WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.220 Oh, they've got to go to the court and stuff? 00:00:02.780 --> 00:00:03.040 Yeah. 00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:09.860 What about the Jersey mine? 00:00:10.760 --> 00:00:11.700 What about the Jersey mine? 00:00:11.700 --> 00:00:12.440 Are you excited? 00:00:12.680 --> 00:00:13.500 Do you like Jersey mine? 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:16.940 That's what I want with GameStop. 00:00:17.460 --> 00:00:18.560 Did you see it? 00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:19.520 What did they do? 00:00:20.560 --> 00:00:21.620 They're working on it, Tom. 00:00:22.040 --> 00:00:24.160 Michelle, if you'd give the invocation, please. 00:00:30.530 --> 00:00:34.910 Lord Jesus, we thank you for this time together to make decisions for the city of Freeport 00:00:34.910 --> 00:00:40.050 according to your will for this city. Before this meeting gets started, I would ask that each one would 00:00:40.050 --> 00:00:46.170 examine their heart as read in Ephesians 4, 31 through 32, and this comes out in the message version. 00:00:46.790 --> 00:00:52.990 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speakings be put away from you with all malice, 00:00:52.990 --> 00:00:58.950 and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you, 00:00:59.330 --> 00:01:04.730 so that what needs to be done and accomplished for the city of Freeport can happen through 00:01:04.730 --> 00:01:10.930 through grace, wisdom, love, and forgiveness, through godly wisdom, not through our own understanding, 00:01:12.350 --> 00:01:20.650 not our own understanding, our own will be done for the city of Freeport, but the Lord's will be done to glorify Christ Jesus, 00:01:21.370 --> 00:01:27.230 that God would bring the city council, mayor, and city manager together and redeem what has been broken. 00:01:27.230 --> 00:01:50.810 The word says in Philippians 3.13, Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, transform minds and hearts tonight to unite, bringing Freeport to its full potential and destiny in Christ Jesus. 00:01:50.810 --> 00:02:01.630 In James 1.19 it says, Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. 00:02:01.630 --> 00:02:20.630 Thank you. In the mayor's absence, I'll call this meeting to order at 6.01. The mayor will be marked absent and alderpersons present. Clem? Aye. Monroe? Aye. Simmons? Here. Parker? Aye. Stacy? Here. 00:02:20.810 --> 00:02:52.540 Shadle? Here. Sanders is absent. Sellers? Aye. And we do have a quorum for our meeting. Older person Clemm, if you'd lead the pledge, and then the meeting is yours to cheer. 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. 00:02:52.540 --> 00:03:22.540 Thank you. We need to amend the agenda, and then we need approval of the agenda. Between items number six and seven, we need to have a presentation for Public Works employee of the year and Public Works, and then we also need to move to second public comment before item number 14, the closed session. 00:03:22.540 --> 00:03:58.710 We will return to open session, but we need that. There's no sense to draw that out. So could I have a motion to amend the agenda? So moved. Second. Do we need to do voice or all in favor? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion passes. Approval of minutes of the city council meeting of the hold held on January 13th, 00:03:58.710 --> 00:04:31.140 2025. Can I get a motion and a second? So moved. Second. Who is first? Joy? Okay. Thank you, Joy. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Public comments? Madam Clerk, do we need to approve the agenda yet? We did the amendment. We approved the amendment. You're correct, Greg. I apologize. We need a motion to vote on the agenda then. 00:04:31.520 --> 00:04:55.150 We voted aye. Second. Okay. Same. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Same sign. Thank you, Alderman Shadle for bringing that up. Public comments. There's nobody signed up for public comments. So we have, now we have the presentation. 00:04:55.150 --> 00:05:44.200 Thank you. I'd like to ask James Gobe and Randy Kolbauer to come up, please. So I would like to start with James. James is the Street Department Employee of the Year. He is classification as a tree trimmer one. I'd like to start with a fun fact about James. I recently was told that James likes to ride his bike to work on most days, which I think is pretty unique. 00:05:46.940 --> 00:06:16.940 James came to the city with over 20 years of forestry experience working different operating jobs and forestry positions over his career he took the opportunity to introduce himself to Pat Ingram while the two-man forestry crew was doing some work outside the library one day not even completing a full year of employment with the city James likes to stay busy and will make sure any task is handled to him in a completed without hesitation manner 00:06:16.940 --> 00:06:24.320 and it will be done correctly and thoroughly. The crew guys enjoy working with James as he will do anything 00:06:24.320 --> 00:06:30.760 asked of him on a job site without question. He never hesitates for leadership and asks for explanations 00:06:30.760 --> 00:06:36.160 if something hasn't been done before. He comes to work every day with a positive attitude and his 00:06:36.160 --> 00:06:44.060 infectious attitude melts into the people around him. He has added a strong work ethic, sound decision 00:06:44.060 --> 00:07:14.040 making collaboration and drive to the street department crew along with his vast knowledge of his position that he brought with him seemingly quiet and I heard he didn't want to come tonight. He started to come out of his shell and never fails to lighten the mood in a stressful situation or day. To say he's an asset to our department is an understatement. That was something from his peers. And we're happy to have him and look forward to many more years of service with the city of Freeport. 