East Central Reporter

City of Villa Grove Committee of the Whole met June 30.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

CALL TO ORDER—The City Council of the City of Villa Grove met as a Committee of the Whole session on Monday, June 30, 2025, in Council Chambers. Mayor Rasmussen called the meeting to order at 6:04 p.m. Roll call found the following members present: Alderman Fulk, Taylor-Sanford, Nieto, Clark, and Hooker. Alderman Elston and CRC Director Rea, Treasurer Swanson were absent. City Administrator/Comptroller Athey, Clerk Osborne-came at 6:15 pm, PW Director Mixell, Police Chief Tibbetts, Risk manager Endres, and City attorney 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 gave a short report of daily activities.

DEPARTMENT HEAD REPORTS:

PUBLIC WORKS-DIRECTOR MIXELL reported: They have been busy with the road repairs, and got the park ready for the Freedom Festival held on June 27, which went well. The parking lot was open by June 27, which was the goal. Someone did go out and do a donut in the parking lot after hours, marking up the pavement, which brought in questions about keeping the speed limits down in the lot and how to do that. Discussion followed during the Business portion of the meeting.

CPS: DIRECTOR and Public Safety Coordinator Bob Rea: absent-no report.

Mayor: Gave a brief report.

DISCUSSION OF BUSINESS (NON-VOTING)

1. Jim Closson, IMLRMA Representative - Jim Closson, longtime IML Risk manager, was present to give an overview of our risk management items and discuss planning. He will be retiring as of the end of the summer. He had Chris with him, who will be taking over the position. Mr. Closson said that Villa Grove’s loss ratio is excellent and commended the city on how well that is taken care of. He talked about how to keep the rates low, such as Police policies in place and well documented; Training in place for public works and on schedule; inspections of parks and equipment are done on time. The only outstanding issue right now is inspecting the wood poles at the parks. He also reminded us about the OSHA reporting requirements and gave a sheet on that. Other training that must be completed is the prevention of sexual harassment training must be taken by everyone-employees, managers, and all council members. Found on the IML website. One last reminder goes to our risk manager, Jessica Endres, to be sure all OSHA logs/training records/ and safety records are up to date.

2. Community Center speed/parking lot issues -Discussions commenced about issues that are now apparent with the new parking lot completion at the Richman Sports complex. The police and public works are asking for more guidance on what is needed and how to deter speeding, destruction, and not having people park on the grass medians. Further discussions will be needed to address the multiple issues.

3. Closure of City Hall on Thursday July 3 for generator completion-The new generator will be installed at city hall on July 3, 2025. This work will require having the electricity off for a good part of the day, so Jacki has asked that the office be closed on that day. Council gave approval for this.

4. Ag Days vendor permits/planning-Donnie Patton was there from the Ag Days committee to discuss the festival plans. The topic of the food vendor permitting was raised. All of the food vendors are required to obtain a city permit. The permitting process may be completed online before the beginning of the festival. It would be helpful if the Ag Days people would give this information ahead of time to all vendors. There have been changes in ownership with some of the other vendors which has brought about cancellation of the rodeo and the carnival. There will not be a beer tent or dance this year either.

Entertainment for the kids will include inflatables, a foam party, and some other regular small events. The Car Show will be at Harrison Park and handled by the Sundowners Car Club.

5. Solar code issue -council posed a question to the city attorney about a solar installment that happened, but it has been discovered that they did not follow the code in the ordinance. They wanted to know what could be done at this point. Marc Miller stated that since the building inspector did see the plans, and did the inspection, that there is nothing that can be done at this point to change anything. We will have to be more careful with future projects.

6. General legal questions for the City Attorney with discussion-Chief Tibbetts asked about the process for a property that is an ordinance violation and how to get permission to go on the premises. Marc advised that they proceed with the court case with our lawyer, who can submit the question about entering the premises to the judge.

A second question was about handing another property where there were multiple buildings that need to be demolished. The advice given was the best way to proceed is to go through the legal channels in court. Changes to the fence ordinance were discussed. It’s decided that Marc will do some research, and will create some forms to add to the ordinance to have both property owners agree on placement of the fences. If there is no agreement, then the ordinance-stated 2 feet of distance from the property line will prevail.

CLOSED SESSION: No Closed Session was needed.

ADJOURNMENT-With no further business, Alderman Hooker motioned to adjourn the meeting at 7:30 p.m. Alderman Clark seconded the motion. Roll Call: Fulk, yea, Nieto, yea, Clark, yea, Taylor-Sanford, yea, Hooker, yea. The meeting was adjourned.

https://villagrove.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2025_0630_COTW-Minutes-comppw.pdf