City of Lexington City Council met May 26.
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 Colclasure, Alderman Franklin, Alderman Stover, Alderman Richard and Alderwoman Wilson. Alderman Schreiber was attending remotely. Members of the staff and public present were Chief Belvery, Todd Schumaker, with Midwest Fiber Recycling, Tony Moore and Dan Lowkers, from American Disposal Services of Illinois, Inc,/Republic Services of Bloomington, and Don Cavallini.
It was moved by Alderman Colclasure and seconded by Alderman Franklin to approve the minutes of the April 27, 2020 council meeting. Motion carried unanimously.
It was moved by Alderman Stover and seconded by Alderman Franklin to approve the Treasurer’s Report and pay bills in the amount of $68,004.13. It was noted that this included the entire month of May. Motion carried unanimously.
Public Input: None
Old Business:
Discussion/Vote 2020-21 Budget
Alderman Stover conducted this discussion and started by stating that the revenue side is up in the air for some of it but he used the Illinois Municipal League estimates. He has tried to be conservative as he has always been. He thinks that the city is in pretty good shape.
The General Fund is going to show a deficit of $14,000 which does include a one time purchase of a new tornado siren of $20,000, so take that one time event out and we are still positive. He did read today that the replacement tax. Legislation did approve removing the 5% that they had billed last year. We are looking at a 5% increase in that fund.
Water Fund shows $4,000 to the positive. Billy is going to have an expense every other year for chemical expenses and is going to vary about $6,000.
Main Street will have a $7,400 deficit and that is due to $5,000 reduced income from the gaming and we kept City Sponsored Events at full value, but we are probably going to reduce most of our City Sponsored Events this year. There is still a question regarding the carnival.
TIF Fund shows a $300,000 deficit. Again that is a one time expense. We have $250,000 in there for Douglas Drive which is for the completion of Douglas Drive. Also there is some in there in case something comes up with a shed opportunity. Our grants are flat with revenue. We do still have $50,000 to carry forward. He would not take it any lower than that. He thinks we are about to have some projects that will start to put money back in there.
Motion was made by Alderman Stover and seconded by Alderman Richard to approve 2020-21 Budget. Motion carried unanimously.
New Business: Discussion/Vote Resolution 2020-3: Downtown Retail Grant
This grant is for Lavender and Lili. Angela has had a rough time during the shutdown and has had cancer. She has asked for assitance.
Alderman Stover feels that this is a personal and extreme set of circumstances. This is an extension of what we did the first year. She was getting off to a good start and she was paying back as agreed. This $5,700 is for her rent for the year and without it she may close.
Motion was made by Alderman Collasure and seconded by Alderman Stover to approve Resolution 2020-3: Downtown Retail Grant. Motion carried with five yes and one no.
Discussion/Vote on TIF Improvement Grant
This grant is for improvements to the building located at 429 W. Main Street and is for $7,500. He has someone interested in renting the west side of the building. The owner wants to install a new furnace and AC in the rear portion of the building. This will add additional retail space or pop up businesses to the building. This is an open area so you could add just about anything to this area. He is also doing exterior work to the building that includes power wash, caulking oil priming and two coats of paint. Entire cost of the project is $17,193. He is asking for 50% of the cost with no pay back and this is consistent with what we have done with others in the past. There will be more work on the inside for a coffee shop and we are close to having a contract for another business to go in there. Personal Touch Sewing is also in this building.
The owner paid quite a bit for the building, so he has already invested quite a lot in it.
Motion was made by Alderman Stover and seconded by Alderman Colclassure to approve the TIF Improvement Grant. Motion carried with five yes and one no.
Discussion/Vote New Contract American Disposal
Mayor Johansen explained that the current contract had expired in December 2019, there was a rate increase January 1, 2020 and they have now drawn up a new contract.
Tony Moore spoke about the new contract and explained there were not a lot of changes from the old contract. But in 2021 there will be a little bit of an increase due to changes to recycling. They do the recycling the right way. They do not cut corners.
Todd Schumaker stated that they use Midwest Fiber Recycle on the West side of Normal to process their recyclables. They have facilities throughout Illinois and one in Indiana. This facility in Normal is the only facility that handles residential recyclables. Those items that residences put to the curb come to their facility. Commercial recyclables is a large industry nationwide. Their industry is no longer a local or regional industry. It is a supply and demand industry. China who used to consume a large quantity is not consuming as much in the last 18- 36 months. There is not a lot of global demand. This facility turns cardboard back to boxes and brown paper towels. COVID 19 has created a strong demand for paper products, toilet tissue, more paper towels, paper plates and we have seen more paper mills open up and recycling is on the rebound. Things people are putting in the recycle bin have changed as well. Items are lighter than they were in the past. It takes more material to make a pound of recycle. The newspaper containers are not there. The water bottles are lighter. They also take glass which many recyclers do not and will continue to do so.
