Beings, it's 530 and call the meeting to order. Madam Clerk, if you could call the roll, please.

Mayor Miller. Here. Alderpersons, Klemm. Here. Johnson. Here. Simmons is absent. Parker. Here. Stacy is absent. Shadle. Here. Sanders and Sellers are absent, but we do have a quorum.

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.

All right.

We're down to approval of the agenda.

So moved.

Go ahead.

Got a motion by Clem, second by Johnson.

Yep.

All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? That's approved in public comments on agenda items. There was nothing listed, nothing there. And we'll move to discussion of the capital improvement plan by Manager Boyer and Director Richter.

Yes, sir.

Alright, so many of these projects we've talked about and you have knowledge of, but I'm just going to hit the major ones. So as you all know, Hancock Bridge Deck is one of our major projects for next year. We need to get the guardrail and the bridge deck replaced. So we've budgeted for that in the capital plan as well as the viaduct. They go hand in hand. Viaduct should have been done already, but due to various delays, whether it was some of our outside shareholders permit reviews and working with other utilities it's taken some time but we're getting together on the viaduct but we've included that there's a work left to do in 26 for the viaduct so once the viaduct's done then we'll start work on the Hancock Bridge also we've listed funds in here for crack sealing and repair work and hot mix so this is one of the items we want to make sure we protect that investment that we've made in our transportation system. The street maintenance plan, obviously, we've discussed that. This is the 1% transportation tax that we currently collect on sales of items except for food and medicine and medical equipment.

We've got the municipal lot that is included in this year's capital plan, so that's a mill and overlay of the municipal lot. It's been needing it for quite a few years.

so we'll get that done early next year and then we've included the police department alley this has been an item that's needed to be addressed for a very long time and right now this would be the time to get that done in 26 also you'll see the sidewalk project south and west with ADA ramps that one is funded through his grant 2.4 million dollars that were outside funding but we won't be working on that till 27 but we want it reflected here in the capital plan. Walnut as well, Walnut from South to Empire, that's approximately going to be a two-year project and we're working with IDOT, STU funding for that project.

Stevenson, Locust to Sunset, we're planning two years there, $750,000 for 26 and 27. That is also using STU IDOT money.

and we're also looking at Lincoln Street, Locust to West, about 800,000 in two years but in 26 we'll be utilizing about 400,000 next year and that will also be STU funding through IDOT and we've got South Street programmed. We've added 250,000 in here for our design work in that but we have approximately anywhere between four and seven million. I'm not entirely sure the total amount but this was through John Cabello, who oversees IDOT, who IDOT had come to him and said, hey, we don't have enough people to deploy all the funds. And he said, well, I've got some communities that could deploy the funds themselves. Why don't you just give them the funds? And that is how South Street, we will begin to work on South Street next year. Walnut, Empire to Maine, we put that out there at year 28. That's going to be a fairly expensive realignment and a lot of right-of-way work because the road itself is narrow, too narrow for modern-day standards, IDOT standards, so we're going to be working on that in 28.

As well, we have Galena in here listed. We put some funding in here for various engineering that we might need, but this is an IDOT project. It's in the five-year plan, and next year they should start the project, it would be resurfacing Galena from Clark to Park, which is a pretty significant undertaking.

Again, they'll be working on ramps next year and then paving surfaces potentially next year and then the following years.

And then we've also had West Galena to Empire that we've added here. Essentially, we just wanted an item to track it here in the capital plan moving forward.

board. So that's everything on the road projects. Do you have any questions on the road projects so far?

Now, this includes the five-year plan. So when we go to the city website, we see the five-year plan down at the bottom of the page. Those are our local roads that we'll be doing, and those are accounted for under the street maintenance plan. So just so you know, just because you don't see the streets from the five-year plan for next year on here, they are included in this. Under buildings, police department facility continuing to keep that top of mind. That one is a fairly expensive challenge. After some research, we came up with that it's going to be pretty expensive. So we're tracking that in the capital plan with the intention of getting things together and getting outside funding to help us with that.

We've also included about $100,000 for Tuck Pointing City Hall this year. We had originally planned to do that this year, but we went ahead and did storm windows instead due to the fact that single pane, it's very cold in the wintertime in northern Illinois, the building has a hard time keeping up with heat, and storm windows would have the most impact there.

