Meeting Minutes: October 2, 2012
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS:
Council called to order by Mayor Amy Joseph on
Tuesday, October 2nd, 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: Jeff Long, Amy Kronenberger of the Daily Standard, Sergeant Stetler. Nancy Leighner, Marti Lentz, and Mary Beougher
Motion Steiner. Second Pontsler to accept the agenda with correction to add Mary Beougher to address council. Gehle called for the question. Steiner = y, Pontsler = y, Gehle = y, Searight = y, Heitkamp = y. Passed 5 yes.
Motion: Searight. Second Gehle to accept the minutes from the September 18th , 2012 council meeting as presented. Steiner called for the question. Searight = y, Gehle = y, Steiner = y, Pontsler = y, Heitkamp = y. Passed 5 yes.
Visitors to Address Council:
Mary Beougher addressed council regarding policy on mowing. An area on Jay St. is covered with waist high or higher weeds. There is also an abandon trailer with several forms of wild life running around. A letter was written to the property owner a couple of weeks ago. We will check to see where he is on this project. It needs mowed and the trailer must go.
Nancy Leighner would like to comment favorably on the job the Fire Department is doing taking down the building on Main St.
There is also a Public Hearing on October 24th at the Village Hall regarding rezoning a tract of land from Agricultural to commercial.
Mayor’s Report and Correspondence:
Village Administrator’s Report – Jeff Long
Glad to be back !
The pavement will begin on Thursday if weather permits.
Committee Reports:
Finance Committee – Steve Gehle
Motion Searight to pay the bills in the amount of $8193.41. Second Steiner. Pontsler called for the question. Searight = y, Steiner = y, Pontsler = y, Gehle = y, Heitkamp = y. Passed 5 yes.
Motion Pontsler to accept the Mayors Court pay in of $528. Second Heitkamp. Gehle called for the question Pontsler = y, Heitkamp = y, Gehle = y, Steiner = y, Searight = y. Passed 5 yes.
We will return to budget information at the end of the meeting.
Service Committee: Gary Hodge – absent
Safety Committee: Ron Searight
Ron to check on demo project. Question arise about needing some fencing to block project instead of using the tape. Demo project should be done by the end of the month.
Economic Development Committee: Eugene Steiner
Public Hearing on October 24th at 7 pm at the Village Hall to rezone a tract of land from agricultural to commercial for the establishment and operation of a retail business.
Public Utilities Committee: Greg Pontsler
Nothing at this time.
Rules Committee: Chris Heitkamp
Rules committee meeting scheduled for October 16th at 6:30 pm
Old Business
Radio station liability insurance for the station itself would be approx $200.
Need to find out about the equipment and antenna. Need to have Jim Crocker talk to Terra.
New Business
There will be a ribbon cutting at the New Horizons Daycare center on Wednesday, October 10th at 10 am.
- Back to budget talks:
Jeff prepared the water fund budget for next year. Included is a 15% insurance
increase and a 3% increase in wages.
The rates are good and are enough to make our payments. We need to plan for water tower improvements in the next year or so. These towers are very costly and we need to take care of them. Looking at inspections during 2013 and upkeep during 2014. The water tower project will be approx $50,000 for each one.
Some info:
Since the water meters have been installed we are saving 20,000 gallons a day. Since the waterline project has been completed we are saving 15.000 gallons a day. For a total of approx. 35,000 gallons a day water savings. We are at about 220,000 gallons of water per day. Our max is 400,000 gallons per day. We could upgrade if necessary in about 1 month to 600,000 per day. We are setting good. While other communities are raising rates we don’t have to and should need to in the near future.
We will discuss the sewer fund at the next meeting. According to our last permit the EPA is expecting us to make some improvements. We are saving about $40,000 a year towards those improvements so we again will not have to raise the rates once the improvements are done.
We have done a good job with funding and planning to have the best water treatment at the lowest possible cost.
We will schedule a finance committee meeting on October 8th at 7 pm. to discuss raises and make recommendations to council at the next meeting. We would like to see the break down of what will be the cost for each fund and the total.
Meeting adjourned 8:17 pm
