East Central Reporter

City of Villa Grove City Council met June 28

Here are the minutes provided by the council:

CALL TO ORDER—ROLL CALL

The City Council Committee of the Whole of the City of Villa Grove met in regular session in Council Chambers. Mayor Eversole-Gunter called the meeting to order at 6:01 p.m. Roll call found the following members present: Alderman Blaney, Cheely, Hooker, Pangburn, Garrett, Johnson, City Administrator Athey, Clerk Osborne. Public Works Supervisor Lake, Police Chief Rea, City Attorneys Marc Miller and Justin Brunner were also present. Council followed all COVID 19 protocols for social distancing.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE—The Mayor stood and led all attendees in The Pledge of Allegiance.

PUBLIC COMMENTS—Resident Mike Beesley was in attendance to discuss a request for a zoning variance for a building he is constructing. The Planning and Zoning Board was unanimous in approving the request for use of a sliding door rather than an overhead door for this project. Consensus was given for approval. The 15-day notice

has to be advertised, so we will make our second July meeting a voting meeting to help avoid further delays in the building process for the homeowner.

CITY ADMINISTRATOR REPORT—Jacki Athey reports the new audit begins July 12, 2021.

OTHER DEPARTMENT REPORTS—Police Chief Rea reported they continue on the ordinance violations. He also noted there are currently 22 vacant residences within the city limits.

MAYORAL REPORT—The Mayor reported Friday afternoon, July 2, 2021, the vendors will be arriving late afternoon to set up for the fireworks celebration in Richman Park. She has asked some of the council members to be there to help with directing people where to set up and hook up. Fireworks display will be at dusk.

BUSINESS

1. Status update on Property maintenance ordinances—Attorney Justin Brunner was present to update the council on his current cases from the city concerning property maintenance issues. He also explained the processes for abandoned and nuisance properties. The process is definitely a long process-no quick fixes. Condemnation of a housing unit only removes the residents from the house. Abandoned property has to prove 2 years of unpaid taxes and utilities. The quickest solution is for the property owner to agree to deed the property to the city. This can be fraught with complications of trying to find the owners of record, but this can be the best solution. He made some suggestions as to how to create groupings of properties in a case to alleviate the legal expenses of doing them one at a time.

2. Renewal of online OMA training (now required annually)—EVERYONE is reminded they must complete their annual Open Meetings Act training online-all employees, board members, committee members.

3. Zest for Life Center rentals—a discussion of updating the rental policies for the Zest for Life Center. Sample contract will come at the next meeting. Marc Miller pointed out we need to update our ordinances about allowing alcohol on city property for events.

4. Other items brought before the council—

A question was brought up about the lights at Richman Park and the status of installation on the poles we have.

Marc Miller went over the RFP process to consider from this point forward, to update on deadlines. Unfortunately, the newspaper made an error and did not run the first advertisement we are required to publish for the RFP deadlines that we changed. This means we have to start over to run the required 3 ads needed. This will affect our timeline for voting on the RFP. We won’t be able to vote for this in July due to the time deadlines, so the meeting in August will be the first meeting where we can consider the final proposals. The August meeting will be held in closed session, per the OMA guidelines, to allow review and discussion of the proposals and working out details in the contracts. A vote on the final contracts will happen in September or October. Once we choose that, then we will hold the Public Hearings to share the information available.

CLOSED SESSION—No Closed Session was needed.

ADJOURNMENT—With no further business, Alderman Hooker motioned to adjourn the meeting at 7:44 p.m. Alderman Garrett seconded the motion. Roll Call: Blaney, yea, Cheely, yea, Hooker, yea, Garrett, yea, Pangburn, yea, Johnson, yea. Motion passed.

https://villagrove.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2021_0628_COTW-Minutes.pdf