Sangamon Sun

At a recent meeting, the Sherman Village Board discussed flooding tied to pond problems.

The Sherman Village Board of Trustees includes six trustees and the village president, all of whom are elected from the village at-large. The board meets at 6 p.m. on the first and third Tuesday of each month at Sherman Village Hall, 401 St. John Drive.

Below are the minutes from this meeting, as provided by the board.

DATE: Tuesday, September 6, 2016 LOCATION: Sherman Village Hall; 401 St. John Drive; Sherman, Illinois 62684 TIME: 6:00 p.m. TYPE: Regular Meeting of the Sherman Village Board of Trustees

VILLAGE BOARD IN ATTENDANCE Bret Hahn, Trustee; Kevin Schultz, Trustee; Krista Sherrock, Trustee; Jay Timm, Trustee; Nancy Zibutis, Trustee and Trevor J. Clatfelter, President.

OFFICIALS IN ATTENDANCE John Swinford, Village Administrator and Acting Village Clerk; Mike Moos, Deputy Village Administrator and EMA Director; Angela Fyans-Jimenez, Legal Counsel; Mickey Mann P.E. (representing Village Engineer Kuhn); Craig Bangert, Chief of Police; and Jeremy Stuenkel, Treasurer.

PUBLIC IN ATTENDANCE Dennis Shackelford, Evan Westlake, John Kohlrus, Ken Campbell, Byron Painter, John Miller, Sandy Walden, Dave Stake, Colleen Olsen (interpreter) and Keith Spaniol.

OPENING President Trevor J. Clatfelter started the September 6, 2016 meeting at 6:00 p.m.

1. Clerk - roll call was made with quorum established. Trustee Brian Long has an excused

absence. 2. Pledge of Allegiance was led by Mr. Spaniol. 3. Set Agenda – Trustee Zibutis asked that an update on Municipal Park be provided. Motion to set the agenda was made by Trustee Zibutis, seconded by Trustee Schultz, roll call vote with all in favor. Motion passes.

CLERK’S REPORT

1. Presentation of Minutes and Approval - Motion to approve the August 16, 2016 minutes made by Trustee Hahn, seconded by Trustee Schultz, discussion of one typo misspelling, Trustee Timm indicated he will abstain from vote as he was not in attendance at the meeting, roll call vote with all in favor. Motion passes. 2. Presentation of Bills for Approval – no items highlighted by Treasurer Stuenkel and no

discussion. Motion to approve payment of bills was made by Trustee Zibutis, seconded by Trustee Hahn, roll call vote with all in favor. Motion passes.

TREASURER’S REPORT Treasurer Stuenkel provided the treasurer’s report. Motion to approve the treasurers report was made by Trustee Timm, seconded by Trustee Schultz, roll call vote with all in favor. Motion passes.

ENGINEERING REPORT The engineer provided reports throughout the other agenda items.LEGAL REPORT Village Attorney Angela Fyans-Jimenez provided an update on efforts to address drainage problems at Lost Tree and Meadowlands Drive related to failure of the owner of Brookside Glen Pond to maintain the pond adequately.

Attorney Steve Berg owns property. Village officials inspected the property due to flooding issues. Mr. Berg indicated that he did not know, when he bought the property, it was a pond. Owner wants to sell the pond. The bill that was submitted to him does not include costs by staff from both the first time the Village had to address the problem to the present problem. Mr. Berg, through staff, indicated he would like a discount on the $838.00 bill. Trustee Sherrock indicated that our guys cleaned inlet (this is not the first time) and it cost the Village time and half as this was during off hours. Trustee Sherrock further stated that he should pay for these costs. President Clatfelter indicated the problem stemmed from a large root-ball from the Willow tree on Mr. Berg’s property blocking the storm drain. Due to all the rain that we had, and what was forecast to come; the root-ball had to be cleaned out. It was a high priority and Roto-Rooter had to be used to clean it out. President Clatfelter indicated that these problems occur as developers do not maintain the areas, homeowners and homeowner association’s do not maintain infrastructure and then they become problem areas. President Clatfelter confirmed that it was the will of the Board to pursue full cost reimbursement.

