WEBVTT 00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:04.340 Good evening. Michelle, could you please give the invocation? 00:00:11.300 --> 00:00:36.920 Lord, we thank you tonight for the city of Freeport. We thank you that Freeport has a destiny and a purpose for your kingdom. Tonight we pray for an increase in wisdom and understanding, unity and community. Let this meeting be in order because you are a God of order. Let each one speak in respect to one another. Let grace abound in this meeting and let this meeting accomplish what it should. In Jesus' name, amen. 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:44.160 Now we'll call this committee of the whole meeting to order. Madam Clerk, could you please take the roll? 00:00:44.860 --> 00:00:57.160 Mayor Miller? Here. Alder Persons-Klemm? Here. Johnson? Here. Simmons? Here. Parker? Here. Stacey? Here. Shadle? Here. Sanders? Here. And Sellers? Here. 00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:01.700 And if you could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, led by Alderman Stacey. 00:01:01.700 --> 00:01:17.770 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all 00:01:17.770 --> 00:01:25.120 Item number four is approval of the agenda. Is there such a motion? 00:01:25.420 --> 00:01:25.960 So moved. 00:01:26.520 --> 00:01:26.880 Second. 00:01:26.880 --> 00:01:34.500 We have a motion made by Alderman Shadle, seconded by Alderman Clem. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. 00:01:34.740 --> 00:01:35.100 Aye. 00:01:35.560 --> 00:01:36.040 Opposed? 00:01:36.040 --> 00:02:06.020 Opposed? That motion passes. Item number five is approval of the minutes from the committee of the whole meeting held on June 9th, 2025. Is there a motion? So moved. Second. Take your choice. We have a motion made by Alderman Shadle, seconded by Alderman Johnson. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? That motion passes. We have no public comments on agenda items, so we will move on to item number seven, which is the presentation of the Tree City U.S. 00:02:06.040 --> 00:02:44.950 Manager Boyer. Thank you, Your Honor. Good evening, everyone. It's a privilege to stand before you tonight to accept on behalf of the City of Freeport a renewed designation as Tree City USA Community. Since 2021, Freeport has proudly held this recognition, and in 2023, we earned the Tree City USA Growth Award, acknowledging our measurable progress in expanding and improving urban forestry in meaningful ways. These honors are not just 00:02:44.950 --> 00:03:14.930 just accolades. They are a reflection of our values and of your leadership as the governing body of the city of Freeport. The committee of the whole ensures that the preservation and growth of our urban forests remains a part of our long-term vision. Tree City USA, a program of the Arbor Day Foundation, set out four key standards, a tree board or department, a public tree care ordinance, a dedicated forestry budget, and a meaningful Arbor Day observance. 00:03:14.950 --> 00:03:44.930 Williams. These aren't checkboxes. They're indicators the city is serious about sustaining quality of life and environmental stewardship. Tonight's recognition shows that Freeport continues to lead by example. This work would not be possible without dedicated partners. First, my gratitude to the city staff, especially Pat Ingram, whose leadership has kept our efforts focused and effective. Special thanks to our forestry crew, Keith and James, for their hard work maintaining and caring for our trees, 00:03:44.950 --> 00:04:14.930 in all seasons. I also want to thank Nick Connolly who's done an outstanding job according to Arbor Day efforts, sourcing the trees, organizing logistics, and ensuring our events come together seamlessly each year. We are fortunate to partner with the Freeport Park District and particularly Bruce Coverley who plays a major role in hosting Arbor Day events. We equally are grateful to the volunteers who take the time to prepare saplings for planting and help many of 00:04:14.930 --> 00:04:44.910 and those events truly become community centered. The YIELD program led by Ted Odendall and Robert Bush and Renato Weathersby continues to be a meaningful partner in this work. Their team helps plant and maintain the trees while also building real life skills and a sense of purpose for program participants. And I want to express special appreciation to Tiffany Bender, who ensures our Tree City USA application is properly submitted each year, an important task that keeps free port and good standing with the Arbor Day Foundation. 00:04:44.930 --> 00:05:14.930 This year we also celebrate a remarkable new recognition. Right here in Freeport we are home to two rare American chestnut trees, a species once nearly wiped out by blight across North America. These trees standing approximately 73 feet tall with a 135 inch circumference have been nominated as Illinois state champion trees for the inclusion in the Illinois Big Tree Register. This is an extraordinary honor and a testament to the care and conditions 00:05:14.930 --> 00:05:16.690 we've cultivated in Freeport. 00:05:16.690 --> 00:05:19.490 It's also a reminder that the legacy we plant today 00:05:19.490 --> 00:05:22.330 can grow into something truly historic. 00:05:22.330 --> 00:05:26.790 Committee members, this award and everything it represents 00:05:26.790 --> 00:05:29.970 would not be possible without your commitment. 00:05:29.970 --> 00:05:32.330 You are the stewards of our shared vision 00:05:32.330 --> 00:05:35.610 for a greener, healthier Freeport. 00:05:35.610 --> 00:05:38.330 Your leadership as both the city's governing body 00:05:38.330 --> 00:05:41.450 and our official tree board ensures that trees are not 00:05:41.450 --> 00:05:43.710 an afterthought but a foundational part 00:05:43.710 --> 00:06:25.490 of what makes our city thrive. On behalf of our staff, partners, and residents, thank you. Let's keep growing forward together. Thank you very much. Item number eight is the presentation of the fire and police pension actuary reports. Jen Turk. I'm Jen Turk. I'm from Nihart. We're the actuaries for the police and fire plans. So our kind of role is to, as of January 1st, we give 00:06:25.490 --> 00:06:55.470 give a snapshot of how well funded the plan is, how much unfunded liability is still left to be paid off, and then we determine a contribution that's more aggressive than what the state minimum is. The state wants you to fund to 90% by 2040. The city has always been a little more conservative in their funding plan to get to 100% by 2040. So we'll look at a few kind of highlights of our process, 00:06:55.490 --> 00:07:25.490 First at the top there you can see assets performed pretty well during 2024 on a market value basis which when we say market value that's just what's in the bank basically as of January 1st. So the market value for 2024 was about 10% returns. There's another kind of asset value that we use which is called that actuarial value and that's more of a smooth 00:07:25.490 --> 00:07:52.290 value, where we average out a few years of returns, so we don't have big spikes in the contributions. So when we look at the return on that basis, we were at about four and a half. And we'll look at a chart that kind of shows the details behind that. Not a lot of movement with the census. The counts went up slightly. Salary increases were just barely higher than expected on both plans, very close to what the assumptions would be. 00:07:52.290 --> 00:08:21.650 The funding percentages came down just a hair from last year, and that's because of that actuarial value rate of return being a little bit less than your hurdle rate, if you will, of 675. And then the contributions go up a little bit depending on which set of assumptions the board decides to use. So later this month, we're meeting with both the police board and the fire board to talk about a few options. 