North Egypt News

City of West Frankfort City Council met March 12.

Here are the minutes provided by the council:

West Frankfort Regular Council Meeting

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

1. Mayor Arview Called The Meeting To Order At 6:00 P.M. Requesting A Roll Call. All Commissioners Were In Attendance Including, The City Attorney And City Clerk.

2. Mayor Arview Asked For Approval Of The Minutes From The February 27, 2024 Regular Council Meeting. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

3. The Next Item Was Approval To Go Into Executive Session To Discuss For Discussions Pursuant To 5 ILCS 120/2 (C) (11) And 5 ILCS 120/2 (C) (5) At 6:02 P.M. The Mayor Stated This Will Be About Litigation And Property Purposes. We Have A Couple Things To Talk About In There, And Then We Will Be Out As Soon As We Can To Resume The Meeting. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

4. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Motion To Return To Open Session At 6:38 P.M. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

5. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Proclamation Regarding The West Frankfort Girl Scouts. The Mayor Read The Girl Scout Proclamation.

Whereas, March 12, 2024 Marks The 112th Anniversary Of Girl Scouts Of The USA, The Largest And Most Impactful Leadership Program For Girls In The World; And

Whereas, Since Our Beginnings, Girl Scouts Has Emphasized Public Service And Civic Engagement, And Has A Fostered A Sense Of Community In Girls; And Whereas, Girl Scouts Works To Champion The Ambitions, Cultivate The Talents, And Develop The Skills Of Girls To Confidently Pursue Their Passions And Make The World A Better Place; And

Whereas, Girls Say That Girl Scouts Supports Their Mental Health And Is An Accepting, Safe Space Where They Feel Free To Be Themselves And Where Leaders And Other Girls Are Sources Of Support During Difficult Times; And

Whereas, Girl Scouts Offers Girls 21st Century Programming In Science, Technology, Engineering, And Math (Stem); The Outdoors; Entrepreneurship; And Beyond, Helping Girls Develop Invaluable Life Skills; And Whereas, Gold Award Girl Scouts Already Take On Projects That Have A Measurable And Sustainable Impact On Community By Assessing A Need, Designing A Solution, Completing A Project, And Inspiring Others To Sustain It; And

Whereas, Today More Than 50 Million Women- Trailblazers, Visionaries, And Leaders-Are Girl Scout Alums Who Have Made The World A Better Place; And Whereas, Girl Scouts Of Southern Illinois Serves Over 6,500 Girls And Engages Nearly 3,400 Adult Members In 40 Counties In Southern Illinois.

Now, Therefore, I Tim Arview, By Virtue Of The Authority Vested In Me As Mayor Of West Frankfort, Do Hereby Applaud The Girl Scout Movement And Girl Scouts Of Southern Illinois For Providing Girls With A Safe, Inclusive, All-Girl Space Where They Can Hone Their Skills And Develop Leadership Abilities, And I Declare The Week Of March 10-16,2024 As Girl Scout Week.

We Had The Girls Scouts Here Before The Meeting And Took Pictures. We Will Have Pictures Posted On Facebook.

6. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding Electric Supply Rates For City Owned Property And Signing An Aggregate Electric Supply Contract With Homefield Age, LLC To Start In May 2024. The Mayor Stated I Do Want To Clarify This Is Only For City Owned Properties. This Will Not Change Your Home Rates At Your House. Jordan Haarmann Spoke He Is With Age Llc, As Their Director Of Procurement And Business Development. He Handed The Council An Updated Copy Of The Electric Supply Bids. On The Agenda It Sounded Like Homefield Energy Was Listed But Actually If You Look At The Highlighted Blue Bids For The Twelve, Eighteen, Twenty- Four- And Thirty-Six-Month Terms, Constellation Is The Lowest Bidding Supplier For The City's Properties. Your Current Contract With AEP Energy Is At 0.0828 And It Expires In May On The Meter Reading Dates For Each Of The Accounts. Amerens Rates For Commercial Accounts Right Now Is About 9.7/9.8 Cents Per Kilowatt Hour. You Are Currently Saving A Penny And A Half And The Rates Are Going To Lower By A Half A Penny To A Penny Depending On How Long A Term The City Wishes To Sign Up For At This Time.