00:07:14.060 --> 00:07:54.030 James, I'd like to another award we'd like to give tonight. And before I forget, I'd like to thank the Public Works Department for coming out and supporting their crews tonight. Really appreciate all your attendance after hours. Again, our second award of the night is Utility Department Employee of the Year, which this year, Randy Kolbauer was selected, and she is our environmental and regulatory compliance officer. 00:07:55.390 --> 00:08:25.310 Can you hold that for me? Thank you. I'm going to give you a little fun fact about Randy. She's actually got a few. Randy is a former police officer. She's part of the rural fire department and she's also a safety officer at a firearms training center. Randy is a self-starter and a dedicated employee to the city of Freeport. She is a true teammate to all and is willing to learn all duties as assigned. Randy has helped build the compliance department and she is 00:08:25.310 --> 00:08:55.290 is considered an equal to the streets and utility superintendents. Randy's compliant roles involve all areas of required utility tracking and reporting for state compliance. This is an extremely important role in the utility operations business. Her assignments include working with many team members daily, including the lab staff, the water and wastewater operations staff, our significant industrial users, landfill partners, timber industries who maintains our woodlot, compliance reports, 00:08:55.310 --> 00:09:25.310 reporting includes annual and monthly water reporting, consumer confidence reports, and an annual and monthly sanitary sewer reporting. Randy's role also performs field visits for stormwater compliance, sampling, monitoring, and reporting of MS4 stormwater authority requirements. Other special duties assigned include iWorks streets compliance and right-of-way compliance. She issues warning violations and issues right-of-way fines 00:09:25.310 --> 00:09:36.790 She attends code hearings as the city's representative, and she does all of the EPA sampling as required for the overall compliance system, and until recently she did that in her own car. 00:09:38.310 --> 00:09:48.610 Randy never backs down from a challenge. She will make sure she's well informed, educated when something is new presented to her, and won't take shortcuts to get a quicker result. 00:09:48.610 --> 00:09:59.850 When presented with anything, she listens, absorbs the information being provided, and just does not react. She always makes the best. 00:09:59.850 --> 00:10:22.120 She always makes the best decision possible in the moment. Also, she humbles herself if the decision is wrong. She is by far one of the easiest people on our staff to collaborate with and never hesitates to offer help to all others regardless of what she already has on our plate. I'd like to sincerely congratulate Randy for her contributions and congratulate her as the Utility Employee of the Year for 2024. 00:10:22.120 --> 00:10:58.240 for him. Oh, hey, hold on. James, come back up here. I forgot. So I asked the utility department to come up with some special awards for these people, and the mechanics came through for us today. So we have inspired by the NFL touchdown necklaces, we have made our crew members their own necklaces. 00:10:58.240 --> 00:11:04.080 James. 00:11:09.240 --> 00:11:21.020 and then since Randy, Randy is the sheriff of the town when it comes to her violations, we got you. 00:11:35.640 --> 00:11:38.200 Randy, first, James, step to the side. 00:11:43.850 --> 00:11:46.190 Okay, Randy, step down so you can get in there. 00:11:50.410 --> 00:11:56.250 Thank you again for coming, guys. 00:12:00.810 --> 00:12:21.550 Rob, if I could before the guys head out, on behalf of the council, we really appreciate what you guys do. It really shows the camaraderie of you guys coming out and supporting your team. It's very important to all of you guys and to all of us. We're proud of what you guys do. 00:12:21.550 --> 00:12:41.290 We're kidding around beforehand, we know it looks like we got a snowfall coming up, the major thing in that is make sure you guys are safe, it's no matter how fast you do it, it's no matter how safe you do it, so thank you guys for all your work, we really, and gals for all your work, we really, really appreciate it. 00:12:41.290 --> 00:13:15.620 We have to put in the record that Alderman Sanders was here at 6-06. Item number seven is a presentation, action plan for safe streets for the ALL grant, questions and answers in the presentation, and that would be from this gentleman in front of us, who I do not have his name. 00:13:43.350 --> 00:14:18.550 in the back row. Should I go? Yeah. Sure. Okay. So I'd like to introduce Matt. He's with Alta Planning and Design. They were hired to do the Freeport Safety Action Plan. It's part of the SS4A grant. Matt and his co-worker Lexi are here in town for the next few days. We are also having an open house tomorrow night here at this facility for 00:14:18.550 --> 00:14:27.570 or anybody in the public that wants to participate. Matt's probably got about a 15-minute presentation on progress that we've been working for in the last quarter. 