00:08:22.290 --> 00:08:49.510 And then, so yeah, I guess that's kind of the high level. This shows all the participant information that goes into our valuation. So we get a snapshot. It's the same kind of consolidated fund, I-do-I type filing that you guys do every year. So you can see from last year to this year, both the actives, which is current employees, had gone up. 00:08:49.510 --> 00:09:19.490 I think three actives from the fire plan had left but then six new people were hired and this is counts as of January 1st so that could have changed a little in the interim a little bit more turnover on the police side even there was I believe six people had left during 2024 and 11 were hired so you can see it went up a little bit on both not a lot of movement otherwise a couple new retirees a couple new deaths kind of as expected for the rest of the year. 00:09:19.510 --> 00:09:49.490 for the groups. And then on that bottom section, it shows kind of averages for the groups. So in pay, that would include, you know, beneficiaries who are getting a spousal benefit, retirees, people, disabled participants. So you can see their monthly benefit. It goes up about as expected. There's 3% colas on a lot of their benefits. So each year you expect that to kind of step up as those colas get recognized. So you see both the police 00:09:49.490 --> 00:10:00.030 Lisa and the fire, they went up about as expected at that 3%. The bottom section, you can see the fire stayed fairly stable. There wasn't a 00:10:00.030 --> 00:10:27.780 Fire stayed fairly stable. There wasn't as much turnover on that side, so the age and the service stayed very stable. On the right-hand side, you can see that the average age came down a little bit, and that was due to that turnover. So you lost a couple of, you know, longer tenured, you know, I don't want to say older, but more mature police officers getting hired in younger guys. So age went down, service went down a little bit on that police side, just because of that 00:10:27.780 --> 00:10:38.440 turnover. So I touched on the assets. So that market value, that red line, that's what's actually in the 00:10:38.440 --> 00:10:45.600 bank as of January 1st. So it's, you know, at the whim of the market. There could have been a huge swing that 00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:49.980 day and all of a sudden you have higher assets or there could be a loss that day and you end up with 00:10:49.980 --> 00:10:57.460 lower. So to kind of take away some of that volatility of that red line, those are rates of return, we kind 00:10:57.460 --> 00:11:27.440 kind of smooth in, kind of do an averaging of investment returns. And so instead of recognizing a million dollar gain in one year, we'd kind of recognize that gradually of, you know, over the four or five years. So you can see the black line, that's the actuarial value, smooth value. You can see it still has some peaks and valleys, but it really cuts through and kind of tries to maintain a little bit more of steady progress for your long term planning. 00:11:27.460 --> 00:11:57.440 so and this is just a different picture of it this is the actual dollar values of both of those types of assets so the market value you can see more volatile the actual value kind of cuts through that to smooth it out so that's kind of exactly what we wanted to do some years it's higher some years it's lower but in the long run we expect those would be the same on average all right a lot of numbers on this page I'll try and point out kind of the 00:11:57.440 --> 00:12:27.420 key ones that we want to look at. So kind of halfway down, you can see that funded percentage. That's a big kind of reporting item that a lot of places look at. You can see you're very well funded. Last year, that first column is the last prior evaluation. You were at just a hair under 98%. This year, if we use, if we keep all of the assumptions that we use, so salary increases, mortality, how long people are going to 00:12:27.420 --> 00:12:57.400 to live. If we keep that all the same for this valuation, we'd be at that middle column. So you can see the funded percentage comes down a little bit from a hair under 98 down to 96. And then the bottom half of that page kind of shows the pieces that go into the contribution calculation. So that total normal cost, kind of the first line, that's the value of all the officers and 00:12:57.400 --> 00:13:23.600 and the firefighters working another year. So they're going to work a year, they're going to go from, you know, 10 years of service on average to 11 years of service. So they're going to get a higher benefit, and that's what that represents, is the portion that is being earned in this upcoming year. Employees pay a portion of that, so that's what that employee contribution line is. They pay 9.9, I think we're at, or 10 percent-ish. 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:53.600 there's you don't pay any expenses out of that so we don't count that then that amortization kind of in the middle of the calculation that's where we're paying off that unfunded liability so it's being gradually recognized kind of like a mortgage for the next 15 years I think right now so the contribution if we make no changes is going to go from 700 up to 850 for the fire if we adopt 00:13:53.600 --> 00:14:23.600 if the fire board and the police board adopt new assumptions that we're looking at it'll be about 791,000 for the contribution. Any questions? It's a similar story on the police side. I think I need to go to the next page and it won't let me. It's a similar story. The funded percentage comes down just a little bit. If we keep the old assumptions comes up 00:14:23.600 --> 00:14:52.880 if we keep the new assumptions similar story for the contribution goes up to about 482,000 if we keep everything the same and if we adopt those changes that the board's gonna look at we'll be at 430,000 give or take a couple thousand so any questions I know it's a lot to throw at everyone but and then we have just for disclosure kind of items at the end here if anyone's really bored 00:14:53.600 --> 00:15:27.130 So this kind of shows the contributions or the assumptions that we're currently using, and then this consolidated, that's the big study that the consolidated funds have done. So those are the ones that we're looking at as an option. So we'll finalize that at the end of the month, I guess. Hopefully. Legalese. Anything? Any questions? Thank you, Jen. Thank you. Move on to item number nine, which is the Greater Freeport Partnership. 