North Egypt News

City of West Frankfort City Council met April 26.

Here are 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 April 12th, 2022 Regular Council Meeting. Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. 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 $178,650.07. Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

4. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Proclamation Declaring May 12, 2022 Through May 15, 2022 As The West Frankfort Old King Coal Festival, Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

5. Approval Of A Resolution For The Old King Coal Committee To Sponsor Their Annual Old King Coal Parade On Saturday, May 14, 2022 At 1:00 P.M. The Parade Will Start From The Movie Gallery Parking Lot And Go Down To Lincoln Street, Due To The Construction Going On At The West Side Of Hwy 149. Larry Morris Is Now In Charge Of The Old King Coal Festivities, Since The Retirement Of Steve Sawalich. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve, Motion Carried.

6. Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding A Donation To The Old King Coal Committee. The Mayor Stated In The Past We Have Given Money From Our Tourism Fund. We Usually Donate $10,000.00 Every Year. The Mayors Recommendation Is To Donate $10,000.00 Out Of The Tourism Account. Commissioner Simpson 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 A Resolution Appointing Paid On Call Volunteer Firefighters To The West Frankfort Fire Department. Desiree Aaron, Timothy Hopper, Matthew Neibel, And Lacey Wink. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley, Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

8. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding Two Separate Grievances From The Fraternal Order Of Police. This Item Was Tabled Until We Can Have A Discussion With Our Attorney Courtney Cox And David Fields Of The F.O.P.

9. The Next Item Was Approval Of The 2022 MFT Local Public Agency General Maintainence Estimate Of Maintaintence Costs In The Amount Of $328,158.57. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

10. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Resolution For Maintainence Under The Illinois Highway Code Regarding The 2022 Met Program In The Amount Of $340,000.00. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

11. The Next Item Was Approval Of The 2022 MFT Maintainence Engineering Agreement. Commissioner Stanley 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 Appoint Jamie Simmons As The City's Insurance Consultant Regarding The Health And Life Insurance Policies For The City Of West Frankfort. We Are Going To Start Paying Him Directly, It Is Going To Be $2,500.00 A Month. He Has Been In Charge Of Our Insurance Policies For Quite Some Time; Stated The Mayor. 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 To Pay An Invoice From Brannon Hydraulic Service In The Amount Of $1,577.97 Regarding Annual Maintainence Fees For The Street Department, Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

14. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice From Rend Lake College In The Amount Of $1,820.00 Regarding A Semester Of Paramedic Program For The Fire Department. Chief Sailliez Stated This Is For One Person For One Semester. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve, Motion Carried.

15. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice From FW Electric, Inc In The Amount Of $5,160.27 Regarding Jefferson And Main Street Stop Light Issues. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

16. Approval To Pay An Invoice From Illinois EPA Laboratory In The Amount Of $3,248.88 Regarding Annual Water Samples For The Water 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.

17.Building And Sign Permits ~

There Were Three (3) Sign Permits. Two For The Circle K One Will Be Animated, The Other Will Be A Gas Canopy Led Lighting, Then We Also Had One For Sonic Who's Sign Was Destroyed In A Storm, Code's Officer Mr. Snell Said All These Meet All His Requirements. The Mayor Stated He Would Like To Vote On Them All At Once. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

18. Mayor's Report ~

The Mayor Stated That The Planning Commission Met This Week. We Have A Wonderful Group Of Merchants And Business Leaders Of The Community In It. They Are Going To Come To Us With Some Recommendations Here In The Near Future.

We Have Listed All Our Local Business Property With The Same Realtor That The Moreland/Bishop McDonald's Group Uses For All Their Property. The City Has Some Really Good Property. Property Out By Taco Bell, Five (5) Lots In Front Of The Mall That Are Prime Property, If You Drive Into Strawberry Meadows We Have Two Lots On The Side Of Quest, And 3 More Lots On The South Side Of That Road, To The North Of That We Own 15.5 Acres Of Land With A Pond. So, All Of These Properties Are Going To Be Going On A Real Estate Site With This Gentlemen From St. Louis To Get The Word Out About What We Have For Sale. He Is Also Going To Work With Our Local Real Estate Agent Kurt Avripas And Partner With Him.

