City of West Frankfort City Council met April 25.
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 11th, 2023 Regular Council Meeting. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. 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 $133,274.40. Commissioner Howard 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 Annual Audit For Fiscal Year 2021-2022. The Mayor Stated The Auditor Is Sending It To Via Email And We Are Going To Print It Out. This Is Being Moved To The End Of The Meeting. We Will Have That Before The Meeting Is Over With.
5. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Proclamation Declaring May 11, 2023 Through May 14, 2023 As The West Frankfort Old King Coal Festival. The Mayor Stated I Would Like To Recognize The Old King Coal Committee, And If You Would Come Up Here; I Will Give You Something. But We Will Vote On This First. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Howard. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
The Mayor Then Presented The Committee With A Check From The City In The Amount Of $10,000.00. Larry Morris Stated He Would Like To Thank The Council For Always Supporting And Helping The Group Every Year.
6. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Resolution For The West Frankfort High School To Sponsor Their Annual Graduation Parade On Saturday, May 13, 2023 At 6:30 P.M. The Mayor Stated This Parade Will Be Held From Ida Street To Lincoln Street Due To The Road Construction. 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 To Go Into Executive Session To Discuss Contract Negotiations, Union Grievances, Personnel, Purchase Of Property And/Or Pending Litigation, With Possible Action. The Mayor Stated We Have To Periodically Go Through And Approve The Minutes Of Executive Sessions And Decide Which Executive Session Minutes Will Remain Closed. If Its Over Eighteen (18) Months, And No One Has Shown Any Interest In Them We Can Delete Or Destroy Them. So, We Need To Go Into Executive Session For A Few Minutes Just To Review These Minutes. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners Along With The Mayor Voted Yes. Motion Carried. The Council Went Into Executive Session At 6:38 P.M.
8. They Returned From Executive Session At 6:48 P.M. Were They Took No Action. A Motion Was Made To Return To Regular Session By Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners Along With The Mayor Voted Yes. Motion Carried.
9. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Resolution Recommending Executive Session Minutes Remain Closed Because The Need For Confidentiality Still Exists. The Mayor Stated All The Executive Session Minutes, Everyone Was Given Those, And Looked And Reviewed Them, The Recommendation Is Certain Ones Remain Closed, Certain Ones Will Be Open, And Others Will Be Destroyed. Commissioner Howard 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 The 2023 MFT Local Public Agency General Maintenance Estimate Of Maintenance Costs In The Amount Of $364,591.58. This Has Been Amended Stated The Mayor. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Howard. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
11. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Resolution For Maintenance Under The Illinois Highway Code Regarding The 2023 MFT Program In The Amount Of $370,000.00. The Mayor Stated This Has Been Amended As Well. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Howard. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
12. The Next Item Was Approval Of The 2023 MFT Maintenance Engineering Agreement. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
13. The Next Item Was Approval Of IDOT Permit #9u-4118-23 Resolution For The West Frankfort - Country Club Road Sanitary Sewer Extension. The Mayor Stated The City Extended The Sewer Line In Front Of Crownline Boats To Blazing Trails BBQ. Commissioner Howard 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 Contractor's Pay Estimate #1 To Midwest Petroleum & Excavating, Inc. In The Amount Of $71,383.00 For The West Frankfort – Country Club Road Sanitary Sewer Extension. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
15. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay Construction Engineering Bill #1 From Brown & Roberts, Inc. In The Amount Of $6,073.17 For The West Frankfort - Country Club Road Sanitary Sewer Extension. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Howard. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
16. The Next Item Was Approval For Payment Of An Invoice From Illinois Public Risk Fund Regarding The Workers' Compensation Audit For The Policy Period 01/01/2022 To 01/01/2023 In The Amount Of $37,541.00. The Mayor Stated Since We Had Raises At The Beginning Of March This Is The Additional Amount We Have To Pay After The Audit. Commissioner Howard Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
