Village of Bellwood Committee of a Whole met March 7.
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
The Village of Bellwood conducted a Committee of the Whole meeting at 3:30p.m. in the Village Board Room at 3200 Washington Boulevard, Bellwood, IL. 60104-1984.
Call to Order
The Committee of the Whole meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Bellwood was called to order by Mayor Harvey at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, March 7, 2022.
Roll Call
Those in attendance were Mayor Harvey, Clerk Janel Moreland, Trustees Ciavattone, Boston, Holman, Robinson, Delgado, Nightengale, Willie Norfleet (Finance), Attorney Michael Castaldo.
1. Pledge of Allegiance
2. Approve Minutes of last Committee of a Whole Meeting
3. Approve Agenda for Committee of a Whole Meeting
4. Trustee Committee Reports
a. Public Works - Trustee Ciavattone, Chairman; Trustee Delgado, Member
b. Community Development - Trustee Boston, Chairman; Trustee Robinson, Member
c. Quality of Life - Trustee Holman, Chairman; Trustee Boston, Member
d. Administration - Trustee Robinson, Chairman, Trustee Ciavattone
e. Public Safety - Trustee Delgado, Chairman: Trustee Nightengale, Member
f. Finance - Trustee Nightengale, Chairman; Trustee Holman, Member
g. Ad Hoc Committees - Traffic Safety
5. Department Head Reports
a. Economic Development
i. Capital Project
ii. Developmental Projects
b. Finance Director/Comptroller
i. Utility Collection Billing and collection Status
ii. Payments of Bills
iii. Review of Revenue and Investments
iv. Inventory
v. Bidding
c. Police Department - Police Chief
d. Fire Department - Fire Chief
e. Director of Public Works
i. Street Department
ii. Water Department
f. Village Engineer
g. Building Commissioner
h. Director of Human Resources
i. Village Attorney/Corporation Counsel
i. Litigation (item to be reported on in executive session if required)
ii. Contract negotiations (item to be reported on in executive session if required), and
iii. Pending legal matters.
6. Clerk's Report - Per Mayor Harvey & Attorney Castaldo, removed from agenda
7. Mayor's Report
8. New Business - Discussion/Agenda Items for upcoming board meeting
9. Unfinished Business
10. Public Comment
11. Adjournment
Mayor Harvey requested a motion to approve the agenda for the March 7, 2022, COW meeting. Trustee Nightengale made a motion and Trustee Delgado seconded to accept the agenda of the last regular COW meeting
The result of the roll call vote is as follows:
Ayes: 6 Nays: 0 Abstain: 0 Absent: 0
Mayor Harvey requested a motion to approve the minutes of the February 14, 2022, regular COW meeting. Trustee Holman made a motion and Trustee Boston seconded to accept the minutes of the last regular ÇOW meeting.
The result of the roll call vote is as follows:
Ayes: 6 Nays: 0 Abstain: 0 Absent: 0
Committee Reports
Trustee Ciavattone: regular report
Trustee Boston: regular report
Trustee Holman: regular report
Trustee Robinson: regular report
Trustee Delgado: regular report
Trustee Nightengale: regular report
Ad Hoc: no report
Department Head Reports
Economic Development
Peter Tsolis reported the following:
i. Quik Trip building is preparing for demolition. Notice the fence is put around the building, it's actually five buildings that will be torn down. Once demolition begins maybe this week or next week it will take about three to four weeks. All the utilizes are shut off.
ii. The Walgreens building will start demolition some time this spring. There will be a lot of traffic in front of the Walgreens. We were able to get an episode of Chicago Fire filmed at that location they will be here for twenty-one days. It will be an entire episode. They're going to change the look of it. It's going to look like a small grocery store. We negotiated some pretty good money for the village. The senior Building will take place in April and demolition will take place soon after that. Chicago Fire will be done by the end of March.
iii. Congratulate Mayor Harvey for being featured in Crain's Magazine and the real deal village of Bellwood initiative single family homes got great press last week. A ton of people are excited it. It's not just the hard copy but on the internet of Crains if you have a subscription.
iv. We are having a conversation working with CMAP, County and a couple of other folks on a project to improve the prairie path. That report will be completed by May with recommendations on how we can continuously improve the prairie path.
v. Still working on restaurant on Mannheim. There are a few other development projects were talking about to bring to village attention. We're in negotiation. We'll bring those to you as soon as we can
vi. On the Agenda this week is the Quik Trip incentive, which is limited to diesel tax only. We believe it will bring millions of dollars to the village property tax and sales tax combined, which will be a real big boost to the village's dollars.