00:14:29.010 --> 00:14:41.110 All right. Good evening. Again, Matthew Dierdahl out of Alta Planning and Design. Really happy to be here. We got in on Sunday and had a really good day talking to people today. 00:14:41.110 --> 00:15:11.110 and then I got to bike around a bit this afternoon and drove around to kind of check out some of the different areas we've been talking about for safety so I feel like I'm really starting to get to know Freeport and I think these in-person visits are really important so yeah I'm gonna try to go quick I may or may not focus on the slides we'll see how close I can stick to it but I definitely want to talk a little bit about the safe systems approach what a safety plan actually is and what we're trying to do 00:15:11.110 --> 00:15:41.090 here with it, and then give just a little bit of an overview and some outcomes that we're hoping for, and then I added some slides based on the information that we collected today. So again, I'm the project manager for Alta, partnering with Fehr Graham on this safety action plan. And so why pursue safety action plan? It starts with the safe system approach that the FHWA decided to 00:15:41.110 --> 00:16:11.090 to frame because the traditional and maybe older school approach to safety is about preventing crashes, you know, improving behavior, individual behavior, and then reacting based on where crashes are happening. And so the safe system approach, kind of a newer approach, starts with the premise that death and very serious injuries on our roads are unacceptable and zero is the 00:16:11.090 --> 00:16:40.350 goal, so zero fatal crashes, zero injuries that impact somebody's life for the rest of their life. So that's the start. Also, we know that mistakes are going to happen, so you can't engineer away mistakes, but what we want is that when those mistakes happen, that it doesn't impact people's lives. And then there's a variety of other things out there. Reducing speed is a big factor in it, 00:16:40.350 --> 00:16:47.510 and then through our safety analysis identifying these risks and preventing them in the future. 00:16:48.730 --> 00:16:59.790 I'm not going to go over all of these but I just want to highlight at the national level the impact of traffic safety, traffic deaths is staggering at the national level. 00:17:01.170 --> 00:17:09.430 And then some Illinois statistics you can see on the screen there I'll just say about 300,000 crashes involving motor vehicles. 00:17:10.350 --> 00:17:23.090 about 1,100 fatal crashes, and then just some bicycle statistics up there as well, and then Stevenson County here in Illinois, you can see some trends there as well. 00:17:24.730 --> 00:17:37.950 So why is this happening? There's a lot of reasons, and part of what we're going to figure out in this plan is try to really understand what those particular reasons are here in Freeport, but big picture, speed is one of the biggest factors. 00:17:37.950 --> 00:18:07.790 When cars are going fast and they hit things, bad things happen. And part of the reason that motor vehicle speeds are an issue is because of the way streets are historically have been designed for high speeds. So wide speeds, wide travel lanes, things like that. We know that vehicle size continues to increase, both personal vehicles like SUVs and trucks and commercial vehicles and trucks. 00:18:07.950 --> 00:18:37.930 and then land use. So where do people live? How dense is development around the city? And then what are the connections between those uses and how can people get around? So those are some of the big picture reasons why it's happening. So again, the specific thing that we're working on and will produce as a part of this is a document that'll be a safety action plan. And so the elements here on the screen are required by the federal government. 00:18:37.950 --> 00:19:07.610 I won't go through each of these in detail, but it starts with a leadership commitment of wanting to tackle these serious and fatal injuries. We have developed a safety committee as a part of the project through collaboration with the city. A systemic level safety analysis is a really interesting part of it. We'll see a map in a few minutes that starts to get at 00:19:07.950 --> 00:19:37.230 understanding where crashes are happening and particularly different severity levels and we'll get to that in a second because that really starts to help us understand where to target to make the most benefit through our efforts. Engagement is important. This is an engagement week. We've had several focus groups today and tomorrow. We're having our second steering committee or TAC, Technical Advisory Committee, tomorrow and then an open house. 