North Egypt News

City of West Frankfort City Council met March 26.

Here are the minutes provided by the council:

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 March 12, 2024 Regular Council Meeting. The Mayor Stated If The Commissioners Had A Chance To Review Those Minutes, And There Is Not Any Changes To Be Made, I Entertain A Motion To Approve. 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 A Presentation Of Life Saving Award To T'niyah Avant On Behalf Of The West Frankfort Fire Department. Captain Jeffords Stated We Had A Student At F.I.S. On March 14, 2024 While They Were At Lunch, She Noticed One Of Her Classmates Was Choking On Food To The Point To Where He Was Not Breathing At All. She Got Up Without Hesitation And Done The Heimlich Maneuver To Clear The Obstruction, While The Other Students Ran To Get The Teachers. Last Thursday, March 21th, 2024 We Had An Assembly At F.I.S And Gave Her An Award In Front Of All Of The Students, And The School Did That As Well. We Just Wanted To Recognize Her In Front Of The Council, But It Looks Like She Was Not Able To Make It. (Everyone At The Meeting Gave Her A Round Of Applause). The Mayor Stated From What I understand Is She Said She Learned This From

Watching Baywatch.

4. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Proposed Wage Agreement Between The City And Teamsters Local Union No. 50 Sewer Department Employees To Cover The Period Of March 1, 2024 Through February 28, 2025. The Mayor Stated This Is For The $1.00 Per Hour Increase That We Have Also Given To The Other Unions. I Would Entertain A Motion To Approve That. Commissioner Warren 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 Donation Of $1,000.00 From The Gaming Fund To The West Frankfort City Park Towards Covering The Cost Of The Annual Easter Egg Hunt At The Park. The Mayor Stated That Is On March 30, 2024 At 10:00 A.M. I Entertain A Motion To Approve That. Commissioner Howard Asked Is This Something We Normally Do? The City Clerk Answered Yes Yearly. Commissioner Howard Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

6. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Donation Of $4,700.00 To The West Frankfort City Park For Fireworks To Be Paid From The Tourism Fund. The Mayor Stated Is This Going To Be For The 4th Of July That They Need This For? The City Clerk Answered Yes. The Mayor Stated I Entertain A Motion To Approve. Commissioner Stanley 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 Approval Of An Ordinance Updating And Codifing The Requirements For Selling Property At The West Frankfort City Lake Under Chapter 12.28 Of The West Frankfort Code Of Ordinances. The Mayor Stated This Will Require The Sellers To Conduct A Survey Along With Other Things That Are Required. Generally Speaking, This Will Require The Seller To Have A Survey Done Of The Property Prior To The Sell. We Will Also Notify Adjoining Properties Lease Holders, If Changes Are Made. That Way They Are Aware Of It, If There Is Any Property Disputes Or Anything Like That Then That Will Come To Us Because We Own The Properties. We Want To Be Able To Give Them A Chance To Get It Surveyed And Have It Layed Out Right. Several Of Them Have Not Had A Survey Done In A Long Time, And It Is Not Cost Effective To Have Them All Done At The Same Time. This Was The Best Compromise We Came Up With. We Presented It To The Lake Board; They Are Aware Of This Also. I Entertain A Motion To Approve This, If There Are No Other Questions. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

8. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Resolution Authorizing The Execution Of A Redevelopment Agreement Between The City Of West Frankfort, Illinois And Mad Mad's Pizza Utilizing Tax Increment Financing For The Redevelopment Of Property Located At 200 East Main Street. The Mayor Stated This Is The Resolution For The Approval Of $15,000.00 We Made At Last Meeting. I Entertain A Motion To Approve This Resolution. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Howard. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

9. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay An Invoice In The Amount Of $39,500.00 To Greg Weeks, Inc. For The Purchase Of A 2024 Chevrolet Colorado 4x4 For The Codes Department. The Mayor Stated Thad Has Been Using His Truck Since He Has Been Hired, And We Have Added A Lot Of Duties Onto Him. There Is A Lot Of Expense And Wear And Tear On His Vehicle. This Is A City Vehicle Only; We Are Not Just Gifting Him A Truck. We Recently Had A Policy About Vehicle Use. This Is A City Truck But For The Codes Department Use And If Another Department Needs It, Like Our Other Vehicles We Own. Commissioner Howard Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

10. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding The Purchase Of A 2024 Dodge Ram 4500 Regular Cab 4x4 For The West Frankfort Fire Department In The Amount Of $71,328.00. Captain Jeffords Stated I Believe Chief Sailliez Submitted A Request With Justification To The Council Several Days Ago. To Inform Everybody, Our Current Brush Truck That Pulls Our Side By Side, Our Special Operations Trailer That Has All Of Our Hazmat Stuff In It, A Two Hundred- And Fifty-Gallon Tank, Forestry Hose, Reel, And All Of Our Equipment For Field/Brush/And Forrest Fires. We Bought It Military Surplus; It Is A 1984 Chevrolet We Got It For $500.00 Back In The Day. It Went In Service In 1998, We Have Been Maintaining It A Good Ten To Fifteen Years With It Now. Our Issue Now Is On March 12, 2024 It Caught Fire While Trying To Respond To A Call, When They Started It Up. One Of The Resistors Blew On It And Caught Fire, Had To Go In And Put It Out. We Took It To The Mechanic Shop; They Do Not Make Parts For It Because It Is So Old. They Had To Bypass The Resistors. Which Powers The Glowplugs And Everything Else, When It's A Cooler Day Outside It Takes It Longer To Start. The Recommendation From The Mechanic Shop Was It Will Get By Until We Can Get A Replacement, But They Wouldn't Drive It For Too Long. On Top Of That, All Of The Stuff We Have In The Back Exceeds The Gross Vehicle Weight Rating For It. The Proposal Chief Got, For This New Truck Does Meet The Gross Vehicle Weight Rating For Everything We Would Put In It. We Will Take The Old Skid, Which Is The Tank That Holds The Hose And Everything Else Off Of The Brush Truck We Have Now And Mount It Onto The New One. We Are Repurposing Some Equipment For It. We Mainly Need A Truck To Get Us By. We Are In The Heart Of Brush Fire Season Right Now; Spring And Fall Are Our Big Ones. Throughout The Year It Does Respond To Some Illegal Burns As Well As Some Other Fires Like That. Especially In The Last Two Weeks We Have Had Nine To Ten Brush Fires In The Last Two Weeks Alone That It Responded To. While It Was Down, We Had To Rely On Zeigler And Benton Our Mutal Aid Partners To Help Us Out, They Are A Minimum Of Fifteen To Twenty Minutes Out. The Mayor Asked Is There Anything In Particular About This As Far As I Know With An Ambulance It Has Special Requirements, We Need To Follow Would This Have Requirements Or Is It Just A Truck? Captain Jeffords Stated We Would Have To; It Is A Flatbed Truck A State Bid, We Did Have To Upgrade Somethings On It Such As The Cummins Diesel In Order To Meet The Weight Rating With Everything We Will Be Pulling With It. That Is The Smallest Size Of Truck That Will Meet The Weight Rating. We Would Have To Get Lights, Lettering, Radios, Etc. The Biggest Expense Would Have Been The Skid With The Tank That We Are Repurposing From The Old Truck To Mount Onto The New, We Will Be Saving Money There. Commissioner Warren Asked Is There Anything From The Old One You Can Put On It, Such As Lights, Or Radios? Captain Jeffords Stated I Can Scrape Paint And Glue It On There. Commissioner Warren Said I Have Not Seen It; I Was Just Asking. Captain Jeffords Stated It Is An 1984 Chevy Truck That Was Used By The Airforce That They Probably Used Some Lead Paint That They Painted With. The Mayor Asked When Did You Say We Got It? Captain Jeffords Stated It Is A 1984, We Got It In 1998. We Have Been Using It For Twenty-Six Years. Commissioner Warren Asked Were Their Other Bids Besides Just This One? Captain Jeffords Stated That Was The First One He Got; We Sent Out For Three Others The Other Day. I Have Got One Back From Absher Arnold In Marion, I Believe It Was Around $66,000.00. I Got Another One Back From A Dealer In The Area Saying They Did Not Do Any Vehicles That Big. The Two Others Have Not Responded Back. Commissioner Warren Stated I Do Like To Buy Local. The Mayor Stated Maybe Something Older, Rather Than A Brand New Truck. Captain Jeffords Stated We Could Buy Used And Then We Buy More Problems Having To Fix More Things On It. The Mayor Stated I Get It; We Got Lucky With That Last Purchase Since It Was Already Fourteen Years Old When We Got It. I Understand We Had Put Some Money Into It To Keep It Going For That