McLean County Times

City of Lexington City Council met September 10.

Here is the minutes provided by the Council:

The regular meeting of the Lexington City Council was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Mayor Spencer Johansen in the City Council Chambers at City Hall.

Mayor Johansen led the council in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Roll call was taken to find the following physically present: Mayor Johansen, Alderman Schreiber, Alderman Stover, Alderman Colclasure, and Alderman Richard with Alderwoman Wilson being absent. Members of the staff and public present were: Chief Belvery, John Franklin, Matt Simeroth, Brittany Simeroth and Don Cavallini.

It was moved by Alderman Colclasure and seconded by Alderman Richard to approve the minutes of the August 27, 2018 regular City Council Meeting. Motion carried unanimously.

It was moved by Alderman Stover and seconded by Alderman Richard to approve the Treasurer’s Report in the amount of $71,485.62. There were some large expenses included this time. Charged to Motor Fuel was $19,500.00, Stinde Electric for $5,130.00 for Water Tower New Service, Canny Accounting $5,500.00 for the annual audit and payment to Barker Chevrolet for $17, 322.17. Motion carried unanimously.

Public Input: None

New Business: Swearing in of new Alderman Franklin:

At this time John Franklin was sworn in as City of Lexington alderman.

Old Business: Discussion/Update of Wildwood Brewery TIF Grant:

Mayor Johansen and Attorney Shields met with Wildwood Brewery last Thursday and he has been working on the tasting room. The target date to open the brewery is Black Friday. They discussed the terms of the loan and he has agreed to begin making payments on the TIF loan in January 2019. The tasting room is downstairs and has a restored tin ceiling with a bronzy black color. Once Mayor Johansen receives the loan agreement he and Alderman Stover can go over it with Fred Moressette.

Committee Reports:

Mayors Report: Casey’s is still working on the deed restrictions and has it narrowed down to three. They do not want Hanson’s to sell the rest of the property to a gas station, a pizza parlor or a donut shop.

Mayor Johansen handed out a revised map of the area with a proposed road that they have been talking about. They are talking about extending the street, Douglas Drive, 500 feet.

Casey’s will pay for the first 100 feet. The thought was that we should only do 175 feet until there was more development out there. There is a class 3 truck route there. The road is right across from Dollar General and is already set off for sewer line.

There has been some survey work out there this week for the one acre that they are going to sell to the County and the County is going to sell to us. We are going to give this acre to Casey’s. Once they agree we can work on our stuff. They need to be able to get semis in and out of the lot. There will be two approaches off of Wirtz Way. The question was asked why they didn’t duplicate the entrances on Wirtz Way. They wanted to make sure they can get the property first. The amount of tax revenue it would bring in, property tax and sales tax for the fuel and diesel fuel will help fill some of that void we seem to be dealing with in our budget.

Farnsworth Group is putting on a workshop seminar Friday, September 14th on grant opportunities for communities in Illinois. Mayor Johansen is planning to attend. There are grants coming up regarding grants for IDOT truck access route program grants and that might be an easy answer for us.

Police: None

Building/Insurance Alderman Stover met with Diamond Brothers and went with the initial process of reviewing all of the properties and equipment also dropped off a copy with Mike Rich of Country companies to see if he could get another quote from him. Also, on the health insurance side they are going to mail another proposal for this year. Once we get that it will be time to start to figure something out for this year. The only thing they have notified us is that the policy we got last year is no longer available. We have to find a new policy.

Finance/TIF: Alderman Stover reported that it is time to start the Tax Levy so he needs to get some information from the County and put it together and finalized by November.

Water/Sewer/Sanitation: None

Street/Alley: None

There being no further business, motion was made by Alderman Franklin to adjourn at 7:14 p.m. Motion carried by unanimous voice vote.

https://www.lexingtonillinois.org/images/minutes91018.pdf