Finance Director/Comptroller
Willie Norfleet reported the following:
i. Utility billing, we are on target so far this week. Compared to last year January totals Bellwood is up significantly approximately $175K from last year.
ii. Collections are behind last year from January to January by approximately $57K. It will pick up as the year goes on, it's just a month-by-month assessment. Utilities bills that are going out a notice is going out recognizing that the County is allowing those who need financial help with their water. The flyer will be put in there so they can call and get help with their utility bill. It has to be $250 over the amount up to $1500.
iii. The investment part of our situation, we are doing pretty good as far as cash flow is concerned. We have good resources compared to last year January. We're significantly higher than a year ago. year-to-date collections compared to last year this same time went up about two hundred thirty thousand dollars. We're doing very well, holding steady. It's almost business as usual. We're doing very well.
iv. The bill paying that we have for the month is $1.4 million total.
Police Department
Chief Allen reported the following:
i. We currently have two new officers that will be starting tomorrow. One in academy and two more taking the power test in late April.
ii. Participated in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Forest Park over the weekend.
iii. There's a program sponsored by the Illinois Chief's of Police for Ukraine. For the local law enforcement by donating some of their old vest to help out the officers protecting their country.
iv. Officer Kiplinger who has been with us for about three years will be deployed for 400 days. He leaves in April.
Fire Department
Chief Dombek reported the following:
i. Brought in a self-contained breathing apparatus for a show and tell. What we use to breathe inside of building fires. On Friday we took the liberty of eighteen new units to replace our ten-year-old units we were using. The total cost was $120k ninety percent was covered by a federal grant that we received. We basically bought two and got sixteen for free. We will be training on these.
Director of Public Works
Marty Walker reported the following:
i. We also have two tree crews in town on the middle section and east end,
ii. Last week we started street sweeping. We will continue as weather permits,
iii. April 4th - Yard waste and branch pick up will start. Residents will not have to use the stickers this year. We do require to still use the biodegradable paper bags.
iv. Pavement patching.
iv. Water main breaks have gone up because of the fluctuations in the weather and we are fixing them as they come.
Village Engineer
Chuck Hodges reported the following:
i. We just have one item on the village board meeting agenda. Engineering agreement for design and construction engineering services to construct St. Charles Road, IHB Railroad improve May this year.
ii. We submitted two grant applications last week one is federal transportation program for improving various collector routes.
iii. Submitted grant application for CDBG program which will improve 24th Avenue from Madison Street to Washington Blvd.
Building Commissioner
Jim Stock reported the following:
i. We have the preliminary plans for the senior building on 25th for review so we can get the architect our comments. We do have the civil engineering plans approved already.
ii. Duke Realty finalized their portion of development sometime this week. We will be able to grant occupancy for Pure Foods.
iii. JJ Chicken and Fish at 707 Bellwood Avenue finalized their occupancy and received their business license and they're now open,
Director of Human Resources
Tonita LeShore was Absent and there was no report from Human Resources,
BOEM
Mike Sabel reported the following:
i. All our members are CPR Certified. ii. We responded to a couple of fires in town. Assisted the Police and Fire department.
Village Clerk - The Village Clerk Report has been removed from the COW Agenda and the Clerk was not asked to report.
Mayor Mayor Harvey reported the following:
i. Thank Peter for mentioning the Crains article. It's a great article. I'd like to thank this administration and Mayor Pasquale that started building houses fifteen twenty years ago. It put us to continue to move forward and now with this new project we're building houses on vacant lots. Put us in a pretty good spot. I had a visitor that is an investor come in today to talk to me. He asked how come the village of Bellwood seems to be able to get things done; bringing new businesses into town, build new homes and other communities can't? We've had numerous calls from numerous of people wanting to come to Bellwood to do business and it's because of everybody on this administration doing all the hard work including the department heads.
ii. Peter mentioned the cast from Chicago Fire. They also negotiated with a couple of other towns doing this same episode in their communities. They finally came back to us and said you people are so easy to work with, we appreciate you. We sent the other towns the same information we sent you and they still haven't gotten back with us. They said it was tough dealing with other towns with grocery stores, so they're going to do here in Bellwood.\
iii. The houses at 49th which is what the Crains article is about; we had a bid on one house for $380k which is unbelievable prices. If you would've told me ten to fifteen years ago that the house in the village of Bellwood selling for $380k, I would've told you that I could not believe that.
