Village of Bishop Hill
County of Henry
State of Illinois
August 7th, 2024
The regular meeting of the Bishop Hill Village Board was held at the Municipal Bldg. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Mike Funke at 6:00 p.m.
ROLL CALL; Mike Funke, Patrick Light, Lisa Nordstrom, Ben Strand, Mike Keup, Jim Nolan, Sharon Wexell & Terri Wigant were all present. Amanda Laub was absent.
MINUTES; Light motioned to accept the July Village minutes, seconded by Keup. Voice vote, motion carried.
TREASURER’S REPORT; Nordstrom motioned to accept the Treasurer’s Report, seconded by Light. Voice vote, motion carried.
PAY BILLS; Nordstrom motioned to pay bills, seconded by Nolan. Voice vote, motion carried. Wexell was not in the room when the vote was taken, when she returned, she wanted permission to hold the payment to V&K Engineering until after she writes them, asking for a reduction in the bill. Wexell said there were so many mistakes on the Source Water report that she had to tell them twice to make corrections, she didn’t feel they should charge the Village $7,000 for cutting and pasting info from out-of-date information on the web. They had Funke as President for Cambridge and that the Village had a 3rd well at the school, which we were fully disconnected from years ago. Wigant emailed V&K and told them to contact Henry County Health Center, they had all the information and pictures of the disconnection.
OLD BUSINESS;
Todd DeDecker from the Bishop Hill Heritage Association was present at the meeting along with a Village resident, Janene Blodgett, whom previously was on the Historic Review Board. They were both at the meeting about the picnic tables and benches that Mortenson Company, the wind turbine repair company that wanted to donate the items to the Village. DeDecker showed a picture of the picnic table to the BHHA Board, they said they did not want one, it was too modern looking. Blodgett said the same thing, she did not want to see any of the aluminum items in town, although she didn’t know what items were offered. Until this meeting the Board didn’t even know what items Canvus, the company that makes the items out of the wind turbine blades, was giving to the Village. She said she gives historical tours of the Village and what would she say when people asked about the modern benches and picnic tables. Funke told her the items are not aluminum, but we know they are not of historical material. Blodgett went around talking to the shop owners, they said no one had talked to them about the items offered. Funke said, because we did not have all the information yet. Wigant said she did talk to 3 different shopkeepers that week, and showed them a picture of a bench that would look good in Bishop Hill, they seemed interested. Blodgett also emailed 3 different Illinois Department of Transportation representatives, telling them that the Board wanted to put benches between the road and the sidewalk on Bishop Hill Street with concrete pads, which was not true. (see attached copies she brought to the meeting, along with a letter quoting several Sections of the Historic Review rules), IDOT’s response was, that if the Village wanted to accept jurisdiction of Bishop Hill St., IDOT would be happy to discuss it further. Funke said the whole idea was to give back to the Village and he thought the QR Codes on the items would have been nice for people to scan and learn about the history of a certain building or the history of Bishop Hill. Blodgett was concerned about garbage being left by benches, and complained there were not enough garbage cans around town, Wigant told her the Village does not have a maintenance crew. Blodgett was concerned about kids falling off the benches and hitting their head on the cement pads, how would the Board feel if that happened. She also brought up the subject that she had not always known about boil orders and the Board should have a webpage or someway to let people know. Wigant gave her another copy of the text alert number, which was sent out to all residents and store owners 1½ years ago, in the yearly December letter. The Village pays for that service so people would know about boil orders and other important Village news. Boil orders are also posted at the Post Office and huge metal signs are placed at each end of town. Wigant also told her the meetings are open to the public if anyone would have had questions about the donations. Keup said that the feedback that he received from people, again those people that had not been to a meeting and did not know what items were offered, he would change his vote to not accept the donations. Light said maybe we could still get a bench to put by the Municipal Bldg. Funke said they won’t give just one item, pretty much all or nothing. After months of Funke talking back and forth with Shaun from Canvus, Funke finally received pictures previous to the August meeting of what Canvus chose to give us. Funke passed around the pictures and the Board agreed the items were not what they thought they would look like and would not fit historic Bishop Hill. Nordstrom said it was a very nice gesture from Mortenson, but not worth the trouble it has caused. Funke took a new vote, Nordstrom motioned to reject the donations from Mortenson, seconded by Nolan. Voice vote, motion carried. Blodgett left the meeting.