00:15:27.150 --> 00:15:59.520 Quarterly, Andrea Schultz-Winter. Thank you. Good evening. We're going to start tonight's report a little differently than we have in previous quarterly presentations. We took some feedback that we had received from previous reports asking questions about jobs, so that's where we're going to focus, but as Nicole has handed out and I think as was attached into the agenda is a full digest of the partnerships, 00:15:59.520 --> 00:16:29.520 partnerships activities in the last quarter. And again, those are always organized by our strategic focus areas. And those focus areas were developed from our strategic plan, which was done in partnership with the city's strategic plan as well. So we're going to start, as I mentioned, with labor, with work. So in front of you on the screen is a bunch of numbers, a little less than what your previous presentation had. But I want to draw your attention 00:16:29.520 --> 00:16:59.200 mentioned to a couple of key items was the unemployment rate in Freeport went up slightly from April of this year from April to May 2025. Those are the most current data points that we have at this point. However, our unemployment rate is still below the state average, which is at 4.8%, and the national rate is right at 4.2% as well. Some things that I would also like to draw your attention to is there was, in the month of May, 00:16:59.200 --> 00:17:27.600 927 unique job postings in May 2025 by 249 employers. So in the previous month of April, there was 852 unique job postings. So those are unique job opportunities from employers who are in Stevenson County. Of those job postings, the median wage was $26.40 per hour, which equates to about $55,000 per year. 00:17:27.600 --> 00:17:34.640 So when you have an idea of what job opportunities are out there, I would say that this is a good paying job. 00:17:35.540 --> 00:17:43.440 Some of the top employers posting are listed there before you, which as you look at the top occupations that you see, you can see some correlations. 00:17:43.800 --> 00:17:57.360 So I think if you have young people at home or who are looking for career opportunities, these would definitely be educational pathways that I know Freeport High School as well as Highland Community College have curriculum in. 00:17:57.600 --> 00:18:04.130 and these are needed professions currently and into the future. 00:18:04.130 --> 00:18:11.630 I know of looking at preliminary data that already in June there is over 1,000 job postings. 00:18:11.630 --> 00:18:16.630 So there is an increase in the jobs that are available. 00:18:16.630 --> 00:18:23.690 So what I'm trying to illustrate here is that there are jobs in Freeport. 00:18:23.690 --> 00:18:27.930 And this correlates to what I'm really hearing from our business community as we do business 00:18:27.930 --> 00:18:57.930 retention visits, which we've done over 40 in this quarter, about 73 to date, is that employers would like to grow. Their barrier to growth is having enough qualified employees, qualified talent. And as we know, and as we're going to talk about in our presentation today, employee growth, talent retention, talent recruitment 00:18:57.930 --> 00:19:27.290 We need a lot of things going on in the community. You need childcare. You need a purposeful, intentional talent attraction campaign. You need training opportunities. We need, once we get a new resident here, we need to make sure that they're sticky, that they know what's going on in the community, that they get involved, that they understand all the things that Freeport and Stevenson County has to offer, and they need to find somewhere to live. They need to have a home. We always want that paycheck that leaves that employer. 00:19:27.930 --> 00:19:57.980 to come home to a bed in Freeport in Stevenson County. That's critical. If we have the jobs here, that's wonderful, but when that paycheck leaves the community, so does a lot of the money that goes with it. As mentioned, 73 business retention visits thus far this year. We're going to talk a lot about some of the barriers to employment and some of the activities that the partnership is working on to help overcome those barriers, but two that I 00:19:57.980 --> 00:20:25.980 those barriers, but two that I would like to draw your attention to, and again, we're working in collaboration with a lot of different community partners. We talked about housing being an issue. We've partnered with the NAACP Housing Committee as well as the United Way to hold a series of stakeholder engagement sessions. I know many of you who are in the room tonight were participating in those engagement sessions, and we thank you. Future effort, what we heard from those engagement sessions from the public is that work with 00:20:25.980 --> 00:20:55.420 will really need to be focused in three separate areas. One will be around financial education, helping that renter become the future homeowner, and what's the pathways to do that? Housing improvement, what resources are out there? If I'm already a homeowner, how do I access some of these resources to improve my residence? And then housing growth, how do we get more residential units to come online? And that's where the partnerships work will really be focused. 00:20:55.980 --> 00:21:25.980 Additionally, in child care, we know that there are many people who would like to enter the workforce or return to the workforce after having a child, but they have nowhere for their young one to go, so we developed a survey to engage our child care providers as well as our employers to really understand what the impact of those shortages are. These responses are being used to inform a public information campaign that will be launched in the third 00:21:25.980 --> 00:21:55.620 But I can tell you already that some of those focus areas of that campaign are going to be around targeting our employers to let our employers know what child care resources do exist. Some people don't know that the YWCA is a service area within Freeport, and they provide a lot of the subsidies that help families pay for child care. We're connecting those resources with the HR department. So when they have employers that come to them and say, hey, I really like to come up, 00:21:55.620 --> 00:22:01.220 to show up for my shift, but I'm having trouble finding child care, they can help connect those dots. 00:22:01.900 --> 00:22:24.180 Some of the other things we're going to be talking about is trying to build that capacity, attracting new child care providers, also helping those that are here, how do they grow more slots? How do they expand? And if there are any in-home child care providers that are in existence or there are more that want to come online, what resources, what processes do they need to go through 00:22:24.180 --> 00:22:28.600 to offer in-home child care. 00:22:29.220 --> 00:22:37.520 And lastly, also targeting the information for parents and guardians, helping them know what resources are out there. 