North Egypt News

City of West Frankfort City Council Met Feb. 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, Except For Commissioner Simpson; Along With The City Attorney And City Clerk.

2. Mayor Jordan Asked For Approval Of The Minutes From The February 9th, 2021 Council Meeting. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. 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 $309,604.30. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

4. The Next Item Was To Accept Annual Audit For Fiscal Year 2019-2020. The Mayor Stated This Item Would Be Tabled Since The Audit Was Not Quite Completed. Over The Next Two Weeks We Will Have A Special Council Meeting To Approve The Audit

5. The Next Item Was Discussion With Possible Action, Regarding The Acceptance Of Bids For The Purchase Of Property Deemed As Surplus. Gabe And Bethany Yordy Live At 606 N Horn The Property Next To Them At 607 N Horn Plus The Property Behind Them, Behind Them Is Another Set Of Properties Pin11-24-205-001 And 11-24-205-004 Those Two Properties Are In The Flood Zone. One Of Them Has The Big Ditch That Runs Thru It And Im Not Sure We Can Even Sell Either Of Those. The Government Bought Out That Property When It Flooded And Gave It To Us. The Yordy's Offered $1500 For The Lots But I Need To Sit Down And Talk With Them After I Find Out For Sure Whether Or Not We Can Legally Sell It. The Mayor Stated He Will Follow Up With City Attorney And County To See What Options We Have. Commissioner Stanley Stated We Mow Those Lots Every Year.

6. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Resolution Accepting A Grant From The Illinois Housing Development Authority's Strong Communities Program, Along With An Officer's Certificate And Certificate Of Incumbancy. The Mayor Stated This Is A Grant We Were Awarded And Special Thanks To Angie Baker Deaton For Getting This Accomplished. We Have An Grant For $145,300.00 Its For The Houses We Have Demoed. This Is Reimbursement For All Of Those. 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 Approval Of The Program Funding Agreement In Connection With The Strong Communities Program. This Is A Companion Resolution With The One Above. When We Tear Down These Houses That We've Been Doing For Over 10 Years, This Will Give Us Some Of The Money We Have Spent Back. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, 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 To Transfer Access Control-Highway Release To The People The State Of Illinois, Department Of Transportation, 605 Ilcs 5/8-101 Et Seq. The Mayor Stated This A Resoltuion Accepting The Resoltuion Of The Right Away That Was Donated To Us. There Will Be A Round About Wear Mcdonalds Is At, And A Ht In Where Mach 1 And Taco Bell It Will Be A Right In And Right Out. On The Opposite Side There Will Be An Entrance In A Right In And Right Out. The Frontage Road That Is In Front Of Mcdonalds Will Now Be A City Street, We Would Like To Have A Public Hearing With The Public But Idot Will Not Do One Due To Covid, So We May Have A Virtual One, But We Will Have Something In The Near Future. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

9. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice From Sandner Electric Company In The Amount Of $3,418.90 Regarding The Rebuild Of The Flygt 5 Hp Pump For The Sewer Department. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

10. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay Invoice From Sidener Environmental Services In The Amount Of $1,737.45 Regarding 2021 Annual Maintenance For The Sewer Department, Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

11. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice From Brown & Roberts, Inc. In The Amount $21,101.05 For Phase 1 Engineering Invoice #14 Regarding Il57 & Rt 149 Interchange Modification Phase 1 Engineering, Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

12. An Emergency Request To Hire A New Part Time Dispatcher Was Brought To The Attention Of The Council. One Of The Dispatchers Bj Cunningham Had Given Their Resignation Their Last Day Is February 25th. Chief Prudent Stated That The Current Dispatcher Put In His Notice So That Is Going To Leave Us With Just Three Full Time Dispatchers And One Part Time. We Do Have Tracie Graham That Is In A Part Time Position; It Is Chief Prudents Recommendation To Promote Her To A Full Time Position And Then Bring In Shelby Lingle As A Part Time Dispatcher For 25 12 Hrs. A Motion Was Brought To The Table To Move Tracie Graham To Full Time And Hire Shelby Lingle As A Part Time Dispatcher. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried. 

13. Building And Sign Permits: We Have A Building Permit For Joseph Marks At 211 N Jackson They Are Building A Garage And Storage Building At 207 And 209 N Jackson That Will Cost About $27,258.00. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

14. Mayors Comments: The Mayor Stated A Position As A Dispatcher Is A Special Calling. You Have To Be Able To Be Calm When Everyone Around You Are Falling Apart, You Have To Be Able To Listen, And The Voice Over The Radio/ Phone And Hear Whats Going On In The Background. You Want To Hang Up That Phone Up And Go Help Those People. That's Why I Was On The Fire Department. Also The Amount Of Computer Knowledge Needed To Do This Job Is Crazy, You Have To Be Able To Put All This Information In The Systems As It Comes In. You Have To Be A Special Type Of Person To Do This Job And I Would Like To Say Thank You For All You Do. You've Done A Great Job!

Believes Everyone Should Pray For Our Fire And Police But Mostly The Police As The State Of Illinois Has Passed A Law That Makesit Very Difficult To Do Their Jobs. I Never Thought Id Live In A Country Where Criminals Have More Rights Than The Citizens. We Are Going To Regret This Law In 2025 Its Going To Really Hurt Small Areas Like Ours.

15. Commissioner Comments:

Commissioner Harkins Stated The Police And Fire Department Are Doing A Great Job As Always. He Is Happy To Have Shelby Join The Team, And Told Her To Be Sure To Listen To Everything That Barb Has To Say, He Has A Lot Of Respect For Barb And Way She Runs Dispatch. Police And Fire Are Doing A Great Job As Always. We Are Lucky To Have A Lot Of Top Notch People Working In These Departments.

Commissioner Simpson Was Not Present

Commissioner Stanley Stated He Thanks Supervisor Presley And White For Doing Such A Great Job During All The Ice And Snow That They Had. The Roads, Alleys, VF Mall And Sidewalks Were All Taken Care Of. Proud Of These Guys.

Commissioner Warren Stated Water And Sewer Is Doing Great. The Poor Water Guys Had To Go Out A Couple Times Due To A Break In The Freezing Cold. They All Did A Good Job They Got Them All Fixed. 

16. Audience Questions Or Comments: Mr Hastings A Reporter

With A Local Newspaper Said He Noticed That Nancy Hobson Was Employee Of The Month. The Mayor Replied We Have Taken Over The Payroll And For Years It Has Been Outsourced. Yes, She Has Taken Our New Software Program And Started Doing All Payroll In House Since

January. That Was A Way For Us To Show Her How Much We Approciated All Her Time And Effort Into Learning The New Software

17. With No Further Business To Be Discussed, The Meeting Was Adjourned On A Motion By Commissioner Harkins At 6:26 P.M.

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