City of West Frankfort City Council met July 6.
Here are the minutes provided by the council:
1. Mayor Arview Called The Special Meeting To Order At 10:00 A.M. Requesting A Roll Call. All Commissioners, The City Attorney And Deputy City Clerk Were In Attendance.
2. The Mayor And Commissioners Of The City Of West Frankfort Have Called For This Special Meeting At City Hall Located At 605 West Main Street, Thursday, July 6, 2023 At 10 A.M. The Purpose Of This Meeting Is To Let Brown & Roberts Inc. Update And Inform Both The Mayor And Commissioners Of The Upcoming Project And What The Current Match Is To Be Used As Part Of A Local Match For Phase Ii Engineering And Construction Of I-57 And Il 149 Interchange Modifications Including Associated Local Streets. This Item Was Tabled At The Regular City Council Meeting On June 27, 2023 Until More Information Could Be Obtained.
Mike Roberts Of Brown & Roberts, Inc. Was In Attendance To Explain The Illinois Competitive Freight Program – I-57 & Il149 Interchange Modification. The Commitment For This Project Will Not Exceed The Following Amounts.
STATE FISCAL YEAR PHASE FEDERAL AMOUNT
2024 PHASE II ENGINEERING $960,000
2024 LAND ACQUISITION $690,000
2026 UTLITIES $80,000
2026 CONSTRUCTION $16,596,000
There Is A 20% Local Match 80% Federal. So, If You Look At The Ledger Size Sheet In The Handouts You All Have This Shows Where The Possible Funding Can Come From. The Total Cost Of The Project Is $24 Million, Of Which $19 Million Comes From The Freight Funds Requested With $1.8 Million Coming From Row Donation And $2 Million Coming From Idot. Leaving The City Responsible For $1.1 Million.
On The Construction Phase Over Half Of This Is On Local Roads And Streets, The Connectors That Go To The Interstate, The Ramps To Get To The Interstate Etc Are Somewhat Half Of The Project Costs. Idot Is Contributing $2 Million To The Construction Part Of The Project.
The Yellow On That Sheet Is What Would Be Coming From The City Funds. The Total Cost For The City At The Bottom Is About $1.1 Million The Way The Application Went In $579,500 In Funds Will Come From The Tif Funds Account And The Other $540,000 Would Come From The Rebuild Illinois Funds. Commissioner Howard Stated As I Understand We Have Other Roads We Would Like To Repair Using Rebuild Illinois Funds. There Are Some Things You Can And Cannot Use Rebuild Illinois Funds For. Right Now, We Are Using $540,000 And Leveraging A Larger Amount The Tif Funds Will Be Doing The Same Thing. You Are Going To Have Entities Out Here That Have Already Been Calling The City Needing Water And Sewer. We Will Try To Leverage Every Dollar We Can. The Minimal Amount You’re Going To Leverage For Is 50/50 If You Use It For Just Your Local Projects You Lose The Leverage You Have By Doing It That Way. All These Things We Are Talking About It Can Be Used For But Just Be Mindful You Will Lose That Leverage
Commissioner Stanley Asked What Is This Ffm? Mr. Roberts Stated Its Not Easy To Understand. So, If You Look At The Funding For The Right Of Way Acquisition You See There Is Donation To The City Of $1.8 Million Can Leverage With That Through A Program Called Federal Flexible Match. We Don’t Know Exactly What That Number Is Its An Estimated Number But Until We Actually Do The Right Of Way Acquisition, Get It Appraised We Do Not Know That Amount. Basically, Some Of The Right Of Way We Are Buying And That’s 80/40 So You’re Only Going To Get Credit For 80% Of It. That Flexible Match In The Blue Is $1.462 Million. I Will Tell You When You Look On The Front Sheet It Is Not Included In The Numbers. The Day After We Got This Letter, I Called The Director Of This Program And He Acknowledged That They Did Not Fully Fund It All. There Is A Verbal Commitment From Him To Find Those Funds. Commissioner Stanley Asked So If They Fund That, That Will Help. Mr. Roberts Stated If They Don’t Then We Will Have To Go For More Funds Or Scale Back The Project Some. Those Are Funds We Counted On And The Intent Is To Get Those To Us, But They Are Not In This Letter.
