Rockford Sun

City of Carlyle City Council met July 10.

Here are the minutes provided by the council

The Carlyle City Council was called to order by Mayor Judy Smith, at 7:00 p.m. at the Case Halstead Library, 550 6th Street, Carlyle, IL.

The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Aldermen present were Tammy Peters, Jim McClaren, Jeremy Weh, John Hodapp, Jeff Taylor, Mike Jansen, and Bruce Hilmes. Alderman Scott Diekemper was absent.

City employees present were City Administrator Brad Myers, City Treasurer Chad Holthaus, Keith Housewright, City Attorney Joe Heiligenstein, Kevin Rolfingsmeyer, Officer Mark Taylor, and City Clerk Rita Jurgensmeyer.

Others present were Kelly Ross, Rebecca Sponsoler, Sylvia Henken, and Delbert Ring.

Alderman Jeff Taylor made a motion to approve the minutes from June 26, 2023. Alderman Mike Jansen seconded the motion, and it was unanimously approved by roll call vote. Aye: Tammy Peters, Jim McClaren, Jeremy Weh, John Hodapp, Jeff Taylor, Mike Jansen, and Bruce Hilmes. Nay: none.

Alderman Jeremy Weh made a motion to approve the payment of the claims against the city. The motion was seconded by Alderman John Hodapp and was unanimously approved by roll call vote. Aye: Jim McClaren, Jeremy Weh, John Hodapp, Jeff Taylor, Mike Jansen, Bruce Hilmes, and Tammy Peters. Nay: none.

Alderman Jeremy Weh made a motion to approve the Treasurer’s Report as presented. Alderman John Hodapp seconded the motion, and it was unanimously approved by roll call vote. Aye: Jeremy Weh, John Hodapp, Jeff Taylor, Mike Jansen, Bruce Hilmes, Tammy Peters, and Jim McClaren. Nay: none.

Mayor Judy Smith reminded everyone that on Monday, July 17th at 6:00 p.m. we will have the Clinton County parade.

Mayor Judy Smith complimented the Electric, Water, and Street departments for everything they did during the storms.

City Administrator Brad Myers also thanked the city employees for the work done during the storm.

City Administrator Brad Myers and Mayor Smith also thanked the City of Breese for sending over their line crew to help with putting up the electric lines that were down.

Keith Housewright reported that the library has a new story walk out at the Willow Pond Trail at the lake. Kim Hammel from the Corp of Engineers hosted the library in this space. The book is Jack’s New Camping Adventure.

Keith Housewright also reported that the summer reading program is continuing, and they have 96 children and 31 adults signed up. They will be having a puppet show this Thursday.

City Administrator Brad Myers said that they will be continuing the rezoning request from Josh Jondro. He, along with City Attorney Heiligenstein, went through the zoning code and discovered that this request cannot be granted at this time because the zoning code prohibits anything less than three acres for the location to be rezoned to R-4 multi family residence.

Alderman Jeremy Weh made a motion to continue the rezoning request for Josh Jondro. Alderman John Hodapp seconded the motion, and it was unanimously approved by roll call vote. Aye: John Hodapp, Jeff Taylor, Mike Jansen, Bruce Hilmes, Tammy Peters, Jim McClaren, and Jeremy Weh. Nay: none.

City Administrator Brad Myers said that Robinson Outdoor LLC submitted a zoning variance request for a special use permit for a billboard. This was presented to the Zoning Board, and they approved it. This billboard will be replacing a small billboard south of McDonald’s. City Administrator Myers said that all billboards must be special use approved. The city’s ordinance says that billboards cannot be more than 300 square feet and 30 feet high. This billboard is 30 feet high and 288 square feet. The purpose of this billboard is advertisement and information. Delbert Ring explained what would be on the sign. He also explained what the community benefits would be. He explained that the billboard is attached to the National Weather Service so when there are any weather threats it will be shown on the sign. He said that when there are empty spots on the billboard, they will go to the city for free to advertise any upcoming events or any information that the residents can see. They also have templates for Amber Alerts and Silver Alerts. He informed the council of other cities that they will be placing the billboards.

Alderman Bruce Hilmes made a motion to approve the special use for permit for Robinson Outdoor LLC to place a billboard south of McDonalds. Alderman John Hodapp seconded the motion, and it was unanimously approved by roll call vote. Aye: Jeff Taylor, Mike Jansen, Bruce Hilmes, Tammy Peters, Jim McClaren, Jeremy Weh, and John Hodapp. Nay: none.

City Administrator Brad Myers said that they had an Electric Committee meeting at the power plant tonight to review bids that were submitted for repair or replacement of the power plant. There was an inspection done by Warnecke Building Restoration, Inc. They priced it out for inside work, outside work, and overall, what he is doing for the work. All three of the bids came to $243,000.00. He felt that discussion was needed to determine if they want to put that much money into an old building or build new. Kevin Rolfingsmeyer found that when they had the building on the south side built in 2012 bids were received from as high as $237,000.00 to $177,000.00 from Rainey Construction, who built it. City Administrator Brad Myers said the bids were attached to the agenda for the council to review. Discussion was held concerning the timeline of building new or repairing the existing building.