I Also Want To Take A Moment To Thank Thad Snell Our Codes Officer. He Is Doing A Great Job. When People Come In And Complain To Him, He Follows Up With The Complaint. If You Have A Vehicle In Your Yard And Its Not Ran In A Year Or Its Not An Antique; He Will Be Talking To You. Also, We Are Addressing Dangerous Buildings, We Have A Lot Of Problems In Our Community. We Used To Have 22,000 Citizens In It At One Point, We Now Have 7,800. There Are A Lot Of Vacant Buildings And Houses We Are Tearing Down, Some Where Close To 20-30 Homes A Year. We Have Committed A Lot Of Resources To That. The Codes Department Is Also Writing Tickets. We Are Also Taking Them To Court And The People Are Having To Pay The Fines.

Commissioner Harkins Stated That They Finally Got The Two New Hires For The Police Department; Home From The Academy. They Are Still Being Trained For Another 6-8 Weeks. The Fire Department Has A Quint That Is Down. Also Proud To Get The New Paid On Calls For The Fire Department, We Need That Help At The Station,

Acting Chief Sailliez Stated That The Quint Is Up Around Roxana, Illinois Due To Issues It Needs Some Mechanical Work. The Fleet We Have Is Aging. The Newest Unit We Have Is A 1999 Model. Its Around $700,000.00 For A New Fire Truck.

Commissioner Simpson Stated That She Is Proud Of The Progress Being Made For West Frankfort. The Money Being Spent On The Projects For The Roads Are Moving Quickly And Being Repaired. She Stated She Has Not Heard Too Many Complaints About All The Construction.

Commissioner Stanley Stated That In The 300 Block Of East St Louis Street Larry And The Guys Cut Out Two Big Sections Of That Road To Get Repairs Done. Then In The 200 Block Of West St. Louis We Got It Fixed So We Do Not Have To Keep Going Back And Repairing It. They Have Also Been Cleaning The Ditches And All Of The Tiles Before It Rains Again. They Guys Are Keeping Busy

Commissioner Warren Stated That We Have Recently Ordered A New Flygt Pump, We Have Been Having A Lot Of Rain Lately And We Need To Make Sure The Sewer Is Running Properly. Everyone Is Working Hard Doing Routine Maintainance. Also, The Next City Lake Committee Meeting Is May 19th At 6 P.M.. If You Have Any Lake Property And Have Questions Or Concerns It Will Be Held Here At City Hall,

19. Audience Questions Or Comments:

Mr. Porritt Was Here To See About Getting His Dog Back At His Home. He Stated He Wrote Out An Agreement That He Would Be Willing To Put Up A Fence And Be Totally Responsible For His Dog. The Mayor Stated We Are Not Opposed To Having A Variance For This As We Told You Last Week, You Must Have Your Neighbor Agree That It Is Ok For You To Bring The Dog Back Into The Neighborhood. The Codes Officer Stated We Are Moving In The Right Direction And Hopefully By Next Council Meeting We Will Have Something To Bring To The Council.

