North Egypt News

City of West Frankfort City Council met Nov. 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 October 27th, 2020 Council Meeting. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

3. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay City Bills And Payroll In The Amount Of $163,804.28. 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, Regarding Approval To Advertise For Bids For Trash Removal In The City Of West Frankfort. The Mayor Stated We Are Going To Take Bids On Our Trash Service For The City.There Will Be A Lot Of Discussion To Be Had In The Coming Weeks Between Council Members, Street And Water Departments. He Would Like To Recognize That Jennifer Keaner Handles Sales And Rob Wilmie; General Manager From Republic Trash Service Was In The Audience. Rob Stated That They Want To Get A Better Understanding Of What All The City Of Wf Is Looking For In A Trash Service, Needs, Cost Effective, Clean Image, Carts Or No Carts They Are 95 Gallon Most People That Provide Their Own Are 33 Gallon. The Mayor Asked Rob When You Are Going To Phase In Something Like That What Have You Found To Be The Most Effective Way? Jennifer Stated That They Will Provide Education Material On That Setup That They Can Send Out To Everyone. Rob Stated They Will Provide Us With Electronic Digital Media That We Can Put Out On Our Cities Website. The Carts Can Go A Couple Of Different Ways –They Can Sell Them To Us At Their Price And The City Will Own Them But Then You Will Also Have To Maintain & Manage Them. Generally Republic Keeps Ownership Of Them And They Maintain Them For The Life Of The Contract. If Someone Has A Wheel Fall Off A Cart Gets Ran Over We Will Replace It Or Fix The Issue. Carts Will Allow Them To Load It With One Person And They Do Not Have To Manually Load By Hand. Which Reduces Republics Liability Of Injury. They Want To Keep Their People Safe And With Covid Pandemic Its A Lot Safer Way To Handle Trash. Front Load Truck Would Be Ideal For Trash Pickup. Less They Have To Touch It The Safer And More Efficient They Can Be. Which Means Less Cost To The City. Commissioner Simpson Asked If There Is A Fee On The Cart That Starts Monthly Along With The Reg Per Customer Fee. Rob Stated It Would Be Built Into The Cost And Be Spread Across The Months. No Rental Fee Or Maintenance Cost Its Just One Total. Commissioner Stanley Asked If Someone Wanted An Extra Cart Do They Pay Separate For It? Rob Stated That’s Usually A Flat Rate And The Customer Sets Up That Service Directly With Republic So They Can Manage It Or Can Be Done Thru Separate Building With Us They Have Contracts That Go Either Way. Really Depends On Your Structure In The Water Dept And How They Want To Manage That. Its Considerably Cheaper Because The Driver Is Already Going There So They Are Just Paying For The Extra Waste In The Second Cart. Commissioner Warren Asked If It Would Be Mandatory That You Use The Carts Or Would You Let Them Keep Their Trash Cans? Rob Stated If We Go To A Carted Service Then Yes The Cart Would Be Mandatory Because It Would Be An Automated Truck On The Route. During The Holidays The Drivers Will Make Sure To Clean Up All Debris Left From The Overflow Of Trash That Week. Labor Day And The Week From Christmas To New Years They Get Hammered With Trash. The Mayor Stated That He Really Appreciated That Jennifer And Rob Were So Open To Ideas And Went First. He Also Stated That The City Is A Little More Receptive To Carts Than They Were The Last Time They All Had Talked. Our Problem Is That We Have Some Landlords Think That We Are Responsible For The Mess They Leave Out Front When People Leave Or Get Evicted From The Residence On The Curb. Jennifer Stated They Do Have That Issue In Cities And What They Do About That Is A Landlord Is Considered More Or Less A Business. So They Are Supposed To Take Care Of It. Rob Stated If It’s The Resident That Has Trash; That’s One Thing But If The Landlord Has Cleanup Piles That’s A Business. Most Municipalities Handle That Accordingly. Rob Stated What He Recommends Is For The City To Set A Scope Of Work Outlined To Get An Idea What We Want/ Need So They Can Compare Apples To Apples With Their Competitors.Rob Said Set A Minimum Expectation Base Bid And Then Allow Alternatives. That’s Where Republic Can Come In Saying Here Are Some Of The Things You Wanted In The Base Bid; But If We Did This, Here Is The Price We Can Do That. The Mayor Asked What Do You Need From Us? Number Of Households, Carts Or No Carts? Jennifer Asked When The Current Contract Ends? Council Responded The Middle Of January. The Mayor Stated The Council Needs To Set Down With 2-3 People To Form A Committee To Talk About And Get Input From The Community So We Can Get A Direction We Want To Go With The Service. The Mayor Stated That This Item Would Be Tabled Until Later.

