us A Little More Flexibility With The Bars And Restaurants And Their Outside Dining. If We Talk About This A Little But I Think That La Fiesta Has An Area In The Back With Outside Seating, 212 Has Limited Seating In The Back Outside And Places Like Clubhouse Grill And The Chinese Restaurant Don't Have Outside Seating. Do We Need To Get With These People And Talk To Them About Expanding Into Their Parking Lots? According To What I Understand From The Governors Proclamation Is They Can Use Any Property That They Own Or Adjacent To Them Or A Roof Top To Add Additional Seating For Dining. As Far As That Goes, I Guess The Bowling Alley Can Use Their Parking Lot Outside And Put Some Tables Up. They Continued To Discuss The Outside Dining And Alcohol Situation For Bars And Restaurants. The Mayor Stated Do We Need To Ask These Restaurants To Make A Request To Us On What They Would Like To Do? Commissioner Simpson Stated I Think That Would Be The Thing To Do And Then You Could Write Your Executive Order Based On What They Are Asking You To Do And You As The Mayor And Liquor Commissioner Can Write That Order And It Will Stand Until We Strike It Down. The Mayor Stated The Governor Encouraged If You Wanted To Be Creative You Could Shut Down Public Streets So We Will Look Into That. They Continued To Discuss This Matter. The Mayor Stated I Want To Talk About City Hall And Before I Talk About It I Want Angie To Talk About It. Angie Stated We Actually Talked About Opening It On The 29th Which Is Friday, I Will Have Sanitizer In The Front And We Have The Plastic Shields For The Water Department. Commissioner Warren Stated I Don't Have A Problem With It If The Girls Are Comfortable With It, We Are Going To Have To Open Up Sooner Than Later. Commissioner Simpson Stated If We Are Going To Open, We Need To Mark Where People Need To Stand With The 6 Ft Distancing So You Don't Have Everybody Rushing Up To The Counter. We Need To Abide By The Rules That If They Can't Maintain Their Oft Distance And Wear A Mask. Commissioner Warren Stated I Am Hoping Most People Use The Drive Thru. The Mayor Stated Would It Be Wrong To Encourage The People Who Are Just Paying A Water Bill To Use The Drive-Up Window Only? There Is No Point In Coming Inside If You Can Do It Through The Window. Commissioner Chambers Stated I Have Gotten A Couple Complaints About Eh Drop Box It Is Too Hard For People. Jim White Water Superintendent Stated The Drive-Up Window Needs To Be Payment Only Because It Holds The Line Up Too Much And All Inquiries Inside. Angie Baker Stated Can We Open Up The Second Lane For Payments Only And Then The Window For Other Things? Jim White Stated Depending On Traffic I Think The Problem Is You Get 2-3 Cars In Line And They Will Come In. The Mayor Stated Maybe We Can Get Ahold Of The Bank And Get A New Drop Box And Get A Different Door Or A Slot For The People. The Mayor Stated I Have No Problem With Opening Back Up On The 29th, But Do We Need To Wait Until The Governor Tells Us It's Okay? Commissioner Chambers Stated No. The Mayor Stated If He Tells Us To Stop, We Will Make It Stop Monday.

5. The Next Item Was Approval To Accept The Annual Audit For Fiscal Year 2018-2019. Commissioner Simpson Stated What We Have Here Is Not A Complete Audit, So Until We Get The Auditors Report Which Is Not Included In This And The Management Discussion Analysis, I Don't Think We Are At The Position Where We Can Approve This. If You Will Notice This Audit Is Already Over A Year Old And We Just Had A Discussion With Our Auditor On Why It Took So Long And He Explained That To Us And There Are Some Problems That We Have Coming From The System That We Use. We Have Instructed Our Auditor To Come Up With A Proposal Regarding A New Software System That Would Be More User Friendly And Require Less Manual Entries Being Made So That When The General Ledger Is Given To The Auditor At The Beginning Of The Audit Period It Will Be The Same One That He Gets At The End Of The Period Before His Adjustments, Not Something That Has Been Changed Drastically Where He Has To Reaudit The Financial Statement. We Would Also Like To Get The Point Where The Council Member Get Monthly Financial Statements That We Can See Where We Are At The End Of Every Month In Regards To The Financial Position Of The City. It Is Something That We Haven't Received In A Long Time And At One Point In Time What We Were Getting Was Of Really No Value To Us. Our Treasurer, Angela Is Looking Into A New Software Program That Will Better Accommodate Our Needs. I Would Like The Mayor To Table This Approval Until We Get The Final Report Form The Auditor. The Mayor Stated I Want To Thank Mike And Angie Too For The Discussion We Had With The Auditor. He Was Really Honest With Us About His Recommendation And There Is Nothing Improper Going On It Is Just That Our Audit Is Difficult To Do Because We Are Doing It In A Different Program And A Different Way Than He Recommends. Commissioner Simpson Stated Most Places Basically Have It Set Up In One Company Where Ours Is In Multiple Companies And Then You Have To Combine Those And Make Entires To Get Them Back And Forth And There Is A Lot Of Manual Work That Is Being Done That Is Unnecessary And We Can Make It A Lot Easier For The People At The City That Take Care Of These Records, But Also The Auditor Doing The Audit Report.