00:19:37.230 --> 00:19:57.590 So I want to plug that a couple times. We have these cards here that are on the desk over there that will tell you about it. And we also have a survey and an interactive map. The interactive map is a really cool opportunity to get in in the city that you know and identify. It's very user friendly. 00:19:57.590 --> 00:20:25.980 identify, it's very user friendly, identify areas that you don't feel safe or where you see cars going too fast or not yielding to pedestrians or if there's school issues you can let us know all of that and that'll be really important. The federal grant requires us to look at equity considerations and basically that's mapping a variety of demographic information to help us understand you know areas that we can focus through a priority project. 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:56.000 projects at the end. And then as we get into the final stages towards the end of this year, we'll develop a robust implementation plan that identifies short-term, medium-term, and long-term projects. And I think that's probably one of the biggest reasons that we're doing the safety action plan is it gets Freeport eligible for attractive federal grants to implement some of these things. And then we'll also at the end, we'll have 00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:08.380 have what we call a dashboard that will show the work that we do to be transparent and let you all know and let the community know what's going on, where there are issues, and what we plan to do about it. 00:21:10.870 --> 00:21:19.970 Our approach, I think I talked about a lot of this. Let me just double check if there's anything else I really want to highlight. I don't think so. It's probably more of a duplicate. 00:21:19.970 --> 00:21:49.810 So we are here in the second green box from the left, the second TAC meeting. We started towards the end of 2024. We're going to wrap up in late fall 2025 with that document. And so we're really looking forward to some public engagement. We hope people here watching tonight or in the future will participate in the survey, interactive map, probably the best way 00:21:49.810 --> 00:22:22.860 to engage if you're interested in this. So our TAC that we developed as a part of this project is helping us define the problem. So we're going to have a mapping exercise tomorrow and we started that today as well to really understand the context of Freeport and where the issues are across the city. And again, the TAC will towards the end help shape the solutions and help prioritize. I think I've talked about most of the engagement 00:22:22.860 --> 00:22:30.340 things here. We have the online map, stakeholder meetings. So I'll skip past that. So the fun stuff. 00:22:30.640 --> 00:22:35.380 This I worked on this afternoon. I hope there aren't any spelling errors in there, but forgive me if there 00:22:35.380 --> 00:22:41.920 are. But this is what we've heard so far in both the meetings we had today and then the bike ride and 00:22:41.920 --> 00:22:48.340 the drive around town. We stopped and took a bunch of pictures, which I'll come to in a second. But some 00:22:48.340 --> 00:22:52.820 of the things we've noticed so far and we've heard so far, again, speed of motor vehicles was one of 00:22:52.820 --> 00:23:22.180 the first things that came up. Wide streets, and there's some particular areas around the city where there's some transitions from four lanes undivided down to two or three lanes. So just some considerations there. Accessibility for pedestrians, both at intersections. So how does it feel? How does it look? What types of curb ramps are available for people to cross the street? 00:23:22.820 --> 00:23:35.780 And then how many lanes are they crossing? Those things are really important. And then also along the streets. So looking at the sidewalk network, you know, is there space for people to walk? Or are they mixing with traffic? 00:23:36.860 --> 00:23:50.880 And then also, interestingly, there's a lot of discussion today about what are the primary routes in town? And then where are some of these cut-through routes that people are taking that I think is interesting? 00:23:50.880 --> 00:24:07.980 and then how does that interact with where people are naturally walking and crossing? So where are the schools, you know, where's the businesses, where are people working? And then just thinking through, you know, how is that space designed for all of those different uses? 00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:19.720 And then also we talked a little bit about behavior. So personal behavior, texting while driving, being distracted, things like that. All of these things are important. 00:24:19.720 --> 00:24:49.460 So, I have just a couple slides of pictures. Took several, I think 70 or 80, but I have a few to share. This slide is just a few samples of pedestrian crossing conditions and thinking about accessibility, so some better than others. The one on the left, South Drive and West Avenue, does not have an accessible crossing. Just wanted to note that. Kiwanis in the middle, Empire, 00:24:49.720 --> 00:25:19.700 those are some areas where there are marked crosswalks with different signage present today and then also so the Empire there's a school there and then up on Kiwanis I think it's the community college and then Walnut Road and South Street just kind of sharing a variation of a crossing where there's a slip lane there so a free right to separate from the through lane and then you can see the kind of the separated crossing with the island there. 