5. The Next Item Was Approval Was A Resolution For The Main Street Beautification Group To Sponsor The Fantasy Of Lights Parade To Be Held Tuesday, November 24th, 2020 At 6:30p.M. Commissioner Simpson Asked What The Route Was On The Parade? The Mayor Asked With The Current Situation Of Covid If This Is Something We Still Want To Go On? He Thinks It Can Be Done With People Sitting In Their Own Cars Or Standing In Family Groups, He Is Not Asking For It To Look Like A Rally. Angie Baker Deaton Stated The Parade Route From Ida Street To Jackson. No Candy Or Anything Will Be Thrown During Parade But Santa Will Hand Out Candy Already Prebagged At The Santa House After The Parade Is Over. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

6. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding The Old City Lake Waterfowl Committee Guidelines. The Mayor Stated That The Old City Lake Waterfowl Committee Is Made Up Of Keith Vaughn, Guy Webster, Rich Morthland, Randy House And Dylan Vaughn They Will Oversee The Duck Hunting At The Old Lake They’ve Set Up Some Regulations. Ed Blades Used To Do All Of This But He Is No Longer Able To, Due To His Health But We Found Out That We Needed To Have Some Guidelines So They’ve Put Together Some That Are Known To Everyone. They Want To Do Away With Floating Blinds. Also If You Are Going To Hunt At The Old Lake You Need To Be A Paying Water Customer Of The City Of West Frankfort. The Mayor Stated If You Don’t Want To Pass This Tonight We Can Absolutely Can Do This Next Meeting But The Mayor Assured Them That Although The City Owns The Lake Ultimate Authority Belongs To The City. Since Its Not Been A Problem They Have Managed It Very Well, We Have Confidence In Their Decision Making Process They Are An Honerable Bunch Of Gentlemen And They Are Going To Oversee This For Us. They Are Going To Use The New Rules For This Year. There Is Not Going To Be Any Lottery This Year The People That Have Blinds And Have Been Hunting Out There Will Be Able To Use Their Blinds Again This Year. The Blinds That Are Open Have Been Open For Several Years And We Only Had One Person From Out Of The Area That Was Interested And They Told Him That They Were Not Going To Allow Anyone This Year Because It Was Too Late To Have A Lottery And It Was Unfair For Other People, He Was Fine With That. We Had A Recommendation That We Put A Sign Up At The Lake That Says That This Is Duck Season During This Time And The Dates But They Said They Don’t Want To Do That Or Call Attention To It. Its Not Been A Problem Before. The Mayor Wants To Thank Keith Vaughn And Guy Webster For Spending A Lot Of Time And Research On This. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

7. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding A Possible Donation. The Mayor Stated We Had A Request For A Donation But He Was Not Able To Talk To The People Who Were Asking For It, He Had A Lot Of Questions For Them And So The Mayor Stated That They Would Not Be Able To Act On That Tonight.

