WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.180 That's okay, that's right. 00:00:01.920 --> 00:00:02.760 She's still in the ER. 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:05.100 Okay, keep this posted. 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:05.680 We'll be there. 00:00:05.920 --> 00:00:06.640 Okay, thank you. 00:00:06.920 --> 00:00:09.120 That's why I told Jodi and Rob I had to leave tonight. 00:00:09.280 --> 00:00:09.660 Oh, no. 00:00:10.020 --> 00:00:11.160 That's why I left this on. 00:00:11.420 --> 00:00:14.920 So you can fire Jodi and do it. 00:00:15.040 --> 00:00:15.240 Yeah. 00:00:15.460 --> 00:00:16.060 Well, good luck. 00:00:16.220 --> 00:00:16.780 Thank you. 00:00:16.780 --> 00:00:17.520 I like that. 00:00:18.120 --> 00:00:18.880 God bless you. 00:00:21.400 --> 00:00:21.760 Yeah. 00:00:23.200 --> 00:00:23.600 It's okay. 00:00:24.400 --> 00:00:25.560 Even though I thought it's awesome. 00:00:25.900 --> 00:00:27.120 I was supposed to have no need in this. 00:00:27.720 --> 00:00:28.080 No. 00:00:28.740 --> 00:00:29.100 It's okay. 00:00:33.420 --> 00:00:59.100 and that's what he said. 00:01:05.500 --> 00:01:19.100 Good evening. Evelyn, could you please give the invocation? 00:01:25.480 --> 00:01:33.800 I just want to say it's a good feeling here tonight. It's peaceful and calm, and I thank God for that. 00:01:37.560 --> 00:01:38.440 What'd you say? 00:01:39.020 --> 00:01:40.380 She said we haven't got started. 00:01:40.380 --> 00:01:45.800 Oh, that's true. Let's keep that. Let's bow our heads. 00:01:45.800 --> 00:01:53.620 Father God, as the City Council meeting begins tonight, I pray that Ephesians 4 and 3, which says, 00:01:54.760 --> 00:02:01.320 make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Let peace prevail over 00:02:01.320 --> 00:02:07.480 this meeting tonight. Father God, I pray that the discussion of the Greater Freeport Partnership be 00:02:07.480 --> 00:02:16.430 accurate and straight on point. And let the memorandum of understanding discussion be an 00:02:16.430 --> 00:02:46.030 honest discussion. And last but not least, Father, let every public comment, if any are spoken tonight, be with respect on every topic that is brought to the council floor tonight. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I pray, amen. Amen. And we'll officially call this meeting to order. Madam Clerk, could you please take the roll? Mayor Miller. Here. Alder Persons-Klemm. Here. Johnson. Here. Simmons. Here. Parker. Here. 00:02:46.030 --> 00:02:50.550 Stacey, Shadle, Sanders, and Sellers. 00:02:50.550 --> 00:02:54.550 If you could please stand for the pledge led by Alderman Simmons. 00:02:58.370 --> 00:03:11.350 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. 00:03:17.960 --> 00:03:20.900 Item number four is the approval of the agenda. Is there such a motion? 00:03:21.300 --> 00:03:21.760 I'll move. 00:03:22.120 --> 00:03:22.420 Second. 00:03:22.420 --> 00:03:23.420 Second. 00:03:23.420 --> 00:03:26.920 We have a motion made by Alderman Clemm, seconded by Alderman Sellers. 00:03:26.920 --> 00:03:28.980 All those in favor, signify by saying aye. 00:03:28.980 --> 00:03:29.980 Aye. 00:03:29.980 --> 00:03:30.980 Opposed? 00:03:30.980 --> 00:03:32.980 That motion passes. 00:03:32.980 --> 00:03:36.820 Item number five is approval of the minutes from the Committee of the Whole held on November 00:03:36.820 --> 00:03:38.820 10th and December 8th, 2025. 00:03:38.820 --> 00:03:40.820 Is there a motion to approve? 00:03:40.820 --> 00:03:41.820 So moved. 00:03:41.820 --> 00:03:42.820 Second. 00:03:42.820 --> 00:03:45.820 We have a motion made by Alderman Shadle, seconded by Alderman Sellers. 00:03:45.820 --> 00:03:48.300 All those in favor, signify by saying aye. 00:03:48.300 --> 00:03:49.300 Aye. 00:03:49.300 --> 00:03:50.300 Opposed? 00:03:50.300 --> 00:03:51.820 That motion passes. 00:03:51.820 --> 00:03:53.840 Item six is public comments. 00:03:53.980 --> 00:04:00.020 There's no one signed in, so we'll move on to item number seven, which is the Greater Freeport Partnerships quarterly report. 00:04:00.540 --> 00:04:09.740 Thank you, Curt. 00:04:10.780 --> 00:04:11.460 Thank you. 00:04:12.260 --> 00:04:13.080 Good evening. 00:04:13.380 --> 00:04:14.540 Happy New Year to you all. 00:04:15.460 --> 00:04:23.140 Tonight's presentation will provide a more detailed information around some small business support efforts that occurred in the fourth quarter. 