6. The Next Item Was Approval Of An Ordinance Authorizing Certain Properties Located In The City Of West Frankfort To Be Declared As Surplus Real Estate And To Advertise For Sealed Bids. The Mayor Stated We Have 46 Properties Listed Here And I Have Personally Driven Around To All These Sites And These Are The Properties That I Think We Should Sell. We Need To Make Sure That We Include The Fact That We Have A Right To Reject The Bid If It Is Too Low And People Who Want To Build A House Should Get Preference Over Someone Who Is Just Going To Mow An Empty Lot. Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Chambers. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

7. The Next Item Was Approval Of An Emergency Demolition Of 1402 W. St. Louis Street By Joplin Salvage. The Mayor Stated We Need To Take That Down Because Someone Is Going To Get Hurt. Angie Baker Stated We Have A Judicial Deed To Tear It Down. Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

8. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Resolution Appointing Angela Deaton As An Authorized Agent To The City Of West Frankfort Illinois Municipal Retirements Fund Account. Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

9. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding Installation Of A New Led Information Sign For City Hall Through Tif Funds. The Mayor Stated We Have A Design Here And Pictures For A Sign In Front Of City Hall That Would Be Led And We Can Use That To Put Information On There If There Is A Water Break Or Boil Order. What We Have Is A 98" Wide Led Sign That Is 4ft Tall And 8ft Wide It Will Be Surrounded By Brick. The Sign Is $26,000.00 Just For The Led Sign And If You Are Going To Encase That With The Brick Around It Is Another $16,900.00 For The Brick And Labor And $12,291.00 For The Lighting. Commissioner Simpson Stated We Have A New Building Here Which Is Improving The Looks Of West Frankfort. Sure, It Is Going To Cost Us Some Money, But Don't We Want Something Just As Nice Out There Telling People What This Is And That West Frankfort Is Not All Going To Come Down. Commissioner Chambers Stated I Do Think We Need An Electronic Sign It's Just Very Expensive. Commissioner Simpson Stated I Know It Is Expensive, But This Building Was Very Expensive. Commissioner Warren Stated Can't The Big Sign That Is There Now Be Fitted With Something? It's Already Up Cant We Do Something With That? The Mayor Stated I Think We Have To Move Into The New Generation Which Will Be An Led Sign That Says Whatever We Can Display On It And It Will Give Us More Flexibility. Commissioner Warren Stated I Am Just Thinking If You Got Tif Money It Doesn't Mean You Have To Spend It. Commissioner Simpson Stated Actually We Do Have To Spend It. The Mayor Stated If We Don't Spend It, It Goes Back To The Schools. Commissioner Simpson Stated If We Don't Spend It On One Thing Then We Have To Spend It On Something Else, It Isn't Money That We Can Sit There And Save. Angela Baker Deaton Stated We Can't Pay Payroll Out Of It Or Pay Bills. Commissioner Simpson Stated It Has To Be Spend On Improvements. Commissioner Warren Stated I Like The Idea To Use It For Information. The Mayor Stated We Want It To Look Nice Because There Is Going To Be A New Subway Right Next To Us. Commissioner Chambers I Just Didn't Realize How Expensive It Was, But You Do Notice A Sign When It Is Nice. Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

10. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice From Moran Economic Development, LLC In The Amount Of $1,900.00 For TIF Administration. The Mayor Stated He Does All Our Projects For Us This Is Really A Bargain. He Is A Really Good Resource. Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

11. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice From Illinois EPA Laboratory In The Amount Of $3,775.13 Regarding The Community Water Supply Testing Program For The Water Department. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

12. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice From Southern Illinois Drug Task Force In The Amount Of $8,000.00 For An Annual Membership For The WFPD. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

13. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice From Hawkins, Inc. In The Amount Of $2,312.11 Regarding The Purchase Of Chlorine For The 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.