00:22:37.920 --> 00:22:43.860 I'm going to turn the presentation over to Nicole, who's going to talk a little bit more about marketing the region. 00:22:48.060 --> 00:22:48.460 Good evening. 00:22:48.460 --> 00:22:53.840 We have spoke to you in previous presentations regarding our talent attraction strategy. 00:22:53.840 --> 00:23:01.920 that was really trying to organically grow who we got back to Freeport. So letting people know who 00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:07.720 were here. Hey, this is really great. Things are advancing. Here's some new opportunities that 00:23:07.720 --> 00:23:14.140 are happening. Come on back. It was hard to reach people that way. So we're being much more creative 00:23:14.140 --> 00:23:20.060 about that now, being a little bit leaning into the weird is the one session I listened to the other 00:23:20.060 --> 00:23:50.060 today, but just saying, you've grown up, so have we, and kind of highlighting some of the ways that our community continues to thrive and bringing the people back who want to be part of that progressive movement. So one of them is bringing back alumni families, people who already have a connection to this area and want to raise their children in a similar way, and then also young families, because that is the demographic that's going to help us continue to enrich our communities, as and as Andrew 00:23:50.060 --> 00:24:20.040 Andrea said some of those barriers are housing and child care so again all of this kind of has to work at the same time and then also helping employers to understand the resources that we as the partnership can provide so they're not just trying to market and sell their company and their job opportunity they're also selling what it is like to be a resident of Freeport and Stevenson County so putting all of that together in a comprehensive package so that everybody is working in tandem as people are looking to relocate to a 00:24:20.060 --> 00:24:50.040 to an area like Freeport. And I have people say, well, really, who moves to Freeport? Actually, 158 postcards were mailed to new residents in the second quarter. That's in all of Stevenson County. But it's, what I'm going to say, it's passive. When you mail out a postcard, we can't, I don't have more contact information than just the address that they purchased. But we've had 15 of those return back to us, so 10%, and say, yeah, 00:24:50.060 --> 00:25:19.640 Yeah, I want to know more about Freeport or Stevenson County or where I live. So I've had the opportunity to meet with two different group meetings, and then three people individually for coffee, and tell them about the area, explain to them about what resources or who they can reach out to if they have questions. And overall, it's positive sentiment. We've had people from Florida, from Texas, and then more locally, Monroe, Wausau, Wisconsin, 00:25:19.640 --> 00:25:49.400 my last one that I did I had a lot of people from the Collar County region who had moved here and they can't say enough about how friendly the people in Freeport are somebody was saying you know I go to Walmart and the lady asked me how my day is and she genuinely wants to know the answer I go to the DMV and the people are nice like they're nice and so those are the types of things that we really love to hear they're not naive to the fact that every community can always do more to progress but they understand 00:25:49.400 --> 00:26:22.610 coming from a different community that Freeport is no different. So we love hearing that feedback knowing that people who are coming here are really enjoying their experience. And I'll turn it over to Bill. Thank you. Well, one of the ways we work on jobs is we try and help existing businesses to thrive and we help those who want to start businesses to get access to the tools and the resources that help them grow. So we've done a few things in the 00:26:22.610 --> 00:26:52.610 last quarter on that realm. One, we held a session on secession planning. We know that one of the reasons some businesses close is because business owners can't or don't want to continue and they have a hard time finding someone, they don't have someone to follow to take over the business for them. And so we held a session working with a local law firm to talk about those strategies and to start planning that early on before you 00:26:52.610 --> 00:27:22.210 you need it. And we are looking forward to other opportunities to continue that conversation with the businesses and organizations that are interested. We also had a home show in April. A home show, it's the second, third time we've done the home show. And it's just an opportunity for some of our businesses, our contractors, our small businesses to interact with people. It's a, it's a, we have a wide range of usually small 00:27:22.210 --> 00:27:31.630 businesses that participate, over 30 businesses this year participated and got to talk to the several 00:27:31.630 --> 00:27:41.130 hundred people that came to the home show. We finished up the 2025 base camp in the beginning of the second 00:27:41.130 --> 00:27:46.950 quarter. We had our last class and then we had our pitch competition. Our pitch competition was a chance 00:27:46.950 --> 00:28:10.970 for the participants of the base camp to show what they learned, to talk about their business, to pitch their business to a panel of judges that then rated them, and we were able to give out over $6,000 in prizes, in cash prizes to those businesses, so that kind of helps them thrive and do some things. 00:28:10.970 --> 00:28:33.730 This year in base camp we had 14 participants, 11 women, 3 men, and it was a busy group. During the class that started in January, ended in April, we had two of them open businesses. One was Full Circle Cafe, which is in the library, and one was a lawn care business, which was a kind of a side business for one of our participants. 00:28:33.730 --> 00:28:59.710 another participant changed focus and decided that she was interested in working and purchasing a business and we helped her connect with a business that was interested in selling and they're actively discussing that and we're working with them about resources and several other businesses have told us that the skills that they learned and the connections that they made during base camp have helped them with their business. 00:28:59.710 --> 00:29:07.250 And then the last thing that we have in the entrepreneurial section is our CEO program. 00:29:07.250 --> 00:29:29.350 This is a brand new program that we're doing in conjunction with the school district, with the Freeport School District, that is a class that doesn't cost the school district anything, and it takes a class full of students, it's a four credit class, and it teaches them entrepreneurial and business skills, 00:29:29.350 --> 00:29:55.750 skills, kind of the soft skills, puts them in front of 80 different businesses over the course of the year and teaches them those soft skills, but also teaches them about all the industries that are right here in Freeport that they can make a career out of. And this is a, the Midland CEO program is already being done in over 70 different communities around the country, so it's been road tested. 