Long. Captain Jeffords Stated Like I Said This One Could Go Out Any Day, And With Us Being In Brush Fire Season We Really Need Something To Replace It Now. Commissioner Stanley Stated I Was Thinking We Find A Fairly Nice Used Truck That Does Not Cost As Much. Commissioner Howard Stated I Would Also Like To Find Something Less Expensive If We Could. Gaston Sailliez Was In The Audience And Stated You Are Not Going To With Something This Size. Commissioner Howard Stated It Does Not Have To Be A Brand New One. Mr. Loeh From The Audience Stated You Will Be Buying Someone Elses Problems Down The Line. Captain Jeffords Stated This Does Not Drive In The Woods Running Over Trees, It Hauls The Equipment We Need Out There, It Will Mainly Sit On The Side Of The Road. This Was Not In The Chiefs Five Year Plan, But Since We Have Issues With The Current One. We Are Forced to Move That Up. I Understand It Is Not Cheap, But We Need To Come Up With A Plan Since We Have Several Things That Needs Fixed And Replaced. Commissioner Harkins Stated I Do Not Like The Idea Of Buying A Used Truck, Because You Are Looking At More Problems If You Can Even Find One. The Mayor Stated I Feel Like The Best Course Of Action Is To Table This Item, Then We Can Set Up A Meeting With Chief Sailliez When He Returns. We Are Not Saying No, I Would Rather Get More Time, Clarification, And Give The Commissioners Time To See What Is Out There. You Might Be Right This Maybe The Best One For Us, But I Feel Like Tonight Is Not The Best Time To Vote On It. Commissioner Warren Stated This Is The First Time I Heard About This Myself, What Is The Time Frame We Could Get This In? Captain Jeffords Stated About A Month Or So. Mr. Sailliez Stated I Talked To Several Dealerships And The Biggest Hold Up Is Finding A Vechile With The Gross Vehicle Weight Rating. What Do You Want Us To Do, Our Stuff Keeps Falling Apart. We Keep Fixing Everything, We Are Running Out Of Options To Fix Stuff To Get By. We Want To Carry The Best Service As Possible. Michael Fraulini Was In The Audience And Stated It Is Not That The Fire Department Wants A New Toy, It Is The People Who Voted For You Guys Thinking You Would Care About Everyone’s Safety. Commissioner Warren Stated I Do Not Think You Should Blame Us For Not Wanting To Do This. We Are Just Trying To Be Conservative With The Tax Payers Money, I Do Want You To Have Something. Mr. Sailliez Stated I Know We Bring A Lot Of Stuff To You Guys That Cost Money, But We Also Save You A Lot Of Money By Working On Our Own Equipment. Commissioner Warren Stated When You Put Miles On Things Everyday And Running It All Over Can Wear It Out. The Mayor Stated We Are Not Saying No To It, I Am Tabling It So That Way We Can Get A Yes To Get Something. Captain Jeffords Stated We Are Just Trying To Tell You The Urgency Of This. We Are Not Blaming You Guys, In The Past No Plan Has Been Put In Place To Start Replacing This Stuff That Is Why It Is All Going Bad At Once. Commissioner Warren Said Didn't Commissioner Howard As For A Wish List From Department Heads? Captain Jeffords Stated I’m Talking Years Before This. Commissioner Stanley Stated It Should Have Been Replaced Along Time Ago. Mr. Sailliez Stated I Am Not Pointing The Finger Directly At You Guys, It Is Just Over Due. It Is Just Frustrating To Us, We Want To Deliver The Best Service We Can. Commissioner Warren Stated The Frustrating Part Is The Economy Is So Bad, Making Everything So High. The Little Towns Like Us Struggle. Zach Worthen From The Audience Stated It Is Also Hard To Compare A Codes Vehicle To A Fire Service Vehicle, Because We Have To Pump Water And We Get In Somewhere That Catches Fire Now We Lose Our Water And We Are In A House On Fire. It's A Safety Fact At That Point. Mr. Fraulini Stated We Are Not Discrediting Thad. Mr. Sailliez Stated One Of Our Neighboring Departments That Run A Brush Truck That Has A Similar Set Up Starting At One Fifty To One Seventy-Five. We Are Trying To Save Money. The Council Understands The Urgency As Well And Agrees. The Mayor Stated Let's Move On From This For Now, We Will Revisit It. If We Can Work Something Out Before Our Special Meeting On Thursday, I Can Add A Special Item. This Item Was Tabled.

