East Central Reporter

City of Villa Grove City Council met Feb. 24.

Here are the minutes provided by the council:

CALL TO ORDER—The City Council of the City of Villa Grove met as a Committee of the Whole session on Monday, February 24, 2025, in Council Chambers. Mayor Eversole-Gunter called the meeting to order at 6:05 p.m. Roll call found the following members present: Alderman Blaney, Nieto, Cheely, Clark, and Hooker. Alderman Johnson was absent. City Administrator/Comptroller Athey, Clerk Osborne, Treasurer Swanson, PW Director Mixell and VGPD Chief Tibbetts, CPS Director Rea, and City Attorney Marc Miller were also present.

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

PUBLIC COMMENTS-No comments.

CITY ADMINISTRATOR REPORT-Jacki Athey stated: The ad is out for bids for the lot sale at 311 Harrison. The Chamber has moved the Mayoral Candidate Debate to March 12 at 7 pm at the Richman Sports Complex Building. TIF Drafts-the draft of the TIF agreement for Tri City Country Club has not been sent to the club yet. We just received it today. Jacki spoke about a possible training proposal for the council that would be a group training, and the total cost would be $2700. Could it possibly be held after the elections in April on the 4th Monday? Council to discuss. The Economic Development meeting will be on Wednesday, March 5.

DEPARTMENT HEAD REPORTS:

PUBLIC WORKS-DIRECTOR MIXELL reported: Bids on the Douglas Street property demo are open. Getting quotes for the spraying chemicals to use for fields, etc. They are working on cleaning up a very large concrete rubble pile and will take longer to complete this project. Pothole repairs and patching will be ongoing. Richman Park lots and LIghting quotes are out for bids.

CPS: DIRECTOR and Public Safety Coordinator Bob Rea: Volleyball is done. Lots of people came in this month total sign ins of 1500. Spring sports registration is opening. The Scoreboards are now being dealt with by a new company.

VGPD: Chief reports: Police recruit Hunter Darling has dropped out of PTI and resigned from VGPD. The chief got a notice there have been robberies in the area of bank ATMs so they are keeping a close eye on the ATMs.

MAYOR: No mayoral report.

DISCUSSION OF BUSINESS (NON-VOTING)

1.Discussion of Grocery Sales Tax ordinance issue-we will vote on this at the next meeting. Most were in favor of keeping this tax.

2. Confirmation of 2025 Fireworks scheduling-The mayor informed council the fireworks date that is available this year is Friday, June 27, 2025. Consensus was given for that date.

3. Consensus for sidewalk repair on Main Street-The Villa Grove State Bank has sent us a letter requesting repair of the sidewalk immediately in front of their main entrance. They feel it is unsafe and they are experiencing some other issue in their front entry that could possibly be linked to this. The council gave consensus to move forward on this repair that is estimated to cost $6000. Work will begin next week.

4. Planning for radar speed signs from Warning Lites-We will have to submit a request to IDOT for approval to put speed radar signs on Route 130 and to comply with their specs. The signs we are looking at have a life of about 15 years. LED’s are what is used and there could also be some grants out there for this. Bob Rea will research this for us.

5. IDOT-CVG ADA Transition Plan-We were notified we need to file an ADA plan. It was decided this needs to be reviewed by our engineer first and then we can move forward from there.

6. TIF grants/loans update-We just reviewed the terms of the TIF request for Tri City Country Club, so we will now send this to them for completion when they are ready to submit it.

7. General legal questions for the City Attorney with discussion and Other items brought before the Council for discussion-Had some clarification requests on a few of the items discussed, but no other new comments.

CLOSED SESSION: Alderman Nieto motioned to go into Closed Session for Section 2(c)(1) of 5 ILCS/120/2, Exceptions to the open meetings act for the discussion of appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees, at 7:51 pm. Alderman Blaney seconded the motion. Roll Call: Blaney, yea, Nieto, yea, Clark, yea, Cheely, yea, Hooker, yea. No further action will be taken upon reentry to Open session. Return to open session was at 8:00 pm.

ADJOURNMENT-With no further business, Alderman Hooker motioned to adjourn the meeting at 8:01 p.m. Alderman Cheely seconded the motion. Roll Call: Blaney, yea, Nieto, yea, Clark, yea, Cheely, yea, Hooker, yea. The meeting was adjourned.

https://villagrove.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025_0224_COTW-Minutes_comppw.pdf