00:29:55.750 --> 00:30:04.680 so it's been road tested and the evidence shows that there's a lot of those kids that go through that program end up staying in town. 00:30:04.820 --> 00:30:13.500 They realize they can have a career, they can start a business, they can work for a business that they met during the class and have a very fruitful career. 00:30:13.500 --> 00:30:21.540 So we're working right now to get that program up and running and we're looking forward to that as a great way to grow some entrepreneurs 00:30:21.540 --> 00:30:27.680 that we think will feed right into our other services. So with that, I think we're open to any questions. 00:30:29.220 --> 00:30:41.790 Any questions, counsel? Thank you. All right. Next, we'll move on to the discussion regarding ordinance 00:30:41.790 --> 00:30:48.070 establishing a fee for overweight. Manager Boyer. Thank you, Your Honor. The City of Freeport has 00:30:48.070 --> 00:30:54.890 codified ordinance section 460.16 that requires updates and modifications for overweight and 00:30:54.890 --> 00:31:24.570 Oversized Permitting. One of the challenges here is many communities have updated ordinances related to this. We have a lot of folks coming through town using accessing our transportation network. And one of the challenges is we need an opportunity to have a fee to recover the costs that are related to reviewing that permit. And also that gives us the opportunity to keep heavy loads off of certain routes. 00:31:24.570 --> 00:31:44.270 When we repave a new street in town, we don't necessarily want a shorter route that happens to go across our newly paved street to take priority over an other route that may be a little longer but doesn't take operators right through some of our nicest redone sections. 00:31:44.270 --> 00:31:50.570 So city staff and the attorney are suggesting the following changes in 460.11 section. 00:31:51.270 --> 00:32:06.230 So the title should be modified to say overweight and oversized vehicles, create an overweight and oversized city of Freeport permit that has to be submitted with the exact route for the trip permitting process and invoicing methods. 00:32:06.230 --> 00:32:36.230 Permitting should be required inside city limits no matter what roads are being used within the city limits including state IDOT routes as they can still turn off onto local streets once they come into city limits. We need to add 625 ILCS 5-15301 to this section and that created an O&O fee schedule that currently does not exist and that would include $150 for an individual one-time permit, $1,200 for an annual 00:32:36.230 --> 00:33:06.230 and the annual permits are tied to the individual license plate of the vehicle only. The oversized and overweight vehicle will still need to report the exact route every time by email with permit numbers each time for record approval. Also suggest a $500 penalty for noncompliance of permitting. The penalties in 422.99 are set at $100 penalty and companies will not get permits and will change if it's not increased. So staff and the 00:33:06.230 --> 00:33:12.730 Attorney. Time is the only financial impact to this at this point and staff recommends this ordinance 00:33:12.730 --> 00:33:19.490 amendment. If applicable, it will be done for the July 21st meeting for council approval and for 00:33:19.490 --> 00:33:30.690 questions. I'd also like to invite Darren Stiekel to add to anything that I missed. Yeah, so I just want 00:33:30.690 --> 00:33:36.750 to give you guys a clear overview of this. So this is not for standard semi-loads. This is not for buses. 00:33:36.750 --> 00:34:06.730 this would not apply to garbage trucks it would not apply to the fire department it would not apply to agricultural during season so our main routes are permitted at 80,000 pounds so this would be trucks that are over 80,000 pounds which is the legal load limit this would also protect our bridge that we have on Hancock anybody that's oversized or overweight would never be permitted to go across our bridges obviously we've got to get 00:34:06.730 --> 00:34:36.630 Hancock, Vidocq, complete before we can put that in place. But it's one of our largest, most expensive structures to protect. I have done research on this. Many towns our size and larger have different rules. Some of them are done on weight, where they pay by the pound. But we don't have certified scales that are available to us that the city owns. And so talking with Chief Shenberger, we would not be able to enforce 00:34:36.630 --> 00:35:06.610 permit at a weight limit so if we took them to weigh them we wouldn't have any officer that would be qualified because we don't own certified scales and the cost would be prohibitive to have. So what I came up with after reviewing a bunch of them was just a flat fee and I talked to a few of our regular trucking companies that do oversize and overweight in Freeport and they felt that the fees that are here are similar to other communities our size and very fair for annual permitting costs. So I'll give you an example 00:35:06.630 --> 00:35:36.190 for example, a normal semi that's hauling freight through Freeport would not need a permit. Somebody that's moving a very large excavator that's a wide load to a specific job, that would need either a one-time permit or an annual permit to move that, and then they have to submit their route with the axle weights that they're running so we can review the route and say, hey, we just paved this street. We would want you to take a different route so we're managing where they're going within the city. It's a very fair expectation. 00:35:36.630 --> 00:35:52.610 We have had an oversized and overweight permit, honestly, for years on the books, but it does seem that it has never really been enforced, and there's never really been a permit process to it where there's actual physical permit filled out. 00:35:52.610 --> 00:35:59.610 it was always just kind of done by emails or word of mouth and I would like to formalize something that is a 00:35:59.610 --> 00:36:07.250 record-keeping process just like our other permits so it's fair to all and everybody has to do the same 00:36:07.250 --> 00:36:14.310 standards to be able to have it done. If it's approved we would send this out to the people that we know that 00:36:14.310 --> 00:36:19.170 truck through Freeport all the time and we would give them a grace period to get this you know implemented 00:36:19.170 --> 00:36:49.150 so it's not something that we would be punitive on. Obviously we need to let people know that we have this permit out there. I do want to let you guys know the reason this came up was the state of Illinois has been detouring oversized loads outside of town down Henderson Road. We own Henderson Road and it's a local road to the city limits and they're killing that road and breaking it apart. 