00:04:23.140 --> 00:04:52.900 However, a full summary of all the partnerships detailing of our strategic plan focus areas is provided in the quarterly report that Nicole is distributing now as well as what was linked in the agenda for this evening before we dive into business support as you will see on the front page of the partnerships quarterly report we have hired a new economic development manager and a new membership direct director 00:04:53.140 --> 00:05:40.000 Leslie Mastriani and Mercedes Joyner have joined the partnerships team filling vacant positions that were in within the staff. Curt, am I doing something or? Okay. Do you need me to? All right. Perfect. Thank you. All right. Report laid out in strategic focus areas, as mentioned before, small business support efforts. So we're going to walk through three specific items. One, the local shopping campaign, which Nicole 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:46.200 will highlight in just a second. Second will be the workforce connection with talent. This is an ongoing 00:05:46.200 --> 00:05:52.180 issue that all of our businesses are having. We'll talk about some efforts and programs that we've 00:05:52.180 --> 00:05:56.780 participated in. And the last but not least, some grant support that we've offered to small businesses. 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:05.280 I'm going to turn it over to Nicole. Again, these are just highlights of the quarterly report. 00:06:05.640 --> 00:06:10.900 You don't want us up here talking about eight full pages. So we just pick out a specific focus area. 00:06:10.900 --> 00:06:40.880 this one happens to be on small business as it is extremely important all times of the year but we know merchants and local retailers really depend on the fourth quarter to help them round out the year which is why we put additional money into promoting local shopping during the holiday season that was a multi-channel campaign everything from radio billboards online social media and then we always promote our partnership cash program which is like a gift card that can 00:06:40.880 --> 00:07:09.920 be spent at about 40 different merchants throughout the area. Instead of buying a Visa gift card, buy partnership cash and then we know that that money stays local and there are no fees to either the purchaser or the merchant. We also started something new this year with a county-wide cross-promotion postcard. We had 23 different businesses interested in creating a, I call it a postcard, but it wasn't sent out. It was actually placed at all 23 different distribution locations. 00:07:09.920 --> 00:07:39.900 so that if you happen to go to one place you picked up the card and maybe as you were looking at it you learned about new things new places in the area that you could shop and frequent. In addition to those there were also holiday events. Mistletoe Walk was held in downtown Freeport on November 22. New features for Mistletoe Walk this year included six living windows which were really well attended and a great addition that we hope it continues to grow as well as 00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:49.260 as starting to utilize the Karcher Block Pocket Park. That's where Santa was, a s'mores station, and you could fill out letters to Santa and place them in the box there as well. 00:07:49.980 --> 00:08:06.940 Lena had their hometown Christmas and lighted parade on December 5th. Weather didn't cooperate with them quite as much this year, but they still had almost 40 floats and a great array of businesses that stayed open and then brought vendor booths downtown as well. 00:08:06.940 --> 00:08:13.800 Then an additional event this year was a last-minute shopping opportunity with Holiday Hustle. 00:08:13.960 --> 00:08:24.600 We had about a dozen participating businesses for that promotion, and we highlighted different items that each store picked out. 00:08:24.960 --> 00:08:32.060 So if you were looking for a particular item for that last-minute person on your gift list, this would help you see what each of those merchants could provide. 00:08:34.470 --> 00:08:35.570 I'll turn it back over to Andrea. 