Village of Bellwood Committee of a Whole met May 9.
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, May 9, 2022.
Roll Call
Those in attendance were Mayor Harvey, Clerk Janel Moreland, Trustees Ciavattone, Boston, Holman, Robinson, Delgado, Nightengale, Willie Norfleet (Finance), Peter Tsiolis (Economic Development), 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 Department Head Reports
a. Economic Development
i. Capital Project
ii. Developmental Projects 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 May 9, 2022, COW meeting. Trustee Robinson 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 April 11, 2022, COW meeting. Trustee Holman made a motion and Trustee Ciavattone seconded to accept the minutes of the last regular COW 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
Economic Development Peter Tsolis reported the following:
i. Quik Trip South Tif, all of the buildings are pretty much down, still removing foundations. The permits are about to be issued.
ii. The Central Tif, 25th and Washington, the former Walgreens, soon to be senior Building close on the property scheduled for May 26th and the developer will take possession of that property, Demolishing will start shortly after that, and construction of the new eighty-unit senior building will begin shortly after that.
iii. Restaurant on Mannheim will be issued permits. The construction to begin on that development.
iv. Dunkin Donuts will be moving across the street from 25th Avenue Mall to its stand-alone own Dunkin Donuts on the East side of 25th Avenue. They're finalizing the architectural.
v. Working with a developer on St. Charles Road to bring some exciting new developments. On 25th & St. Charles we will bring that to the board when it becomes more real tangible.
vi. More exciting news coming on Mannheim. Still in the early stages.
vii. New development coming on 251 at the old SureBuilt Bldg., under contract. Purchased by a developer who will demolish the building within the next eighteen months. There will be a brand new thirteen-acre development going up there.
Finance Director/Comptroller
Willie Norfleet was absent, and no report was given for the Finance Department.
i. Everything going pretty well. In terms of bill paying, we're on target Utility billing, we are on target with paying our bills. We have the financial resources to keep going forward. As far as revenue is concerned, everything is coming in on target. Looking pretty good on the budget bases. Utilities bills should be going out this week. The billing and payments are pretty much consistent, we're not having any particular problems. We're in our audit process at this time.
Police Department
Chief Allen reported the following:
i. We attended the PT Man National Day of Prayer. The pastors prayed for the first responders, Police and Fire Personnel.
ii. We have five officers in the academy. Two in the Cook Sheriff academy at Triton that started on May 2nd and three in the Chicago Police Academy started May 9th.
iii. Currently doing background checks on five CSOs to man the desk downstairs.
iv. We have a softball game on June 25th. Bellwood against Maywood and Broadview.
v. We'll begin foot patrol and walk the blocks. Hopefully, we'll meet some of the residents out there.
vi. We'll be handing out applications as well and there's a flyer in the lobby.
Fire Department
Chief Dombek reported the following:
i. This fall the Fire Department holding an entry level firefighter test. We encourage members of our communities to come out and apply for that job. We'll be holding informationals to tell people what it entails and how to navigate the usual application process. Holding those sessions on June 4,6, and 9. I have some flyers I can hand out.
Director of Public Works
Mary Walker reported the following:
i. Clean up week garbage pickup went really well. We picked up about eighty-two tons of garbage and over 100 tires.
ii. Water main lining takes place this month. We have three locations: Washington Blvd. - Addison Creek 100 block of Bohland and the 200 block of Frederick. Most of the residents in these areas have already been notified, if they haven't been they should be receiving those letters soon.
iii. 2022 Street Resurfacing project - We're going to be resurfacing about ten streets this year. The first street will be St. Charles Road and Mannheim Road to Eastem. Second street will be Warren from Mannheim to Madison. We went through the proposal process and Chicagoland Paving was the lowest responsible bidder. The work should be starting pretty soon.
Village Engineer
Chuck Hodges reported the following:
i. The village will be participating in the Regional Transportation Authorities Access to transit Grant project. Capital improvement - The village is going to be targeting Sidewalk improvement in various locations throughout the village.
ii. Mayor asked Chuck to look into the project on the west end of town the detention. They stopped working and wanted to know when they will be back. There's a porta potty there and it's not safe. Chuck - Porta pottys are required for active projects. This project was suspended for the winter. They were scheduled to be in last week but didn't show up. They have some minor issues they're working out with subcontractors that I know the village is aware of. We've been requesting that they begin before the end of this month. Mayor - we need to remove the porta potty or have a lock put on it before the end of the month.
Building Commissioner Jim Stock reported the following:
i. We are almost ready to issue permits to Quik Trip and senior building. We're waiting for a couple pieces of paper, Fire Marshall's permit for the gas station and contractors for both projects to register with us.
The senior project ready for closing. iji. Duke is finishing up Pure's office space inside the warehouse. Then their personnel can start moving in.