00:36:49.170 --> 00:37:19.150 We didn't know that was happening. We actually had a truck that had an accident and we asked him, why are you on this street? And he said, well, the state's telling us to take these roads. And so we did look at their permit paperwork and it was the case, but they detoured them on local roads that are not made for that kind of weight. So it kind of woke us up to the process here and that we need to have some more checks and balances on it to be fair to the constituents that are investing in the 00:37:19.150 --> 00:37:51.020 Roads. Discussion, Alderman Sanders? Oh, I can wait. I can wait for anybody else that wants to. Was there someone else that wanted to ask something? Manager Boyer? I just wanted to also add to that we've had a number of different cases where large heavy oversized loads have been trying to detour onto Empire Street. Obviously we've invested quite a bit there and we're not terribly interested in having overweight loads going down Empire to Pearl City Road and it's it's 00:37:51.020 --> 00:38:20.900 It's a convenience factor for the haulers, but we also have to protect our investment that we've made in these roads, and I think Darren's example of Henderson's a great example because it's on the edge of town, it's not really, it's kind of out of sight, out of mind for most people, but hardly anybody lives there, there's just a couple of businesses out there, some important and major businesses, but they don't get back to us and say, hey, did you authorize this enormous gen set to go down here on a, you know, on a 16 axle trailer that, you know, is going down 00:38:20.900 --> 00:38:52.830 Henderson Road. So I think one of the issues and we're trying to tighten up is some of these ordinances that have to do with this. It gives us a little more enforcement capacity and then recover some of our review costs, which we currently don't have. Yeah. One more point I would like to make, Alderman Sanders, if I can. So Rob brought something to my memory. We do have these enormous generator loads that have been detoured because they don't fit under the bridge north of town. Something that's happened quite often as they get 00:38:52.830 --> 00:39:20.630 off route, and they rip down either cable, frontier lines, electrical lines, and without permitting, we don't know who did it, and we can't track it down, and it ends up costing the city time and money that we should be recouping from these permittees if they make the damage, but often they just drive away. If we have a permit process, then we can track down who was there during those times and generally find out who's made the damage. 00:39:20.630 --> 00:39:26.310 You know, if they're driving through the right-of-ways, if they're dragging trailers off the streets, and it happens more than you know 00:39:26.310 --> 00:39:28.230 Edwin Sanders 00:39:28.230 --> 00:39:38.950 Yeah, I was just curious about the some procedures or protocols that can be put in place 00:39:38.950 --> 00:39:49.890 And I understand what you guys are saying in regards to the damage that these big overload trucks can create 00:39:50.630 --> 00:39:53.630 I just wanted to find out because I know the state 00:39:53.630 --> 00:40:13.880 out because I know the state police, they have some kind of a system in place to have trucks to come in to weigh that if they're knowing what their weight capacity is before, while they're traveling the road, before they leave a stable, if they know what their weight capacity is, 00:40:13.880 --> 00:40:43.100 could they not be instructed to go to some kind of waiting mechanism or whatever before they enter into Freeport when they realize that if they see signs on the road that they could be overweight coming through the city, there should be signs like that available so they would be guided long before they reach Freeport. 00:40:43.100 --> 00:40:53.100 if there's a scale nearby that we can use or pay or they can pay a fee or whatever the case may be is. 00:40:53.180 --> 00:41:09.100 I don't know what the process is, but the thing is I just wanted to know if we had something in place that would give them a notification knowing that if they travel through this city that the police department might interject or whatever 00:41:09.100 --> 00:41:32.020 or what kind of monitoring system that we have that monitors trucks that are coming into Freeport and how we setting that up and what and is that going to be a cost to the city to have them to navigate around these areas that we have put new pavement in and things of this nature? Is there cost to doing all of that? 00:41:32.020 --> 00:42:03.220 so you had a bunch of questions there so I'll do my best okay so currently this permit would resolve most of the issues that you talked about because we don't have that could we weigh them yes there are places that we could weigh them locally but it would probably be unenforceable because the city of Freeport doesn't have a weights and loads officer on their staff that is trained if we specifically wanted to weigh a truck or a group of people 00:42:03.220 --> 00:42:09.320 that we thought were breaking our ordinance or rules. We could call in a state officer backup with 00:42:09.320 --> 00:42:15.480 portable scales. I would be unsure if we would have to pay for that or not because we would likely have 00:42:15.480 --> 00:42:21.760 to pay for their time in order to bring those scales into town. And they do do stings sometimes on state 00:42:21.760 --> 00:42:32.520 routes to check the oversized loads. Again, farmers have permits that they can do different processes 00:42:32.520 --> 00:43:00.580 during agricultural times that they can be 10 to 15 percent overweight. It's in the state statute. So I think this process here would clean up 90 percent of all the issues that we're having at this time. And the good contractors that come through town, they're good about calling and giving us routes and that. And I direct them on the routes as I see fit or say, please don't go on this street or don't go over this bridge type stuff. 00:43:00.580 --> 00:43:30.240 but this would clean up the process currently is very hard within our system to find this process and so we want to bring it to light we want to get council backing of it we want to have fees that honestly have contractors want to do it right the first time and I again as this gets out that we're enforcing it like we should be I think it will take care of itself but I'm not sure if I got every question but I think I was close. 00:43:30.580 --> 00:43:39.600 Well, I'd like to know, are we in the process? Well, this is not an ordinance at this time, is that correct? 00:43:39.600 --> 00:43:44.420 It is currently an ordinance that we're asking to modify and update to 2025. 00:43:44.420 --> 00:43:55.220 Oh, to modify. Okay, so there is an ordinance in place that we can discuss and talk about in more depth about how we'd like to proceed with this. 00:43:55.220 --> 00:44:18.000 So, Attorney Zito, and I won't speak for him, but him and I have looked at the current ordinance, and it's very basic, and it basically leaves a lot of discretion to the public works director that I don't like. I would rather have rigid and firm rules that are not at my discretion, so nobody's getting any favoritism, and that we're just towing the line that the city should. 