The Last Contract The City Did Was A Twenty-Four Month Term, During That Term Rates Went Really High And Now They Are Back Down At Little Bit, You Did Good Locking In That Two Year Term. We Do Have An Election Coming Up In November, And There Is A Possibility Of Things Changing With In The Energy Markets With The Different Administration In Washington. Obviously, No Guarantee Where That Is Going To Go. Our Recommendation To The Council Would Be Somewhere In That Eighteen To Twenty- Four Month Term. Even If There Is A Change In November It's Still Going To Take Time For Those Changes To Be Implemented. Another Two-Year Term Will Probably Get You Through To A Good Spot And Then We Can Come Back And Determine What To Do From There. A Two-Year Term Will Lower You A Half A Cent Per Kwh, Which Will Save The City An Additional $13,000.00 A Year On Your Electricity Bills Compared To What You Are Paying Right Now. The Mayor Stated I Would Recommend And Entertain A Motion To Approve Constellations Bid For Twenty-Four Month Contract. Commissioner Warren Asked Was This The Only Bid We Got For The City? The Mayor Stated They Collected The Bids For Us From Homefield Energy, Direct Energy, AEP Energy, And Constellation. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Howard. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

7. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding The Introduction To Community Solar Anchor Tenant Subscription For City Owned Properties. The Mayor Stated This Is Not Anything We Need To Vote On, They Are Here To Explain And Give Us An Introduction To This Program. Brandon Bullard Is An Energy Advisor With Age, The Same Company As Jordan. Mr. Bullard Stated We Have Another Savings Opportunity Called Community Solar. It Is A Relatively New Idea Here In Southern Illinois, We Partnered Up With A Company Called Nexamp. They Are Working On Building Solar Farms All Over Southern Illinois. Community Solar Is A Mechanism Where Ameren Customers Can Subscribe Their Usage To A Local Solar Farm, You Will Get A Credit To Your Ameren Bill And Then The Solar Farm Will Then Send You A Second Bill For The Same Amount Of Usage But For 15% Less Money. The Difference In The Bills Is Where The Saving Mechanism Is.

The Information Sheet, I Handed You Explains What It Is, How It Works And Some Frequently Asked Questions. We Of Couse As Your Energy Partner, Have The Access To Your Usage. We Went Ahead And Put Together A Savings Analysis, Of How Community Solar Would Affect The Energy Usage And Pricing For The City Of West Frankfort. Commissioner Howard Asked Does This Apply To Residential In Any Way At All? Mr. Bullard Stated Yes It Does, They Are Asking The City To Become And Anchor Tenant On A New Solar Farm. With That Comes A Twenty Year Term Commitment. Residents, Or Small Businesses Can Sign Up On Their Own Using An Email Link. I Can Send That To You So You Can Pass That Along To The Residents. Any Ameren Customer Can Take Advantage Of This Program. Commissioner Warren Asked What Is An Anchor Tenant? Mr. Buillard Stated Anchor Tenant Is A Large User With Good Credit, Municipalities, Hospitals, School Districts, Things Like That Are Large Users That Will Be Around For A Longer Period Of Time. Most Of The Small Business Subscriptions Have A Cap To Them, They Can Only Subscribe So Much With Their Usage. But With An Anchor Tenant You Can Almost Subscribe All Of Your Usage To The Solar Farm. I Have Two Savings Analysis For You, Mayor When We Met You Talked About The Outlet Mall And The Incubator. One Of The Saving Analysis Shows All Of The Ameren Accounts That The City Is Responsible For, And The Other One Is For Everything But The Incubator And The Outlet Mall. The First One I Will Go Over Is The One With Out The Incubator And Outlet Mall, Over A Twenty Year Term KWH Produced Annually Is Around Two Million Kwh. The Bill Credit Value, Is The Amount That Will Be Credited Off Of Your Ameren Bill The First Year. The Credit Purchase Price, Is The Amount The Solar Farm Would Then Send A Bill To You For The Same Amount Of Usage. As You Accumulate The Savings Through The Years, You Are Looking At Saving $675,893 In Energy Savings Over A Twenty Year Term At No Cost To The City Of West Frankfort To Just Subscribe Your Energy To That Solar Farm. Over All You Are Looking At An Average Of $30,000.00 In Energy Savings A Year By Subscribing Those Accounts To The Solar Farm. The Mayor Stated, These Numbers Are Obviously Projections, But The Fixed Discount Of Fifteen Percent Is What We Will Be Actually Getting? Mr. Bullard Stated Yes, It Is A Fifteen Percent Flat Discount Every Month No Matter The Usage Going Up Or Down It Will Be That Flat Discount. The Mayor Stated I Know This Does Not Require Us To Build A Solar Farm Or Anything Like That, But Are There Different Discounts For Different Solar Farms And That Is What You Would Shop Or Is It Going To Be A Fifteen Percent Regardless. Mr. Bullard Stated Both, We Also Work With A Company Called Ampion Who Is Building A Solar Farm In Randolph County And They Are Offering Ten Percent. Obviously, We Want You To Have The Higher Savings, We Do Not Partner With Anyone Higher Than Fifteen Percent. You Subscribing To A Solar Farm Anywhere They Are All Over The Place. You Are Not Plugging Into A Solar Farm; Ameren Will Still Be Responsible For Delivery. If Something Were To Happen To The Solar Farm You Are Subscribed To, You Are Not On The Hook For Anything. Ameren Will Still Be In Charge Of Your Delivery To Get The Power Off The Grid Into Your Light Bulbs. You Ameren Bill Does Not Change, Other Than That Supply Discount Taken Off Of There. The Next Sheet I’m Handing You Shows All Of The Properties In The City, And This One Results In Savings Over One Million Dollars An Average Annual Savings Is $54,000.00. The Mayor Stated This Was More Of An Informational Point, There Will Be Further Discussion Later On Where You Will Offer Us Something In Writing. Mr. Bullard Stated Yes, You Have My Information If You Have Any Questions, We Give You Time All Time To Decide And For Your Attorney To Go Over The Contract. We Will Reach Out In About A Month. Commissioner Warren Asked Will This Not Cost The City To Hook Up To The Farm? Mr. Bullard Stated There Will Be No Cost To Subscribe.

8. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Wage Agreement Between The City And Laborers Local 773/ Dispatchers To Cover The Period Of March 1, 2024 Through February 28, 2025. The Mayor Stated This Is An Increase Of $1.00 Per Hour For Them. Due To Parity All Of The Union Contracts That We Have, They All Get The Same Increase Once We Give An Increase To One. I Entertain A Motion To Approve This Wage Agreement. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

9. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Wage Agreement Between The City And The International Association Of Firefighters Local 2402 To Cover The Period Of March 1, 2024 Through February 28, 2025. The Mayor Stated This Is Giving Them The $1.00 Per Hour Increase, And Some Clarification In The Contract Language That We Have Discussed In Executive Session. The Commissioners Had A Chance To Look It Over, And Asked Some Questions And Get Some Clarity On What We Are Really Voting For Here. If There Is No Other Further Questions, I Would Entertain A Motion To Approve. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Howard. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

10. The Next Item Was Approval Of An Ordinance Adopting An Administrative Adjudication System Hearing Unit And Other Actions In Connection Therewith For The City Of West Frankfort. The Mayor Stated This Allows The City To enforce Our Codes, And Have Hearings In The City To Keep The Money For The Fines And Things Like That Within Our City And Not Pay Them To The County. Anytime We Have To Send Something To The County, Any Of The Fines And Things Like That We Put On, They End Up Getting Eaten Up By The County And We Do Not See That Money. This Is A Way To Keep It In The City And We Can Actually Do The Whole System In City Hall. We Had A Model Ordinance And Our City Attorney Changed Some Language For Us. We Still Have A little Bit We Have To Do To Get It Going Fully, But This Gives Us A Starting Point. I Would Entertain A Motion To Approve This Ordinance. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

