City Council

CITY COUNCIL Regular Meeting April 1, 2019 7:30 P.M. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: The Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag was given by those present. CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Gottman called the regularly scheduled meeting of the Vandalia City Council to order at 7:30 P.M. ROLL CALL: Barker, yea; B. John Clark, yea; Stunkel, yea; Hobler, yea; Lester, yea; Hubler, yea; Crawford & Rebbe were absent. MOMENT OF SILENCE OBSERVED: A moment of silence was observed for Willie Strobel a retired business owner in Vandalia. MINUTES: A motion was made by Stunkel and seconded by Barker approving the minutes from March 18, 2019. Motion carried. REGULAR BILLS: A motion was made by Stunkel and seconded by B. John Clark approving the regular bills as presented. Motion carried. SPECIAL COUNCIL BILLS: A motion was made by Stunkel and seconded by Hobler approving the Special Bills as presented: VISA in the amount of $2,129.50 for Vibra- strike II power screed handlebar type 4-storke eng. (bicycle handle) & 12’ F4 style screed for vibra strike; Zach Schaal in the amount of 1  $2,100.00 for tree removal; Land of Lincoln Credit Union in the amount of $9,990.79 for payment on fire truck; EAHC Structures in the amount of $3,176.00 for an overhead door; U.S. Bancorp in the amount of $14,781.19 for water meters; Stombaugh Htg & Air Inc. in the amount of $2,105.00 for HVAC; Coe Equipment in the amount of $7,700.00 for rental on equipment; Brenntag Mid South, Inc. in the amount of $4,429.44 for chemicals; Hawkins, Inc. in the amount of $9,141.16 for activated carbon; All Service Contracting in the amount of $2,323.75 for 150 CF of Anthracite; Vandevanter Engineering, Inc. in the amount of $7,066.66 for the annual maintenance inspections on Phase A & B. Motion carried. TREASURER’S REPORT: A motion was made by Stunkel and seconded by Hobler approving the Treasurer’s Report to be filed for audit. Motion carried. TOURISM COMMISSION MEETING A motion was made by Stunkel and MINUTES-OCTOBER 29, 2018: seconded by Barker approving the Tourism Commission Meeting Minutes from October 29, 2019 as presented. Motion carried. ORDINANCE #2019-4-1-A: A motion was made by B. John Clark AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER and seconded by Hubler adopting 2.04 CITY COUNCIL (COUNCIL Ordinance #2019-4-1-A, The Regular MEETINGS) Meetings of the Council shall be held at 6:30 p.m. on the first and third Monday nights of every calendar month, except when the meeting there by fall on a National Holiday or any other holiday during which city offices are closed, in which cases the regular meeting shall be held upon the following Tuesday. 2  Roll call: Barker, yea; Hubler, yea; Stunkel, yea; Crawford, absent; Hobler, yea; Rebbe, absent; Lester, yea; Clark, yea. Motion carried. ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENTS A motion was made by Stunkel and MEETING MINUTES-MARCH 20, 2019: seconded by Barker approving the Zoning Board of Adjustments Meeting Minutes from March 20, 2019 as submitted. Motion carried. APPROVAL OF LOAN RATE ON SEWER A motion was made by Barker and VAC TRUCK: seconded by Stunkel approving the low bid on a five-year loan from Land of Lincoln Credit Union for the purchase of a new sewer vac. Motion carried. Land of Lincoln Credit Union interest rate of 3.5 percent was approved. APPROVAL OF REJECT PURCHASE OF A motion was made by Lester and NEW SEWER VAC TRUCK: seconded by Barker approving the purchase of a new sewer vac truck from Coe Equipment, Inc., Rochester, Il in the amount of $384,786.19. Motion carried. Public Works Director told the council that the sewer vac truck the city has now is thirty years old and some of the parts are no longer available. Coe Equipment agreed to let the city use a vac truck six or eight times while the new truck is being built. APPROVAL OF PUBLIC SAFETY A motion was made by Stunkel and COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES FROM seconded by Hobler approving the MARCH 18, 2019: Public Safety Committee Meeting Minutes from March 18, 2019 as submitted. Motion carried. MAYOR’S REPORT: Mayor Gottman announced that the Vandalia Unit Teacher’s Association and the Vandalia School District are hosting a documentary, “The Heroin 3  Project”. This will be held on Thursday, May 2 at 6:30 p.m. in the High School gymnasium. The Vandalia Railroads Museum Foundation is having a fundraiser on Thursday night, April 4th from 4:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. at Denny’s of Vandalia. Mayor Gottman reported that the community photo was taken last Saturday on Vandalia’s official birthday. A small crowd was on hand for the photo. Another community photo will be taken after the parade in June. STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS: B. John Clark reported that the Public Works Department was busy today working on a water main break under the interstate after the contractor was