April 30, 2025, May Meeting

Call to order at 7:00 pm by President Mat. New Board members were sworn in as elected officials for Trustees. (Tom Smargiassi, Angie Niehaus, Mike Tichler and Tim Martens) Mat Diehl was sworn in as elected Village Mayor.

Members answering roll call, President Mat, Tom Smargiassi, Angie Niehaus, Mike Tichler, Kirk Knoup, Tim Martens, Jamie Melville, and Cheryl Liebenstein.

The minutes from the April meeting were reviewed and accepted without dissent, by Angie. Second by Tom. Motion Carried.

Tim made a motion to pay all bills as presented. Motion second by Kirk.  Motion carried

Tim made a motion to approve the treasurer report as presented. Second by Tom. Motion carried.

No transfer of funds needed.

Maintenance Report

Rob noted the summer help has started working.

Visitor

Doug Visel was present to discuss the ordinances not being enforced. He had a neighbor with trash etc. in the yard which Doug noted the issue has been taken care of. Doug also thanked the board for continuing with the annual clean up day. He did question whether we could get an electronic disposal day. The board noted that we have looked at it and the price is too high to consider at this time. We will check with area towns to see if they have done an electronics pickup and who they went through. Doug also questioned if our ordinances covered backyard trash that the public would not see but area neighbors would see it daily. President Mat informed him that we will look at our ordinances and make changes as needed to help cover these issues. President Mat also noted that it was good to get reports from the residents. We do not always know of ordinance issues and this helps us to enforce ordinances when we know about violations.

Freedom Forever Solar Panels attended the meeting to get a solicitation permit. They informed the board they were licensed by the State of Illinois through the Illinois Shines Program. This program allows persons to get solar panels without purchasing/leasing them. They were informed to contact Stephenson County to register and then come back for the solicitation permit.

FINANCE/TIF FINANCE

Reminder that Appropriations are due in July.

WATER/SEWER

There are six late notice/shut off notice to be delivered.

STREETS/ALLEYS/LIGHTS/SIDEWALK

Dean was not present to finalize the Sidewalk Ordinance.  We will have the 2nd reading at June meeting.

BUILDINGS/GROUNDS

Kirk noted that the long-term campers will be leaving. He feels we should limit stays to 3 days. Campers may request to stay longer with the approval of the committee. Kirk will look at getting a new form for contact information and maybe require a deposit for campers that want to stay long term. Mike thought we should look at a QR code to link to an E-Form.  Each campsite would have a different QR code to scan. The committee will investigate this and check to see what other unmanned campgrounds do for information and money collection.

CEMETERY

Angie has looked at Mausoleum options and noted different types. The traditional style, such as Oakland Cemetery has, that can also be used for private services. The Cremation Column that is used for urns only and a Scatter Garden that allows the remains to be scattered and the name is engraved, along with others, on a stone at the site. The board has determined that the cost and upkeep, with little interest, is not feasible and they will not move forward with such a project.

Rob noted that we have six or seven burials without headstones. Most of these are older sites. Our ordinance states that each burial must have a headstone placed.  The committee will look at ideas to prevent this, such as requiring proof of headstone or a deposit the village will hold until a headstone is placed on the burial site.

POLICE

Kurt is working on the camera issues. The V200 cameras do not work with the dock/storage and we need to send them back. We have one V700 camera that he has working. The original billing was broken down in five-year increments that we initially paid on. Kurt will look at getting the cameras sent back and the billing straightened out.  He will then order another V700 camera so that we will have two working cameras.

It was also brought to our attention that we have two radios and only one is activated and we have been paying for two services. Kurt will get the second one activated.  We may have to replace them in the future as one is outdated but still works.

Motion was made by Tom at 8:02pm to go into executive session. Motion second by Tim.  Motion carried.

Motion was made by Tom at 8:12 to go to regular session. Motion second by Angie.  Motion carried.

LIQUOR

Old Business

Jessie Martin has a lot near the retention pond, in Windhaven subdivision, that Mat will pass along the information to the Postal Service as another option for a new post office.

Dale Sandell requested a donation for the hand rails for the museum. He attended our April 7th meeting. President Mat noted that we usually do TIF money for downtown projects but this parcel is a no tax entity so we cannot use TIF. Board members would like to wait until we get a quote as to what the railing will cost before we make any donation. Board members did agree that a donation would be around two thousand.

New Business

President Mat gave thanks to the board members for adjusting their schedules to have this meeting before he leaves for a work trip.

Stephenson County Zoning sent us a letter stating a Special Use for building storage lots.  This is outside of the village limits on Block Road and the board members have no concerns with it.

Constellation Energy, which we use for our street lighting, will be passing along price increases to us. They have not stated the increase amounts. The letter noted that they will not pass the increase to us if we extend our contract for another three years. Mike Mudge, Rock River Energy, feels we may miss opportunities for better pricing if we do not wait and do bids when our current contract is up.

Tim made a motion to accept the Agreement letter with The Lucas Group for our annual audits at the cost of $18,850.00.  Motion second by Mike. Motion carried.  This amount is the same as last year’s cost.

 Motion to adjourn at 8:35 by Kirk.  Second by Angie. Motion carried.

Attest: Cheryl Liebenstein, Village Clerk