Isabelle Heyder Stated She Noticed Such A Concern For Liability With This Dog And I Agree With That Because I Wouldn't Want My Dog Killed. She Stated Five (5) Years Ago There Was A Few Churches Going Together To Hold An Event At The VE Mall. We All Had Insurance Coverage, But We Were Told We Could Not Have That Out There Unless We Had Another 5 Million Dollar Rider Policy. I Understand Your Concern Over Insurance But Now With This Group That's Handing Out Tents. I Know The Old City Hall Was Bought. So Now You're Going To Put Them Up In This Beautiful Methodist Church. Are They A 501c3? And Who Is Going To Be Liable If Someone Gets Hurt There? "The Mayor Asked Who They Dealt With On The Mall? This Is The First I've Heard About This Event." The Mayor Stated Five (5) Years Ago We Had About 350 WPS Employees Out There. Isabelle Stated With That Being Said We Have Got To Get This Homeless Issue Under Control. She Stated You Have City Ordinances You Can't Live In A Camper; You Can't Live In A Trailer. But You Are Giving Them Tents And They Are All Over Town. The Mayor Asked When You Say "You" Who Are You Referring To? Mrs. Heyder Stated Well I Don't Know Who These People Are That Are Giving Them Out, Its Happening At The Old City Hall So I Have To Assume That You're Approving It. The Mayor Stated The City Is Not Approving Anything, We Do Not Give Out Tents, She Stated You Aren't, But They Are Getting Them From A Building You Own. Mrs. Heyder Asked Who Is Liable If One Of Those People Get Hurt At That Building? This Organization That Is Doing All This Are They Paying Rent? Are They A 501c3? I've Asked This Before And I Can't Get An Answer. The Mayor Stated I'll Give You An Answer. This Is My Recollection Of What Is Going On. A Few Years Ago, Connie Howard Contacted Me And Said “Tom, There Are Some People Living At The Park, Three (3) Men And A Woman And I’m Concerned About Them, I Don't Like It, So She Took Them Food And Helped Them Out. She Was Able To Convince Them That Her Church Could Help Them. The Mayor Told Her I Do Not Have The Heart For This, But Obviously These People Are There And They Are Always Going To Be There Unless They Receive Some Help. He Told Mrs. Howard That If God Gave You The Heart For This Then You Need To Do This. The Mayor Started Out Letting Them Use 222 E. Main It Was An Empty Building; They Went In There Cleaned And Fixed It Up, And They Started Helping People. Here Is What Happened That Made Things Excellerate John Mizes Building Was Condemned. There Were Seventeen (17) People Living There. We Had To Get Them Out, This Group That You Are Talking About Was Able To Move All Those People Out And Find Places For Them To Live. The Mayor Asked Mrs. Howard How Many Did You Relocate? She Stated All Of Them But Four (4). The Mayor Stated This Is A Success Story Because Those People Were Just Going To Be Pushed Out Into The Streets. It Grew Because They Saw They Were Able To Make A Difference In Peoples Lives With This Groups Help. We Sold 222 East Main; So, We Let Them Move Into 228 East Main. They Fixed It Up And Did Repairs In There As Well Using Their Own Money. We Ended Up Renting Out That Space So They Wound Up Using The Old City Hall, What They Do There Is One Day A Week. There Are Several Agencies There To Help These People Crosswalk. The Housing Dept. Centerstone. Etc. But To Answer Your Question As To Who Is Liable At These Locations, It Is The City, Someone Can Trip And Fall Anywhere And It's The City Who Is Liable. Mrs. Heyder Stated Also Have You Seen Behind John And Mary Morelands House? They Have Removed 10-12 Tents And All These Clothes Left Behind By All These People. Mrs. Heyder Stated If They Are Locals And You're Helping Them Like At John Mizes Building I Think That Is Wonderful. These People Are Not Local People Coming In Here. The Mayor Asked Mrs. Howard "Have We The City Given You A Dime To Do Any Of This?" Mrs. Howard Stated “No The City Has Not Helped Us At All Besides Giving Us A Building To Use." The Mayor Stated These People Have Problems, They Have Drug Problems, Mental Health Issues, Etc.

Rick Heyder Spoke Up And Stated That A Lot Of These People That Are Here Do Not Have Jobs, Ride Bicycles With Backpacks Around Town And Two Out Of The Four I Talked To The Other Day Were Dropped Off Here By People From Marion. He Told Mrs. Howard You Are Doing A Great Job; Your Heart Is In The Right Place. Last Year They Were Living Up Behind Trinity Church. The Issue That People Have Is There Are A Lot Of Good People That Need The Help But It Is Also Bringing In More Rift Raft.

Chief Prudent Stated That You See The Same Thing Going On In All The Surrounding Towns Around Us. It's The Mental Illness, Drug Addiction, Bicycle Bike Packers, Homeless Issues. The Sad Thing Is That It Is All Related. When You Start Looking At The Drug Issues That Leads To The Homelessness, The Bicycles And Backpacks. Mr. Prudent Went To Mrs. Howard And We Spent An Hour And A Half Together With Many People In A Room And He Told Them, You Have To Quit Giving These People Tents. Because All Your Doing Is Infringing On People's Properties And They Are Breaking The Law Trespassing. Connies Group Immediately Said They Will Stop Doing It. (Handing Out Tents) Chief Prudent Stated They Do Not Want The Issues Either They Just Want To Help People.