Director of Human Resources
Tonita LeShore reported the following:
i. The village of Bellwood will host a tax information with Cook County Board or Review & Proviso Township Assessors office on May 23rd at 6:30pm in the community room.
Homeland Security
Mike Sabel reported the following:
i. I have four new members starting tonight. They all passed their background checks.
ii. We assisted the police department on a traffic retail for the garage fire in April.
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. Street resurfacing project - St. Charles and Warren Avenue. We plan to do more streets before the summer hits. We have budgeted for some and are still waiting on grant money from the state and federal.
ii. We are starting a digitizing paper in our departments including human resources, building department, police department. All of the departments, we are busting at the seams with paper, and we don't have that much place to store it. A few years ago, we lost papers in the flood so we are digitizing all our papers and whatever we can discard we will be looking into that as well. That will be on the board meeting agenda. We met with Impact who is advising us on what we need and should be doing.
iii. We are looking into cameras internally. Will be replacing the cameras internally and after that project we will be looking at cameras on the exterior of the building. We are also looking at cameras that will be able to read vehicle and license plates at our entrance and exits in the village. Due to the high crime, it will be helpful for us to have cameras where people are entering and exiting our village. The state of Illinoi State Troopers are asking us to partner with them to have power so they can put the cameras on 1290 expressway. We will be partnering with them to share cameras. In the system, any cameras along the routes in and out of Bellwood in the surrounding towns, we will be able to view their cameras as well.
iv. We have another restaurant bar and grill trying to lease a space in the mall on 25th. They've talked with Mr. Stock on what he has to do to open a restaurant there.
v. As Mr. Tsiolis said, we've been talking with developers about St. Charles Road., so we're doing a bunch of things to make Bellwood an even better place to live.
New Business
Attorney Castaldo reported the following:
i. A couple of items to touch on. Several items listed under new business on today's agenda. Most of
which will appear on the consent agenda for next week's meeting.
Item B - The roof replacement project is probably the next board meeting. Not ready with the proposal. Item C - Assignment of the lease agreement which appears in Dropbox as well. Lease agreement
Item E - The proclamation is about Boat Safety week.
Item J - The second amendment to the Brownfield Loan Agreement; the clean-up remediation agreement, repayment of bonds.
Unfinished Business
None.
Public Comment
Madeline McGhee - Peter, you just talked about the projects that are on 25th Avenue. What is location is that? Peter - 840 25th Avenue.
McGhee - I'm concerned with the scooters. Mike, you did say that you were going to give information to the residents before the scooters are active. I see scooters all over Bellwood and no one has said anything about. I'm concerned about the safety. How does Bellwood benefit from them? Who's liable for these scooters if there's an accident? Mike - with respect to an accident, anyone operating a motor vehicle. Scooters are to be operated the same as in a pedestrian manner. That would be a court issue. The kids driving them should be operating them in the proper manner as well. McGhee - You said the residents will be made aware of this and we weren't. We just see scooters everywhere in Bellwood, so somebody dropped the ball somewhere, I'm bringing it to you Mike because you were the one mentioned it. I am concerned because summer is coming, and these children can just pick a scooter from the street. Mayor - you have to pay with a credit care to be on the scooter. Parents shouldn't let kids get on the scooter with a credit card and it asks you a bunch of questions about authorizing and you have to sign off. Mike - somebody signed off and gave them a credit care. McGhee - Are they to use these scooters? Are we going to have lanes taken away? Mike - that was never the intent. They should operate the scooters the same as the would a bicycle. McGhee - you said they will be on the same systems as Chicago. Chicago has taken lanes away. Mayor - interrupted) not for scooters. You can not ride a scooter in a bike lane. Peter and Mayor - There is no village liability. They can't sue the village. McGhee - Mayor, you said Aldi is our grocery store. When are they going to remodel it? Mayor - I've been calling them for four years. We go to Aldi's once a month minimum asking them when are they going to do this and that. They say our team is looking at it.
Peter - Several years ago under the previous administration, Aldi's wanted a liquor license and they seemed to pick the stores that they upgrade based on liquor license. The previous administration voted against giving them a liquor license even though it was warm packaged and at that time the village said no to them. They probably would've done it quicker if we would've allowed liquor sales. That's why Walgreens left. They wanted to sell liquor, the previous administration said no, and they left.
Mayor - If you have any complaints about the scooters, there's an app you can put on your phone, and I'll give you their phone number. It is 866-205-2442. They have 24/7 support, so if you see a scooter laying somewhere, you can call them, and they'll move them.
Adjournment
Mayor Harvey requested a motion to adjourn the Committee of The Whole. Motion made by Trustee Ciavattone seconded by Trustee Holman 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 3:57p.m.
https://www.vil.bellwood.il.us/wp-content/uploads/AgendaMeetingCommitteeWhole-050922-minutes.pdf
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