ELLIOTT — Village trustees learned during their monthly meeting on Tuesday, June 10, that construction of the town’s new water tower and the updating of its water-treatment facility will start in July or possibly earlier.
Engineer Seth Flach, a project manager from Milano & Grunloh Engineers of Effingham, told the village board that all areas now have received official approval, including a low-interest loan of about $100,000 to cover engineering costs above the $1.5 million grant and a groundwater source protection plan from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
A contract meeting with Caldwell Tanks will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday, June 19, and is open to the public. The board agreed with a paint scheme proposed by Flach that features two shades of blue and a warm white. Flach said the bottom of the water bowl will be the darker blue.
Meeting progress delayed as result of disagreements
A normally routine section of the meeting’s agenda devoted to roll call and approval of minutes instead became a lengthy and sometimes heated exchange between Trustees Jack Huppert and Mary Young with Village President Josh Rouley and Village Clerk Gloria Lynch.
Young wanted several changes made to the minutes that Lynch felt should have been submitted to her before the meeting. Young said she had not received an email attachment of the May meeting minutes on which to make corrections. Lynch pushed back in visible frustration over changes that were unclear to her, and after Huppert forcefully joined in, Lynch complained that she felt “picked on.” The minutes were eventually approved with some changes.
Rouley asked all trustees “to be polite,” but Huppert next loudly voiced dissatisfaction with the agenda, accusing Rouley of “never adding anything (trustees) asked for” to the agenda. It later became clear that Huppert was referring to not seeing a consideration of village maintenance personnel on the agenda. Rouley responded by telling Huppert that he “always found something to complain about.”
As the heated exchanges continued with Huppert especially, Lynch announced her understanding of law by stating, “We can legally have you removed from the meeting.”
In a move similar to the May meeting, both Huppert and Young objected to approving the list of bills that had charges from current maintenance contractor David Hudson. Huppert voted “no” while Young abstained.
After 30 minutes had been taken to conduct the normally routine portion of the agenda, Rouley moved the board on to discussion of the agenda’s business.
Maintenance job description, personnel
As the first item of agenda business, Young championed passing a new maintenance job description that she had prepared rather than the one previously given to the board. Young said she had not received one this month. Huppert agreed but wanted to add a 22nd line item referring to maintaining and reading water meters to the 21 duties Young had submitted.
Lynch said the addition regarding water meters might not be possible since only Hudson has the programming and equipment necessary from water biller E.J. Water Cooperative of Dietrich. That possibility was not considered an obstacle as the board approved the longer job description.
Rouley challenged Huppert to “go ahead and make your motion you’ve been wanting.” Huppert immediately moved to hire resident Rick Bowen as a village maintenance employee, which the board approved. In the motion and during the subsequent brief discussion, no mention or approval was stated for Bowen’s hourly rate or the future status of Hudson, who currently performs village maintenance duties as a contractor.
While the discussion and approval of a maintenance job description was on the agenda, the motion to hire a new individual was not.
New village attorney
Trustees found no need to hold a scheduled closed session on personnel matters beore unanimously approving attorney Marc Miller of Miller & Hendren in Champaign as the new village attorney. Miller also provides municipal representation for Gibson City and the area villages of Melvin, Roberts and Piper City, plus two Champaign County communities.
According to the minutes of a special meeting held May 28, Miller will charge $230 per hour. Miller recommended the village update and complete its ordinances via a commercial service to produce a distributable document. He estimated the update would cost about $7,000.
Other business
Also at the village board’s monthly meeting at Village Hall:
A village-wide cleanup day was set for Saturday, Sept. 6. The village will pay for two dumpsters to collect unwanted items brought by residents. Rouley said he hopes to have more help from trustees this year compared with last.
In her role as an employee of the Ford County Highway Department, Village Treasurer Paula Swearingen updated board members about progression on its application to use motor fuel tax monies for improvements. Swearingen said the next step will be to review bids received by the county and choose the lowest bid, hopefully at the July board meeting.
Trustees unanimously approved a notice of violation to resident Ed Miller regarding the number of nonworking vehicles on his property. Per ongoing problems, some trustees said they did not receive the letter in advance as an email attachment to the agenda, so it was read aloud by Lynch. Bowen said he knew Miller and would hand-deliver the letter.
Resident Jimmy “Pee-Wee” Olivero said he had not heard from the reportedly very busy contractor about costs for repairing the sidewalk in front of his house, so the board again took no action.
By unanimous vote, the village’s audit firm was changed to Feller & Kuester from CLA, both Champaign firms. Officials believe the move can save the village as much as $9,000 in annual audit fees. No formal engagement letter is in force yet, but Swearingen said she would follow up. The board had not approved a current letter of engagement submitted by CLA, and Rouley said he will make the notification.
Trustee Meg Fairchild said a planned tile repair will not be completed until the contractor has another job in the village to make travel worthwhile.