Lisa Frost Stated She Lives On Douglas Street And All Day Long We Have Back Packers, Bicycles And Drug Deals Going On All Around Our House. I Can't Even Let My Child Play Outside. She Stated She Understands The WFPD Is Busy And When They Take One Of These People To Jail By The Time They Get Back To Town They Are Already Released From Jail. Mrs. Frost Stated That She Has Been Told They Are Bringing Them Here From Williamson County And Are Dropping Them Off At County Line Road. There Is Also Sixteen (16) To Twenty (20) People Living In A Trailer On Douglas Street, There Is A Camper Out There With Two Tents. Commissioner Stanley Said Our Codes Officer Mr. Snell Is Already On That Right Now. We Had A Discussion About That Address This Morning. Mr. Prudent Stated We Arrest 2-3 People A Day But Our Court System Is Failing Us. The Mayor And The Council Have Been Very Supportive Of The Police Department, We Only Have Twelve (12) Officers We Are Getting 2 More In A Few Weeks. We Are In The Drug Task Force, So We Have An Officer That Works In West Frankfort A Majority Of The Time. When You Put Them In Jail Multiple Times And They Keep Releasing Them. Mrs. Frost Asked What Happens If One Of These People Hurts My Kid? Chief Prudent Stated He Will Go Back To Jail, We Are Doing Our Part Our Justice Department Is Failing Us.

The Mayor Stated I Want To Identify What The Problems Are. We Support This Community. This Is My Twelfth Year Being The Mayor. I Love This Job, The Community And I Do What I Feel In My Heart Is Right. I Did Not Cause The Drug Problem, Or The Mental Health Issues When They Let All Those People Out Of Anna State Hospital; They Destroyed Our Communities. Public Aid If You Look At Our Community We Have Five (5) Public Housing Units, This Was Something That Was Done Way Before We Came Along, And It Was Done In The Name Of Helping The Poor. But Now We Have Become A Magnet For The People That Are Poor. Because They Live In Low Rate Housing And We Have Tons Of It. They Get Public Aid Out Of Benton. So We Have Ended Up A Community Of Poor People. If Your Husband Commits A Felony And You Live In The Housing You Either Get A Divorce Or Move Out Of The Housing Because They Are Not Allowed To Be There. Those Are Things You Do Not Think About. The Mayor Stated He Identifies With Everything Everyone Is Saying, He Wants To Help Make A Difference But He Is Not Sure What We Can Do As A Community To Make A Difference, We Are Not Trying To Draw People In Here. He Told Mrs. Howard We Will Not Have A Food Kitchen, A Homeless Center, And I Do Not Want Anything That Is Going To Create A Magnet For More Of These People.

Connie Howard Stated No One Hates This More Than I Do. It Makes Me Sick. But What We Have Been Able To Do In Two Years Is We Have Gotten Thirteen (13) People Off The Streets Into Housing. These People Need Help Filling Out Forms The Application To Get Into The Housing Is 13 Pages Long, We Are Dealing With A Group Of People That We Are Lucky If They Have A Third Grade Education. Some Of Them Are Totally Illiterate. They Don't Know What To Do So They Throw It Down And Leave. We Had Another Lady That Was Living In Her Car With Three Babies. They Wanted $150 Plus First And Last Months Rent. She Didn't Have Ten Cents. If We Work With Them, And If We Really Feel That They Are Going To Do The Right Thing, We Will Pay That For Them To Get Them Into A Home. And If They Mess Up Then They Cannot Come Back To Us Again For Any Assistance. There Is Six Months To A Year Waiting List To Get Into Any Apartment Or Housing Here. We Have Tried For Over A Year To Get A Woman Into An Apartment And Finally Today She Got The Call; She Got In One. One Of The Most Frustrating Things We Deal With Is The Mentally Ill. We Have 4-5 Case Workers From Centerstone That Work With The Homeless And Drug Alcohol Addicts. They Can Take Them Immediately For Drug And Alcohol Addicts If They Would Just Agree To Go. 99% Of Them Are Felons, And They Cannot Get Into The Housing. A One Bedroom Modest Apartment In This Town Costs $675.00 A Month. If You're On Disability And You Make $750.00 A Month That Doesn't Leave You Anything To Pay For Water, Electricity, Food, Or Medicine. Most Of The People We Deal With Are Elderly, And By The Time They Pay Their Bills And Buy Their Medicine They Are Out Of Money. We Feed Them And Usually That's The Only Homecooked Meal They Receive All Week. Yes, They Could Go Over To Wit N Wisdom But They Do Not Have The $4.00 To Pay For It.

Isabelle Heyder Asked Can We Have A Fund Set Up To Help These Senior Citizens To Pay For Their Lunch At The Wit N Wisdom? Mrs. Howard Stated I Think That Is A Great Idea. Mrs. Heyder Stated If These People Are Elderly And They Are Hungry We Owe That To Those People. I’m Not Talking About The Others She Stated.

