West Cook News

Village of Bellwood Committee of a Whole met July 8

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

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 3:33p.m. on Monday, July 8, 2024. 

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 (absent)

e. Public Safety - Trustee Delgado, Chairman: Trustee Nightengale, Member

f. Finance Trustee Nightengale, Chairman; Trustee Holman, Member 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. Director of Public Works 

e. Fire Department - Fire Chief 

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, the clerk will no longer give a report and Attorney Castaldo removed it from the agenda. 

7. Mayor's Report 

8. New Business -- Discussion/Agenda Items for upcoming board meeting 

9. Public Comment Adjournment 

10. Unfinished Business

11. Adjournment

Mayor Harvey requested a motion to approve the agenda for the July 8, 2024, COW meeting. Trustee Delgado made a motion and Trustee Boston seconded to accept the agenda of the regular COW meeting. Upon a voice vote, the motion was carried unanimously to approve the June 10, 2024, COW Meeting Agenda. 

Mayor Harvey requested a motion to approve the minutes of the June 10, 2024, COW meeting. Trustee Holman made a motion and Trustee Ciavattone seconded to accept the minutes of the last regular COW meeting. Upon a voice vote, the motion was carried unanimously to approve the June 10, 2024, COW meeting minutes. 

Committee Reports 

Trustee Ciavattone: regular report 

Trustee Boston: regular report 

Trustee Holman: regular report 

Trustee Robinson: absent 

Trustee Delgado: regular report 

Trustee Nightengale: regular report 

Ad Hoc: no report 

Department Head Reports 

Economic Development 

Peter Tsiolis reported the following: 

A few items under new business and presenting for approval at the board meeting: 

i. Tomorrow morning at 10am the Village of Bellwood is having the groundbreaking for the Bellwood Gateway Project 6,000 sq feet of commercial, 71 units between 2 buildings between 27th 28th St. Charles Road. Market rate workforce housing. Market Rate means it's not low income, subsidized, or senior housing. What you would pay in any apartment building. Workforce housing is a concept that was created on the west coast to entice workers that want to work near the town they live in. The rent will start at $1900. going up to $2400. maybe more by the time the village is built. Peter explained workforce housing and the market study. Is there a demand for workforce housing in Bellwood? It is housing that appeals to middle aged income working people that don't want to own a house but live in a nice apartment. Completion in about 18 months and 22 months. This will be like something you'll see in Oak Park or Elmhurst. Mesirow Financial is the team behind this. They sold the bonds to bond buyers for the TIF bonds and general revenue bonds. This does not go on the general revenue and raise taxes. 2005-2009 the village borrowed $100 million in general obligation bonds. If you couldn't pay those bonds the burden would be on the taxpayers. That's not the case here. The burden on these bonds stays strictly on the building itself and the TIFs will generate the money. The village owns these buildings as opposed to giving incentives to a private developer. 20 years from now the village can opt to sell them if they decide to do that or keep them and have these assets. The actual incentives go to the residents in Bellwood by beautifying a once dilapidated area. Team is FH Paschen, Mesirow Financial and Pan American Bank. 

Finance Director/Comptroller 

Willie Norfleet reported the following: 

i. Utility billing for May 2024 was billed $693,285 and collected $702,064. Billing and collection are on target at approximately 42%. 

ii. As of June 30, 2024, we have had turn on fees for 147 locations and 82 new owner fees collected.

iii. May 2024, we received $3,690,000. For a year-to-date total of $22,182,000, in cash receipts. 

iv. In June 2024 we processed $2.6 mil worth of bills to be paid and we have the cash flow to pay the bills 

v. General fund May 2024 year to date we bought in $14.3mil and spent $11.3mil. For revenues over expenditures year to date is $3mil. 

vi. Water & sewer we collected $2.7mil in revenue and $2.2mil in expenditure. We're at $474K to the good year to date. 

vii. Interest - the general fund received $94K. in interest year to date total $423,750. The total interest collected for the month of June is $90K with approximately $4K to be had when the posting comes through. We're able to do a multitude of years in one year.

Police Department 

Chief Allen reported the following: 

i. Officer in the academy graduates soon. He's at the top of his class and doing very well. One of our new officers is in the training program.

ii. We will get 2 new squads next month. 

iii. Band 3 is back up and working thanks to Chief Sabel working with a vendor to get that back up. It's important to have a secondary band in case our main band goes down. 

iv. Currently doing 10 background checks for at least 15 towns. 

v. Getting ready for the Taste of Bellwood. Met with Maywood, coordinating with the surrounding towns, trying to get some ideas. 

vi. Chris Hersch passed away; he was a long-time officer. 

vii. Mayor said you all did a good job on the 4th of July. The Chief said we had a few complaints from the church over there. 

Fire Department 

Fire Chief Reitz reported the following: 

i. The smoke alarm installation program is going very well. It's going to take some time for us to meet the needs of those interested because they only send us out 24 at a time and we install up to 2 per household. We are taking appointments. 

ii. We will be giving out applications for firefighters starting on September 25th due October 23rd. Anyone interested call the fire and ask for Chief Reitz. I will let them know what to expect and what they need to do. 

iii. On the 4th of July, we had no fireworks related injuries, but we did have a garage fire at 407 Morris that we suspect fireworks may have ignited it, that's tbd. 