11. The Next Item Was Discussion Regarding Consideration Of A Tif Application For Mad Mad's Pizza Located At 200 E. Main Street. The Mayor Stated The Total Cost Of The Project Is $157,687.63 They Are Requesting One Hundred Percent On That. Based Off Of Feed Back From Our Economic Developer, The Maximum I Feel Like We Should Give Them Is $25,000.00. He Recommends And I Agree That Paying The Full Amount Would Not Be In Our Best Interest. I Do Recommend A Maximum Of $25,000.00 But, I Will Leave That To You All To Decide What The Actual Amount Should Be. Commissioner Warren Asked How Much Did We Just Give At The Last Meeting? The Mayor Stated $10,000.00 To Greg Murphy. Commissioner Howard Stated I Recommend Some Where Between The Amount Moran Recommended $7,500.00- $22,500.00. Commissioner Howard Made A Motion To Approve $15,000.00, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

12. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding A Letter Of Recognition For Rend Lake Area Tourism Council As The Official Tourism Promotion Entity For CVB Certification. The Mayor Stated CVB Stands For Convention Visitors Bureau, They Have Requested This. There Will Not Be Any Additional Cost To Us, We Are Not Hiring Them For Anything. This Is Basically The City Recognizing Rend Lake Area Tourism Council As A Promotion Entity For Us. Which They Have, They Do A Lot Of Work For That. For The Level That They Do We Do Not Have Anybody Else That Does As Much As They Do And What They Do. I Entertain A Motion To Issue This Letter Recognizing Them As Our Official Tourism Promotion Entity. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

13. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding An Agreement Between The City Of West Frankfort And Crowdstrike For Cybersecurity. Terry Harger Spoke He Is With The State Of Illinois, He Is Apart Of Cyber Navigation Program. Back In 2018 The Program Was Created To Help The Election With Their Cyber Security, So We Worked With The County Clerks In The Area. My Area Of Responsibility Was The Southern Most Seventeen Counties', During That Time We Did A Few Of The Programs. In 2021 We Expanded Our Program, And Now We Have Expanded Again Late Last Year To Include Police And Fire Departments, And Municipalities. There Is Three Options That We Have, They Are All Voluntary You Are Not Committed To Do Anything. The First One Is Vulnerability Scanning, All That Is, Is Looking From The Outside The State Would Scan. Whatever Is Coming In From Your Internet We Would Scan That. It Would Look For Common Vulnerability, Open Ports, Miss Configurations, Things Of That Nature. You Will Get A Monthly Report. If You Carry Cyber Insurance That Is Probably Going To Be Required Anyways And That Will Fulfill That Option. The Second One Is, Having Us Do A Risk Assessment. We Would Come In And According To The Standards We Would Conduct An Interview We Would Not Touch Any Machine; We Will Not Go In Deep It Will Be Just Questions Only. At The End Of The Interview, After We Get The Results Tabulated, We Would Come Back To Do A Sit Down Of The Results. This Is Basically A Second Set Of Eyes, What May Have Been Missed If You Have Multiple Vendors Over The Years, And Policies And Procedures. The Third One Is Crowdstrike, That Is An Antivirus Scanner That Is Designed For Machine Learning And Ai. It Is Designed To Catch Everything That A Traditional Scanner Can Not Catch, All Your Latest Ransomware, The Latest Cobalt Strike That's Out, Etc. This Will Be Monitored Up In Springfield 24/7, If There Is An Alert They Would Alert Me, And I Would Alert Anyone That Who Would Be The Point Of Contact For You. If You Need Help If There Is An Issue, We Would Try To Facilitate Help For You As Well. The First Two Options Are Free, There Is No Commitment, And They Are Completely Free The Scanning Would Be Done Monthly. Crowdstrike Is Prepaid For Two Years, It Is Paid By A Grant Through The Department Of Homeland Security. For Right Now It Is Scheduled To Go Up Into 2026, I Believe Its June 30th. They Are Working To Get That Extended, But We Do Not Know If Another Grant Is Coming Down Or If They Will Shuffle Money Around To Fulfill That. The Mayor Stated Is There No Commitment On This? Mr. Harger Stated No Commitment, You Can Choose To Back Out At Anytime. Commissioner Howard Stated No Immediate Costs To This? Mr. Harger Stated No, The Only Cost That You Have Is If Your I.T. Vendor Is Going To Charge You To Put The Program In For That. Whoever The Vendor Is, We Will Be More Than Happy To Work With Them. Commissioner Warren Asked This Is For Everything In The City? Mr. Harger Answered Yes, Anything That Is Under City Purview The Police And Fire Departments, Library, Anything You Want That Is Funded By The City. The Mayor Asked Do You Know How Much The Crowdstrike Will Cost After The Two Years? Mr. Harger Stated Roughly It Would Be $100.00 Per End Point (Whatever Computer We Put It On), Because Of State Pricing It Can Fluctuate. The Mayor Stated I See No Down Side To This, Keep In Mind This Is From The State, So We Are Paying Taxes For This. Mr. Harger Stated If They Charge You To Come Here For A Risk Assessment Interview, You Do Not Need To Do That, I Can Go To Them, Or We Can Do It Over The Phone. Commissioner Warren Asked Is This To Protect Us From Cyber Attacks? Mr. Harger Stated It Will Help, Nothing Is Guaranteed. If It Doesn't Fit The City's Needs Then Do Not Do It, Or Put It On The Back Burner Until You Want To Do It. Commissioner Warren Asked Do We Have Insurance Coverage. The City Clerk Said I Know The Vulnerability One We Do For Sure. Mr. Harger Stated Crowdstrike Is Considered An EDR System (Endpoint Detection Response). That May Fall Under Your Cyber Insurance To Have One Of Those. The Mayor Stated Even If It Is Something We Are Already Covering With Sinc, They Can Just Work With Them. Mr. Harger Stated If Sinc Has A EDR System You Have Two Products Doing Comparable, Its Up To You If You Want To Choose Crowdstrike. But If You Feel Like If You Want It Monitored In Springfield Twenty-Four Hours Regardless Of What Sinc Does. We Can Run Crowdstrike In Passive Mode, It Will Just Look At Everything, And Not Stop Anything But We Will Still Get The Alerts. The Mayor Stated I Entertain A Motion To Approve To Have All Three Things And Coordinate With Sinc. Commissioner Warren Asked So The Government Is Going To Be Watching Us? Mr. Harger Stated No, As Far As The Scans They Do Not Care What’s Coming Out And What’s Coming In. The Crowdstrike Is Looking For Processes That Are Going On Behind The Scenes, Not Looking At Data. Commissioner Warren Stated So We Can Try This For A Couple Of Years, If It Doesn't Work Out For Us, We Can Drop It. Mr. Harger Said You Can Email Me And Let Me Know You Want It Off Of There, We May Ask Why But We Will Not Fight You To Keep It. Commissioner Howard Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

14. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding A Planned Generator Maintenance Proposal With Cummins Sales And Service For The Next Five Years For All City Owned Generators. The Mayor Stated Year One Total: $26,406.49, Year Two Total: $24,655.22, Year Three Total: $23,619.27, Year Four Total: $26,406.49, Year Five Total: $23,619.27. That Is For All Five Generators That We Have, For Each Year Roughly $25,000.00 Per Year For The Maintenace On Those. Commissioner Howard Asked Where Are The Generators Located? The Mayor Stated, Sewer Dept, And The One At City Hall. Commissioner Harkins Asked Is The Generator At The Fire Department Covered On This? Chief Sailliez Stated No Ours Is Shared With The Police And Is Funded By 911. The City Clerk Stated In The Past We Had Four Of Them On This, And Now We Added A Fifth One. We Were Spending The Same Amount For Five Of Them As We Did For Four. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

15. The Next Item Was Approval Of An Invoice From Mid America Fire & Safety LLC. In The Amount Of $ 7,389.32 For Two New Sets Of Firefighting Turnout Gear For The Fire Department. The Mayor Stated What Exactly Is Turnout Gear? Chief Sailliez Stated Gear We Wear Into Fires, Coats, Pants, Suspenders, And Two-Fold Harness. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Howard. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

16. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice From The Johnson's Auto & Truck Repair In The Amount Of $16,075.00 To Rebuild An Engine For A-3 For The Fire Department. Commissioner Harkins Asked Chief Sailliez For An Update On That. Chief Saillez Stated A-3 Needs A Motor, We Have Antifreeze Going Into The Workings Of The Combustion Diesel. It's Not Good It Needs Either The Top End Or Bottom End Replaced Of The Motor, You Have To Start With The Top End, If That Doesn't Fix It Then You Have To Go To The Bottom End. If You Do Them Separately Then The Cost Would Be Around $24,000.00. They Recommended Rebuilding The Motor The One Time And It Will Save Us Some Money In The Long Run. They Highly Recommended That We Get On The Remounting Onto A New Chassis And That Is A Two-Year Wait. Just Because Their Was No Chassis Available For So Long, And Now Everyone Is Remounting Them So Now There Is A Wait List For A New Chassis. Either Wait Two Years For That Or Three And Half Years For A New Ambulance. This Is A Much Needed Repair To Keep Us Afloat With Three Ambulances Until We Can Remount Or Purchase New. Commissioner Howard Asked Will This Solve The Immediate Problem? Chief Sailliez Stated, Yes, The Immediate Problem Only. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Howard. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

17. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding The 2024 Volume Cap Allocation Transfer To The Southern Illinois Economic Development Authority. The Mayor Stated They Have Asked Us For Money That We Have Not Spent Yet, But Can Spend. My Recommendation Is That We Vote No To Do Not Do This, And Keep The Money In The City. I Talked To Our Treasurer And He Agrees That We Have Some Projects We Can Use This Money For, That We Do Not Need To Be Giving It To These People To Spend In Marion. I Entertain A Motion To Deny This Transfer. By Voting Yes, Means We Keep The Money, Voting No Means We Give Them The Money. I Say We Vote Yes To Keep The Money.

Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Howard. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

18. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding The Purchase Of An Xr50 Monitor For The Storm Pumps From Vandevanter Engineering In The Amount Of $6,885.00. The Street Superintendent Bonner Stated This Is Replacing The Old Call Out System We Used To Have Out There, And Now We Have Nothing. This Will Let Us Know The Flow, Temperature Of The Pumps, And More Inside Data. We Will Hopefully Keep The Pumps Healthier By This System. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Howard. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

19. The Next Item Was Approval To Transfer Lake Lot Lease #31 From Linda Spence To Pat And Linda Spence. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

20. The Next Item Was Consent Agenda:

A. Approval To Pay Bills In The Amount Of $44,108.50

B. Approval To Pay An Invoice From Pritchett Supply Co In The Amount Of $3,250.00 For Supplies For The Fire Department.

C. Approval To Pay An Invoice From Midwest Petroleum & Excavating, Inc. In The Amount Of $3,135.00 Regarding Grit Processor Repairs For The Sewer Department.

The Mayor Stated Item D On The Agenda Was From An Old Agenda And Got Put On This On By Mistake. We Are Only Voting On Item A, B, And C. Item A Does Include Our Grant Writer, She Has Been Doing Work For Us And Is Charging Us Obviously. She Sent Us A Letter Letting Us Know What She Has Been Doing. The Following Grants Have Been Submitted: Arpa Funding For Body Cams To Franklin Co. Commissioners In The Amount Of $57,355.00, DOJ Small, Rural, Tribal Grant For Body Cams In The Amount Of $28,677.50, DCEO Energy Transition Community Grant-Economic Development In The Amount Of $50,00.00. Pending For Submission Is AFG Funding For New Fire Engine In The Amount Of $825,000.00. Chief Sailliez Stated The One For The Fire Engine Has Been Submitted She Let Me Know. The Bill For January 2024 Is $750.00, February 2024 Is $2,700.00 For A Total Of $3,450.00. We Are Talking About One Million Dollars Of Grant Submissions For $3,400.00 I Think That's Worth The Price. This Is Included In The Consent Agenda Under The Bills, I Just Wanted To Let You Guys Know She Is Working And Helping Us Out.

Commissioner Howard Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

21. Building And Sign Permits ~ Code Officer Snell Stated The First One Is For A Solar Permit Roof Mounted For Joseph Zbinden At 204 Patricia Lane. This Meets All Of Our Requirements; I Recommend We Approve This. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Howard. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

The Next Permit Was For Centerstone, This Is For A Portable Building They Have Already, But They Are Just Moving It To Another One Of Their Properties. This Meets All Of Our Requirements; I Recommend We Approve This. Commissioner Howard Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

The Next Permit Was Another Roof Mounted Solar Permit For Bruce Bowers At 714 N Palmer St. This Meets All Of Our Requirements; I Recommend We Approve This. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