00:08:35.570 --> 00:08:41.790 All right. As we talked about, one of the other things that we have worked on to help support small 00:08:41.790 --> 00:08:47.410 businesses was around workforce development. So always going back to the data and taking a look and 00:08:47.410 --> 00:08:52.670 tracking our numbers here. Again, this is information that's reported from Illinois Department of Employment 00:08:52.670 --> 00:08:59.090 Securities, and this is September 2025. So I understand that this is a few months dated, but as we might 00:08:59.090 --> 00:09:05.990 remember a couple of months ago, late last year, there was a government shutdown. And that had a ripple 00:09:05.990 --> 00:09:11.990 effect in terms of reporting out some information. Unemployment data was one of those. So as you will 00:09:11.990 --> 00:09:18.450 see that there were within Stevenson County in September of 2025, you had 921 individuals who 00:09:18.450 --> 00:09:24.230 were unemployed and looking for work. That held about steady in comparison to where we were the month 00:09:24.230 --> 00:09:54.190 prior in August. And I would say that our unemployment rates within Stevenson County and the city of Freeport were pretty comparable to the state. Within the same month, there were over 1,300 unique job postings in September by 327 different employees. The median wage for those positions, again median, was a little over $35 an hour, which equates to a salary of $73,000 a year. Again, just for a frame of reference, and this is 00:09:54.190 --> 00:09:59.750 data reported by the census, medium household income for 2025 in Stevenson County. 00:09:59.750 --> 00:10:25.460 2025 in Stevenson County is just shy of $62,000 a year. As you can see from what's on the slide here, those were the top employers that we're posting and those were the top occupations. We have tracked this data pretty much for most of 2025 and I would say that those top five occupations just rotate, you know, order of significance. They stay very similar. 00:10:25.460 --> 00:10:55.440 So this information was key in terms of as we go and talk to our educational partners, which I'll get to in just a second, but I want to just emphasize that even if 921 people were employed, that would not fill all the open positions that's in Stevenson County. So retaining our workforce is critical, which leads to other efforts that the partnership works in collaboration with both our business community as well as our educational community. 00:10:55.460 --> 00:11:25.440 Community. So there were three different events all in the fourth quarter, Manufacturing Day, Highland Community College in conjunction with Freeport High School puts on a career in job fair, and then Highland does an ag expo. Again, Manufacturing Day, you're targeting students who are interested in entering into a manufacturing career or working with a manufacturer. It's a great opportunity for students to get out of the classroom and to get into some of the facilities that they drive by every day, but they might not have any idea what they do inside 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:31.320 or what they make. Students are able to tour. They end up back at Highland where they're able to meet an 00:11:31.320 --> 00:11:37.220 employer expo. Highland Community College and Freeport High School Career Fair is something similar to that 00:11:37.220 --> 00:11:44.540 just at a larger scale. With over 637 attendees, you had 10 area high schools represented. So it was a 00:11:44.540 --> 00:11:50.200 great opportunity for area high school students and some Highland Community College students and members 00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:55.340 of the public to interface with employers from all different industries throughout Stevenson 00:11:55.340 --> 00:12:00.740 County. And again, Highland Ag Expo, which happens at the beginning of December, you're looking at something 00:12:00.740 --> 00:12:05.660 very similar in format to a manufacturing day, but it's specifically to the ag industry, connecting 00:12:05.660 --> 00:12:12.940 college students who are already in an ag pathway and area high school students who probably are also in an 00:12:12.940 --> 00:12:18.200 ag pathway at their high school are connecting with employers, they're understanding about their 00:12:18.200 --> 00:12:26.660 opportunities at Highland so we can keep that talent local. And last but not least, a recent win that we 00:12:26.660 --> 00:12:56.660 were really happy to have played in a critical part is the beginning of 2025, the state of Illinois put out a small business infrastructure grant. This is a tad bit unusual in the fact that small business support grants don't often, outside of COVID times, come directly to small businesses themselves. Often they will come to other entities, but typically not directly to a small business. And part of the reason for that is state grants can be somewhat cumbersome or complicated to apply 00:12:56.660 --> 00:13:01.040 for. But the state of Illinois, in receiving some feedback, put together a small grant program. 