11. The Next Item Was Approval To Pay Invoice From Diamond Equipment, Inc. In The Amount Of $3,729.29 To Replace A Cylinder On The Backhoe For The Street Department. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

12. The Next Item Was Approval Of Contractor's Pay Estimate #1 To Wiggs Excavating, Inc. For The West Frankfort- Burton Subdivision Sanitary Sewer Extension In The Amount Of $37,191.18. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Howard. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

13. The Next Item Was Approval Of Construction Engineering Bill #1 From Brown & Roberts, Inc. For The West Frankfort – Burton Subdivision Sanitary Sewer Extension In The Amount Of $3,573.89. Commissioner Howard Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

14. The Next Item Was Approval Of Change Order #1 For The West Frankfort- Burton Subdivision Sanitary Sewer Extension To Increase The Project Amount By $541.18. 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 The Consent Agenda:

A. Approval To Pay Bills In The Amount Of $189,449.22.

B. Approval To Pay An Invoice From Vernell's Interstate Service In The Amount Of $2,387.97 To Replace Shifter Module For The 1997 Dump Truck For The Street Department.

C. Approval To Pay An Invoice From Certified Balance And Scale In The Amount Of $1,721.00 For Maintenance At The Sewer Department.

D. Approval To Settle And Pay A Grievance Filed By The Police Department.

The Mayor Stated On The Bills, You Will Notice That The Payroll Wasn't Initially Included With That, After Payroll Was Added It Made The Bills $189,449.22. Commissioner Howard Made A Motion For Approval, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

Building And Sign Permits ~ Codes Officer Snell Stated The First Permit Was For A Residential Addition To Their House For Micheal And Katie Warren At 2205 E. Elm St. It Meets All Of Our Requirements, I Recommend We Approve This.

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

The Second Permit Was For Lana Wanstreet She Is Putting In A Garage At 1104 W. St. Louis St. On A Lot That She Had Purchased From The City Over A Year Ago. She Purchased It With The Idea Of Doing This, And Just Now Getting Around To The Project. Its Going To Be A Garage With A Concrete Slab Underneath To Store Her RV In. It Meets All Of Our Requirements; I Recommend We Approve This. Commissioner Warren Made A Motion For Approval, Seconded By Commissioner Howard. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

16. Mayors Report~

Mayor Arview Stated, I Do Not Have A Lot To Report. They Are Working On Starbucks; It Is Moving Along Really Nice. I’m Sure We Will See Positive Growth From That. I Have Had A Few Questions From People That Are Wanting To Know What The City Is Going To Be Doing For The Solar Eclipse. This Is Something That If Someone Wants To Do Something And Approached Us, The City Would Be Happy To Approve It And Can Donate Towards It. We Have Not Had Anyone Reach Out Yet. If Anyone Wants To, Just Reach Out To Us. I Do Know Trinity Methodist Up On Hill Is Doing Something. The City Of Benton's Commerce Is Putting Something On, We Will Hopefully Get Some Of The Over Flow From That.

Commissioner Reports-

Commissioner Harkins Stated I Think Everything Is Going As Well To Be Expected For Police And Fire Departments.

Commissioner Howard Stated One Of The Reasons I Am Hesitant About Purchasing This Brush Truck Right Now. Is Because When I Look At Our Treasurer's Report, We Are Already Over Budget In Almost All Of Our Departments.

Maybe That Is Because The Budget Was Not Done Correctly.

I Would Like To Try To Put This Off To Pay For It Until May Or After. That Way It Will Be In Next Years Budget, Instead Of This Year Since We Are Already Over Budget. This Tells Me We Will Need To Revise Our Budget, Due To Prices Of Things Going Up.

Commissioner Stanley Stated Street Guys Are Keeping Busy, They Cut Down Thirteen Trees On Charles St. Last Week. They Got Called Out Last Night For A Couple Of Trees, And Working On Parking Spots On Emma St. They Are Doing A Great Job Like The Rest Of All Of Our Departments.

Commissioner Warren Stated I Will Say The Laundry Mat Has Started Too, That Will Be Good To Get Another Business. We Are Getting Ready For A Major Year Long Project Out At The Sewer Department Helping With The Sanitation And Things. This Will Be Good For The City. The Water Department Has Been Working On The Water Lines Out By Starbucks Getting It Ready For Anyone Else Who Would Want To Move Out There. The Lake Committee Met Thursday; We Had Some Good Discussions. They Will Be Stocking The Lake Again With That Saugeye Fish Around June.

17. Audience Comments:

Danny Loeh Stated I Have Been Busy The Last Couple Of Weeks, We Have Had Several Groups Of Kids That Has Came To The Museum With More That Are Scheduled. We Are Looking At Trying To Give The Kids A Token Or Something Like That To Give To Each Kid That Comes To The Museum To Show That They Were There. I Have Been Helping Veterans Out. One Of The Veterans I Have Been Helping To Get His Purple Heart He Was Injured In 2009 In Afghanistan.