00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:47.340 that way anybody can reference the ordinance and say okay this is what I have to do this is the rules they're fair to Wayne's trucking company they're fair to Darren's trucking company that's the way we should be doing it otherwise it's really it's on the books but there's no process there's not even a permit form to fill out currently right so we need to develop that so if this is approved tonight to move forward Aaron and I have been working on a draft that is very similar to what 00:44:48.000 --> 00:45:17.900 is in this memo with the changes and the direction and we will create a permit app similar to the right-of-way permit form that somebody can fill out, email to us, has a time required ahead of time that it will be processed in so we have reasonable due time to get it done and then we will invoice them accordingly with online payment options if they choose and the people that truck through all the town all the time we'll set up an annual account with them just like we do with the annual contractor's license. 00:45:18.000 --> 00:45:25.700 and we'll make it simple and easy on them. Is there warnings that would notify any overweight vehicle? 00:45:25.920 --> 00:45:37.720 So part of the process then secondfold is once this is done we would notify on the outside limits of town that permits are required for overweight and oversized. 00:45:38.240 --> 00:45:41.960 Those are signs that can be added to the city limit signs. Right, good. Okay, thanks. 00:45:41.960 --> 00:46:04.640 Attorney Zito. And so just to touch on the process that if the council tonight at this committee meeting decides to move, votes to move forward, then I'll draft the ordinance there so that it will be brought back to you guys at the next city council meeting for first read there. So, but again, you guys got to vote to move forward. So I have direction to actually draft the ordinance up. 00:46:04.640 --> 00:46:06.320 Allerman Stacey. 00:46:06.900 --> 00:46:13.100 I thought you said that we could not move forward with this until the bridge was done. 00:46:14.240 --> 00:46:18.920 So we can move forward with the overweight and overpermit. 00:46:18.920 --> 00:46:26.580 We will not be able to allow weights that are over 80,000 pounds across the Hancock Bridge. 00:46:26.720 --> 00:46:27.880 We cannot do that. 00:46:28.040 --> 00:46:30.000 It's not in good enough shape. 00:46:30.640 --> 00:46:34.560 So that process will not be allowed at any point. 00:46:34.640 --> 00:47:06.960 and in the state statute if you look through it it actually says in there if you adopt the state statute that bridges are always exempt to overweight they don't they they want you to drive 20 miles around then go over a bridge that you're overweight on it creates too much damage to the structures. So can you tell me why what we do have in place or maybe Attorney Zito can why have we not pursued what we do have in place? Yeah. 00:47:07.720 --> 00:47:38.820 I can't actually answer that question as to why. City Manager Boyer? There's no real penalties or teeth in it, so there's really, they call us, we review their permit, we approve their permit, but we really have no consequence for them not obeying our permit, and up until recently, I think we had verbal conversations with them. I know I've had several years ago when I first stepped in the door, and ever since then, Darren's been reviewing those, and it's been going fine. 00:47:38.820 --> 00:47:45.920 I just think that we don't we need a little more enforcement penalty involved with this as well as being able to recover our time for the review 00:47:45.920 --> 00:47:57.070 the question I would have is this codified ordinance is very antiquated been on the books for a long time 00:47:57.070 --> 00:48:04.830 it references stuff I'm sure it was pulled from somewhere at one point but was never finished with an actual fee schedule or a permit app 00:48:04.830 --> 00:48:11.630 so it looks like it was started has a little bit of information to it but never really brought to the point of 00:48:11.630 --> 00:48:37.090 to a full conclusion here, which is what I'm trying to do, because right now it reads very subjectively, and I just don't like that. That leads up to scrutiny for us on who we're enforcing and who we're not, and leads up to questions for people to say, are you doing this, are you doing that? If it's on the books, we don't, you know, subjectively look at it and say, well, what am I going to do here? This is the code, this is the ordinance, this is what we follow. It's fair to everybody. 00:48:37.090 --> 00:49:11.120 Alderman Shadle? Make a motion, move this forward. Second. We have a motion made by Alderman Shadle, seconded by Alderman Clem. Any further discussion? So now we can vote at a cow? No, we're just voting to move it forward. That's it. To move it to a first reading to approve them to do the ordinance. So by moving it forward, we'll create the ordinance. Aaron and I will to come back. 00:49:11.120 --> 00:49:15.720 we'll create the permit application and then we'll bring it back for a first reading and a second 00:49:15.720 --> 00:49:21.480 reading. Right, right. I just don't want to spend the time and money redoing it if we're not, if the 00:49:21.480 --> 00:49:27.500 council doesn't have interest in moving it. Can that be ready by the June 21st meeting or do you need more 00:49:27.500 --> 00:49:37.280 time than that? You mean July? July. What did I say? July. I meant July. Do that. If there's no further 00:49:37.280 --> 00:49:51.940 All those in favor of moving this forward to the next regularly scheduled meetings signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Then we will move on to item number 11, which is public comment. Is there any public comments this evening? 00:49:51.940 --> 00:50:25.530 comment. Is there any public comments this evening? PageCurr 103, Arbor Drive. I mostly just have a question of the $55,000 salary that you're pretty proud of. Do you generally think that that's enough for the public? You know, you listed actually the issues that you see with that kind of salary up there. You see child care as an issue. You see housing as an issue. You see all these, you listed it. So we should really take a look at what are we doing here? 00:50:25.530 --> 00:50:33.610 we're forcing our public to require this assistance. Genuinely, $55,000 a year is not enough. 00:50:34.090 --> 00:50:39.250 We have the water bills that are going higher and higher. You guys are choosing to put back on that 00:50:39.250 --> 00:50:46.290 grocery tax. Your events that you host, you take money back from us, from those people that you pay 00:50:46.290 --> 00:50:51.590 $55,000 a year. And there's people that get paid less than that. And there's people, of course, that get paid 00:50:51.590 --> 00:50:56.970 more than that. But that's not enough. And that's not something to be proud of in this community. 00:50:58.350 --> 00:51:05.250 Your workers are not thriving. They're surviving. They're paying their bills and that's it. They're 00:51:05.250 --> 00:51:09.610 lucky to go to your events on that kind of salary. You better hope you have a double income. 00:51:10.770 --> 00:51:15.710 You're going to have retention with that kind of salary because those kind of people cannot leave. 