Commissioner Stanley Asked What About This Donation? Mr. Roberts Stated This Is The Scott Williams Property Railroad Bed The Access Across The Property That’s The Right Of Way Valued At $1.8 Million. Commissioner Stanley Asked So What Do You Think This Is Going To End Up Costing The City? Mr. Roberts Stated If We Get The Flex Match Probably Around $1.2 Million. Commissioner Stanley Stated Im Just Curious If Putting This Road In Is Going To Help West Frankfort? Mr. Roberts Stated There Is Still Plenty Of Room For The Truck Stop Out There, There Is Enough Development Out There To Develope North And South Sides Of The Road. Commissioner Stanley Asked On Joiner Road Is This Money Going To Be Towards That Too Or Is That Something The City Will Be Responsible For? Mr. Roberts Stated Right Now That Construction Off Ofjoiner We Can Acquire The Right Of Way Out There. We Will Look At That As We Get Closer To That Time. Commissioner Stanley Asked Now When You Are Coming Though Burlington Over To Rt37 Are You Going To Have To Buy Anyone Out? Mr. Roberts Stated We Will Have To Do Something At The Intersection Of Papa Johns And The Veterinarian Location. Mr. Roberts Stated Its Planned To Be 30’ Faced To Face So It Will Be Like Cleveland Street Is Or Cherry Street. We Have A Phase 1 Plan And You Do Those Phase 1 Plans Based On Anticipated Traffic In That Area. It May Take 20 Years To Hit That Maximum Anticipated Traffic. It Will Be Shaped Like A Y But You Can’t Really Build That Until You Have The Warrants To Build That. But Yes, Eventually We Will Need Right Of Way From Papa Johns Or The Veterinary Clinic. We Will Need A Little Bit Of Both. That Money Is Included On The Right Of Way Acquistition.
Commissioner Stanley Asked So The Funding Is Still Like It Was Previously? Mr. Roberts Said That Is Correct. Commissioner Stanley Said So It Hasn’t Went Up And Going To Cost The City $3-$4 Million Dollars Then? Mr. Roberts Said That It Is Not. People Are Correct In Saying There Is A $4 Million Dollar Match But It Is Not All City Funds. We Have Two (2) Years Development Before We Start Construction. This Will Bring Development To The Area And If You Have A Business That Is Willing To Put A Business In And Bring In Jobs You Can Leverage That For Adp Or Deca Funds.
Commissioner Stanley Stated On Using The Rebuild Illinois Funds He Just Can’t See Anything Developing Out There On Burlington Road Right Now. I Just Cant Justify All That Money Being Spent Out There And We Can’t Even Sell The Property Out By Taco Bell. Whatever Is Good For The City Is What I Want Too. I Just Can’t See Spending A Bunch Of Money And It Doing Anything. With The Rebuild Illinois Money Maybe If We Don’t Use But Part Of It Towards The Roads In Town Could We Not Use It To Oil And Chip, They Need Repaved? Mr. Roberts Stated On The May 1, 2020 Letter They Came Back And Told Us There Are Some Things You Can And Cannot Use Rebuild Illinois Funds For. To Qualify To Be Funded With Rebuild Illinois Grant Proceeds, A Project Will Need To Be A Bondable Capital Improvement. Transportation Improvement Projects With An Average Useful Life Of Greater Than Or Equal To 13 Years Will Be Considered Bondable Capital Improvements. Examples Are But Not Limit To Project Development, Design, Land Acquisition, Construction Engineering, Reconstruction Of Roadway, New Construction Of Roads, Bridges, Ramps, Overpasses, And Underpasses, And Bridge Replacement. Permanent Ada Sidewalk/Ramp Improvements And Seeding Or Sodding Are Eligible Expenditures If Part Of A Larger Project. The Most Beneficial Item You Can Use It For Is Transportation Infrastructure That Enhances The Overall State And Local Highway System. Roadway And Bridge Infrastructures Are Desirable Projects As Well As Guardrail, Shoulder Widening, And/Or Resurfacing. The Allowable Overlays Are Ones That Are 2 Inches Or Greater And Meet The Criteria Set. 1.5-Inch Hma Overlays Would Be Considered For Only For Class Iii And Iv Roads. Stand Alone Pedestrian, Bicycle, Multi Use Path And Streetscape Projects Or Any Type Of Maintainence Type Projects Are Not Eligible For The Use Of Rebuild Illinois Funds. Which Is Why Mr. Roberts Thinks This Money Is Best Used For This Project As Is Goes With The Guidelines For Using These Funds.The Narrow Streets That You Want To Oil And Chip Are Not Going To Be Eligible To Use These Funds For. It Must Be Used For The Highest And Most Beneficial Transportation Infrastructure And Needs To Enhance The Overall State And Local Highway System. The I57 Intercchange Project Is The Ideal Use Of These Funds. These Funds Have To Be Used By July 25, 2025 If You Want To Use Them For Something Else, We Need To Be Figuring That Out.