Commissioner Warren Asked Do We Know About The National Registry For That Place Yet. The Mayor Stated No We Are Still Waiting. There Was A Firm Out Of Murphysboro That Came And Looked At It, They Have Paper Work To Put Together.

Paul Tart Stated I Work With Take Action Today; I Am The Community Behavioral Health Response Program Supervisor. Our Coming Here Tonight Is To Tell You Two Things, One I Wanted To Give You Guys Some Information On Our Warming Center In Benton. There Was Four Residents Cronically Homeless From West Frankfort, Who Are No Longer Homeless And Does Not Live In The Area Anymore. Eleven From West Frankfort Who Are In Long Term Treatment Programs Now, Who Are No Longer On The Street. Out Of All Of Them We Handled Around Seventy- Eight Individuals, A Lot Of Them Benefited From The Program Itself. A Lot Of That Came From The Community Support Within Franklin County. Primary Reason For Us Being Here Tonight Is One Of My Co Workers With Me Here Tonight Is Going To Talk About A One Box That Is Relating To Over Dose.

Tessa Leech Stated She Is Take Action's Harm Reduction Coordinator, And Also Community Behavioral Specialist I Do A Lot Of Crisis Response. A Lot Of The Crisis Response Involves Responding To Over Doses Sometimes They Are Fatal And That Is Tragic, Other Times It Has Some What Of A Happy Ending Because Narcan, Or Naloxone Has Been Utilized Making The Over Dose Be Reversed. In Order To Save Lives With Naloxone, It Needs To Be Accessible. On Top Of The Accessibility We Need To Put Out Education About What It Is, How Helpful It Is, And The Lack Of Harmful Side Effects It Has. It Is Not Just People Using Substance, We Are Seeing A Lot Of Kids Get Into The Substance. We Are Also Seeing A Rise In Our Elderly Community That Are Staying Home Longer, Due To Them Not Being Able To Afford Assisted Living They Could Take The Wrong Medicine Or If They Do Not Remember And Taken More Medicine Than They Should. We Have A State Funded Program Called The One Box, I Have Brought It To Show You How It Works. We Have Agreements With Five Or Six Other Places, We Have Five Of These Available For Each County. We Are Almost Full On Places In Franklin County, We Were Hoping To Purpose An Idea To Have One In West Frankfort. We Are Needing A Place To Put This That Is In A High Traffic Area. In West Frankfort Alone From 2020 - 2023 We Had Seventy Eight Over Doses. Thirteen Of Them Have Been Fatal, But Thanks To Naloxone Sixty-Five Has Been Saved. The Box Includes Three Boxes Of PPE, Gloves, A Sheild For CPR, And Sanitation Wipes. It Tells You To Call 911 And Pull The Tab, It Will Walk You Through The Entire Step Process On What To Do. To Anyone Who Wants To Put One Up, There Is No Cost I Am The One Who Maintains Them. We Can Come And Train A Whole Organizations Staff On What To Do. We Are In The Process Of Getting Recycled New Paper Stands That Have Been Transformed Into Naloxone Stations. This Is All Funded Through Illinois State And Federal Grants. The Mayor Stated Is That An Either Or? Ms. Leech Stated You Can Have Both, The More That Is Out There Can Save Lives. Captain Jeffords Stated Access Is Great, We Carry It On The Ambulance Of Course. The Police Officers Have Been Trained And Carry It As Well. Some Pharmacies Have It As Well, We Have Been On Several Calls And It Has Already Been Administered To Them. The Mayor Stated I Say We Take It And Figure Out Where To Put It Later And Let You Know Where We Put It. The City Attorney Stated You Can Not Vote On This Since It Is A Comment, You Will Have To Put It On A Meeting In The Future.

18. The Next Item Was Approval To Go Into Executive Session To Discuss For Discussions Pursuant To 5 Ilcs 120/2 (C) (1), 5 Ilcs120/2 (C) (5/6) And 5 ILCS 120/2 (C) (11). The Mayor Asked Do We Have Anything We Need To Discuss Executive Session On? The City Attorney Yes, We Do. The Mayor Stated We Will Not Make Any Decisions When We Come Out, You Are Free To Go If You Would Like To, Or Stick Around. I Entertain A Motion To Go Into Executive Session At 6:53 P.M. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion For Approval, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.

19. With No Further Business To Be Discussed, The Meeting Was Adjourned On A Motion By Commissioner Harkins At 7:22 P.M. 

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