ZONING OFFICER REPORT

1. Zoning - President Clatfelter read the statement that there will be a Public Hearing of the Zoning Board on Monday, September 19, 2016 at 6:00 p.m., at Sherman Village Hall, the Variance Request was submitted by Stephen and Theresa Calvert. They are seeking a variance of six feet to the rear yard setback from 20 feet to allow the construction of an addition to the home at 53 Woodsmill Road, to allow the homeowners to enclose their new in-ground swimming pool. He further stated that a notice was published in State Journal-Register on August 27, 2016 and a notice was posted on the subject property with letters being sent to each of the adjacent property owners. Trustee Zibutis indicated that she will be out of town that day but the Village Administrator and Engineer plan to attend. 2. Building Permits – Trustee Zibutis reported that for the month of August the Village received two single family home building permits and one fence building permit for $1,810. No further discussion.

VILLAGE ADMINISTRATOR/ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR REPORT - no report.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT President Clatfelter discussed the following:

1. Capital Improvement Plan – RFP proposal was opened and the awarding of the contract to the low bidder of Truman Flat. Engineer Mann provide a discussion of what the bid covered. The Village board looked closely at the priorities the engineers recommended of what streets needed to be covered. The list of roads was read out by Engineer Mann.

President Clatfelter indicated the base bid came in at $1,075,000 and the alternative bid added approximately $384,000. President Clatfelter wanted to do tonight at the meeting is accept the bid from Truman Flatt whether it be the base and/or alternate but wants Old Tipton School Road committed and done this year as the top priority. Many options of financing were presented to the Board by President Clatfelter. Authorize the job to be done but did not want to pin the financing down at this time. Authorize the President and Bond Counsel to continue negotiating with the financial institutions. We want a fix rate. Authorize bond counsel to rebid a RFP to pin costs down. Jay Timm asked if Kevin Schultz his opinion, as a banker, discussed process that was done and what had been presented to us. Unsure if we should go back again to the banks since we have most of the information wanted. We have rates to work from.

President Clatfelter indicated it was not out of the question to go with what was given. Then we should make a decision today. Looking for fixed rate for 10-15 year. Trustee Zibutis discussed the new number of need is approximately $1.5 million for roads but do we not need more $2 million if we are including a public works building project? Trustee Schultz felt we should not mix the projects for a PW garage with the roads. We need a garage and will still borrow the money but not in this project and clutter it up. Just concentrate on the road project. This winter PW can plan out what their needs are and get proposals.

President Clatfelter proceeded to ascertain the desire of the Board in regards to the road project by verbally polling each Board member. All Board members indicated they wanted all the roads that were identified done. Chair would entertain a motion to Accept the low bid from Truman Flatt for an amount not to exceed $1.5 million for the roads included in the base and alternate bid process. Trustee Sherrock made the motion, with Trustee Hahn seconding, poll vote with all in favor. Motion passes.

President Clatfelter continued the discussion by indicating this second part of the discussion is to resolve paying for the project. We do not have to act tonight we can delay and resend the RFQ to the banks or we can use the rates already quoted and given to us tonight. Bond counsel said there is nothing wrong with this delay process. President Clatfelter stated for the record that the Village paid off a bond approximately 2-3 yrs. ago. Effective tax rate is less than 1% on the tax bill. That is not much of a cost (Village tax) on tax bill since that bond was retired (excluding TIF). President Clatfelter read off from a table of what cost increases will be on tax bills based on 100k house. We could have had the rate keep going or let it expire. The Board gave everyone a break but now we need to add some of it back. It could be close or a smidge over what we had 2-3 years ago. Discussed local banks vs underwriter options. Suggested we work with local banks. Trustee Zibutis asked we look at a 15-year rate, Trustee Schultz discussed the levy estimates and suggested doing 15 years and the roads picked as a priority by the engineer. It was emphasized that the Village Board did not pick the roads to be fixed as the engineers provided an evaluation of all the roads in the Village. Engineer costs were discussed as a possible additional cost.

Trustee Schultz suggested we do 15-year fixed rate. We reserve the right to refuse these bids. President Clatfelter suggested we would reach out to the five banks that submitted a bid and ask them to refigure at 15-year at fixed % rate and the amount specified. They need to get back to us in 5 days. Bond council will reach out to five banks for a fixed 15yr rate with exact cost. There was a consensus by the Board to do this.

2. President Clatfelter read - An Ordinance Authorizing and Providing for an Installment Purchase Agreement for the Purpose of Financing the Costs of Certain Capital Related Projects in and for the Village of Sherman, Sangamon County, Illinois, and Authorizing and Providing for the Issue of Not to Exceed $1,600,000 General Obligation Debt Certificates, Series 2016, of said Village Evidencing the Rights to Payment Under Such Agreement, Prescribing the Details of the Agreement and Certificates, and Providing Security for and Means of Payment Under the Agreement of the Certificates.