8. The Next Item Was Approval Of Contractor’s Pay Estimate #1 To Wiggs Excavating, Inc. In The Amount Of $41,547.45 For The Monroe Street Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Project. That’s Progress Towards Getting Materials, Pipe And That Kind Of Stuff For That Project Was Stated By A Brown & Roberts Member At The Meeting. Commissioner Warren 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 Approval Of Contractor’s Pay Estimate #1 To Wiggs Excavating, Inc. In The Amount Of $59,774.62 For The Taft Street Sewer Rehabilitation - Phase 2 Project. That’s Mostly Stored Materials They Have Started Work Down By Douglas Street North End Slow Progress As Stated By Brown & Roberts Representative. Commissioner Warren 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 Approval Of Right-Of-Way Bill #1 To Brown And Roberts, Inc. In The Amount Of $1,870.55 For The Taft Street Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation -Phase 2 Project. It Was In The Project Budget Acquiring Some Easements As Stated By Brown & Roberts Rep. Commissioner Warren 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 Of Construction Engineering Bill #1 To Brown & Roberts, Inc. In The Amount Of $4,649.58 For The Taft Street Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation- Phase 2 Project. 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 Brown & Roberts, Inc. In The Amount Of $13,876.50 Regarding The Design Engineering Bill For The Hms Overlay Project. Commissioner Stanley 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 For Vfw To Hold Their Annual Poppy Drive Roadblock On Friday, November 13th From 9:00 A.M. To 3 P.M And Saturday, November 14th From 9:00 A.M. To 3:00 P.M. At The Intersection Of Route 149 And Highway 37. Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

14. Officer Reports:

Captain Rob Williams Filled In For Chief Allen Tonight; Read The Fire Department’s Report. Incident Activities: 156 Ambulance Calls, 6 Rubbish Illegal Fires, 1 Brush/Field Fire, 4 Motor Vehicle Accidents, 7 Fire Alarms, 2 Vehicle Fires, 8 Fire Emergency (Gas Leak, Power Lines Down Etc.) 2 Structure Fires, 1 Smoke Scare, 4 Mutual Aid Calls. Total Calls Of Service Was 191. During The Month Of October They Used Approx 68000 Gallons Of Water And Collected $12,628.98 For Ambulance Call Receipts.

Chief Prudent Read The Police Department’s Report. He Reported 736 Calls For Service. Of Those Calls 17 Were Traffic Accidents, 3 With Injuries. Officers Responded To 25 Domestic Disputes, 7 Fights In Progress, 16 Alarms, 2 Intoxicated People, 7 Burglaries, 9 Reports Of Criminal Damage To Property, 16 Complaints Of Juvenile Problems, 27 Reported Thefts, And 75 Complaints Of Disorderly Conduct/Disturbances And 42 Street Contacts. Officers Conducted 105 Traffic Stops, Where They Issued 20 Citations, 80 Warnings, And 8 Lw-27’s. There Were 40 Adult Arrests Made, Resulting In 61 Criminal Charges Filed. Dispatchers Answered 1,210 Calls. Of Those, 585 Were 9-1-1 Calls, And 120 Were Walk In Requests. 736 Were For Police, 191 For Wf Fire, 14 For Thompsonville Fire/Ems, 5 For Abbott Ems. And Zero For Williamson County. We Collected Approximately $1000 In Fines And Fees.

Mayor Jordan Read The Code Department’s Report 15.Building And Sign Permits:

Marilyn Glenn 2110 East Clark ~ Is Building A 19x20 Garage And Has Been Looked At By Our Codes Office. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

John Sturgeon 603 E Oak ~ Is Building A 24x32x10 Pole Barn And Has Been Looked At By Our Codes Office. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

16.The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Emergency Invoice From Gallagher Bassett Services, Inc. In The Amount Of $7,160.60. The Mayor Stated This Was A Bill Is For A Medical Expense. Angie Baker Deaton Stated Usually It Is Part Of Our Reserves And This Was Something Outside The Scope So We Need To Pay That Directly. Mayor States Its For A Workmens Comp Claim And We Need Authorization To Pay That. Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

17. Mayors Comments: The Mayor Stated The Next Council Meeting Will Be Held November 24th At 10 A.M. In The Morning. It’s A Reminder Because The Light Parade Is That Evening. When It Comes To Trash Service We Need To Look At What Commissioner Stanley, Warren, And The Water Dept Because They Do The Billing So We All Need To Get Together And Figure Out What We Want And Talk To Republic About It. Covid Is Spreading Rapidly And They Have A Lot Of It In His Church, We’ve Lost Family, We’ve Lost People That Work For Us And Their Family Members So Its Not Something To Be Scoffed At; But A Lot Of People That Are Having It Are Getting Along Very Well And He Thanks God For That. Mr Maragini Isn’t Here Today He And His Wife Have It They Are Almost Over It By Now, He Has Only Had Very Mild Symptoms We Give Him Our Best. Stay Safe.

