Meeting Minutes: August 7, 2012
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS:
Council called to order by Mayor Amy Joseph on
Tuesday, August 7, 2012 at 7:30 pm at the Rockford Village Hall.
Invocation was given by Gene Steiner
Pledge of Allegiance
Those present: Steiner, Hodge, Pontsler, Searight, Heitkamp. Gehle absent.
Also attending: Jeff Long, Amy Kronenberger of the Daily Standard, Marti Lentz, and Nancy Leighner, Elsie Beougher, Sergeant Stetler, Officer Fortman.
Motion Steiner. Second Hodge to accept Agenda as orders of the day. Pontsler called for the question. Steiner = y Hodge = y, Pontsler, Searight, Heitkamp = y. Passed 5 yes.
Motion: Hodge. Second Heitkamp to accept the minutes from the
July 17, 2012 council meeting as presented. Searight called for the question. Hodge = y, Heitkamp = y, Searight = y, Steiner = y, Pontsler = y. Passed 5 yes.
Visitors to Address Council:
Elsie Beougher addressed council with questions as to how the clean up is going. She hasn’t seen that anything has been done. Sergeant Stetler reviewed the log book that has the information on cases that are in compliant or not. Elsie stated that there are specific places (3) on Franklin St. that are pretty bad.
Councilman Hodge commented that the first order of business was to clean up weed and vehicle problems. Maybe we need to be more forceful. He will be scheduling a committee meeting to review the information and make some recommendations to council. Elise was invited to come to the next meeting.
Pontsler asked how much money has been made in the 4 months? We will need to get that information as well.
Program is out of money at this point.
Nancy Leighner commented that the fenced in dumpster at the park looks nice and seems to be helping with garbage control. She also asked about the surveillance camera.
Mayor Joseph – this has been going on long enough. When will the cameras be installed? Steve Gehle not present at meeting either has the cameras or they are on order.
Mayor’s Report and Correspondence:
Village Administrator’s Report – Jeff Long
We have received the contracts back with signature for the street project. To date we do not have a committed start date. Hopefully by the end of the month.
Jeff met with Engineering Firm and Fremont this week to discuss the wastewater treatment plant upgrades. We want to work with Fremont and the EPA to make sure both are happy while keeping costs down. We will be continuing to work on this project.
Village guys will be picking up brush the rest of the week from the recent storm.
Regarding the demo of the buildings on South Main St. We have to hire an asbestos removal firm to clean out some of the debris before the buildings are taken down. The county will be paying for this. Bids have been taken but we haven’t gotten any results yet. We are hoping this will begin by the end of August.
Committee Reports:
Finance Committee – Steve Gehle- absent
Motion Hodge to pay the bills in the amount of $39,739.72 which include the Fire Protection and Engineering fees, DP & L, and regular bills. Second Pontsler. Searight called for the question. Hodge = y, Pontsler = y, Searight = y, Steiner = y, Heitkamp = y. Passed 5 yes.
Motion Searight to accept the Mayors Court pay in of $1791.00. Second Pontsler. Heitkamp called for the question. Searight = y, Pontsler = y, Heitkamp = y, Steiner = y, Hodge = y. Passed 5 yes.
Jeff and Lisa attended the Budget Hearing at the County Court House on Monday. Our local funds will be decreasing 12.5% during the first half of 2013.
Service Committee: Gary Hodge
Gary and Jeff reviewed the request regarding parking issue on Front St. They went to Front street and did some measuring. The street is 33’ wide. Standard streets are 28’ wide. There is plenty of room for parking. The problem seems to
be that some residents are parking facing the incorrect way on the street which can confuse some people. We need the enforce the parking rules. Parking on each side of the street in recent studies actually keep the flow of traffic at a slower pace. It was suggested that we have police presence on the street and that those parking incorrectly be contacted and if they do not comply tickets will be issued.
Service meeting schedule on August 21st at 6:30 pm. All committee including Paul need to attend to discuss the clean up program and where we go from here.
Safety Committee: Ron Searight
RESOLUTION 05-12
A RESOLUTION DECLARING INTENT TO PROCEED WITH ELECTION ON THE QUESTION OF RENEWAL TAX FOR FIRE PROTECTION.
Motion Hodge. Second Steiner to approve Fire Protection Levy for the November ballot. Pontsler called the question. Hodge = y, Steiner = y, Pontler = y, Searight = y, Heitkamp = y. Passed 5 yes.
We had a combined meeting with all the emergency personnel after the big storm on June 29th. We reviewed our procedures and discussed ways we can improve. Another meeting was scheduled this week after the weekend storm. Was not as well attended, but the meeting went well. The Safety committee will continue to work on issues to make sure that not one department has all the responsibility.
Thanks to Blair for getting the stop signs out in a timely fashion after the storm. Once the power is out it becomes an automatic 4-way stop. We have in place that the person on call gets the stops signs out in case of power outage as some drivers might not know the law regarding a 4-way stop if the power it off. Jeff to check into building something on a rim with flashers.
Economic Development Committee: Eugene Steiner
The committee had a meeting before council. There are currently (2) potential business opportunities on the table. Land price is effecting one of them. We will know more in a couple of weeks. The other development is within the local community. We need to support that 100%. More information at the next meeting.
Public Utilities Committee: Greg Pontsler
ORDINANCE 04-12
AN ORDINANCE LEVYING ASSESSMENTS FOR DELINQUENT WATER BILLS AND DECLARING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
First reading 07/17/12
2nd reading – 08/07/12
Rules Committee: Chris Heitkamp
ORDINANCE 03-12
AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING AND CLARIFYING THE MOST CURRENT LEGISLATION ON SUBJECTS WITH DUPLICATED OR PRIOR LEGISLATION AND DECLARING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
1ST reading – 06/19/12
2nd reading – 07/17/12
3rd reading – 08/07/12
Motion: Heitkamp. Second Steiner. Hodge called for the question. Heitkamp = y, Steiner = y, Hodge = y, Pontsler = y, Searight = y. Passed 5 yes.
Old Business
Steiner asked Jeff about the time frame of DP & L coming to fix area that was damaged in the storm.
Steiner commended the Village workers for the effort in getting water back on during a recent water leak that took place on a Sunday morning. Gene talked with neighbors to inform them that water would be shut off. Gene was satisfied with all efforts to get the water back on.
Complaint – Stop signs at Franklin and Market St. and another at Oak and Pearl St. need attention as they both could be safety issues.
New Business
Meeting adjourned 8:10 pm