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:07.520 We held an informational seminar for any business that was interested in applying. About 22 attended. 00:13:07.520 --> 00:13:14.480 This is in January of 2025. We worked then with five businesses who were very serious in their 00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:20.200 application. We were able to work with them, put together the documentation, get them SAMS qualified 00:13:20.200 --> 00:13:25.980 and Gata Porter and all the things you need to do to become qualified to apply for a state grant. 00:13:25.980 --> 00:13:32.640 from those five businesses that applied, there were three local grants that were awarded. 00:13:33.960 --> 00:13:41.280 So in total, the grant award in sum from all three businesses is nearly three quarters of a million 00:13:41.280 --> 00:13:50.660 dollars. So $725,000 is coming back between these three businesses to help them grow. We are continuing 00:13:50.660 --> 00:14:19.660 continuing to work with each one of these businesses to provide them grant administration, project assist experience as we can. They have two years to expend grant funds in what they outlined in their project scope, but we're very excited that we were happy to play a part of that. And looking to the future, Basecamp, if you know someone who is looking to start a business or has a small business but would like to grow or maybe need some 00:14:19.660 --> 00:14:27.920 resources, some support. Our base camp is starting January 20th. Again, that program is designed for 00:14:27.920 --> 00:14:32.520 small businesses and entrepreneurs who are looking to just deepen their resources, get a little bit more 00:14:32.520 --> 00:14:39.720 education. It runs for 12 weeks, six classes, Tuesday evenings at the partnership office. Feel free to 00:14:39.720 --> 00:14:44.680 contact me or Nicole or the partnership office. Just call our main line and we were happy to give you 00:14:44.680 --> 00:15:14.660 more information. We continue to work with Freeport High School and the Foundation for Northwest Illinois on the CEO program, which is under development, but will set to launch in fall of 2026. Again, this is almost similar to a base camp type program that runs a year long, but it's targeted to juniors and seniors to help them understand the skill set that they need to develop small businesses. And in conjunction with that, they're not just sitting in a classroom, they're going out and they're interfacing with small business 00:15:14.660 --> 00:15:20.580 businesses. They're meeting with business leaders, developing those relationships. And last but not 00:15:20.580 --> 00:15:26.240 least, we are working on another grant application that, if awarded, would expand our small business 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:32.940 support efforts, enhance those, and expand the partnership's capacity. So thank you for your 00:15:32.940 --> 00:15:42.640 attention. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Andrea. Thank you. Any questions, counsel? Thank you. 00:15:42.640 --> 00:15:43.740 Thank you 00:15:43.740 --> 00:15:44.340 All right, thank you 00:15:44.340 --> 00:15:45.080 Thank you 00:15:45.080 --> 00:15:48.400 Did you have one? 00:15:48.500 --> 00:15:48.660 Yeah 00:15:48.660 --> 00:15:49.880 Alderman Johnson 00:15:49.880 --> 00:15:50.280 I did 00:15:50.280 --> 00:15:55.020 And I was looking in the report that was given out to us 00:15:55.020 --> 00:15:55.420 Yes 00:15:55.420 --> 00:16:06.020 And it was saying regarding the six leads for industry that we could not respond to as we have no existing buildings that meet requirements or can't meet water sewer demands 00:16:06.020 --> 00:16:14.740 And I was wondering, will well number 12 help that at all, the situation with water and sewer demands to get more industry in here? 