00:25:19.720 --> 00:25:51.300 And I'm not necessarily sharing these to evaluate or make suggestions at this time. I think we're really in a phase of trying to gather feedback and gather context and understanding. So this one, again, I got a bike today from Derek Thompson from Fehr Graham and got to bike around and found some really interesting paths. So Park Ave and Pearl City Road there, I thought were fun and they're nice paths. 00:25:51.320 --> 00:26:12.160 Adams Avenue, and then near Clark Street, those are connected, and so there's this nice, pretty low-stress bike route, and I found that to be interesting, and I wanted to take off and see where it went to the northwest, because it looked like there's a lot of green, and I thought that would have been fun, but didn't have time, so hopefully tomorrow I can do that. 00:26:12.160 --> 00:26:38.520 And then Stevenson Street is a good example right here, and I don't recall the cross street, but where it transitions from the four lane undivided and pretty wide, no sidewalks, and it transitions at the crest of a hill, so sight lines are an interesting issue there, and then transitions to two lane to the east, and I believe the street width is the same there. 00:26:38.520 --> 00:26:49.120 and I think there's a speed transition slowing down as they go eastbound. And then just a couple more 00:26:49.120 --> 00:26:59.720 examples. This is South Street and then Burchard, if I'm saying that right, on the right. So earlier I 00:26:59.720 --> 00:27:04.380 mentioned that I think one of the more interesting aspects will be the data analysis. So what we're 00:27:04.380 --> 00:27:08.860 going to look at is where the crash is happening, where are they most dangerous. Again, getting back 00:27:08.860 --> 00:27:38.840 to the issue of wanting to prevent the most harmful crashes from happening. And then what are the countermeasures or solutions that we can apply to what we find happening? And so sometimes we'll, like, we're going to end up developing crash profiles. So we might find that there's a lot of left turn crashes. We might find that there's a lot of rear end crashes at certain locations, side swipes, maybe lane departures. 00:27:38.860 --> 00:28:08.860 Director, which I don't know that we'll see that in a more urban area, but we'll identify specific countermeasures that the FHWA has listed as proven counter safety measures, and so that's kind of the value of this in-depth safety analysis. So we'll start with just mapping the crashes on the left, and there, and again, I'm not asking that I don't think you can see the level of detail that well here, but the brighter 00:28:08.860 --> 00:28:38.860 the lighter ones or the orange is the most serious crashes and they go down in severity from there into the blue and green colors and then we start to identify corridors where the severity of those crashes and the concentration of them start to become higher and more concentrated and so what we want to stand out there is the red and maybe the orange a little bit and that starts to tell us where the biggest issues are and usually 00:28:38.860 --> 00:29:10.610 big headlines from this, which we don't have yet, we're just diving into the safety analysis, will be something along lines of 60% of all fatal and serious crashes are happening on maybe 10% of the roadways. And so that's like, that type of statement, we'll see what it is, really helps you identify where we should be making the safety improvements to get the best safety impact. Again, plug for the open house tomorrow. I hope to see you and others. 00:29:10.690 --> 00:29:19.990 there, City Hall right here from 530 to 730. And it'll be fun. Like, I think it'll be fun for most people 00:29:19.990 --> 00:29:27.110 because we're going to have a map, a big map, and we'll get to just ask people how they feel about safety 00:29:27.110 --> 00:29:35.090 and comfort when they walk, maybe bike or drive around Freeport. And I think that's mostly it. This 00:29:35.090 --> 00:29:46.710 This is the same thing that's in my hand right now. I think I've talked about this enough, so I'll end there. And thank you for the time tonight. I really appreciate it. And if there's questions. 00:29:46.710 --> 00:29:55.950 Yeah, I'd like to make a quick comment. So something that I wanted to make clear, the card that Matthew has, we will be 00:29:55.950 --> 00:30:23.620 The card that Matthew has, we will be posting that on Freeport's website so community members have access to the QR code so they'll be able to, even if you can't attend the meetings, you'll be able to make comments, go on the interactive Mac, trap what you want. As far as the level of items that we're looking at here, it's not just vehicles, we're also looking at bicycle routes, pedestrian walkways, and we could also, lighting could be a safety issue as well. 00:30:23.620 --> 00:30:51.760 So I'm just throwing that out there in general that those types of items can be trapped within the plan and also be part of the data analysis. Correct? Yep. All right. Thank you. Darren, could you explain a little bit more if you wouldn't take your matter? Appreciate it. We maybe have some questions for you, but a little bit more about the grant so we know how it works. Sure. I believe the sitting council went after this grant. 