putting in a guard rail. Hubler reported that he met with Sam Kerr, the sexton at the cemetery. Mowing will begin in two weeks. They will be bringing two of the employees back who have been part-time employees for the city for several years. Sam has budgeted for two mowers for the upcoming mowing season. Hubler reported that they were talking about cemetery lots left in the cemetery. Sam said that there were 600 lots left. Sam said that he is having some problems with the sewer pump. 4  Public Works Director said, that their lift station has some years on it and in the near future we will need to upgrade that. Dorothy Donley asked Mayor Gottman if she could have her grandchildren help with the cleaning of the military stones as a project at South Hill. Mayor Gottman gave her permission to do so. Mayor Gottman reported that the city did received their renewal on the health insurance. This year’s increase will be 7.44%. The employee contribution is 10% and the employer’s contribution is 90%. Hobler reported that the campgrounds at Vandalia Lake are open for the season. Barker announced that the Tourism Commission will hold a meeting later this month. They will be talking about events to be held after the 200th Bicentennial Celebration. Mayor Gottman announced that on Wednesday he will be interviewing a Director for the Tourism Commission. COUNCIL CONCERNS: Lester said that a concerned citizen, his concern is trashy properties in Vandalia. He asked if the city was pursuing its ordinances aggressively enough in dealing with properties that are unsightly due to items being considered junk. Mayor Gottman asked Alderman Lester if he talked with Zac Kopp, Code Official about this complaint. Lester said no he hasn’t so Mayor Gottman advised him as an alderman to 5 talk with him. Barker said, that is why he keeps bringing up the health and safety ordinance that we need to attach to our rental properties, similar to one that just passed in Greenville. He stressed that we need to pursue this. Mayor Gottman had a question on “Clean-up Week” directed towards Public Director Marlin Filer. It says no construction material. How can we dispose of construction material? Mayor Gottman said that he drove every street in town and noticed all of the construction stuff laying in people’s yards. Mayor Gottman said that he spoke with a gentleman who had no way of getting rid of construction material. Mayor Gottman asked, what can we do to be compliant with the EPA and be able to pick and dispose of it? Marlin Filer said, that he would call Dave Doty, Doty Sanitation and get his thoughts on this. They also discussed the idea of a community dumpster that can be used for construction materials or having residents take materials to the curb for pick up by city employees or maybe of citizens would allow city workers to come on their properties to pick up items. Mayor Gottman would like to call a meeting to talk about this before clean-up week. Clean-up week is April 29th thru May 3rd. 6 AUDIENCE: A group of citizens, business owners, former TIF committee members and the Vandalia Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jennifer Garrison were in attendance to address the council about the Tax Increment Finance Funds. Kevin Satterthwaite started the discussion by explaining the groups concerns. Satterthwaite said that members of the group meet socially, and it seems like one topic keeps coming up, as to how TIF dollars continue to be spent and what amounts are spent and how they’re spent. Satterthwaite said, it seems like every time that TIF funds grow a little bit, it’s going out. What’s wrong with its building a little bit, being utilized in the most fiscally responsible ways? Dr. Jennifer Garrison explained her role in being here this evening was to discuss the effect TIF has on the Vandalia School District. Dr. Garrison said, the district is losing about $440,000 each year by participating in the TIF program. She said as a group of citizens and the city council, we need to really be looking at that as every TIF application is approved, because if the TIF is working, the EAV in the TIF district should be increasing. Dr. Garrison said, I don’t want to say that the school district hasn’t received TIF money, because it has, but the difference of having a TIF and not is $3,326,288. The VCHS has 7  received $837,000 in TIF funds. Dr. Garrison explained that the district is doing their best to lower the school district’s burden on taxpayers and give back to the taxpayers but there is data that she needs the city’s help to access to move forward. Mayor Gottman said that the City of Vandalia would work with her to help get that data for the school district also offered to have the attorney who has worked most recently with the city on TIF agreements to sit down with the group to discuss the TIF program. ADJOURNMENT: A motion was made by Hubler and seconded by Barker to adjourn the meeting at 8:55 P.M. Motion carried. __________________ CITY CLERK 8 9 10