So we've kicked the Tuck Pointing to 26, and this won't be the entire thing. This will be probably just a portion of City Hall.

Moving down here a little further for $26,000, we've got renovations budgeted for Island Avenue. If you haven't been down there recently, the building itself is just fully depreciated and in need of just some maintenance and some cleanup down there.

in addition we've got the $800,000 in for the salt sheds we've talked about this at various times but just open it up tonight we have two large salt sheds that are a pole construction and both of them are failing the poles are rotted off at the base and at this point we have the the rear wall of one of them is pushing away from the truss system so they're actually hazardous from a standpoint of you don't want people that are not you know enclosed in the cab of a loader or anything anywhere near it. So we're going to, one of the plans there is to remove both of those salt sheds and then build a large concrete block impoundment with a large hoop shed on top and that should be more than double the current capacity of our salt sheds. So that's planned for next year.

We've got the airport terminal building. So we currently have some estimates out here about 1.8 million total, but our match would be about $190,000. We budgeted for the match, and this would be built out largely with FAA money and state money with a 5% match from the city. We're also budgeting for the PAPI lighting system. That's the approach light or some of the approach lights. Again, that's been in the capital plan for the airport for a number of years. Next year, we'll be completing that. We've also budgeted for $400,000 for the fire department for new windows and just we have several different items there on the fire budget for ensuing years. You can look at those if you have any questions on those please let me know. If we could move on to water infrastructure. So the first one there is water main water main replacements. So that's essentially whenever we do a road program we evaluate the water main if it needs to be replaced.

then we replace that water main. It also gives us an opportunity to budget for that and that's reflected here in the capital plan as water main money that will be working together with our street reconstruction money. Also there's a component of that that is the viaduct that is why it's listed. We've also added a phase four of the lead service line replacement program which is our Service Line Replacement Program, which is our final phase, and we should be completing that hopefully in 2026. So very excited about that. Again, the lead service line is 100% loan forgiveness through the EPA. Water structures phase three, which is well 12, we've talked about it many times, and well 12, we've recently drilled the test well down to I think about 1800 feet, 13, I'm sorry, 1300 feet and taking taking a sample. And so those are being evaluated now. If all goes well, we should be moving forward on construction there. The two years of $15 million, we've secured, I think, at least $13 million of this in forgivable loans, emerging contaminants, and also some outside congressionally directed money. We're hoping to get the rest of it covered, but we do not have an announcement this time, but we should have soon. Also, you'll see here we've got water main phase four, phase five. That's just us keeping track of as we go through and do the road program that we have enough money here to do the water main. Obviously, if we don't replace the water main, we don't want to invest in the transportation infrastructure and then have the water main ruin it. So we do have about 60% of our city is comprised of this low-grade spun cast water main, which is in

notoriously weak and is old and is in many cases corroded. So every time we do those roads, we're going to evaluate that, make sure the water main is quality. If it is, we'll leave it. If it's not, we'll replace it. Backup generator for Carroll. That's in the plan for next year. As we've discussed, I have certain utility infrastructure remote sites like Carroll that provide, I think in this case, about 1.7 million gallons per day of water to the city, but there is no backup capacity there.

We essentially have one large towable generator that we would, in an emergency, maybe an ice storm, have to take around to each of all of our remote sites, and to me that's inherently unsafe and not a great plan.

So we are slowly but surely upgrading our remote sites with backup generation capacity.

If you skip down to cold storage brick street, that's an extension to the brick street storage shed that is necessary.

we've consolidated due to the work at the wastewater treatment plant we've had to move equipment up to Brook Street with that we need an extension on that building so that we can keep our cold storage materials undercover and then lastly here on the water side we have the willow tank rehab we're budgeting about a million dollars for the willow tank it's a ground ground level storage tank that runs off of booster pumps when it was originally purchased and installed, the appropriate man hatches and things that are required for maintenance were not put in at the time, so the only hatch in it is at the very top, and we need to upgrade that so that it's safe for our personnel to get inside and do the appropriate maintenance that it will require over the years.