DeDecker was also at the meeting to ask about closing Christina Street again this year for the food trucks on Ag Days, September 28 & 29th. He also had a map showing where the NO PARKING and HANDICAP parking signs would be posted. DeDecker said that the BHHA will again pay the vendor fees for their vendors. The B.H. Commons is hosting an antique & primitives vendors behind the store, so DeDecker wanted to close Helena St. for fire truck access. Funke said that there really isn’t supposed to be any parking on Helena St. for fire truck access, signs just haven’t been put up. Strand motioned to let the Heritage close Christina St. and Helena St., seconded by Light. Voice vote motion carried. DeDecker left the meeting.
Darren Frank finally started replacing the sidewalk on the south side of the Steeple Bldg.
Funke said he and Ben Strand, had an IDOT meeting at 10 a.m. Monday July 29th at the Municipal Bld. along with Jim Nolan, Sharon Wexell and Terri Wigant. IDOT men present were Heath Jordan, Chad Spreeman, and Chris Conderman. The meeting was about IDOT doing ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant sidewalks and to talk about the parking lanes/aprons on Bishop Hill Street. First, they said no work will be done until around 2028, the IDOT engineering plan is done, but has to be approved by SHPO (State Historic Preservation Office) first. IDOT will resurface Bishop Hill St from Maiden Lane to Rt. 34 at the same time the ADA ramps are done. IDOT will pay for 50% of the resurfacing on the parking lanes/aprons. The Board needs to vote at the September meeting whether they want to pay the other 50% of the aprons being fixed, if so, we send a formal letter of acceptance of the agreement to IDOT, along with a copy of the September minutes. The men said the Village can use the State’s engineering plans for the Henry County side of Bishop Hill Street parking lanes. The men asked Funke to get the brick dye colors that Darren Frank was using on the new sidewalks, so they could match the ADA ramps; also, they needed to know what brick pattern to use, it also has to be cleared by SHPO.
Cameron Meyer/Josh Curry had a bid to put in a new water main on East Main St. from Erickson St. to 525 East Main St., the last house in the Village limits. The bid was $4,500 for materials only, it did include one new fire hydrant. Funke said the lid was stripped on the flush hydrant on East Main St., so it will need replaced and a new one costs $4,500. Wigant asked what the difference was between a fire hydrant and a flush hydrant. Funke said the flush hydrant is a 4” pipe, if a fire truck hooked up to it with a hose and pumped water, it would collapse the line, it is only meant to flush the water main. The fire hydrant is a 6” line, it is meant to have the water pumped out. Strand said there is a fire hydrant at each cross road. Meyer said hopefully we can reuse the curb valves and jump services at the same time the main is put in. The Board discussed several different ways to put the new main in and that there cannot be a dead end, it needs to loop around. Ultimately, Funke, Strand, and Meyer need to talk to Dalton Whittington, our Certified Water Operator, to see what would be the most efficient and cost-effective way to do the job and if we need to have an EPA permit. The Board agreed they didn’t want to get Whittington or the Village in trouble with the IEPA. Funke said he was sure there would have to be water testing done.
Funke said the cemetery entry way Arbivatie work won’t be done at this time.
Wexell said V&K Engineering sent the Source Water Plan to the IEPA before they made corrections. She had to tell them twice to correct all the mistakes. They sent the corrected plan, then the IEPA needed to have a waiver signed. She asked the Board if she could send a letter requesting V&K to reduce the cost of the document that they failed to do correctly.