Mayor Johansen also commented on the furnishing of two dumpsters at the school which has worked out well.
He would like to see the contract run from May 1-April 30 to coincide with the City’s fiscal year.
There will be no change to bulk pickup.
Motion was made by Alderman Franklin and seconded by Alderwoman Wilson to approve the new contract with American Disposal. Motion carried unanimously.
Discussion/Vote on Charles Koch Property
This property is located in the 100 block of West Main Street. Tom Koch approached Mayor Johansen to see if they could get some barricades around the building due to the fact that some of the bricks were falling down. After Mayor Johansen agreed to that he proceeded to tell him that the wall was beginning to heave a little and his parents did not have the money or resources to do anything about it. He wanted to know if the city was interested in having the building deeded over to them.
Mayor Johansen went up and looked at the building and also had Jon Devore look at the building. Jon gave an estimate of $20,000 to fix what needs to be fixed now on it. The building needs to be completely gutted and redone.
Somebody needs to fix it before it falls on somebody. It will fall on us either way. If we don’t take it, it falls back on them and they don’t have the resources to fix it so then we will be doing it anyway and putting a lien on the property. He has a couple of people that might be interested in taking the building but doesn't know for sure yet. He is getting estimates on what it will take to redo the building.
He researched when they tore Old City Hall down, they paid almost $20,000 to tear it down and that was in 2016 and prices have gone up, so it will probably cost $30,000 to tear it down and we will have an empty lot on Main Street.
The repairs need to be done ASAP. If we say no, the owner does not have the resources to make them. Our decision tonight is, do we want to accept the property. If we do we will need to go in right away and fix the building so it doesn't fall on anybody. Then we work on trying to get a developer in there. The reason the wall is heaving is because the roof has been leaking so long. If we don’t find anyone to take it, we can have it demolished and have an empty lot sitting there that can be used for parking for the Community Center. Their tenant is no longer in the building.
If we are going to table this till next week, the suggestion was made to put up six foot fence panels like they use on construction sites rather than the barricades. It was felt that the city was libel if someone got hit walking on the sidewalk because it was not secure enough.
Motion was made by Alderman Colclasure and seconded by Alderwoman Wilson to table the Charles Koch Property. Motion carried unanimously.
Committee reports:
Mayor’s Report: Mayor Johansen reported on the following items:
Progress on Douglass Drive has been delayed due to excessive rain.
Casey’s was waiting till June 1st to get started and he will have more of an update then.
There are two possible businesses wanting to come to Lexington and he is working with them.
Chaney’s subdivision is still on track. They talked last week about getting some grant money. The state is coming up with some good grants. They have been talking with Farnsworth about a recurring grant. He would like to get in touch with someone who would like to explore writing grants or knows someone who knows how to write grants, it is a complicated task. They have looked at a grant writer and talked to Chaney about splitting the cost of a grant writer and trying to include some of the infrastructure in his project out there. If these grants come down like they say, it might be something we want to look at.
He did send an email out on the Orange Street subdivision to see if there was still any interest and they wanted to sit down and talk. We need that subdivision more than we need Chaney’s. This would bring families to town. We need to focus on bringing in a subdivision that will bring families to town. Chaney is going to do all that and is going to ask us for some help in putting the road in, that’s where some of the grant would come in, but that project out there we need to focus on to get that as we do need family housing.
We have two new houses being built on existing lots in town.
Across the street, John Frizen hopes to have something this Saturday for the grand reopening for Main Street businesses. All we are going to do is play music on Main Street, put picnic tables out for the restaurants and do some advertising for the local businesses. John thinks he might have something like a pop up where you order in advance. He is going to open up soon with carry out and put a couple tables out front.
The pictures of the inside of DaT Bar show an unbelievable job of remodeling. He hopes to be open within a week or so. He would like to close off about 1⁄4 of Vine Street and divide it off and give DaT bar 1⁄2 for outside tables to serve food and the other half to Envy Fitness for their outdoor classes.
Police: None
Building/Insurance: Alderman Franklin reported that there has not been much activity the last few months.
Mayor Johansed mentioned about the property that was the old City Hall. The buyer has not gotten the deed yet. After discussion with Attorney Shields he believes the problem has been taken care of and the deed is on the way. The buyer is going to move forward on this and hopes to have something in there by fall.
Finance/TIF: None
Water/Sewer/Sanitation: None
Street/Alley: Alderman Colclasure reported that they have been pretty busy.
Mayor Johansen reported that the fire hydrant at the Grocery Store was an insurance claim.
There being no further business a motion was made by Alderman Franklin to adjourn at 7.59 p.m. Motion carried by unanimous voice vote.
https://www.lexingtonillinois.org/images/Minutes_May_26_2020.pdf
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