Meeting Minutes: September 6, 2016
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS:
Council called to order by Mayor Amy Joseph on
Tuesday, September 6, 2016 at 7:30 pm at the Rockford Village Hall.
Invocation was given by Village Administrator Jeff Long.
Pledge of Allegiance
Those present: Gehle, Rutledge, Fox, Dooley, Heitkamp.
Pontsler – absent
Also attending: Jeff Long, Ed Gebert of the Daily Standard, Chad Miller,
Margie Griesdorn, Tonia Byron, and John Bear
Motion Rutledge. Second Fox, to accept the agenda as orders of the day. Gehle called for the question. Rutledge = y, Fox = y, Gehle = y, Dooley = y, Heitkamp = y. Passed 5 yes.
Motion Fox Second Gehle to accept the minutes from the
August 16, 2016 council meetings as presented. Heitkamp called for the question.
Fox = y, Gehle = y, Heitkamp = y, Rutledge = y, Dooley = y. Passed 5 yes.
.
Visitors to Address Council:
Margie Griesdon approached Council to bring awareness about the
Out of the Darkness Community Walk on October 15th for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. This will be held beginning at 9am with opening ceremony 10 am at the Mercer County Fairgrounds. Mercer County statistics 47 deaths between 2010 -2015 to suicide. 276 recorded attempts and 302 threats. Suicide is a leading cause of death – but it’s preventable. With your support, together we can save lives and bring hope to those affected by suicide.
Council thanked Marie and Tonia for bringing awareness. They left some brochures at the Village office for the public.
Chad Miller approached Council asking them to consider doing something about the cat problem. He is not opposed to people owning a couple of cats but some have so many that there is no way for them to be able to take care of them and keep track of them. The number of cats in the neighborhood are causing yards to become infested with fleas and they continue to go through trash. Cats are considered rodents and therefore there is no licensing required. Paul has a call in to the health department. There is more than 1 problem area in the Village.
Mayor’s Report and Correspondence:
We need 2 volunteers for the Tree Commission Board – please contact the Village office if interested.
Upcoming Community events:
Thursday – Lots for Soldiers will be having a Shovel Turning and prayer for the project at the Rockford build on Holly Lane near Shanes Park at 6:30 pm
The public is invited.
September 24 – Fire Department Open House, meal and Reverse Raffle
September 26th – Rockford Chamber Banquet – Community building
RSVP by September 16th.
October 2nd – Beanfest – Live Music All Day ! 11:30 am – 5 pm
Music by Triad, Parkway JH Choir, Jerry Garcia and George Moore.
Food stand by New Horizons Youth Group
Christmas at the Park decorating – begins October 15th – need community involvement ~! 10 am – noon every Saturday.
Village Administrator’s Report – Jeff Long
John Bear of Mobilite approached council with a request to use a Village right of way to install a 120’ transport pole that would create smart technology development in the area. This is part of a Nationwide Connectivity plan. This is a public held private company and has been certified by PUCO. Council would consider the request if the pole was located in another place outside of the business district on main street. John will go back to his engineering and work on another location. It might take 6 weeks to get back with all information.
We need to make a decision on health care insurance for 7 full time employees. We will ask for some additional information. To be discussed at finance committee meeting on September 13th at 7 pm.
We have been looking into several properties that may potentially need taken down and cleaned up. We will try to make contact with each owner and let them know they are on the radar – they may or may not then comply with clean up. We will go through the steps needed to take action. Just note, that we may incur costs that may not be refunded to Village.
Committee Reports
Finance Committee – Steve Gehle
Motion Dooley to pay bills as submitted in the amount of $26,459.27. Second Heitkamp. Gehle called for the question. Dooley= y, Heitkamp = y, Gehle = y, Rutledge = y, Fox = y. Passed 5 yes.
Motion Rutledge to approve the August monthly financial reports –
Cash Summary by Fund, Appropriations report, Revenue Report,
Budget vs Actual activity report, bank reconciliation along with August monthly transfers and August supplemental appropriations. Second Fox. Dooley called for the question. Rutledge = y, Fox = y, Dooley = y, Gehle = y, Heitkamp = y. Passed 5 yes.
RESOLUTION 03-16
A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT FUND. ESTIMATE FOR 2017: $28,764.00 or 6.63.%.
Motion: Fox. Second Rutledge. Gehle called for the question. Fox =y, Rutledge = y, Gehle = y, Dooley = y, Heitkamp = y. Passed 5 yes.
RESOLUTION 04-16
A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE AMOUNTS AND RATES AS DETERMINED BY THE BUDGET COMMISSION AND AUTHORIZING THE NECESSARY TAX LEVIES AND CERTIFYING THEM TO THE COUNTY AUDITOR.
GENERAL FUND LEVY = $24,280.00
CURRENT EXPENSES LEVY = $37,613.00
Motion: Rutledge. Second Dooley. Fox called for the question. Rutledge = y, Dooley = y, Fox = y, Gehle = y, Heitkamp = y. Passed 5 yes.
Finance Committee meeting on September 13th at 7 pm. We will be discussing the health care insurance and the police department radio issue.
Service Committee: Greg Pontsler – absent
Safety Committee: Chris Heitkamp
Turned in a list of signs that have issues to Jeff – either faded, leaning or the trees need trimmed in order to view.
Economic Development Committee: Rob Rutledge – nothing
Public Utilities Committee: Wilbur Fox –
Will discuss Mobilite request once they come back with another location request.
Rules Committee: John Dooley
Much discussion on the complaint system in place. John reminded Council that we have in place the steps needed in order to take complaints. No one working for the Village should be writing down complaints for residents. If someone wants to make a complaint, they should come to the village office and get an official complaint form. Once the form is filled out it will be considered an official complaint and the police department can then do their job with the proper procedures. It is a waste of time to bring complaints through council meetings. The council should be spending time with economic development, creating jobs, and village development not spending time on neighborhood problems. If we need to change the rules then we need to change the procedures. We have not been utilizing the procedures that have been in place.
Old Business
New Business
Meeting adjourned 8:45
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Mayor Fiscal Officer