14. The Next Item Was Approval To Transfer Lake Lot Lease #5 From Ronald Zimmer & Wanda Zimmer (Deceased) To Kent Zimmer. Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

15.Building And Sign Permits:

N/A

16.Mayors Comments:

The Mayor Stated We Are Moving Forward With A Lot Of Things And I Just Want To Thank The Council. It Is Great To Have People That Work Well Together And We Do A Lot More Than People Think. We Have Received A Request From Mandy Littles Family And They Put On A Carnival And Since Covid-19 Their Ability To Make Money Is Gone. What They Are Doing Is Going To Communities And They Are Having A Drive Thru Carnival Type Atmosphere Where They Sell Carnvial Food. They Also Asked To Use The Mall For Their Drive-Thru And If The City Could Have Dump Trucks, Fire Trucks And Police Cars. They Are Wanting To Do This The Third Weekend In June So I Don't Know If This Is Something The Chamber Would Like To Get Behind Or The Downtown Beautification Group? I Need To Know What The Council Would Like To Do? I Think Our First Priority Is To Our Businesses I Don't Want To Do Something That Is Going To Hurt Our Local Businesses. If It Is Going To Bring People Into Town And They Are Going To Go Into Town Then Maybe In A Few Weeks It Will Be Okay, I Told Them We Would Talk About It Tonight. Commissioner Chambers Stated I Think Downtown Businesses Would Appreciate It If It Was Held Somewhere Downtown. Our Downtown Businesses Are Going To Say It Does Us No Good If People Come Off The Interstate And Get Right Back On The Interstate. They Continued To Discuss The Pros And Cons About This.

17. Commissioner Comments:

Commissioner Harkins Stated I Appreciate Our Departments For Coming Together And Putting On The Big Parade For That Little Boy.

Commissioner Simpson Stated The Wall On The Coleman Rhodes Building Really Looks Good And I Want To Thank Roger For That.

Commissioner Chambers Stated I Would Like To Put The Christmas Tree On That Lot Where We Tore Down The Building. I Think That Would Open The Road And Add Some Green Space And Not Make It An Entire Parking Lot. Amy Durfees Family Has Purchased A Bench That They Are Going To Dedicate To The Public Library And It Has Her Name On There And They Have Been Given Donations And It Has Been Approved. Her Family Noticed The Library's Flag Is In Terrible Condition And They Would Like To Purchase A New One. The Library Told Them The City Usually Takes Care

Of That. The Mayor Stated We Can Replace The Flag If It Needs Replaced.

Commissioner Warren Stated The Water And Sewer Departments Are Doing Good.

The Mayor Stated We Have Two Trees At The Old City Hall That Have Two Mayors Names On Them That Are Dedicated To Them. Do We Leave Them There Or Bring Them Here? What Do We Do? Commissioner Simpson Stated Can We Get New Trees And Just Move The Stone? Commissioner Simpson Stated They Should Either Be Moved Or Replaced And The Markers That Are There Should Be Moved. The Mayor Stated I Think It Makes More Sense To Get New Trees.

The Mayor Then Stated Have A Two Questions For You Guys. Do We Need To Do Something With The Merit Board? We Need To Get Some Merit Board Testing Done And We Are One Short, I Have Bill Trout And Leon Saillize And I Need To Appoint One More Person. What About The 911 Board? I Saw That Shawn Resigned And It Looks Like Jp Is Taking His Spot So We Are Good There, So We Need An At Large Member For The Merit Board. Bill Trout Is Law Enforcement, Leon Sailliez Is Fire Department And Now We Need A Community Person. The Reason I Like For You All To Have An Input On This Is Because You Have To Deal With It. If You Have Suggestions Let Us Know, But We Probably Need To Get Somebody Before Next Meeting. I Think We Have Some Testing Or Promotional Testing. Commissioner Simpson Stated I Know Somebody, The Mayor Stated Tell Me. Commissioner Simpson Stated Matt Morthland. The Mayor Said Who? Commissioner Simpson Stated Matt. The Mayor Stated When Is Our Guy Graduating From The Academy? Police Chief Stated He Thought They Were Going Back Next Week. They Have Extended The Online Training For Two More Weeks; He Is Hoping To Be Graduate By The End Of June But We Still Don't Have Any Word. The Mayor Stated If It Would Have Stayed On Course When Would He Have Been Done? JP Stated June 12th They Have Some Hands-On Stuff That They Still Need To Do.

18. Audience Questions Or Comments:

N/A

19.With No Further Business To Be Discussed, The Meeting Was Adjourned On A Motion By Commissioner Harkins At 7:32 P.M.

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