Sangamon Sun

Village of Illiopolis Board of Trustees met September 5.

Here is the minutes provided by the Board:

Mayor Rogers called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. and led the Pledge of Allegiance.

A roll call was taken, all members were present except B. Honea and J. Horsley

Agenda:

Agenda was adopted as amended.

Minutes:

J. Impson made the motion to approve the August 21st minutes as amended, with J. Swick seconding. Motion carried 4-0-0.

Visitors:

Rocky Bahla, Cassie Blankenship and Karen Burget were present to speak about changing Fast Stop’s liquor licensing to allow gaming. Rocky also had Jeff Oberman, Representative with Seneca Companies and Zac Page with Chase Environmental. Rocky explained that he is going to clean up the contaminated soil under his property and the building next to him. Jeff explained to the Board that will cost Rocky approx. $200,000.00. Rocky has no problem doing this, but in 2 years when his tanks expire he will need to update them, which is going to cost even more money. He is concerned that the Village is going to put a truck stop in two years and that will hurt is business drastically. He is requesting to be able to get his liquor license changed to allow him to have gaming. He also explained that he is willing to charge an unrealistic amount, just so that they will not want to drink. He doesn’t want a “bar”, he just has to sell beer/wine by the glass in order to have a gaming license. He said he will be serving free coffee, soda and snack foods. He said there will be cameras and a door that will be locked at all times to keep underage customers from going in. The room will not have any windows or any way to visible see inside the gaming room. It will not look tacky. He said that he owns 15 other stations and all the other villages/towns support him in the gaming license, except Illiopolis. He has been here 10 years and saved the station from going bankrupt. He does not want to close down and likes his customers he has. M. Oesch stated that this Board has not set a time line on seeking for a truck stop, he responded by saying it was in the local paper. J. Impson asked if he would be worried if the truck stop would hurt his gaming customers and he said no, because they feed off of each other. M. Oesch asked what happened to him telling us last year that he would get 24 hour fuel pumps, because being the only station between Decatur and Springfield we see a lot of motorists pulled off looking for fuel after hours. The gentlemen with him explained that it is going to cost an extra $15-20,000 to get that switched over to 24 hour pumps and that it takes time to get that process done. D. Rogers expressed her being angry on how the Board/Mayor turned him away and then allowed another resident open a new establishment with gaming. Judson DeVore explained to Rocky that the reason he was against it, when he was a Board member was because Rocky said he was going to do away with the cooler space (i.e. soda shelves) and he and his family buy from that area a lot. Rocky was informed that the Board does not vote to reclassify the liquor licenses, that is the Mayor’s position. M. Oesch told Rocky that he appreciates him hiring locally for the past several years.

Mike Goff who recently purchased the Peden building from the Village is asking for more time (i.e. extend the closing date). J. Impson said he is willing to work with him. Mike said if we could extend it from 6 mos. out to 1 year it would make a big difference. He explained that he doesn’t want to cost the Village any money and that he is willing to go ahead and pay for the realtor’s commission and pay taxes. Attorney Gray says we can do a couple of options.

Open Forum:

Judson DeVore informed the Board that the next Streetscapes meeting is on Sept. 13th at 6:30 p.m. in the Township Hall. He went on to let us know that he was recently in a small town called Casey, IL. Their welcome sign says Big Things in a Small Town. He said that it was a small town that was “dying” and they became a tourist stop for being in the Guinness World Record for many items they had made for their town. For example they have a giant wind chime, pencil, working mailbox, rocking chair, just to name a few of their items. He believes something like this would/may benefit us. Different ideas that would attract tourists. The Board welcomes ideas from the Community Club and visitors.