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:44.660 yes and no in terms of oftentimes sometimes it's because the manufacturer typically it's a manufacturer uses so much water that it would tax the city's system it's very possible that with the new well I don't know the exact numbers in terms of the capacity that that would help with that it would alleviate that that burden the other thing to think about too and that's you know in working with conjunction 00:16:44.660 --> 00:16:52.780 with community development and the city leadership is making sure that the well, the water capacity might be 00:16:52.780 --> 00:16:58.180 there, but making sure that we have land available for that manufacturer. Okay, that was kind of my other 00:16:58.180 --> 00:17:04.640 question because I wondered if there were buildings, is it because the buildings they weren't able to 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:10.540 restore them to the point where they needed them or there wasn't enough room for them to expand where 00:17:10.540 --> 00:17:39.980 the existing buildings were? Typically it is not. Everyone's a case-by-case basis. So I'm going to say in a little bit more generality is it's not that they don't have room to expand adjacent to the existing facility. It's oftentimes manufacturing is looking for a much higher floor-to-ceiling height to accommodate their equipment and machinery than many of the existing facilities we have today. Yeah. 00:17:39.980 --> 00:18:09.520 Good question. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Item number eight is discussion regarding the MOU with the Illinois Department of Transportation for South Street. Manager Boyer. Thank you, Your Honor. Go ahead and hit the lights. I'm pleased tonight to discuss an MOU between the city of Freeport and IDOT related to mill and overlay of South Street. That's one of our main corridors through town. It's also in a pretty significantly deteriorated status. 00:18:09.980 --> 00:18:39.980 staff has been meeting with District 2 for years probably every up to every quarter but at least twice a year and we've always been told that's a state unmarked route there's nothing we're going to do with it you're going to have to deal with it locally however what they say genius is when preparation meets opportunity fortunately representative Cabello and Rick Barco had a conversation I think Cabello oversees IDOT District 2 in some part or 00:18:39.980 --> 00:19:09.400 and with the state level and they were discussing how difficult it was for them to deploy all of the millions of dollars that they have to deploy because it just can't get enough staff and Representative Cavallo said to him, well, why don't you just give the money straight to the communities? So that's what's happening on South Street. So we're planning to receive approximately five million dollars from District 2 for the mill and overlay of South Street. The bid letting goes out this June and things should be moving forward. 00:19:09.980 --> 00:19:39.460 shortly after that. I will mention that part of the deal here is that we need to reconstruct the ramps in the corridor and we have budgeted for that and they will be coming before you for bid approval and construction before the time, before June comes. We want to make sure those are all completed before June so there's nothing holding back IDOT from resurfacing South Street. So essentially this conversation tonight is just that we'll be receiving at least $5 million in outside funding to resurface South Street. 00:19:39.460 --> 00:19:57.980 this and will be starting in 2026. So thank you. Any questions on the MOU? Alderman Sellers? I would just like to know about how long do they think that that will take? I hate to promise anything or speculate, but I would hope we could get it done in 26. But if it doesn't get done in 26, 00:19:57.980 --> 00:20:28.680 26, but if it doesn't get done in 26, it'll certainly be done in 27. Okay. Good job. Alderman Stacy? Will the ramps be done by Freeport staff? No, they'll be done by a contractor. Anything else? Item number nine is discussion regarding ordinance amending codified ordinance to add incentive pay for lead copper samples to be taken for lead service line replacement grant application. Manager, Boyer. Thank you, Your Honor. As everybody knows, we've been doing lead 00:20:28.680 --> 00:20:56.480 lead service line remediations since probably the fall of 2020. To date, I think we've remediated 1,600 lead services and we have a few hundred left to go. The problem here is we're still regulated by our total number of lead services, which means we have a certain sample regime that we have to do and we're at a place where we've got so few left in the system that we're finding it difficult to find adequate people to take those samples. 00:20:56.480 --> 00:21:26.360 So what we're going to bring before council and ensuing council meeting is a proposal to do like an incentive for people that have a lead service in their house to participate in our program and we'd like to credit them back $40 per sample. Now bear in mind years ago prior to 2020 I think we only had about 30 samples per year that we had to do. EPA has changed that to every six months and they've also doubled the number of samples. 