Any questions on the water infrastructure side?

If we could.

Yes.

All of the restrictions.

The airport water main extension, what is that?

Well, one of the challenges out here is for anything to happen at the airport, we need to supply water to the airport and sufficient volume and flow for fire suppression. So one of the things we're hoping to work on here moving forward in the ensuing years is getting water from the utility out to the airport so that we have sufficient volume and flow for fire suppression in the hangar buildings. As we go along, fire code is becoming more and more restrictive and if we hope to make the airport into a regional maintenance facility, then we need to have sufficient volume and flow of water for those fire suppression systems.

And you've already set aside money for this?

Well, this is the capital plan. This is what we're looking to do. And every year beyond 26 will change slightly depending on the facts on the ground. So this could move out a year. This could happen. It depends on the other priorities at that time.

Okay. So is this capital plan $4 million?

Right now, yes. We put $4 million in the capital plan for the water main extension to the airport.

And when do you plan on doing this?

Well, we have it programmed for 2027.

I'll take that.

And I'm available. If you have any other questions on that, we can definitely talk about that.

But in the interest of time, I'd like to move on to wastewater infrastructure.

We're coming to the end of phase one, which is the SEP system, the headworks, the UV disinfection, the new lab and offices at Hancock. As you'll see there, we need to start planning for future years related to phase two, which is going to be sludge handling and nutrient removal.

So those are some things that we'll talk about a little later during the council meeting. I have some information to share on that. But just moving forward, we're planning for phase two on the wastewater side. We've also got lining. We're planning about $500,000 for sewer lining. Again, when we do the street, we want to make sure that those sewers are lined so that if there's a material breach of the sewer lateral, it doesn't cause debris.

degradation to the road. We also have some manhole rehab there and then we're looking as we move forward we're going to be needing to upgrade and update our final clarifiers at the wastewater treatment plant. So you have flocculation, sedimentation and those clarifiers perform that work as it ends the treatment process and they haven't been updated in many years and we're going to be moving forward with some upgrades to those in ensuing years. We've also got lift stations remodels. So we've got approximately $2 million programmed for the park in Galena lift station. There's new drivers, motors, and pumps that need to be replaced at three of these next year. So we're working on that now. Coming to the end here, again, Walnut Lift Station is in here, $2.7 million. So this would also be upgrades, necessary upgrades and updates to the Walnut Lift Station. And then we have the blower boiler room piping at the wastewater treatment plant. I believe we've got issues there in terms of the heat exchangers, the things that keep the sludge digesters working properly. So we've accounted for some upgrades there.

and then we have $1.2 million budgeted for the Meadowbrook sewer expansion so that is from La Crusta and then connecting you know going north and south along Meadowbrook and then potentially connecting into Oak Hill so we're we had been waiting on outside funding for this but we've been waiting for five years and at this point the road is degraded to sufficient point where we really just need to get the sewer, gravity sewer done, and then we can resurface that road.

And the same thing, we've got West Demeter does, that needs a sewer upgrade as well, so we'll be installing a collection system there.

Any questions on the wastewater infrastructure?

Alderman, Sellers.

Yes, I'd just like to know, how many lift stations do we actually have in?

I want to say seven.

Nine, okay.

and how often do they need this type of repair? Well, these are the bigger ones, Joy, so probably every 20 years.

Yeah. Yep, go ahead. So the stations that we're upgrading this year, Park and Laurel were built in 1967, and we've done some small mechanical work now and then, but this will be the first major overhaul of these since their inception, so they've lasted quite a long time.

And I will comment that a lot of these remote sites, they generally function pretty well during normal operation.

The challenge comes in when we have heavy rains and we have INI making its way into the wastewater plant.

It can cause a serious backup in a large section of a drainage shed pretty quickly.

So when we are spending some money upgrading these, what we are doing here is ensuring that folks with basements, floor drains, net, will be much more capable, able to handle any kind of storm surge out in the collection system.

A couple other things, moving on to stormwater.

We have a handful.

We have a handful of projects here.

We've got the storm inlet replacements.

We're planning to do, how many was that?

Was that about 30?

About 30 this year, or 26?

Yeah.

Okay.

