McLean County Times

City of Lexington City Council met June 23.

Here are the minutes provided by the council:

I. Call to Order

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.

II. Pledge of Allegiance

Mayor Johansen led the council in the Pledge of Allegiance.

III. Roll Call

Roll call was taken to find the following physically present: Mayor Johansen, Alderman Richard, Alderman Franklin, Alderman Stover, Alderman Mattingly, Alderwoman Shubert, Alderwoman Wilson, Clerk Roberds. Members of the public present were: Peg Reynolds, Rebecca Johnson, Nello Picchietti, and Police Chief Tim Edmiaston.

IV. Consideration/Vote to approve the minutes of the June 9th, 2025 regular city council meeting.

Motion to approve the minutes of the June 9th, 2025 regular city council meeting was made by Alderman Mattingly and seconded by Alderwoman Wilson. Motion passed unanimously.

V. Consideration/Vote to approve the paying of bills/Treasurer’s Report. Motion to approve the paying of bills/Treasurer’s Report in the amount of $44,511.54 was made by Alderman Stover and seconded by Alderman Franklin. Motion passed unanimously.

VI. Public Input: Hello from Melissa Johnson.

VII. Old Business: None

VIII. New Business:

A. Discuss/Vote – Return to work policy

Alderman Franklin provided background: Our insurance is through Risk Management Association (RMA), part of the Illinois Municipal League. They require we have a return to work policy in place by the end of September. Essentially the policy says we will make our best effort to accommodate someone who is injured on the job and not back to 100% and we will try to find something to keep them employed until they can return to full employment.

Motion to approve the Return to Work Policy was made by Alderman Franklin and seconded by Alderwoman Shubert. Motion passed unanimously.

B. Discuss/Vote – Extension Wirtz Way Phase 1

Spencer - thinks it’s important to move forward with this. Have had discussions about future development. Estimated cost is $311,600 for phase 1 which would include curb & gutter, water and sewer. Phase 2 cost estimate $338k. Phase 1 would come out of this year’s budget, Phase 2 out of next year’s budget. Suggested we enter into an agreement with Cary Davis to do the work and reimburse him as he goes.

John – we’re going to have to do it to get any kind of development on the north side of PJ Keller. The longer we wait, the more it’s going to cost.

Judd – it won’t be a TIF project. It will have to come straight from our reserves in the general fund. Need to put $250k into TIF yearly to pay loans. No excess now until something starts coming back in. Money is there in the reserves but would have to come from general funds.

John – have a couple solid leads. Not sure of timeline. We don’t know if we’ll get done by this fall. Won’t get much done over winter.

Mike – if we approve and get started and the leads fall through, we can stop. But we don’t want to NOT do it and lose opportunities because we’re not ready. Spencer – Thinks within a year we will have progress out there. Using Cary should make the process go smoothly based on his work on the subdivision. Motion to proceed with Phase 1 of Wirtz Way expansion was made by Alderman Franklin. Seconded by Alderman Richard. Motion passed unanimously.

C. Discuss/Vote - Request from Mike Hogan

Part of his lease agreement is he pays the property tax for the parcel out where Subway is. Total tax for TIF is $8449 a year. He’s asking for some assistance/tax relief or something. Business is slow. He’s not sure how much longer he can go on. Spencer feels if we can help him in any way we should consider it. Mike – do we have an agreement with him? Spencer- The agreement was with the previous owner-expired when it sold. The agreement was 50% of real estate tax. The current taxpayer (Mike Hogan) is not the owner. Spencer suggests we meet with him, explain any kind of agreement would have to be made with the owner. Then possibly he (Mike Hogan) and the owner can sit down and renegotiate his lease contract. Judd-Could possibly use TIF and submit as a grant request but don’t call it property tax. Mike – as long as we don’t get into a situation where the owner raises the lease because of reduction. Then he’s back where he is now, or he leaves. We don’t want to lose the business. Spencer will set up a meeting with Mike Hogan to discuss. Motion to table till we can meet with Mike Hogan made by Alderman Richard and seconded by Alderman Franklin. Motion passed unanimously.

D. Discuss/Vote – Budget

Spencer said this will be discussion only. Not yet ready for vote. Judd said we’ve received a lot more information recently and are trying to put it into something that we can use. One question was the Wirtz thing. City shed, utility cameras for

water and sewer are the things we need to debate on. We found the numbers on the revenue side that were misplaced so everything looks good. He will definitely have something for next meeting plus appropriations at the same time. Motion was made by Alderman Stover to table the vote on the budget till the next meeting. Seconded by Alderwoman Wilson. Motion passed unanimously.

Spencer added that prior to the next meeting we will meet with all the subcommittees to make sure everything is in the budget that needs to be in there.

IX. Committee Reports

A. Mayor’s Report Johansen

Bringing music back to the park. Next Friday 6-8pm will be the Troublemaker Trio. Star is looking into some vendors, possibly Alex with her coffee trailer. More to come on that.

Cornbelters game was Friday night. Undefeated 2 yrs in a row now!

John & Spencer have been meeting with Cary Davis to discuss a couple things going on out off of PJ Keller. Still have a couple of potential businesses but can’t get them to commit yet to move to Lexington.

Mayors in the county met with McLean County Animal Control last week regarding animal control in the small communities. County has a contract available where they will come to Lexington (or other towns) and pick up a dog but there’s a charge per dog. No one from the communities in the meeting was aware of that. They asked what if all the towns sign up? County said they can’t accommodate that. Spencer has requested a copy of the contract to review. MCAC is changing their name – no longer McLean County Animal Control. Spencer wasn’t sure what the new name will be. Some discussion about tax dollars going to animal control. County said only 4% of property tax across the county goes to animal control.

B. Police Richard

Couple interviews for school resource officers. Both applicants are currently certified police officers. Tim believes both are good candidates and one of the two would be a really good fit.

C. Building/Insurance Wilson

Met today at 6:30 to discuss RMA to get Kathy up to speed. Talked about adding return to work policy. Not sure there is a policy handbook currently available. Spencer – There is one but it’s an old one. Council has discussed previously but it hasn’t been updated. Lisa stated RMA has a sample policy guide. It looks like it would easily align to what we need. It’s only about 50 pages. Looks very comprehensive. Lisa can go through and customize for us. She reviewed it briefly and she thinks it will work with us. After discussion, determined we also need to include police.

D. Finance/TIF Stover

Nothing new

E. Public Works Richard

Mike said he and Bill Elias met with another engineer and went through sewer and water plants, computer stuff we’re trying to integrate, prices to get sensors to work etc. Hopefully an get all the stuff to work with new computer system to eliminate manual attention every day. Should have those figures by the next meeting.

X. Adjourn 7:29pm

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