00:51:16.410 --> 00:51:21.430 They are stuck working for you unless another opportunity opens up. But in this town, there's 00:51:21.430 --> 00:51:57.000 There's not. There's not good opportunities for the youth, for anyone. We do nothing here. So take a look at yourself and really look at the core of what are we doing? We're forcing our public to require your help. It's disgusting and it leaves a bad taste in the public's mouth. Thank you. Is there any other public comment? Go ahead, Tommy. Going dickman. You said about 00:51:57.000 --> 00:52:46.140 that's right, September 3rd, Tommy, taking it down, Jodi Mills, she does a good job of that Teddy Baker Day, Pope, and the Chief did a good job with driving that precinct. Anyone else? Go ahead. Hi, Sue Cook, Winchester Drive, and I have a question about the trees at Cray Park. 00:52:46.140 --> 00:53:16.140 the two trees that are very very rare will we be taking cuttings from those or anything to to kind of generate saplings so that we have the ability to not just have two but the ability to have more because that isn't that's a tourist attraction that's how you bring in the tourist is to say we have this this is not in every single park but we have it so if we can generate more of 00:53:16.140 --> 00:53:22.060 more trees, more saplings, and use that. I think that would be a wonderful way to add to the tourist 00:53:22.060 --> 00:53:31.880 attraction. Are you guys hearing this or am I muffled? Okay, good. Then the other is on the tree-lined back 00:53:31.880 --> 00:53:38.100 road that goes back like where you would go to Walmart, going out of the park. I noticed that a lot 00:53:38.100 --> 00:53:45.380 of the Mormon trees are down. Are you taking the mature trees down to add saplings or will that become a 00:53:45.380 --> 00:54:13.720 two-lane road. I know that for a very, very long time photographers used that for weddings because it had the picturesque canopy that came over top. And I know that it also blocked out a lot of light. So I can understand putting in smaller saplings, but will that be a two-lane road? The next is for the GDP. Have you thought about the Monroe idea? 00:54:13.720 --> 00:54:21.080 because we're coming into Christmas and we have these six months and we have a lot of open storefronts 00:54:21.080 --> 00:54:28.180 and something that Monroe did that I think that we could do and do very, very well is to offer, Monroe 00:54:28.180 --> 00:54:37.300 offered these storefronts at a zero rent, zero rent for a period of time and I think it was six months 00:54:37.300 --> 00:54:42.940 because they wanted us to run through Christmas. You had specific guidelines. If you didn't meet those 00:54:42.940 --> 00:54:49.860 guidelines, boom, you were paying rent. You had to have your plan. You submitted your plan ahead of time. 00:54:50.740 --> 00:55:10.180 The council actually looked at the plans. The mayor and the council, city manager, I don't think they have a city manager there, looked at the plans. They filled up their downtown. I think they had one that backed out afterwards. Also, please add x-ray to your list when you have nurses and things like that. 00:55:10.180 --> 00:55:16.720 x-ray and radiation therapy because we have those departments in Freeport. We have a radiation therapy 00:55:16.720 --> 00:55:24.360 department. Not a lot of places do. We have a standalone radiation therapy department. And then also just one 00:55:24.360 --> 00:55:33.420 thing for the ADA board is that Tutty Fest for parking for the handicap, if you could get... Your time has 00:55:33.420 --> 00:55:52.140 succeeded. Thank you. Well, that was close. Any other public comments? Alderman Stacy? I just want to close out in 00:55:52.140 --> 00:56:02.740 prayer. Father God, in the name of Jesus, you are the author and the finisher of our faith. So, Father God, 00:56:02.840 --> 00:56:11.420 I lose your healing power over the city of Freeport, and I speak to the north, the south, the east, and the 00:56:11.420 --> 00:56:41.610 West, oh God. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for opening up our eye gates and our ear gates that we may hear and understand what you are calling for Freeport this season, oh God. Continue to order our steps according to your word, for we know if you don't do it, it won't be done. 00:56:42.670 --> 00:57:14.640 So now we just give you the honor, the praise, and the glory, for you alone are worthy, and we speak victory over this city, for it will be all that you intend it to be. It carries the name Freeport for a reason, and I just speak healing and victory in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:57:14.640 --> 00:57:48.070 Go ahead. Any other public comments? Oh, I have. Go ahead. Go ahead. I would just like to say that I was really impressed by Teddy Baker Day this year. It brought a lot of community out, and it was just a fun time. It brought a lot of churches out. My church had a tent, and we had multiple churches and ministries involved in it, and I just want to kind of give a praise report that we ended up praying for 422 people. 00:57:48.570 --> 00:58:18.550 and we had 13 salvations and 6 rededications and we gave away 930 bottles of free water and it was such a blessing and just to see the community come together like with the community church event that was down there. There was multiple churches that came down there and they worshiped together and I've heard nothing but good things about the fireworks. I don't know if you guys all saw the fireworks but they were pretty amazing and if it wasn't for the specials, 00:58:18.570 --> 00:58:37.590 Festival, and bringing the community together, think about it, 422 people said yes to Jesus for us to pray for them, so Tutty Baker Day has made an impact on this community, and it caused unity to come to this community with all the churches coming together, and I just think it's so awesome, so thank you. 00:58:37.590 --> 00:58:38.270 Thank you 00:58:38.270 --> 00:59:07.530 I just want to remind everybody that on Wednesday they're going to have out at Highland it's called Shoot Hoops and Not Guns and it's sponsored by the Boys and Girls Club and it will be at the YMCA so if you got some time come out and support the kids at 5 o'clock and then on Saturday July 19th at 8 o'clock we will have on King Campus they will have a movie night and the movie 00:59:07.530 --> 00:59:37.510 has praised this. Bring your chairs and snacks and families and just come out and enjoy the community movie at 8 o'clock at the Boys and Girls Club. Any other public comments? Seeing none, I'll, yes, ma'am. Wasn't there an event for the 40 Days of Peace Saturday? There's an event every other weekend that's in addition to what she just talked about. So isn't there an event 00:59:37.510 --> 00:59:43.650 this weekend? Yes, that's at Knowlton Park. What is the event? The same thing as before. It's a cleanup on 00:59:43.650 --> 00:59:48.650 Friday. It's a resource party on Saturday and church in the street on Sunday, and it'll be at Knowlton Park. 00:59:48.650 --> 01:00:00.160 at Knowlton Park. Any other public comments? I will entertain a motion for adjournment. So move. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Have a good evening.