The Liquor License Supervisor called Wigant about not having the Class of the license printed on the Village liquor license, she also said that BYOB is a gray area, but we should have a permit for it. Wigant requested Mike Massie, the Village attorney, to draft an amendment to the Village Liquor Ordinance including Bring Your Own Bottle/BYOB. After much discussion the Board decided not to include BYOB in the Liquor Ordinance. They were concerned it would make more of a liability for the Village. Light tabled the subject, seconded by Strand. Voice vote, motion carried.
Wexell had to totally retype the Zoning Ordinance to add the changes that the Historic Review Board wanted to make; the Review Board cannot change the ordinance. The old ordinance was from 1968 and there were some changes in 1982. She was incorporating those changes and making a new ordinance. Nolan said the Zoning map also needs to be updated and Wigant said the Board still needs to change the Signage Ordinance. Funke said it will have to be next meeting.
Our previous Village Water Superintendent, quit the job in 2022. He never billed the Village $3,650 for his last year of Superintendent work, FY 2021, plus May & June of 2022, for a total of $4,260. He was told several times the auditor said he could not get paid without turning in an invoice. He also owed $1,306 for the Certified Water Operator classes plus his mileage, that the Village paid for from October to December 2018, so he could be the Village Certified Water Operator. The agreement was, if he did not complete the license, which he did not, he would pay back the money; we did not have a contract agreeing to the repayment, but it was in the minutes that he agreed to the arrangement. The Board had attorney Massie talk to him so we can get this off the books, because we still owed him wages of $2,953.00 after the deduction for the classes. He told Massie he was owed the $4,260 without any deduction for classes because he also did volunteer work for the Village. The Board agreed, there were no contracts for either the Superintendent job or the repayment for classes, and the 2-year statute of limitations was about to expire. Light motioned not to pay or collect any money from the previous Water Superintendent , seconded by Nolan. Voice vote, motion carried.
NEW BUSINESS;
At the last meeting Funke brought up the subject of Trustees not getting paid for meetings they didn’t attend. Board members do spend time doing jobs for the Village outside of the meetings. Wexell said I think the rule of getting docked is just to help keep a quorum so business can get done on schedule. Strand motioned to keep the meetings missed without penalty to 2 meetings. Motion was seconded by Nordstrom. Keup abstained. Light and Nolan voted aye, motion carried.
Funke also wanted to discuss raises for the different Board positions. The raise would take affect after the next election. Wexell said it has been 5 years since the last raise. Except for Wexell, our Treasurer, she just received a raise, she is now getting $6,000 per year. Because the Treasurer position is appointed, the new amount started May 1st, 2024. The Board agreed she should get a lot more for all the work she does, but she said she was o.k. with that amount. Wexell said if the Board did $75 per meeting that would be $900 a year for Trustees, that is a $25 raise per meeting. The Trustees thought that the Mayor and Clerk should get $3,000 per year. Light motioned to give the $900 raise to the Trustees and $3,000 raise to the Mayor and Clerk, seconded by Keup. Voice vote, motion carried. The Trustees thought that Jim Nolan should get $500 for being the Zoning Officer, retroactive from May 1st 2024. Nordstrom motioned to give Nolan the retroactive raise, seconded by Keup. Voice vote, motioned carried. Wexell will get the new Ordinance ready to vote on at the September meeting.
Wigant said quite a bit of rain had come in on the East side of the meeting room, where the old wall air conditioner is. She did ask father & son carpenters from Lafayette to give a quote to take out the air conditioner and patch the wall, plus a quote to build a new little pump house over well one. Wigant also asked Allan Plumbers to come and clean the mini-split, the outside unit is really dirty, they will also clean the unit on the inside and she will have them check the hanging furnace chimney, it was leaking rain also.
There was no further business, Strand motioned to adjourn, seconded by Keup. Voice vote, motion carried.
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