Obviously, all around town, and I think Alderman Parker noted one just over by him that had a bed, a failed grate.

We have a lot of brick structures out there that a mortar gets eroded away, the bricks fall in, and then what you have is the stormwater eroding away the area around the storm inlet and also causing debris to get in and clog potentially the storm system.

So we're just doing our best to start off with 30, 26, get them reconstructed. And we wouldn't put them back with brick. They'd all be cast concrete.

Also, we've got some items in here for the viaduct. As I mentioned, the viaduct's got a transportation component. It's got a water component.

also has a wastewater or a stormwater component so we've integrated that here and we've been for years we've been planning on a downtown stormwater upgrade that includes repairing of the large, I guess it's a viaduct, it's a big, a large storm way down at Benton and Jackson. It's made out of wood and the wood is getting old and I would not want that structure to create a problem for drainage during a heavy storm.

So that's been on the plan for probably five years. Moving into some street vehicles, we've currently, in 26, we're not planning to purchase any new 10 or 5 yards, at least out of the street department. We are going to be purchasing two dump bodies for the hook lift trucks. As everybody remembers, we ordered two hook lift trucks back in 2019, I believe.

we didn't take delivery to like 2021 and those were only outfitted with salt boxes so they basically sit in the shed for most of the year this year we're going to install or we're going to order dump bodies so we can use them in construction projects also we're planning to purchase a new roller we need an additional roller for the street department and so that's included here any questions on street vehicles So it's like a dump truck except these two trucks their chassis is fitted with like a hydraulic hook and you back up to the let's say the the the salt the you know the the spreader in the salt box it just reaches up under there hooks it and then pulls it up on the chassis and then locks it down so whenever you buy any kind of it so these trucks are are great because they're flexible. They could do salt in the wintertime with a V-box splitter and a spreader.

Then you take that off, you put the leaf box on, and you use them for leaf removal. And then in the construction season, you put the construction or a large 10-yard box on them, and they can haul rock and that kind of thing. What did you say about the two that were sitting? Yeah, we ordered two new trucks in 2019. We received them in I think 21 and because they've only they only have the salt they have the the v-box and the salt spreader and then a leaf box we'll use them for a few months every year so by getting these two dump bodies we'll be able to utilize them all year. How much did we pay for those that we are not even using? Well I mean they're about 225,000 or so each and and like I said we use them in the winter and we use them in the fall but by getting these two boxes we'll be using them all year. Okay but what are we going to do with the equipment we have setting? Is it something we could get some money back on or? Actually this would be adding to so we'd be adding to the capabilities of these two trucks. We'd be taking them from a leaf machine or a salt box to a utility box where we can haul rock and things for the construction. Okay the equipment that is sitting will Will we ever use it?

Yes, we use it every year.

But when we get these two that you're wanting, will we use that other equipment?

Yes.

These are dump bodies, so in the summer we can have dump trucks out of these trucks, and it gets to the winter, they'll take the dump box off, put the salt spreader box on.

Yes.

Then we'll use that I understand that part I just don't understand the two from 2021 sitting That's the trucks That's the truck chassis These are different components that go on the back of that same truck It'll just mean we can use those two trucks all year long instead of just in the winter and in the fall I just don't want us purchasing unnecessary material that in a couple years is not going to serve no purpose and now we're going to be in thousands of dollars ordering more like we are. Alderman Stacy, I'd be happy to take you down and introduce you to the vehicles and maybe we can go for a ride. With that, we're itemizing, as you can see in the capital plan, we're breaking this out, we're being more thorough about what's in it. So we've broken out the utility vehicles this year, that's kind of a change from previous years. So we're budgeting for a 10-yard dump truck for the water and sewer department for 26.

Also a mulching head for our mini excavator that helps us keep right of ways clear from trees and bushes and things that grow up. And then the crew cab truck, we've got two service trucks that are in the budget for the utility this year. So any questions on any of that?

obviously the next one here is police vehicles so we're we've itemized four police vehicles that's kind of a standard every year we need to replace four then we've added a golf cart for the police because when they do events and things this is so they can get around and be more effective in their patrols and we've also added a live video camera trailer and radar trailer as well as 20 additional body cams, and then a Skydio X drone, and a mobile command trailer, and portable radios, bearing in mind that a good portion of these items are funded from Senator Durbin for police money. We received about $600,000 from Senator Durbin, so this is congressionally directed. Yes.