17.The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding An Estimate On Building A 40x80x16 Pole Barn For The West Frankfort Street Department. The Mayor Stated We Have Been Trying To Get This Built For The Past Several Years, But Due To Covid And The Materials Not Being Available We Had To Put This On Hold. The Mayor Asked Commissioner Stanley What He Had Found Out On His Bids. Commissioner Stanley Stated The City Received Two Bids One From A-1 Buildings In The Amount Of $78,000.00 And The Other From A Local Company B&J Construction, LLC In The Amount Of $54,037.57. This Building Would Be Across From The Old Street Shed Down On Charles Street, We Already Own The Land And We Need It For All The Equipment We Have Sitting Out. They Will Just Be Building The Building We Will Do All The Concrete And The Garage Doors Will Be Later. The Council Agreed They Should Take The Lowest Bid From B&J Construction, LLC. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
18. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice From DPR Construction Inc. In The Amount Of $2,975.00 For Concrete Repair At Week's Chevrolet. Commissioner Warren Stated This Was For A Meter That Was Buried In The Ground, It Was Old And Leaking, So It Had To Be Taken Out And Repaired. It Was In The Middle Of Weeks Parking Lot. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
19. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay Approve An Invoice From DPR Construction Inc., In The Amount Of $5,906.25 For Concrete Replacement At The West Frankfort Business Incubator. The Mayor Stated Don Gass Our Business Incubator Manager Stated At The Entrance Of One Of Our Renter's Chemstream Under The Canopy The Heavy Trucks Come In They Had To Make Some Repairs To That Concrete. It Had Collapsed, They Have A Lot Of Big Trucks Going In And Out Of There So It Needed Replaced. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Howard. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
20. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice From Xylem In The Amount Of $8,473.50 The Cost To Rent Pumps At The Sewer Department. The Mayor Stated These Are The Pumps Out On 37 That Help Control The Flood Waters. We Have Two Large Pumps Out There. They Pump 40,000 Gallons A Minute. We Have Fixed One And Now We Have Taken The Other One Out To Fix It As You May Remember The Propeller Were Missing. This Is The Cost Of The Stand By Pump To Sit Out There In Case We Get Heavy Rains Out There And Need It. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
21. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice #3 - Final From Greater Egypt Regional Planning And Development Commission In The Amount Of $9,326.00 Regarding Mall Infrastructure Project Eda 06-01-06132. They Mayor Stated Yesterday Mike Roberts, Don Gass, Along With Greater Egypt, And A Lady From Chicago With The Eda Came Down. We Did The Final Inspection For That Eda Project At The Mall That Included A New Parking Lot, Seven (7) New Air Conditioning Units For The Top Of The Mall, Three (3) New Entrances, Handicap Accessible For The Mall, The Road That Goes And Connects Behind Taco Bell, Bob Burton Way, Also All The Construction You Saw On Rt 149, The Roundabout, And The Road Construction Going Back Out Past Weeks, All The Sidewalks In That Area. This Project Started 3-4 Years Ago, Jim Brown From Brown & Roberts And I, Went To Chicago And Met With Eda. We Were Able To Get A Grant For In Excess Of Four (4) Million Dollars, That Grant Was Finalized Yesterday. So, All In With The Reimbursements Made The Greatest Part Of That Is That Our Participation In This Was Less Than $300,000.00. The City Council, Brown & Roberts, Eda, IDOT, Greater Egypt, Were All Able To Work Together And It Only Cost The City Around $230,000.00. Its Completed Now So This Is The Final Payment To Greater Egypt. Our Reimbursement For This Will Be Coming In. In Order For This Project To Work, Eda Does Not Pay Until Completion, So We Were Able To Use Tif Money And That Will All Be Reimbursed.
These Projects Can Not Be Done By A Single Person, There Has To Be Multiple People Involved In These Meetings For These Projects. The Mayor Stated He Would Like To Personally Thank Mike Roberts And His Team At Brown & Roberts For All The Help And Guidance They Have Provided Over The Years To The City Of West Frankfort. When I First Started As Mayor, I Was Like There Is No Way We Can Get These Grants, But The Fact Is They Want To Give You The Money, They Want You To Have Projects.
Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
22. Building And Sign Permits - There Was One Sign Permit From Wallace Industrial. It Is An Illuminated Roof And Wall Sign. The Cost Of The Sign Is $15,000.00 And Will Be Installed By Liberty Signs At The West Frankfort Plaza Location. Codes Officer Snell Stated That It Is A Really Nice Sign And Meets All Our Requirements. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
23. Commissioner Reports:
Commissioner Warren Stated I Am Also A Lake Commissioner And We Had A Meeting Last Thursday And We Had About Eight (8) People Who Attended. We Discussed Ideas That They Would Like To See Done To Improve And Repair Some Thing Out There. We Have Sold 146 Boat Lake Stickers So Far This Year. It Was A Good Meeting And We Will Have Another One In May. In The Water Department They Have Been Moving Meters At Mach 1 So They Can Put The Sidewalks In. They Are Also Repairing, Reading Meters And Just Recently Received More Training On The New Meters Being Installed. My Sewer Guys Got A New Testing Machine For Chemicals And Are Using It Now. They Are Also Going To Be Doing Some Effluent Station Work Tomorrow. They Are All Busy.