00:30:51.760 --> 00:31:14.860 It is a $500,000 project with a $400,000 grant. The grant is through the IDOT chain. This is called the planning stage of the grant. And in order to open Freeport up to implementation money, which means construction money, you have to do the planning process. You have to have a completed plan. 00:31:14.860 --> 00:31:41.700 It has to meet the FHWA rules. Federal Highway Department is actually the main source of the money for this. It's very important to Freeport. You guys have challenged us to find different ways to find money to fix safety issues and or road problems within Freeport. 00:31:41.700 --> 00:31:47.840 support. This is one of the biggest funding sources that's out there right now. There's billions of dollars 00:31:47.840 --> 00:31:54.920 within that bipartisan deal for this type of funding, but again, you had to do the planning grant to get to 00:31:54.920 --> 00:31:59.860 the construction grant, and so that's why you'll see we have a time frame of less than a year to get this 00:31:59.860 --> 00:32:05.420 completed so we can be on the next cycle of implementation money. Okay. Okay. Does anyone 00:32:05.420 --> 00:32:18.260 have any questions for Matt or for Darren, Alderman Stacy? Yes, can you tell me who are the members of this safety committee and how they were chosen? 00:32:20.100 --> 00:32:34.220 Do you? If you get the members. Yeah, so we, I don't have that on me. I didn't bring it. Yeah, okay, gotcha. So when we started the project, we met with city staff and then identified 00:32:34.220 --> 00:33:03.500 provide key stakeholders in Freeport. So I think there's a lot of members of the city itself. So police, fire, greater Freeport partnership. There's a transit representative. Pretzel City Transit. Yeah. Highland Community College. Did you say Park District? School District. We sent invitations out to all the governmental and leadership 00:33:04.220 --> 00:33:32.060 areas of town requesting that they be part of this. That's the first, the key, the stakeholders list is, you know, all of the big partners within Freeport to have input from schools and the park systems. We even invited some of the, there's a couple of different bike groups within Freeport. We invited them as well. Again, we've sent out numerous invitations and those stakeholders, 00:33:32.060 --> 00:34:02.040 The tech program is what he's talking about, the technical assistance, that's really narrowed down to our local officials of Wayne's on there, I'm on there, I believe the fire department has a representative, the police has a representative, it's really our technical advisory committee to make sure that we are using the most up-to-date safety plans, for instance, like the 2025 handicap pro-ag statement, 00:34:02.060 --> 00:34:35.370 standards where those are just standards that the city is making to be able to have safe assessments for our streets. You'll see those maps that the crash analysis came from. That came from a combination of the City of Freeport Police Department and also IDOT. We worked with those partners to get that data. We also got some data from the county. Anyone else? Alderman Sanders? It's very interesting that this is 00:34:35.370 --> 00:35:06.290 is on the agenda meeting for discussion. I don't recall that this was even coming into preview at this time. And now I'm going to ask the question, what is the severity of obtaining a grant of this nature? And what severity level that this project is to be presented to the city of Freeport? And not only that, 00:35:07.030 --> 00:35:36.430 who's making these recommendations and whether you, I think what I heard was that it was a mandate or something of that sort by the Illinois IDOT or whatever. It's not that. Okay. I'm hearing a lot of information, but I have not had a time to digest it all just yet. I'm just listening to see what jumps out at me. 00:35:37.030 --> 00:35:44.070 and what I'm listening to is whether or not the analysis the data the statistics 00:35:46.070 --> 00:35:53.670 and where all of this data information is coming from and when did this project start who who set this up this 00:35:53.670 --> 00:36:02.710 program up to start the analysis to make sure that we are creating a plan first of all to create a plan 00:36:02.710 --> 00:36:30.530 to start something of this nature and where did this come from and how did it start? Why haven't the council been informed? Why haven't we seen any kind of surveys? I understand you went out and took a few pictures for slides and things of this nature to present to the council, but it still doesn't give us enough detailed information how these things came into existence, how these projects came into existence. 00:36:30.530 --> 00:36:46.210 and I think without us absolutely knowing what the severity of this reporting is, whatever it is, we need to see where it stands in the priority list of things to do. 00:36:47.210 --> 00:36:59.450 I love the idea of getting grants for projects, programs and things of this nature to create safety for the city of Freeport. 