BOEM/Homeland Security --- 

Mike Sabel reported the following: 

i. We sent our rehab bus to the Special Olympics incase any runners needed to be transported to the end. 

ii. We also assisted with traffic for the clean-up. 

iii. We attended the flag raising ceremony here at the village hall 

iv. Worked at Syro Malabar last night. The fireworks started around 9:15pm and were done just before 10pm. We had the street shut down from 9:15-10:30pm so people could cross safely. We left about a quarter to 11pm. 

Director of Public Works 

Assistant Superintendent Arnie Brown reported in Superintendent Marty Walker absence the following: 

i. 2024 Street Resurfacing program has begun. The streets that will be done have been selected.

ii. The Bellwood portion of the Illinois Prairie Path has been completed. Resurfacing was part of that program. 

iii. Resurfacing of Washington Blvd from 25th to Addison Creek will start next week. We will notify the residents in advance with flyers and signage of the parking. We're also working with the police department on parking restrictions. 

iv. Tree planting program, we received trees from ComEd donation. We planted all the trees that the residents wanted. We have trees so if you know a resident that wants one, we will donate it to them and work out a program to plant the trees in their front parkways. We have a set of trees coming from MWRD that will be delivered to us. 

Building Commissioner 

Jim Stock reported the following: 

i. The Addison Creek improvement project has slowed down. MWRD is still hoping to be done by September but I'm not going to count on it. The contractors have attempted to work in all the different areas at the same time instead of concentrating on any specific areas. They will be back at the St. Charles area tomorrow. They've been waiting for the utilities to be removed down by the bridges, so they can start taking the bridges out. 

ii. 241 Bohland, Mike said they're putting floors in this week, painting and still have the hardware to install around the house. He hopes to have the final inspection within 2-3 weeks. 

iii. The Bellwood Gateway Project excavation started this morning. Started on the south lot and will take out several layers of dirt and stone off the top so they can begin rebuilding and raising grade up.

Director of Human Resources 

Tonita LeShore reported the following: 

i. Ronald McDonald mobile unit will be here on July 25th from 9:30am-1pm to give physicals and immunizations. 

ii. Thanks to everyone that helped with the Clean and Green Day. 

Village Engineer 

Chuck Hodges from Hancock Engineering reported the following: 

i. We had a bid opening today for the 2024 pavement patching program. There were 4 bidders, the highest bidder being Brothers Asphalt Paving Co. total $351,750. There were 2 in between, M&J Asphalt Paving Co. - $174,985. and JA Johnson Paving Co.- $162,818. The lowest bidder was McGill Construction Co. - $127,120. We vetted them out and sent out a request for information on them and verified with the department of labor that they are not on the debarred list. We haven't worked with them in the past. We are going to issue a recommendation to award a contract to them. Schroeder Asphalt came in late, and we did not open nor read their bid proposal. It will be returned. Schroeder was the company that won the last 2 years. 

ii. 2024 sidewalk replacement project will begin soon. Notices will be sent out to the residents and businesses that may experience interruptions. 

iii. The Alley Reconstruction program began last week and that is 1000 block of Bellwood Avenue, east side and the 1100 block of 32nd Avenue -- east side. They will be completely closed down and we will work with Marty and Arnie to for the refuse pick up. 

Village Clerk - At Mayor Harvey's request the clerk will no longer give a report and Attorney Castaldo removed it from the agenda. The Clerk is no longer given the opportunity to give a report. 

Mayor 

Mayor Harvey reported the following: 

i. Thanks Ms. LeShore and those that came out to the Clean & Green Clean up. 

ii. The Tour de Proviso bike route will be hosted in Bellwood this year. October 5th will be the date. It's the 5th year of this event. 

iii. The Taste of Bellwood is right around the corner.

New Businesses 

Attorney Castaldo reported the following: 

There are a few items on the consent agenda for the next meeting. 

i. Demolition of 520 24th Avenue. 

ii. Opioid Settlement. We are looking to settle with one of the pharmaceutical companies. 

iii. The village engineer has already reported on the pavement patching project. 

iv. I did receive a communication from bond counsel that they're proposing an amended ordinance for the bond issue.

Unfinished Business 

None. 

Public Comment 

Mayor Harvey requested a motion to open the floor for Public Comment. Trustee Delgado made a motion and Trustee Boston seconded to open the floor for public comment. 

All Trustees were in favor of opening the floor for public comment. Upon a voice vote, the motion was carried unanimously. Mayor Harvey declared the floor for public comment open. 

There was no public and no public comment. 

Mayor Harvey requested a motion to close the floor for Public Comment. Trustee Holman made a motion and Trustee Ciavattone seconded to close the floor for public comment. 

All Trustees were in favor of closing the floor. Upon a voice vote, the motion was carried unanimously. Mayor Harvey declared the floor for public comment closed. 

Adjournment 

Mayor Harvey requested a motion to adjourn the Committee of The Whole. Motion made by Trustee Nightengale seconded by Trustee Holman to adjourn the meeting. Upon a voice vote, the motion was carried unanimously. Mayor Harvey declared the meeting adjourned, with no further business to come before this Board, this meeting stands adjourned at 4:03p.m.

https://villageofbellw.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/AgendaMeetingCommitteeWhole-070824-minutes.pdf