Commissioner Stanley Stated He Has Not Really Been Around A Whole Lot Because Of Some Family Things Her Has Going On. But Larry And The Guys Are Getting Ready For Road Work To Be Done. Street Superintendent Presley Stated They Have Poured Some Sidewalks, Been Working On Drainage Issues And Patching Roads. As Always Street Guys Are Staying Busy And Doing A Good Job.
Commissioner Howard Stated As You All Know We Have Had Trouble Getting The Audit Report, And It Is Supposed To Be Delivered Here Shortly. I'll Just Say This I Will Do Everything In My Power To See That The Next Audit Is Done On Time And Submitted On Time. That's My Pledge To You Is That I Will Do The Best I Can, And Work As Hard As I Can, And Work With As Many People As I Need To Get It Done. Other Than That; He Did Not Have Too Much Else To Say. I’m Just Disappointed We Didn't Get The Audit Here Until Now.
The Mayor Stated The Auditor Was Here Last Week He Spent Two Days Here In The Office And Then Again Saturday. Just A Little Information And I Take Responsibility For This. Our Auditor Has Been Doing This Since 2016 And After Covid His Firm Was Greatly Reduced. He Lost One Of His Partners, Plus His Whole Family Ended Up With Covid, We Got Behind,
Our Comptroller Took Disability And Retired In The Middle Of Our Audit, We Also Changed Software Programs. We Were Using Quick Books And We Switched Over To Locis And In That Process We Should Have Waited To Do It At The End Of The Year. But Instead; We Did It Mid-Year And We Had Half The Audit On Quickbooks And The Other Half On Locis. We Are The Largest Vendor That Locis Has. There Were Some Problems With The Software And We Caught Those During The Audit And It Took Some Time To Figure Out Coding. All These Things Compile In A Situation And We Got A Year Behind On The Audit Getting Done, Because Of All The Things That Happened. Nothing Was Actually Nefarious; It Was Just Events Beyond Our Control. Some Decisions That Were Made We Would Have Probably Done Some Things Differently. So That Audit Got Completed And We Are Now Working On This Audit For 2022 Year. He Has It Done, Its Taken A While, But He Also Does Taxes And Tax Day Was Up To April 18th. So For Him To Show Us The Kind Of Attention That We Needed, We Did Not Get That And I Apologize To The Citizens For The Delay. I Think That In The Future Maybe You Get A Bigger Firm That Can Come In To Do This In A Lot Quicker Manner. I Just Want Everyone To Know I Regret The Things That Have Happened, But The Audit Is Complete And It Will Be Here And We Will Prove That Tonight.
Commissioner Harkins Stated Police And Fire Department Are Doing Their Jobs As Always. He Asked Chief Sailliez If The Tests They Had Last Week On The Pumps If That Worked Out Alright? Mr. Sailliez Stated "Yes, The Pump Test Went Well."
24. Mayor's Report ~
The Mayor Stated That Its Just A Pleasure To Serve The Citizens Of This Community, He Appreciates This Council. We Try To Do What’s Best For The Community, We Have No Motives, We Are Just Trying To Make This A Better Place. It Feels Good To Be Able To Help Out That Is What We Are Here For.
Audience Questions Or Comments: There Were No Audience Comments Or Questions.
Commissioner Warren Stated She Would Make A Comment. That It Has Been A Pleasure Working With The Mayor For The Last Four (4) Years. That's All That I Have Is Four (4) Years Under My Belt. And Everybody Else I Think It's Been A Smooth Ride, Everyone Speaks Their Mind, And Does What's They Think Is The Right Thing To Do And I Just Appreciate Your Work That You Have Done For The City. Commissioner Stanley And Harkins Stated We All Do, That Goes For Us Too. Commissioner Stanley Stated We Are All Like Family Here We Work Together For The Betterment Of The City.