J. Swick left at 7:15 pm

Public Works:

C. Smith informed the Board that Well 18 was up and running again, however Well 16 is now down due to the motor going out. He talked about the box blade that he just purchased to help working on alleys along with other projects around the Village. He said that EPA informed him that we have projects that were completed but still needed permits on. One was started, but was never finished. The other project was the Solar Bee we had installed in the water tower in 2014. He spoke about the progress on the dump truck, it has a radiator put in and they are checking into what else may be going on with it. He said the John Deere and the X-mark have both been repaired and are back at the Village shop. He said that someone had burnt the pavilion material that the guys had taken out to the burn pile last week, it happened sometime between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning. J. Impson suggested putting up more signs that say Dumping Of Brush Only, other options were talked about. C. Smith says he has gotten some complaints about the water, one resident said he had a metallic taste to it, so C. Smith tested a sample of that residents home and found it had almost zero iron. A discussion was held on purchasing a different truck or a truck with a tool box on it. C. Smith informed the Board that the red truck needs new tires and brakes.

Treasurer’s Report:

Economic Development Report-

The Economic Development Committee met last week. There has been a lot of speculation throughout the community about an incoming truck stop out at the interstate. Diane corrected these rumors and said she meets with developers and brokers routinely as part of her job as Economic Development Adviser for not only the Village of Illiopolis, but also other clients she represents. There is no truck stop in the works at this time.

Engineering Report-

Mayor Rogers asked Attorney Gray if he has worked on the easement yet, Attorney Gray said that yes he has.

M. Oesch asked what is going on with the south side of Matilda St., because the Dollar General drainage and the south side drainage goes hand in hand.

Old Business:

The Board discussed the Peden building. J. Impson made a motion to extend the closing date till Feb. 28, 2018 and to go ahead and pay the Realtor her fees now. M. Oesch seconded, roll call- all ayes with Mayor voting. D. Reinhart will call the Realtor and the Mayor will contact Mr. Goff. Attorney Gray said to have Mr. Goff send us a letter saying he agrees to the new closing date.

The sale of distribution lines and Wells were discussed. There are Well houses that date all the way back to the War (early 1940’s). Setting the prices for the Wells and distribution lines was tabled.

New Business:

M. Oesch made a motion to adopt Resolution 17-7 for the approval of final draft of the plat map for Dollar General, with J. Impson seconding. Roll call– all ayes with Mayor voting.

M. Oesch made a motion to declare 125 Mary St. as surplus property, J. Impson seconded, roll call- all ayes, with Mayor voting.

Dilapidated property:

Mayor asked the Board if they wanted a demo order to be put in for the house on 7th St. He then asked if there was any other properties that they wanted to add to the list, besides the 8th St. garage and tree house. M. Oesch suggested we talk to the owner(s) of the property on 7th St. before we take any action. Attorney Gray will drive by the house and look at what it is like by the next meeting. No action will be taken before then. J. Impson asked about the building at 313 5th St. Mayor Rogers said no new updates since the previous meeting.

Vision:

Plan Comments-

D. Rogers mentioned that a resident that lives near the intersection of 8th and Anne asked that if the Stop signs could be taken down and Yield signs be put back up, since the family that requested the Stop signs no longer live in the area. The Board believes it should be left as is.

J. Impson said that EJ Water said they can do our water bills for $1 a bill, they could do direct payments from checking accounts at no extra cost to the Village. M. Oesch said he does not want the Clerks hours cut back, if anything he believes her hours need to be extended to be available more for our residents. He said that before even considering something like that, he would like to see a demonstration first. Mayor Rogers mentioned that we have looked into other companies for payment options and previous Boards have discussed out sourcing water bills.

Mayor Rogers said he was asked if the Board would be willing to sell just the farmland on the Mt. Pulaski Rd. It is 2.417 acres. Attorney Gray said to tell them the Board is interested in it, and that they need to check for comparison prices. Mayor Rogers was informed by a resident that was dumping some brush by the burn pile that a couple of hunters had sworn at them and also shot over their heads. J. Impson mentioned that a farmer ran the hunters off. J. Impson said this was brought up in previous years. It was decided to find our boundaries and put up no hunting signs.

M. Oesch made a motion to adjourn at 8:50 pm with J. Impson seconding. Motion carried 4-0-0 with the Mayor voting.

The next regular meeting date is September 18, 2017 at 6:00 p.m.

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