18. Commissioner Comments:

Commissioner Harkins Stated The Police And Fire Department Are Doing Well In Both Departments. Our New Police Hire Michael Williams Started This Week.

Commissioner Simpson Stated He All Is Going Good.

Commissioner Stanley Stated He The Guys Are Doing A Great Job Helping Out At The Green Space, Larry Is Doing A Great Job Taking Care Of The Streets While The Other Half Is Up On Main Street Working On Things.

Commissioner Warren Stated Sewer And Water Is Doing Fine. Trying To Get Some Roots Out Of Sewer Lines Her Team Is Trying To Keep Things Flowing. Water Is Running.

19. Audience Questions Or Comments:

Shane Tyler Was In The Audience And Lives Across From The Aquatic Center. Stated That He Is Going To Be Asking A Retorical Question If After Hearing What Im About To Say Would Any Of You Continue To Allow Such Activity To Go On Outside Your Home? He Comes Here On Behalf Of His Family And His Neighbors. Including Steve Leek, Bryce Levanti, And Matt Donkin. My Concern Started Way Back In April With The Underage Drinking That’s Going On At The Aquatic Center Parking Lot; And B.S. Parking Lot. My Understanding Is The Aquatic Center Doesn’t Want The Teens There Either Hence The No Trespassing After 6pm Signs. Im Not Saying All The Teens Hanging Out At The Aquatic Center Parking Lot Are Drinking But The Ones Who Are, Are Leaving Behind The Evidence. Littered Beer Cans All The Time Same Way With B.S. Ive Talked To The Police Numerous Times And The Consensus Was I Wasn’t Telling The Police Anything They Didn’t Already Know. It Has Snowballed Into Some Teens Disturbing The Peace In The Neighborhood With All The Engine Revving, Squealing Of Tires And Speeding. If The Unruly Teens Were Getting Out Of Hand He Would Call The Police And Often He Has. The Police Would Come Everytime I Called. Now One Of These Teens Must Have A Scanner Because Now Whenever I Call Them Someone Else Is Flying Into Aquatic Center To Get Everyone To Leave Before They Come. He Would Like To See The Teens Who Are Being Disruptive Get A Ticket Or Something. The Problem Is Still Going On 7 Months Later. There Was An Article In The Southern Back In 2016 That The City Was Hoping For The Park To Be Annexed Into The City, So The City Could Be Able To Take Over Jurisdiction From The County To Get Vandalism Under Control And 4 Years Later And Its Still Taking Place And Out Of Control. Teens Have Gotten Worse Over The Years. Ive Been Thru The Chain Of Command, Has Talked To Everyone Who Would Listen And Has Been To The Park Board And The Aquatic Center Manager. Which Brings Me To The Petition That He Went Around With Last Weekend. The Petition States That The Teens Are Running Amuck To And From B.S. Parking Lot To The Aquatic Center. Police Are Still Clearing The Lots, It Must Be Protocol, Even Though You Can See Beer Cans And Smell Pot. I Started With My Attention At Bs Parking Lot And Went East On Oak Street Down South Lincoln To Cleveland Street And East On South Marion Road The People He Spoke With Were Concerned About The Safety Of Their Children, All The Speeding And Disregard Of Stop Signs, And Several Residence Have Told The Teens To Slow Down On East Cleveland Just To Have Them Turn Around And Speed Back By And Yell Obscenities At Them. Disturbing The Peace With All The Excessive And Illegal Purposely Loud Exhaust. He Has Called The Police On Several Vehicles Multiple Times And They Are Still Doing What They Do. He Has Them On Video Last Night And The Night Before, Its Always The Same Ones. He Now Has A Camera On The Pillar Of His Porch To Make Sure They Arent Vandalizing His Vehicles. He Has 60 Signatures To Say That His Family Is Not The Only Ones Tired Of Their Lives Being Disrupted. Maybe The City Council Would Welcome The Teens To Hang Out In The Non Residential Area Such As The City Owned Vf Mall. That Would Be Perfect. Im Willing To Sit Down And Talk