The Mayor Stated I’ve Done A Little Calculations Here And I’ve Held Over 300 Council Meetings Over The Past Twelve (12) Years, Starting In 2010. Short Story I Was Asked By Marion Presley To Replace One Of The Commissioners Who Was The Finance Commissioner And When Marion Called Me, I Did Not Know That Marion Was In The Hospital. After Prayer And Some Discussion With My Family I Decided I Would Do That. I Was Appointed Finance Commissioner On A Friday And Marion Presley Died The Next Day. So, My Training Period For Being The Mayor Was About Twenty (20) Hours. I Went And Got This Guy Named Mike Simpson To Replace Me On The Council And We Had Been Muddling Along As Best We Could For Almost Twelve (12) Years.
It's Been A Pleasure; I Want To Say That, And An Honor To Represent This City. I Had The Ability To Be On The Illinois Municiple League Board In 2014 And I Got To Go Up And Rub Shoulders With The Mayor From Chicago, I Represented You Up In Springfield As Well As Chicago In Meetings Since 2014 On The IML Board. I Was On The Executive And Nominating Committee And That Was An Honor. I Just Want To Say That I Feel Like God Prepared Me For This Job Coming In Being On The Fire Department For Thirty-Three (33) Years. I Was On The Pension Board, I Was On The Negotiation Committee, Involved In Doing The Budget So When I Stepped In, I Had A Pretty High Learning Curve But I Knew A Lot Of The Stuff Because I Had Been Involved In It All Before So That Helped A Lot. We Partnered With Some Really Good
People Brown & Roberts Is Top Notch, We Have Worked With IDOT Keri Nelson, A Lot Of These People Through The Twelve-Year Period. I've Talked To Greg With IDOT He Was Very, Very Kind About All The Projects We Have Worked On Together And Do Throughout The Years. So, With This $24 Million Dollar Project That Is Going To Start Soon, During This Twelve-Year Period We Have Brought In More Than $45 Million Dollars To The City Of West Frankfort. New Sewer Plant, Replaced Sewer Lines, New Water Meters So I Feel Like It's Been A Very Good Term. The City Is In Really Good Shape Financially. We Have Been Very Conservative, Some Times Maybe Too Conservative But You Have To Do That. You Do Not Get To Print More Money. We Have To Balance The Budget; We Have To Live On What We Get From Taxes.
There Are Some Great Things That Are Coming. We Have A Wendy's That Is Coming. We Also Have A Parcel Of Ground Next To Taco Bell That Has Money Put Down On It. They Are Wanting Mike Roberts To Go Out There And Stake Off Property Lines. They Are Wanting To Talk About Sewer And They Are Wanting To Build Soon. They Also Want To Buy The 3.7 Acres That We Have In Front Of The Mall To Put In A Large Box Store And Another Restaurant. So West Frankfort Is On An Upward Direction.
I Also Want To Thank My Wife For All The Stuff She Has Put Up With Me For The Past Twelve (12) Years. But Also Pray For Her Because I Am Going To Be Home. She Has A Lot Of Things For Me To Do And I Look Forward To Them. I Appreciate The People Of West Frankfort Because They Are The Best Citizens Anywhere.
Scott Williams Stood Up And Stated On Things Coming To West Frankfort I Want To Tell You I Appreciate All That You Have Done. Especially For The Project Out Here On The Interstate. That Is Going To Open Up A Lot Of Opportunity For The People Of West Frankfort. Thank You, Tom. The Mayor Replied At The Completion Of This Construction, This Was Scott's Vision When I First Came Into City Government. Scott Came In To Talk To Me, He Showed Me This Scale Model Of What He Wanted To Do Out There On The Interstate. We Have Worked Really Hard Since 2012. In 2013 We Started And
Then We Got The Ajr We Are Probably A Half A Million Dollars Into This With The Cities Money. We Had To Do The Ajr First, Which Basically Justified That Interstate Needed To Be Fixed Because Of All The Accidents/Fatalities Out There. It Was A Lot Of Work. The Mayor Stated He Just Wanted To Thank Him For His Vision Because He Thinks It Will Be A Reality.
25. With Council Approval At 6:53 P.M. They Took A 20 Minute
Recess From The Meeting To Wait For Audit To Be Emailed Over, Printed Out And Reviewed By City Council. Commissioner Howard Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
26.At 7:17 P.M.The Regular Council Meeting Started Back Up.
Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
27.The Next Item Was Approval To Accept The Annual Audit For Fiscal Year 2021-2022. Commissioner Howard Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve. Motion Carried
28. With No Further Business To Be Discussed, The Meeting Was Adjourned On A Motion By Commissioner Harkins At 7:18 P.M.
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