The Next Permit Was For Michael Mazzara, He Is Purchasing A Portable Shed To Be Placed On The Lot At 207 N Monroe St. This Meets All Of Our Requirements; I Recommend We Approve This. This A Lot They Purchased From The City That Is Across From Their House. Commissioner Howard Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

The Next Permit Was A Sign Permit For The Liquor Barrel, They Are Nearing Completion On That Building Is What I Am Told. This Is A Wall Mounted Sign With Lettering And A Decal. This Meets The Requirements Of Our Sign Ordinance; I Recommend We Approve This. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Howard. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

The Last Permit Was A Temporary Camper Permit For Ronald Smelcer, They Purchased A Structure On 509 S Odle St. They Are Planning On Converting It To A Residence. They Would Like To Live Next To It While They Do That Work. They Indicated It Will Not Be More Than Two Months. Mr. Smelcer Stated I Am Taking Over A Church, My Father Is Handing Over To Me, And I Am Converting It To A Residence, Myself, Wife And Family Currently Live In Florida And We Come Here To Visit Family And Friends. We Need Somewhere To Stay When We Come Here To Visit. Right Now, We Have Our Camper At Rend Lake And We Have To Make The Drive Back And Forth. The Big Issue Is There Is No Showers, Or Kitchen In The Church. The Mayor Asked Are You Confident That You Will Have It Done In Two Months. Mr. Smelcer Stated Even If We Don't Have It Done In Two Months, We Will Not Need Our Camper For That Anymore. Right Now, Since We Are Here, And Plan On Being Here For At least A Little While We Wanted To Be Able To Stay Where We Are Working At.

Commissioner Howard Asked Do You Have A Way For Sewage. Mr. Smelcer Answered I Will, Yes, I Can Use A Portable Thing To Clean Out The Sewage. Codes Officer Snell Stated My Only Comment Is, Since You Are Converting A Commercial Structure To A Residence You Will Need To Get An Occupancy Permit On That When You Are Done. Mr. Smelcer Stated Yes, We Were Already Explained That. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

22. Officer's Report ~

Fire Report For The Month Of February 2024. Chief Sailliez Reported That They Had 171-Ambulance Calls, 7- Rubbish/Illegal Fires, 5-Brush/Field Fires, 2-Motor Vehicle Accidents, 2-Fire Alarms, 0-Vehicle Fires, 12 - Fire Emergencies; (Gas Leaks, Power Lines Down, Etc.), 4- Structure Fires, 1-Smoke Scares, 5-Mutual Aid Fire Responses, 4-Mutual Aid Ambulance, 6-Ambulance Calls Turned Over To Mutual Aid Due To A-3 Being Down. For A Total Of 219 Calls During The Month. The Department Used Approximately 30,000 Gallons Of Water. The Department Collected $40,295.21 For February Ambulance Calls.

The Mayor Asked What Is All Of That Smoke Out There? Chief Stated It Is From Refuge In Shawnee National. Police Report For The Month Of February 2024. Chief Prudent Reported Officers Answered A Total Of 1,203 Calls For Service. Of Those Calls 25 Were Traffic Accidents, 0 With Injuries. Officers Responded To 20 Domestic Disputes, 2 Fights In Progress, 15 Alarms, 1 Intoxicated Persons, 5 Burglaries, 12 Reports Of Criminal Damage To Property, 16 Complaints Of Juvenile Problems, 22 Reported Thefts, And 32 Complaints Of Disorderly Conduct/Disturbances. And Officers Made 12 Street Contacts. Officers Conducted 164 Traffic Stops, Where They Issued 42 Citations, 139 Warnings, And 14 Lw-27's. There Were 52 Adult Arrests Made And 3 Juvenile Arrest, Resulting In 68 Criminal Charges Filed. Dispatchers Answered 1,439 Calls.

Of Those, 517 Were 9-1-1 Calls, 115 Were Walk In Requests. 1,203 Were For Police, 218 Were For West Frankfort Fire, 10 Were For Abbott Ems, And 0 For United Ambulance. For The Month Of February, We Collected $4,420.00 In Fines And Fees.