00:36:59.450 --> 00:37:28.710 Board. I love those things. I like that. But what I'm trying to figure out, how does this start to develop and who's coming up with the concept and whether this program, these grant proposals been in place for however long? Are we just bringing this to the council at this present time? Has it been something that's been in the back of the people's minds? 00:37:29.450 --> 00:37:43.250 who's generating this program for grants. How long had this been around? I'd just like to know, and I'm quite sure the council members would like to know how we got started with all of this. 00:37:44.550 --> 00:37:47.310 So I'm not sure, but I think you had at least 10 questions in there. 00:37:47.310 --> 00:37:48.350 I know. I did that. 00:37:48.350 --> 00:37:49.850 So I've tried to just stay with the ones I remember. 00:37:49.850 --> 00:37:53.150 I did that on purpose. I did that on purpose simply because... 00:37:53.150 --> 00:37:54.670 If you want answers to them, you've got to slow them down. 00:37:54.670 --> 00:38:04.890 I know, but the thing about it is, the thing about it is, as soon as I stop questioning, then I have to run into brick walls after I stop questioning. 00:38:04.890 --> 00:38:10.510 Well, this program was approved by this council, and you voted for it. 00:38:10.750 --> 00:38:10.810 Okay. 00:38:11.190 --> 00:38:19.390 And so this project only started in October, and this is the first report, as we said, to the council of where we're at. 00:38:19.390 --> 00:38:25.950 This was requested by City Manager Boyer to come and give a presentation of where we're at in the project. 00:38:26.450 --> 00:38:34.910 All the analysis data has come from our safety resources, which is the Freeport Police, IDOT, Sheriff, County. 00:38:35.430 --> 00:38:36.710 All the data is accurate. 00:38:38.650 --> 00:38:41.950 In the grant process, we've already committed to this grant. 00:38:42.070 --> 00:38:45.750 We signed the paperwork when this council approved the resolution. 00:38:45.750 --> 00:38:51.830 So in the priority level, I would say it's pretty high since it was already approved to move forward as a project. 00:38:54.510 --> 00:39:11.490 I'm sorry, I don't remember all the other questions, but the data is what it is. We're just getting to the actual stakeholders and the survey. So over the last quarter, we've been developing the tax, the advisory, giving outlines of issues that may or may not be. 00:39:11.490 --> 00:39:18.090 but because we're doing public open houses and we're doing the stakeholder meetings of different people 00:39:18.090 --> 00:39:24.350 for instance I did not attend the stakeholder meeting because this is for us to get other 00:39:24.350 --> 00:39:30.410 information from people outside of the city staff on what we think the open house tomorrow is to get 00:39:30.410 --> 00:39:35.690 outside information that was explained at last week's meeting if you want to have a voice you're 00:39:35.690 --> 00:39:41.050 more than welcome to come tomorrow and mark down anything you want as a as an issue or opportunity 00:39:41.050 --> 00:39:53.970 We're also doing the QR codes so people that don't want to come to a meeting can have their input as part of the plan. It's a citywide plan. It has nothing to do with any certain area or not. That's why the full map's up there. 00:39:53.970 --> 00:39:57.660 That's why the full map's up there, and honestly, I don't remember what else you asked. 00:39:58.740 --> 00:40:21.980 Following up with that, I appreciate all that you just presented to us again, refreshing the people's memory about what took place at certain council meetings and things of this nature, especially when I didn't realize this was going to be part of the format tonight, which is appreciated that we do look at 00:40:21.980 --> 00:40:43.680 I just wanted to make sure that we're reiterating the things that we talked about back in October and that I understand and understood. If I voted for that, that means that there was a higher level of understanding of why I did that, and this is the reason why I'm asking right now at this moment. I appreciate you. 00:40:43.680 --> 00:41:09.800 I believe that Matt, you had something you wanted to add, and I just wanted to say, you know, this is just the start of this, and in your program you mentioned the end of, or later in 2025, and I just wanted to ask the question to Darren. Darren, is this grant part of or separate from the grant for the bike pass, that type of stuff? 