iv. If the house prices increase, it's good for us because our houses go up it means the higher the taxes we have to pay on the house. I'd rather have my home worth $380k and I can take my equity and buy a summer home. $250k equity in your home, I don't know where else you can find house prices like that.
v. Peter, I had an opportunity to talk to the governor face to face and he kept gloating about all the money that he put in communities. I told him we haven't seen it yet. He said he's going back to Springfield and will find out what's happening. We're gonna continue to push to get money for infrastructure our water meter project so I'm gonna hold him to his word, I'm supposed to be in Springfield tomorrow and the end of the month, so I'm gonna hold his feet to the fire.
vi. Kudos to our police, fire, and Homeland security. About two weeks ago we responded to a call with an eight-year girl on the 100 block of Frederick that wasn't responsive not breathing. The fire captain came into my office with tears in his eyes to tell me the eight-year-old girl may not make it. The police officer was doing CPR until the paramedics got there. As we were making the calls and the ambulance was leaving, Elmhurst and Hillside set up roadblocks and stopped traffic to make sure they got to the hospital in records time. The girl was transported to Lurie's Children's Hospital and she's alive. The Dispatcher walked the parent through CPR until police got there. The parents adopted the girl at age one and suffered from shaking baby syndrome as a child.
New Business
Attorney Castaldo reported the following:
i. I'll go through the items that will appear on next Wednesday's agenda for the board consideration and approval.
Item D - Was already reported on. I also understand from the engineer that there will be a resolution approval for additional funding. Agreement for application we submitted for federal dollars. That item is not in Dropbox as of yet. Since this is a special meeting there are a few items that still needs to be placed in Dropbox. Item A & Item E-On your agenda, appropriation, and supplemental ordinances. Putting forth a balance budget from the Finance department as reported on. Willie - It was rough, but we got it balanced. Everyone got pretty much what they wanted. The supplemental is also balanced. It was short about $600k. We used some additional revenue that we got in to balance the budget. Castaldo - Their will be a public hearing at 5:45pm on the appropriation ordinance. The Budget is in Dropbox. Item B - The litigation report as you know we continually meet with the third-party administrator about three-four times a year as a result of the litigation and claims report. We'll be looking to adopt that report next Wednesday. Trustee Boston - I have a question. There's a couple that I'm familiar with. Majority of them are employee related. I would like to know what is the status on a couple of the litigation cases? Castaldo - I will be happy to answer any questions I will request closed session next week for the board so I can update on the litigations. So, we will schedule that for next week. If there are any other questions regarding those issues, I would be more than happy to address them individually. Item Ç - Is the cleaning contract which is coming from public works. I just received contract and we suggested some changes. I just received those today and will put those in Dropbox. Item F - Referred to last time IML sent out an update regarding policies for record retention. Periodically we are to review our records. Those that qualify and are eligible to destroy those records. An update to that policy is suggested. That will be in Dropbox this week. Item G - Is relating to an incentive agreement for Quik Trip. We are in full agreement with Quik Trip. In 2019 or 2020 we adopted a diesel fuel tax for gas station that was going to locate there. Increase in diesel fuel tax generated by that site to pay taxes. We created a fifty/fifty incentive specifically for them. Item H - Pete and Aric working with Cook County Land regarding some properties, which they're taking back and offering back to the village for acquisition and clear title. We'll put those in front of you identifying those properties. As we move forward with any future development the intent is to add them back on the tax roll.
Beary's Landscaping is another one that came in late. We do have those documents dropped off with Aric on Friday. We will get those in front of you as well for the Wednesday meeting. It's the annual renewal contract for the grass cutting program.
Unfinished Business
None.
Public Comment
None
Adjournment Mayor Harvey requested a motion to adjourn the Committee of The Whole. Motion made by Trustee Delgado seconded by Trustee Boston to adjourn the meeting. Upon a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously. Mayor Harvey declared the meeting adjourned, with no further business to come before this Board, this meeting stands adjourned at 4:02p.m.
https://www.vil.bellwood.il.us/wp-content/uploads/AgendaSpecialMeetingCommitteeWhole-030722-minutes.pdf
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