Codes Report For The Month Of February 2024.Codes Officer Snell Reported Permit: 6-Building Permits, 0~Sign Permits. 5- Solar Permits, Rental Properties: 3~Rental Inspections Performed. Case Activity Report ~ 30 Which Includes Doors Tagged Verbal Warnings, Vehicles Tagged, Inspections Of Violations, Inspections, Citations Issued, Letters Sent, Etc.

Water Report For The Month Of February 2024.

Commissioner Warren Stated Looks Like The Water Dept Has Been Fixing Repairs, They Put In 21 New Meters For The Month, Water Samples Were Good, 16 New Accounts, We Were Billed For 19,237,000 Gallons Of Portable Water Purchased From Rendlake For A Total Of $44,515.10. City Of West Frankfort Used 18,700,000 Gallons, South Tower-573,00 Gallons. West Frankfort Customers Were Billed For 14,759.300 Gallons Of Water, Orient Was Billed For 716,800, Plumfield Was Billed For 673,700, Sewer Plant Used 82,500 Gallons Of Water, Fire Department Used 30,000 Gallons Of Water. On Our Billings With Water, Sewer, Sanitation, Reconnect Fees We Brought In $229,185.88. 192 Customers Past Due Collected $47,896.16.

23. Mayors Report~

The Mayor Stated We Got A Letter From Rend Lake Conservancy District They Are Raising Rates. We Will Not Be Raising Our Rates Right Now Since We Just Did. But I Just Want To Let You All Know This Is Why We Have To Raise Our Rates Because Rates Go Up For Us As Well.

The Other Thing I Wanted To Talk About Is I Have Been Working On A 5- Year Strategic Plan For The City Of West Frankfort. This Is Something That Greater Egypt Asks All Of The Cities That Works With Them To Do. It Is Basically Where Do We Want To Be At In Five Years, Obviously Things

Change And Plans Change. This Will Be Something I Will Be Presenting To The Commissioners, And Get Their Input On How We Want To Move Forward. Hopefully We Will Have Something For You Soon, With Some Concrete Numbers. This Is Still A Working Title But West Frankfort Works Is The

Idea Behind It. We Put People To Work, Our City Works, Our Infrastructure Works, All Those Kinds Of Things. Keep In Mind This Will Be Coming Up.

Commissioner Reports-

Commissioner Harkins Stated You All Heard The Police And Fire Departments Reports, A Lot Of Job Security Out There. They Stay Busy, The Boys Do A Good Job.

Commissioner Howard Stated We Have Talked About It And We Are Going To Put An Ad Out, We Are Going To Be Hiring An Extra Person In The Office. We Have Been Short One Person For A Year And A Half Almost. They Will Be Helping In All Areas, They Are Going To Have To Learn How To Take Care Of The Water Customers, What The Deputy City Clerk Does, And Payroll. We Are Going To Try To Get People Crossed Trained Incase We Have Someone Out On Vacation, Etc. That Is All I Have For Now.

Commissioner Stanley Stated Mike Has Got His Crew Out Trimming Tree Limbs From School Buses, And Trash Trucks Tearing Them Up. Cleaning Out Ditches So Water Can Run Through, Fixing Pot Holes. They Are Staying Busy Doing Their Everyday Things.

Commissioner Warren Stated Water And Sewer Departments Have Been Busy Working Hard. There Is A Lake Meeting On The Third Thursday Of The Month. It Will Be March 21st, 2024 At 6:00 P.M. Here At City Hall, If Anyone Is Interested In Lake Information You Can Come To That Meeting.

Audience Comments:

Danny Loeh Stated I Have Been Working Hard At The Museum, I Have Been Helping A Few Veterans Who Have Been Injured.

When The Weather Gets Nice, We Can Get Our Side Walk Done. I Am Still Working On The Street Sign For Matthew Vosbin, I Have The Sign Already I Just Need To Get Ahold Of IDOT. If I’m Not Able To Put It On The Street, I Will Put It In Our Front Lawn. I Want To Have A Ceremony Up There Too; I Have Already Talked To The Mayor About It.

24. With No Further Business To Be Discussed, The Meeting Was Adjourned On A Motion By Commissioner Harkins At 7:50 P.M.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e4320cfbb00196160c23a75/t/660868088c7eed6e4e6a0443/1711826952600/MARCH+12%2C+2024-+MINUTES+SIGNED.pdf