Meeting Minutes: September 21, 2010
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS:
Council called to order by Mayor Amy Joseph on
Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at 7:30 pm at the Rockford Village Hall.
Invocation was given by Gene Steiner
Pledge of Allegiance
Those present: Gehle, Steiner, McKee, Pontsler, Searight, Heitkamp
Also attending: Sergeant Stetler, Judy Koesters, Jeff Long, Janie Southard, James Riethman
Motion Steiner. SecondMcKee to accept Agenda as orders of the day. Searight called for the question. Steiner = y, McKee = y, Searight = y, Gehle = y, Pontsler = y, Heitkamp = y. Passed 6 yes.
Motion: Searight. Second Gehle to accept the minutes from the September 7, 2010 meeting as presented. Pontsler called for the question. Searight = y, Gehle = y, Pontsler = y, Steiner = y, McKee = y,
Heitkamp = y. Passed 6 yes.
Visitors to Address Council:
James Riethman would like to suggest changing the name of Buckeye St. to Panther Trail. We have Panther Alley that goes to the football field. Makes sense that panthers walk trails and the road leading to the school is like a trail.
Council said they would take the suggestion under consideration and the Mayor thanked James for coming to the meeting.
Mayor’s Report and Correspondence:
Trick or Treat night is scheduled for October 30th from 6 – 7:30 pm. Judging will be at the Firehouse at 8 pm. The Village donates $250 for this event. The check will be cut whenever needed.
October 26th at 7 pm at the Village Hall there will be an informational meeting about Arts in the Park. This program introduces young people to a variety of visual and performing art activities. Guest speaker – Heidi Meade, Center Director.
Village Administrator’s Report – Jeff Long
West Market street working going good. All the underground work is done. They have started taking out the street and curbs. By the end of the week, they will be pouring sidewalks at the far end of the project. Within 3 weeks we should see pavement. The project is on schedule. We had several changes – replaced 2 manholes that were bad and ran some pipe under the street for a water line extension so as not to have to tear up street during the waterline project.
Brick is being taken to Motor Inn for grinding. Need to contact Rob Belna if you want some bricks.
Leaf pick up will begin when needed. We will be going around with the leaf machine sucking up leaves.
Water line project — No final word from EPA yet. Extensions should start early winter. We are still working on the funding. Should have a decision by next month.
New water plant going good. Radios installed properly. It’s doing everything that we want it to do. The last electrical bill was down $600 – hopefully that savings will continue. Salt usage is down somewhat too.
We had hard water one day. The valve got turned on a brine tank. Alarms should have signaled but didn’t. We have taken care of those problems. Gates and fence have been installed.
Committee Reports:
Finance Committee – Todd McKee
Motion Searight. Second Pontsler to pay the bills as submitted by the
Fiscal Officer in the amount of $26,597.25. Most are Fanning Howey – ARRA funds, 2nd payment for lights and regular bills. Gehle called for the question. Searight = y, Pontsler = y, Gehle = y, Steiner = y, McKee = y, Heitkamp. Passed 6 yes.
We will begin the Budget 2011 meetings on October 19th at 7 pm. We will meeting before each council meeting unless we start running out of time and then we will meet weekly. Lisa to have 3rd quarter information and reports ready for meeting.
ServiceCommittee: SteveGehle
Had a committee meeting just before Council meeting tonight. Discussed some trash issues. Mahargs will no longer be picking up trash in barrels/boxes with trash bags hanging on the side. Everything must be in Mahargs bags. Mahargs will be offering the ability to get rid of bulk items in the near future. Bulk items will need to be marked with a special tag that can be purchased at the Village Office.
Discussed yard debris issues: The Legion area is closed down. There will be no more dumping of grass clipping, yard waste, etc. To many abused the system by dumping plastic bags, containers and other items. Signs are posted there will be a $500 fine for dumping.
The sewer plant is closed down from public dumping of sticks, limbs, and branches. Again – to many abused the system by dumping other items. Signs are posted there will be a $500 fine for dumping.
We will be making an area behind the Village Hall where grass clipping and yard waste can be taken and then mulched. If this doesn’t work, we will have to go to a bag system through Mahargs.
Greg brought up the bike path at the Community Building. Handicap signs have been posted so no one should be parking in that area. For the next several events we ask the police to make sure no one is parking in the handicap area.
Safety Committee: Ron Searight
Nothing at this time.
Economic Development Committee: Eugene Steiner
Had a committee meeting tonight before Council. Decided to start the quarterly meetings in January. The first one is scheduled for January 25th -2011 at 7 pm at the Village Hall.
We would like to schedule a brain storming session with the realtors in the area. Jeff to get an agenda ready to see what we can accomplish. We will have some open communication, want to make sure what we are looking at, see what we can do to extend help, and make sure we are not overlooking something. Jeff will talk with the bankers.
The RADC meetings have been changed from the third Thursday of the month to the first Thursday of the month starting in October. The next RADC meeting will be October 7th at 7:30 here at the Village Hall. November 4th and December 2nd are the other meeting dates to the end of the year.
The RADC would like to have lights on the RT 33 signs by the end of the year.
Vortex (another Splash Pad company) will be here on October 7th at 6:15 to meet with RADC, Jeff and Mayor. They will be meeting at the Village Hall and then going down to the park for a walk through. Anyone is welcome to attend this meeting.
There will be another Economic Committee meeting later next month.
Public Utilities Committee: Greg Pontsler
Committee meeting schedule for October 5th at 7pm before the Council Meeting.
Rules Committee: Chris Heitkamp
Committee meeting to be held after Council meeting tonight.
Old Business
New Business
Meeting adjourned 8:00 pm.