President Clatfelter explained the proposal. TIF council presented the proposal in ordinance form. Can get her on the phone. Its structure was reviewed by Treasurer Stuenkel. Basically this ordinance will permit borrowing against TIF revenues. We have discussed this some numerous meetings, are there any further questions? Trustee Schultz indicated he will abstain in the vote due to his profession as a banker. President Clatfelter, after finding no other questions being discussed, asked if there is a motion to approve Item #2 of the Presidents Report. Motion by Trustee Sherrock, second by Trustee Hahn, all in favor, with Trustee Schultz abstaining. Motion Passes.

COMMITTEE / DEPARTMENT REPORTS Building Permits - report was provided during the Zoning report.

Municipal Park Update – Trustee Zibutis expressed concerns about the lack of activity at the new park and indicated that she is being asked numerous questions by citizens as they have noticed this too. Trustee Zibutis suggested that the project architect explain why there is no work going on and the situation with the park lights being left off. Administrator Swinford explained the need to redo the sewer and electrical work and the processes for that to be done. He also explained the 30-day hold before the electrical work can be done to ensure the sewer work was done correctly. The sewer and electric are co-located and the electric cannot be done until the sewer work is completed. Sewer work is supposed to be start Thursday and should be done in a week. Engineers have met with the contractors. The board discussed on the basis of discussion that it probably would be the middle of October for lights to be completed. Trustee Zibutis asked on the status of the gazebo, and pavilions. President Clatfelter explained the work is being done in phases thus the reason for time lags. He indicated the structures are real nice and was done at a fixed cost. He further explained the fine detailed work done on the stonework and shingling. The weather has also been a big factor with time delays as the heavy rain caused setbacks. Finish work is happening at this time. President Clatfelter was confident the black dirt mounds (final part of the project as part of the final grading) will be done this fall. The Board discussed the disappointment that there was no penalty clause for the project to not being done on time. President Clatfelter discussed that the cement under the park benches will also go around the light poles making the area better to maintain. He also discussed that the bench arbors that are over park benches at St Johns and is working on a sponsor that might fund some arbors and the Round-About. The Park bench donation program is going well and expected to be delivered soon.

SHERMAN POLICE DEPARTMENT REPORT – no report.

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY REPORT - no report.

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS REPORT – no report.

NEW BUSINESS – no new business.

OLD BUSINESS – no old business.

CIVIC ORGANIZATION – no civic organization(s) present.

PUBLIC COMMENT President Clatfelter reminded, as a general statement, that Public Comment is held to 3 minutes a person and is time to bring matters to our attention and not for the purpose of discussion with the Board. If you wish to discuss items, please do so with us directly.

1. John Miller – brought to the Village Boards attention his concern that we have only one cable service provider in our area. Can we get others to come in with competitive rates? President Clatfelter agreed we need increased competition. He will make it a project to look at. 2. Sandy Walden – provided a historical study, she had compiled, of water and sewer rates passed by the Village and how much it has accumulated over the years. Mrs. Walden had FOIA’d for the rates and then calculated them out. So we can see on one sheet what is has gone to over the years. 3. Keith Spaniol – discussed the concern they have with water drainage issues on church property and what the Village would want done for them to fix the problem. Mr. Spaniol asked if the Village engineer could provide support on what is needed to fix the problem and to do the work. He also inquired if there was a way to get rid of the dirt they will need to move and will this require a Village permit? Engineer Mann discussed options of pipe size and maintenance. Engineer did look at it and speculates it needs to be cleaned out. Trustee Zibutis speculated that the work was done 10-15 years ago work was done and thinks it needs to be cleaned up as it may have silted.

EXECUTIVE SESSION – no executive session.

ADJOURNMENT President Clatfelter made a reminder announcement about the Village Wide Garage Sale and that the Village entrance signs need to announce this event. He then asked if there was no further business for a motion to Adjourn. Motion to Adjourn made by Trustee Timm, seconded by Trustee Zibutis, voice vote with all in favor. Motion passes. The meeting was adjourned at 7:19 p.m.

The next Regular Scheduled Meeting of the Sherman Village Board is September 20, 2016 at Village Hall, 6:00 p.m. The public is invited and encouraged to attend.

Respectively submitted by: Michael P. Moos, Deputy Village Administrator