March 5, 2025 Meeting Minutes

Village of Bishop Hill web page: bishophillil.gov

County of Henry

State of Illinois

March 5th , 2025

The regular meeting of the Village of Bishop Hill 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, Ben Strand , Mike Keup, Jim Nolan, Sharon Wexell & Terri Wigant were all present. Lisa Nordstrom & Amanda Laub were absent.

MINUTES: Nolan motioned to accept the minutes, seconded by Light. Voice vote, motion carried.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Keup motioned to accept the Treasurer’s Report, seconded by Nolan. Voice vote, motion carried.

PAY BILLS: There were no additional bills, Light motioned to pay the bills, seconded by Nolan. Voice vote, motion carried.

OLD BUSINESS:

There was no news on the water usage meter that was ordered for Well #1. Cameron Meyer installed the Bjorkland/N. Bishop Hill Street Sign above the stop sign.

NEW BUSINESS:

Wigant said the person that mowed for us last year, quit, it was too far for him to drive. So, she put an ad in the Prairie News and had her son put the ad on the Galva Facebook page. Wigant received only one mowing bid, it is hard to find people to mow a cemetery. I think we will have to start advertising on websites instead of newspapers, since they are going out of business. BHC Mowing, Mike Keup and his son, Ty , put in a bid to mow for one year, for $13,970. He also asked the Board if they would consider a 3-year contract with a 4% increase each year. Wexell said she thought the 3-year contract would be acceptable. Keup and the board agreed that if either side wanted to end the contract, they could, with written notice by January 1st and before the next mowing season. Strand motioned to hire BHC Mowing /Keup + son for a 3-year contract;

seconded by Nolan. Voice vote, motion carried. Keup abstained from the vote. Wexell said she usually pays the first check in April from the General Fund and it would cover the annual cost for mowing the municipal yard and the baseball field. The remaining contract costs would be paid from the Cemetery Account and would be split into six payments, from May 7th to Oct 1st to cover the cost of mowing the cemetery.

Wigant said she thought the power outage /brown out we had from a storm in October 2024 was the reason why the pump on well #2 failed. She asked Whittington if Peerless, the company that worked on the problem, would be willing to write a letter addressing their findings. Peerless immediately sent an email stating that the problem was electrical. Wigant also called Ameren and they sent an email verifying that we did have a 2 hour-27 minute power outage on October 4th .

Wexell then started an insurance claim with IML. Wexell and Whittington have been gathering all the information that the insurance company was requiring. Wexell has been emailing back and forth with numerous insurance representatives. Keup asked what the deductible was, if it is worth the claim. Wexell said the claim is at a minimum, $20,000. The Board agreed it was worth making a claim.

Wexell had a draft of the Fiscal Year 2026 Appropriation Ordinance for the Board to review and suggest any changes. Strand said we should do the aprons uptown as they are pretty bad. Wexell said we do have a little bit of money from Rebuild Illinois Program that we have to use by this July. Strand thought that Wexell should raise the budget for streets to $60,000. Funke said that the street on the West side of the cemetery is in bad shape, it should be oiled and chipped. Funke also said Wexell’s road, Front Street, is also in bad shape. Wexell said she would rather fix the other streets first. Wigant said it’s a shame that we have to spend that money on the aprons and turn around and pay 50% of the cost for the State to repave them. Wexell said the State has

projected the road work being done in 2028.

Wigant said the ruts on the park side of Bjorklund St. are getting worse all the time. Putting gravel down does not help, it just washes down the road into the drain. Wigant called the Henry County Engineer, Scott Stephenson, and asked if the Village needs an engineer for road work and who would he suggest. He said they have used Willet Hoffman & Associates from Moline and Dixon, IL. Wigant called the company and was directed to talk with Geoff Smith/Transportation Dept Mgr. out of Dixon. Wigant and Wexell met with him February 18th at the North East corner of the park and looked at the ruts and looked for the drain, which he could not find. Smith said if the drain is working correctly, we would not have the deep ruts down the road. Then we went to the Municipal Building, he looked at the street map. He said he used to work for IDOT so he would call them and find out about the drain and then call us. We sent a copy of the map with him.

Wigant received a letter from IDOT asking if the Village wanted to have a meeting about the historical impact of the ADA sidewalk ramps. The deadline to notify them if we wanted a meeting had already passed, so no action was required. At a request of IDOT, Wigant had sent a letter several months ago stating that there would be no adverse effects to the historical village from the ADA ramps or road work.

Funke asked the Board what days they wanted to spring clean the cemetery. Keup said the Swedish Stomp was April 26. Funke said that we need to clean before that. The Board set Saturday April 5th from 8 a.m. to noon and Saturday April 12th as the rain date. Light will send a message on the village text alert.

There was no further business Strand motioned to adjourn, seconded by Light. Voice vote motion carried.