00:21:26.360 --> 00:21:34.560 So, as you can see, we've got to find 60 people that could do the samples correctly and also do them twice a year instead of just once a year. 00:21:34.900 --> 00:21:48.920 So, I'm proposing or I'm going to bring forward a request of council to change our ordinance so that we can then provide that $40 reduction on an individual's water bill so we'll have an easier time finding individuals willing to help us. 00:21:48.920 --> 00:22:18.200 it is kind of a chore you have to do a certain regime you got to do it at a certain time and and so to get adequate sampling we need to help that this will be temporary though once we get all the lead services done we will go to copper monitoring at that point and we can open that up and we won't have nearly as a challenging time getting the samples taken so that's all I've got. Thank you any questions Alderman Johnson. I just wondered what sections of the city are the eligible homes located in that could do the testing. 00:22:18.920 --> 00:22:38.580 I can't tell you eligible areas, it's address by address at this point, so which addresses haven't had the lead services remediated yet, and like I said, it's getting to be a very few of them at this point, so we've done work all over town, now in one specific area or another, but it's just address by address at this point, so, yeah. 00:22:41.320 --> 00:22:45.000 Well, if there's no further discussion, I'll need a motion and a second to move this forward. 00:22:45.280 --> 00:22:45.820 So move. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:46.360 Second. 00:22:46.360 --> 00:22:54.280 The motion made by Alderman Sellers, seconded by Alderman Shadle to move this to Manager Boyer, would it be the next meeting, or you've got something further down the line? 00:22:54.500 --> 00:22:56.460 I think it'll be coming before the next meeting. 00:22:56.720 --> 00:22:57.240 The next meeting? 00:22:57.360 --> 00:22:57.500 Yeah. 00:22:57.500 --> 00:22:57.640 Okay. 00:22:58.440 --> 00:22:59.460 All those in favor? 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:00.400 Aye. 00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:01.400 Opposed? 00:23:02.120 --> 00:23:03.200 That motion passes. 00:23:03.800 --> 00:23:05.280 Item number 10 is public comment. 00:23:05.400 --> 00:23:06.500 Is there any public comment? 00:23:06.500 --> 00:23:06.600 Tommy. 00:23:12.700 --> 00:23:16.540 I want to tell you, the police chief is doing a good job of working. 00:23:17.420 --> 00:23:17.820 Awesome. 00:23:17.820 --> 00:23:25.000 And Jodi Miller, when are you going to come and see a house where we live? 00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:27.460 Not sure, Tommy. 00:23:29.100 --> 00:23:34.940 Because we do, they cook us food and everything. 00:23:35.800 --> 00:23:36.160 Nice. 00:23:38.100 --> 00:23:43.400 And Baron, do you find out about the Queen of the in Freeport? 00:23:43.940 --> 00:23:44.300 The what? 00:23:44.660 --> 00:23:45.820 The Queen of downtown? 00:23:45.820 --> 00:23:51.500 Oh, yep. We're still, we're still waiting for the approval to take it down. Approval it. 00:23:53.060 --> 00:23:58.010 Try it, sir. Any other public comments? Linda? 00:24:08.270 --> 00:24:23.990 I just want to thank the Lord for all the grants and all the money we've gotten and all the people that did all the work, because I know it's a lot of work to write to get all those grants. So I just want to say I'm really thankful for the grants and everybody who's worked on them and thankful to the Lord. 00:24:23.990 --> 00:24:32.610 and I just decree unity, prosperity, and peace over the city tonight and we're moving forward in 2026 and I'm really thankful for that. 00:24:33.150 --> 00:24:45.030 The other thing is there is a Martin Luther King breakfast at St. James CME Church on Saturday, this coming Saturday so if anybody's interested in going I think you can just contact the church because you do have to have a ticket to go. 00:24:45.510 --> 00:24:46.310 So all right, thank you. 00:24:47.530 --> 00:24:48.970 Any other public comments? 00:24:50.110 --> 00:24:52.470 And I will entertain a motion to adjourn. 00:24:52.530 --> 00:24:53.070 So move. 00:24:53.070 --> 00:24:53.410 Second. 00:24:53.410 --> 00:25:00.370 Motion made by Alderman Sellers, seconded by Alderman Shadle, all those in favor? Aye. Have a good evening.