Meeting Minutes: June 5, 2012
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS:
Council called to order by Mayor Amy Joseph on
Tuesday, June 5, 2012 at 7:30 pm at the Rockford Village Hall.
Invocation was given by Gene Steiner Pledge of Allegiance
Those present: Gehle, Steiner, Pontsler, Searight, Heitkamp. Hodge – absent
Also attending: Amy Kronenberger of the Daily Standard, Chief May, Jeff Long, John Larson, Lowell and Elsie Beougher, Marti Lentz, and Nancy Leighner.
Motion Steiner. Second Searight to accept Agenda as orders of the day.
Gehle called for the question. Steiner = y, Searight = y, Gehle = y, Pontsler = y, Heitkamp = y. Passed 5 yes.
Motion: Searight. Second Pontsler to accept the minutes from the
May 15, 2012 council meeting as presented. Heitkamp called for the question. Searight = y, Pontsler = y, Heitkamp = y, Gehle = y, Steiner = y. Passed 5 yes.
Visitors to Address Council:
John Larson of Rockford spoke with Council about purchasing a strip of land east of his residence. John gave council copies of the plot layout to review. The alley is never used. He would not be building any structures, but may plant a garden and some trees. Jeff to verify what utilities may be in the area and will report to the Service committee. The Service committee can then make a recommendation.
Lowell and Elise Beougher spoke to Council regarding trashy properties in town, building codes and empty trailers that should be moved out. Why can’t the town clean up the properties and put the costs on the taxes? Jeff reviewed the ordinance with Council and the Beoughers. We have to follow the procedures. Once warnings and citations are done. Council can order for clean up to be done and then the costs can be added to the property tax bill.
There are 21 properties that are currently being dealt with. Most are working on the problems.
Jeff to give copies of the trailer ordinance to Council for review. There maybe some trailers that will have to go.
Jeff to call Celina and Coldwater to request their guidelines and what problems they have and how they are correcting the issues.
Findings to be discussed at the next Council Meeting.
There may be a grant available that will allow us to tear down several homes. The most would be 3 homes. There is $122,000 available in Mercer County for such programs.
Nancy Leighner brought up some issues about the park. We need more trash removal. Anymore, once a week is just not enough. Is is possible to request a bigger dumpster? We are working on this. Once we see if a bigger dumpster is available we will be fencing it in with a lock. Village residents are taking advantage of the park dumpster by dumping their personal trash. Last week the dumpter was filled with roof shingles. This type of abuse needs to stop.
We have had some minor mischief at the park. We are still working at getting a camera system set up. We will still need the police to patrol the area.
Mayor to visitors – Thank you for coming to the meeting and sharing your comments and concerns.
Mayor’s Report and Correspondence:
Notice of Road Closure – June 15th from 3 pm o TBD. To allow for the set up and display of antique and unique automobiles during Rockford Community Days.
Notice of Road Closure – June 16th – Main street at 4 pm during the Rockford Community Days parade.
Jeff Fortman has joined the Rockford Auxiliary. Field training will begin next week.
Village Administrator’s Report – Jeff Long
Waterline project is done. During October 2011 before the project we were pumping 240,000 gallons per day. Now since project is done we are pumping 210,000 gallons per day which equals 30,000 gallons per day savings. We have good fire flow. We will be looking into some Fire Department grants for ‘storks’ a kind of hydrant that is quicker and easier to access.
Water plant had some big issues over the Memorial Day Weekend. The computer control went out and we had no way to monitor. We were able to do the work
manually and had to be on site quite a bit. The computer system was repaired and back up and running fine by Wednesday. We will now have a back up memory card to restore settings is needed in the future.
We will be working on paving bids next. Hopefully the work can take place in July or August depending on the contractor schedule.
Alley approaches will be nice once they are done.
Committee Reports:
Finance Committee – Steve Gehle
Motion Steiner to pay the bills in the amount of $22,076.37. Second Searight. Pontsler called for the question. Steiner = y, Searight = y, Pontsler = y, Gehle = y, Heitkamp = y. Passed 5 yes.
Motion Searight to accept Mayors Court Pay in of $274.00. Second Heitkamp. Searight = y, Heitkamp = y, Pontsler = y, Gehle = y, Steiner = y. Passed 5 yes.
Budget Hearing on July 17th at 7 pm. Budget needs to be at the Auditors office by July 20th.
Service Committee: Gary Hodge – absent
Safety Committee: Ron Searight
Motion Gehle to approved the Emergency Operation Plan. Second Pontsler. Heitkamp called for the question. Gehle = y, Pontsler = y, Heitkamp = y, Steiner = y, Searight = y. Passed 5 yes.
Motion Pontsler to approve a National Weather Service data collection equipment to be placed on the Village of Rockford water tower. Second Gehle. Heitkamp called for the question. Ponstler = y, Gehle = y, Heitkamp = y, Steiner = y, Searight = y. Passed 5 yes.
Economic Development Committee: Eugene Steiner
Had meeting with Pastor Marvin of New Horizons Community Church. They have approval from the state to open their daycare beginning in the fall. They have hired Staff Administrator Amanda Smith. They will be fencing in the back area for the play ground area. This will be open to the public.
Public Utilities Committee: Greg Pontsler
Last weekend the splash pad blue bucket had a leaky valve and continued to run all weekend. The parts have been ordered.
Rules Committee: Chris Heitkamp
Rules meeting scheduled for June 12th at 6:30 pm to review junk and trailer ordinances.
Old Business
Tree City Banquet was held in Rockford on May 9th. The banquet was well attended and went good.
New Business
Meeting adjourned 8:43 pm