Mr. Roberts Stated You Need To Look Into Your Accounts And See What Funds You Have Available And Where You Want To Use Those Funds. Commissioner Stanley Said He Would Like To Either Redo Completely Or Oil And Chip Illinois Avenue Leading To The School, And Other Roads Leading From Main Street To St. Louis Street, Like Joiner Road, Stewart Street, Mcclelland. Mr. Roberts Stated You Would Have To Look At Them As An Individual Streets To See If They Qualify. Which Most Would Not. South Marion Road Is One That We Know Would Qualify. Your Decision To Make Is, Are You Going To Use The Rebuild Money That You Get Matching Funds For The I57 Project Or Would You Rather Try To Find Another Program To Fund The Local Streets? You Can Also Use General Maintainence Funds On These Roads To Get Them Finished Like You Did On Taft And Country Club Road. The Reason The Funds Are Still Available Is Because We Couldn’t Decide On A Project To Use It On Or It Would Have Probably Been Spent Along Time Ago Stated Mr. Roberts. Commissioner Stanley Stated If We Have The Money To Do The Local Roads I Would Like To Get Done, Then Im Fine Spending Rebuild On The I57 Project. Mr. Roberts Stated The Obvious Question Here Is Do You Want To Use Your Money On Stand Alone Projects Or On One Large One For The Interchange That You Get Matching Funds? Once You Make That Decision Then Say We Were Going To Use It For A Stand-Alone Project We Would Then Get Very Aggressive About Getting It Together.
3. Public Comments/Questions:
Marilyn Verschueren Asked Like Roger Said I Don’t See A Lot Of Development Out There That Is A Lot Of Flood Areas Around The Area You Are Talking About. How Much Is It Going To Cost To Fill That In? The Mayor Stated There Is A Lot That Is In The Flood Plan But There Is Still A Lot That Isnt In A Flood Plan That Could Be Developed. Mrs. Verschueren Stated I Like The Idea Of New Roads But I Don’t See Anything Going Out There. The Mayor Stated Ive Got Some Documents That Show Where The Flood Plan Is And Ill Upload That On Facebook Along With The Costs Of Everything As Well So Everyone Can See What The Funds Are Being Spent On. Mrs. Verschueren Stated She Would Like For Us To Get The Money And Not Someone Else.
Another Gentleman In The Audience Asked When The Project Was Going To Start Or Go Through? I Have A House In The Area You Are Talking About And Im About Ready To Have Back Surgery? And You Would Be Directly Going Through My Home On The Southbound Entrance Ramp. Mr. Roberts Stated It Will Take A Couple Of Months To Get Phase 1 Finished Which Is What We Are Working On Right Now, Phase 2 Engineering Will Take Around Five Months To Get Approved And Another Twenty-Four (24) Months To Three (3) Years Before Construction Actually Starts. Mr. Roberts Stated He Would Like To Talk With Him Directly After The Meeting If Possible.
The Voice Recorder Did Not Record This Special Meeting It Was Turned On But Only Got The First Few Seconds Of The Meeting. You Can However Listen To The Live Facebook Video Recorded On July 6, 2023 On The City Of West Frankfort
Mayors Page.
4. With No Further Business To Be Discussed, The Meeting Was Adjourned On A Motion By Commissioner Howard At 10:50 A.M.
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