Valerie Reed Was Also In The Audience And Stated She Has Learned So Much Tonight And Had No Idea That There Were Counselors There To Help These People. All She Had Been Told Was That Connie And Her Helpers Were Giving Them Clothing And A Hot Meal. We Watch Some Of These People From Our House Hide Things Over At The Old Salvation Army Building And Someone Else Comes And Picks It Up. She Stated She Has Been Homeless. Me, My Mom And My Sister We Lived In A Car. We Struggled, But We Also Have To Be Good Stewards Of What Connie Is Giving To Them And Not Trash Property. Every Morning I’m Cleaning Up Messes. And Thank You To Whomever Closed Emma Street Down, Thank You! She Stated I Owe You Big Time To Codes Officer Snell, I Praised God When Those Doors Were Closed Shut. That Was A Drug Center They Were Always In And Out. My Sister And I Have Started A Charity For Children Its Called Wani's Warriors. We Helped 33 Kids In West Frankfort Get To Have Christmas Last Year. They Were Only For West Frankfort Children. I Am Also Glad To Hear That I’m Not The Only One That Is Scared To Go Outside At Night By Myself. We All Have To Work Together To Come To A Solution. We Do Not Have To Be Like All These Other Towns. Im Concerned About West Frankfort. I Want To Make West Frankfort Great Again.

The Mayor Stated So You All Can Know What’s Going On I Suggest We Get A Group Started To Talk About All Of This. Neighborhood Watch Groups Is This Something That Is Benefical To Have He Asked Chief Prudent? Chief Prudent Stated He Does Not Think It's A Bad Idea, Because It Allows People To Communicate What Is Going On In Their Neighborhood With Not Only Themselves But With Us

Acting Chief Sailliez Stated That's How He Knew About The Guy In His Yard Earlier Today. His Area Has A Group Text That They Are All In. They Had Sent A Picture To Him Of The Guy In His Backyard. Sailliez Let The Police Know And They Followed Him Over There And Caught The Guy.

The Mayor Made A Recommendation Everyone Here Pretty Much Knows Each Other. Connie Has A Group That She Is Working With. If You Guys Could All Get Together And Talk, The City Will Do Whatever It Can. These People Are Here, The People On The Bicycles Are Drug People, They Are Not Homeless., They Are Opportunist Looking For Something To Steal, There Is Nothing We Can Do To Help Them But We Can Catch Them With Neighborhood Watch Groups Set Up. I Appreciate You All Coming To This Meeting. I Welcome You Here. There Are A Lot Of Great Things Going On In These Walls In Here But No One Knows About It Because They Don't Come To The Meetings. Again We Do Not Want A Homeless Center, We Do Not Want A Soup Kitchen, So My Heart Is Not Supporting This, But I’m Supporting The People Who's Hearts Are In This. John Prudent Is Our Police Chief He Will Take Your Calls And Talk To You. Thad Is Our Codes Guy, He Is Trying To Get A Lot Of These Abandoned Houses Torn Down, And Places Where These People Hang Out Shut Down. There Are So Many Legal Obstacles That We Have To Go Through To Get Things Done The Right Way, He Has Also Went Into The New Daily American That Was Sold Recently To A Medicare Company. They Are Remodeling That On The Inside. They Have Promised Him That There Will Be No People Gathering There Or Living There. Its Just Going To Be An Office Space. Any Building We Can Get Someone To Occupy We Are Thankful For That. We Have A Lot Of Programs Available If Someone Wants To Start A Business,

Marilyn Verschueren Stated That Hiring The New Codes Guy Was The Best Thing The City Ever Did. The Mayor Replied He Was

The Dog Catcher For 10 Years For Franklin County. If He Can Go Take Your Dog Away From You, He Can Probably Get You To Clean Up Your Front Yard.

If You See Any Suspicious Activity Going On In Your Area; Call The Police Immediately. Do Not Wait 20 Minutes After You See Something Going On To Call. Help Them, Help You Stated One Of The Firefighters In Attendance.

Commissioner Warren Asked What Part Of The Methodist Church Are The Homeless Going To Be Able To Use? The Mayor Stated They Will Only Be Using The Basement Area On A Much Smaller Scale Than What They Were Using Before At Old City Hall. There Will Be Nothing Upstairs In The Church Or Sanctuary.

20. With No Further Business To Be Discussed, The Meeting Was Adjourned On A Motion By Commissioner Harkins At 7:18 P.M.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e4320cfbb00196160c23a75/t/627e9788f2511461bb6130b9/1652463496958/April+26%2C+2022+City+Council+Minutes.pdf