Alderman Jim McClaren made a motion to continue the options for electric plant repair/replacement. Alderman Jeremy Weh seconded the motion, and it was unanimously approved by roll call vote. Aye: Mike Jansen, Bruce Hilmes, Tammy Peters, Jim McClaren, Jeremy Weh, John Hodapp, and Jeff Taylor. Nay: none.

Kevin Rolfingsmeyer thanked City Administrator Brad Myers for bringing food to all the employees working after the recent storm. He also thanked Jordan Foos’s wife for bringing food. He said that the water and street employees were a great help. He thanked the line crew from the City of Breese for their help.

Kevin Rolfingsmeyer said that they received many phone calls asking how long the electricity would be off. He can’t give an answer to that question because there is no way of knowing. Mayor Judy Smith said that she received calls from people that have a family member with medical equipment asking when the electricity would be on. She advised anyone with medical problems to plan for outages, possibly with a portable generator. She added that she also received calls thanking the city employees for all their hard work.

City Administrator Brad Myers reported for the Street Department saying that they have been picking up brush from the recent storm.

City Administrator Brad Myers and City Attorney Joe Heiligenstein met with Holland Construction to discuss the pool construction management contract. He told the council that there is a $40,000.00 charge to enter into the contract with Holland Construction. It does not include the 5percent of the total construction cost fee. City Attorney Joe Heiligenstein explained the contract and the $40,000.00 fee. Holland Construction will handle everything including going out for bids and hiring the subcontractors. There will be a site manager on site every day while the construction takes place. 

Alderman Jeff Taylor made a motion to approve the contract with Holland Construction. Alderman Tammy Peters seconded the motion, and it was unanimously approved by roll call vote. Voting aye Bruce Hilmes, Tammy Peters, Jim McClaren, Jeremy Weh, John Hodapp, Jeff Taylor, and Mike Jansen. Voting nay none.

City Administrator Brad Myers said that the council had previously approved to amend the liquor code Chapter 21-2-6 to add an additional category price but he did not have it in ordinance form.

Alderman John Hodapp made a motion to approve the ordinance amending the liquor code Chapter 21-2-6 to add an additional category price. Alderman Jeremy Weh seconded the motion, and it was approved by roll call vote. Aye: Tammy Peters, Jim McClaren, Jeremy Weh, John Hodapp, Mike Jansen, and Bruce Hilmes. Alderman Jeff Taylor abstained. Nay: none.

City Administrator Brad Myers said that at a previous meeting it was approved for him to go out for bids for the city hall renovations. They have received the drawings for the council chambers, and he needs approval to go out for bids for the council chambers. If the council authorizes him to go out for a bid, he will go out for two bids. One for the city hall and one for the council chambers.

Alderman John Hodapp made a motion to authorize City Administrator Brad Myers to go out for two bids. One for the city hall and one for the council chambers. Alderman Jim McClaren seconded the motion, and it was unanimously approved by roll call vote. Aye: Jim McClaren, Jeremy Weh, John Hodapp, Jeff Taylor, Mike Jansen, Bruce Hilmes, and Tammy Peters. Nay: none.

Mayor Judy Smith asked for a motion to go into executive session to discuss lease/purchase/sale of property. City Attorney Joe Heiligenstein informed the council that if they are discussing the sale of property, it must be done in open session. City Attorney Joe Heiligenstein explained the process of selling property owned by the city. He said the city would need to get a survey and an appraisal done. The council would need to pass a resolution to put it up for sale. Mayor Judy Smith explained that the city owns a parcel of property that is set in the 900 block of Franklin Street. Currently there is a building that is situated on the east end of the lot and there are two lots that they have discussed putting up for bid. City Attorney Joe Heiligenstein explained that there are two ways to approach this. One is to go out for bid and get an appraisal of the property. Then it would be called surplus property and a resolution would be approved to sell it. It would have to be published in the newspaper that the city would be selling and that an appraisal has been done. It would have to be sold for at least 80% of the value of the appraisal. The second way of doing it would be to put it out for bid with reserving the right to accept or reject all bids. The City Attorney said that selling the property the council would have to approve it and have a super majority vote instead of a simple majority vote.

Mayor Judy Smith asked the council if they would like to have an appraisal of the two west lots, east end of the block which has the building on, or an appraisal for all the lots. City Attorney Joe Heiligenstein spoke of different ways to go about getting appraisals. The council felt that three appraisals should be done. Mayor Smith said that since Bittle announced he would be closing October 1st there has been some interest in the entire block. The council thought it would be best to get the three appraisals.

At 7:51 p.m. a motion to adjourn was made by Alderman Jeremy Weh and Alderman Tammy Peters seconded the motion, and it was unanimously approved by roll call vote. Aye: Jeremy Weh, John Hodapp, Jeff Taylor, Mike Jansen, Bruce Hilmes, Tammy Peters, and Jim McClaren. Nay: none.

https://go.boarddocs.com/il/carlyle/Board.nsf/Public#