To Anyone That Can Help With The Situation And Be A Part Of The Solution.We Need Some Ordinances And We Need Them Enforced; This Is Beyond Kids Being Kids This Is Criminal Activity. He Is Asking The City Council To Please Help The Residents Of West Frankfort And Bring Safety Back To The Streets And Peace To Our Homes.The Mayor Commented Thanks Shane For Coming Tonight And Asked Chief Prudent To Respond. Chief Prudent Stated He Has Talked To Mr Tyler Before On The Phone And He Has Sent Out Emails Requesting Extra Patrols In Those Areas. We Have Been There And Ran People Off. We Have Also Ran Them Off The Bs Lot As Well. For The Most Part Protocol Is If We Pull Up And They Are Not Doing Anything Outlandish Then We Just Move Them Along. As Far As Some One Having A Scanner Chief Prudent Stated Everyone With A Cell Phone Has Access To Scanner Apps On Their Phones. As Far As The Traffic Issues Go He Will Be Glad To Sit Down With Mr Tyler And Go Over Everything. The Problem We Have Had Before And Mr Donkin Can Tell You As Soon As We Move Them From Bs They Go To Vf Mall, We Remove Them From There And Go To The Park. Its Kind Of A Vicious Cycle. Chief Prudent Says He Has Not Had The Park Reach Out To Him Yet As Far As What They Would Like For Him To Do About This As Well. Mr Tyler Has Offered To Go Over To The Parking Lot Before He Goes To Bed To Lock The Gates To The Park. Steve Leek Commented That He Thinks This Has Been A Problem For Years And We All Know It. Something That Needs To Be Addressed. His Biggest Complaint Is This Park Is Out There For Everyone And He Doesn’t Care What Time They Leave There As Long As They Just Take Care Of Cleaning Up Their Mess And Being Sympathtic Towards Other People Who Live In The Area. He Also Realizes There Is An Issue With Teens Because They Don’t Have Anything To Do. So Bottom Line Is Its Not A New Problem And It Is Something That Is Important Obviously To Shane And The 60 Other People Who Signed The Petition To Say So. Cleveland Street Has A Lot Of Traffic On There And If You Go You Can Hear A Lot Of Traffic With Loud Mufflers. Weve Had Issues With Donuts ~And Them Throwing Rocks Everywhere Its Been A Problem. We Need To Come Up With Some Sort Of Plan Of Attack. Prudent Stated That He Knows In Previous Years They Have Talked About Locking The Gates But The Problem With That For Us Is If Something Is Going On Out There And There Is No Caretaker Out There Anymore To Over See Things Then We Cant Get To The Back Of The Park. Mr Leek Stated He Heard People Are Living In The Woods In The Park And Behind The Park. A Friend Of His Walks Early In The Morning Before Daylight And He Saw A Light Coming From Out Of The Woods And It Is A Female And He Has Heard There Is A Female In The Park Living With A Dog And She Cant Take Her Dog Anywhere And He Thinks She Is Homeless. Leek Also Stated Weve Had Some Issues Where People Who Do Care For The Park And Clean It Up They Have To Deal With Syringes, All The Alcohol Issues, Empty Cans And Bottles Broken On The Parking Lot, Had A Person Who Locked Themselves In A Restroom Out There, There Are Several Problems And It Is For The Public To Use And Have It For Their Family. The Mayor Stated He Apprieciates Shane Coming Down And That He Had Talked To Him On The Phone. Its Difficult There Are Good People And Then You Have These People. The Problem Is The Message Isnt Getting Through. The Mayor Stated For Chief Prudent And Commissioner Harkins To Take Care Of It And If Mr Tyler Has Any Other Issues To Let The Mayor Know And He Will Be Glad To Do Anything We Can. Mr Tyler Says That There Is 6-7 Of The Same Ones That Cause Issues And The Mayor Stated That Maybe They Could Get The License Plates Of Those Troublesome Teens.

20. With No Further Business To Be Discussed, The Meeting Was Adjourned On A Motion By Commissioner Harkins At 7:02 P.M.

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