What is a live video camera trailer and radar trailer?

So this is a trailer where you park, crank up the boom, and it's got multiple cameras on.

And so if you're having a particular issue with high crime area, you can deploy this and you can kind of maintain surveillance on the area.

We already have this?

Yeah.

Is that what's on Galena right now by?

That I couldn't answer that.

By the store?

Yeah.

So with this, we are actually getting a couple of different things.

One is a trailer that's like a speed trailer and an LPR and the other one is a surveillance trailer where we would also use it for major events, Toddy Baker days, things like cruise night where you can monitor a crowd from one point so that we can see what's going on.

Okay, well, I'm speaking of this trailer-looking thing that's on Galena as I speak with a blue light.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay, and then moving on to fire, and that should wrap it up for this evening's capital plan. We've got a budgeted VHF radio network, replacing hose nozzle appliances, firefighter turnout gear, that's the more expensive item. Some of the turnout gear for the firemen contain forever chemicals.

chemicals. So we want to retire the turnout gear that has those chemicals and replace it with the new designs that don't. And then the other items, you know, we've got an ambulance, a chair for your ambulance and some environmentally friendly firefighting foam. So that pretty much covers the capital plan for 26. So any other questions on that?

I had a question on the first page. Airport terminal updates, something about 5% matchable from the city. What does that mean?

So we're budgeting $1.8 million for the terminal building update. So the building is there. The interior needs to be built out.

Our estimates based on Crawford Murphy Tilley, who's our airport engineers, they're estimating it's going to be about 1.8 total. 90% of this 1.8 will come from the FAA itself. And then 5% will come from the state. And then 5% would be a city match. And that would come out to around $190,000.

And so where do this 5% come from? Taxes?

Yes.

Okay, so that's 5% for the airport and and 4.94% for the library.

Well, that's, those aren't connected.

5% of that project.

Yeah.

The project total, it's 5% of that.

And when do we plan on doing this?

Next year.

So we're going to put water and an additional.

terminal work all at the airport. Well, the terminal needs to be finished and yes, we're going to do that and we're budgeting for 2027 for water to go out to the airport, not for the terminal specifically, but for basically for fire suppression needs at the airport in general. We haven't had it in all these years. Now, all of a sudden, we need water at the airport. Well, I have actually been working on that for a number of years. So, can I clarify something? So, the number that's put in for 2027, if you look at the note, we're just researching grant opportunities for that water through the aviation mechanisms or other programs. That's not specific money that's coming right out of Freeport's budget.

I know you talked about the police department and you said that's going to be a pretty big budget.

Is that what's on, what are we all looking for that for the police department? Are we looking new? Are we looking fix up or what is all that going to be?

So, I mean, the two main options are going to be construction, new construction, or it's going to be retrofitted existing structure.

On new construction, it's going to range anywhere from $300 to $600 per square foot.

And on retrofit of existing structure, it's probably going to knock about $100 per square foot off of that.

So anywhere between $200 and $500 a square foot, depending upon a section of the PD and that.

So we've done some research.

We've visited quite a few different newer police stations.

We're estimating we'll need somewhere around 30,000 square feet for the new police department.

So that would be more than doubling what we have now in square footage Part of the reason for that is policing techniques, the way things are set up This is the way things are done today and have been for many years So we've been kind of making do since the 70s But when we move, when we take it to the next level We're going to bring things up to speed to where they need to be What modern policing requires today Did I answer your question, Joy?

Just wondering if you are, you know, looking at new, are you looking at reconstruction, what are we I think we're looking at the most feasible thing to do, and it's probably going to be retrofitting an existing structure. That'd probably be the most likely. However, it's completely dependent upon funding and where that funding comes from. If tomorrow we get congressionally directed funding for something, it might change the whole thing. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

We'll move on. Any public comments, agenda or non-agenda items? Seeing none, I would take a motion for adjournment. Motion by Sellers, second by Johnson. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Thank you.