00:41:09.800 --> 00:41:39.580 This is independent. This is, I believe that was ITEP, was the bicycle grants. This is actually SS4A, Safe Streets for All, and is more of a broad scoped that can focus on roads. For instance, I know, I don't want to speak in very many specifics, but I know a couple intersections that have had a high crash rate that are local streets, which is one of them is Empire and Walnut, 00:41:39.580 --> 00:41:59.260 and another one is Greenfield and Stevenson that have a high crash rate with multi-issues. As you can see from the crash map, a lot of our crashes also occur around IDOT roadways, especially traffic signal areas, which may mean that, you know, our traffic signals are very dated, very old. 00:41:59.260 --> 00:42:29.240 there's there's again the entire point of doing this SS4A assessment is to find and and and find projects that we need to do to make it safer in the city of Freeport and that opens you up to implementation money by doing part A to get to part B. Appreciate it. Matt, you had something you wanted to ask. I appreciate it. Maybe just at a high level where safety has been 00:42:29.240 --> 00:42:59.220 coming from at the federal level. And I won't have the exact dates, but in the 2015s, right, so that decade, Vision Zero was kind of the hot topic across the country. So it was mostly at the city level. So cities saying it's, you know, any death on our streets is unacceptable. And so cities started developing Vision Zero action plans. And then that kind of evolved and then became a federal DOT project. 00:42:59.240 --> 00:43:28.800 priority. And I believe with the Biden administration, the IIJA, so the Infrastructure and Jobs Act at the federal level, created the SSRA program. So that's just a little bit of like how it's kind of evolved that that helps at all. Appreciate it. Auderman Stacy? Yes. Can you explain what equity consideration is? Yes. So, 00:43:29.240 --> 00:43:58.980 There's a variety of ways that we think of equity in this plan. One is looking at data, so demographic information. So it ends, the product of the equity analysis in that regard is a map that's sort of a bit of a heat map across the city, which we're going to be developing. We haven't started that yet. But it's looking at a variety of factors such as race, income, availability, or like car ownership, things like that. 00:43:59.240 --> 00:44:29.140 and then that gets aggregated or data people do that. I don't. Did you say car ownership? Car ownership. Yeah. Yeah. So like zero vehicle households, one vehicle households, things like that. And then that gets mapped to kind of show areas that, you know, either have high equity consideration or low and it kind of like shades throughout the map. And that just gives gives us a sense along with 00:44:29.140 --> 00:44:34.220 community engagement and the crash analysis of where we may want to prioritize projects. 00:44:35.220 --> 00:44:54.120 And then the second part, so that was data. The second part of equity is just talking to people and trying to make sure that we do a good job connecting with residents in Freeport and understanding, you know, what people are dealing with as they walk, bike, or drive around Freeport. 00:44:56.250 --> 00:44:57.130 Alderman Minera. 00:44:57.130 --> 00:44:58.690 Thank you, Alderman Clemm. 00:44:59.350 --> 00:45:01.950 I just want to clarify a couple of things. 00:45:02.410 --> 00:45:07.950 So you didn't really break down anything directly to Freeport, but you did Stevenson County. 00:45:08.870 --> 00:45:13.390 What are the dates of the data that wasn't real clear in the slides that you showed? 00:45:13.750 --> 00:45:14.010 Yes. 00:45:14.010 --> 00:45:23.610 So we start with the most recent 10-year data set through the IDOT data that Darren referenced for an overall crash analysis. 00:45:23.790 --> 00:45:26.870 So we're really trying to understand trends at a high level. 00:45:27.130 --> 00:45:51.690 that are going on. And then as we get deeper into the analysis and look at the high injury network, we do the most recent five years because we think that gives us better, I guess, better certainty of the recent crashes because a lot can change in 10 years and, you know, roads get reconstructed and resurfaced and things like that. So five years feels like a better analysis for that. 00:45:51.690 --> 00:46:02.730 The local data that we got, Alderman Monroe, was a five-year span of crash data or wreck data or pedestrian incident data. 00:46:04.210 --> 00:46:12.650 Awesome. Thank you. And to follow up, this is more of a comment, and this is one of the reasons why I initially ran for an Alderman seat. 00:46:13.150 --> 00:46:21.530 Equity, to me, is very discouraging to hear when it comes to this type of a project, because we put in a brand new sidewalk, 00:46:21.690 --> 00:46:49.470 Network on the east side of the city that was in a flood zone. We spent all of that money, and yet some of the streets that are most dangerous in the city that service our community college still have no sidewalks. They're high speeds. There are lots of near misses. There's a lot of incidences of accidents, and that to me is concerning because, you know, when you start throwing money at a problem that's perceived based on 00:46:49.470 --> 00:47:19.450 the color of the skin or the people's financial earnings or whatever it may be whatever those numbers and how it it parses out it misses the broader support for the community at a whole and that that's very concerning in that sense because we want to create a better Freeport at the end of the day and you know I see roads you know I think of Kiwanis I think of Stevenson I think of Laurel I think of some of these roads 00:47:19.470 --> 00:47:49.450 roads that are very, very heavily traveled in the city have no sidewalks and people are walking in them. And the same can be said of Galena and 26. 26 sidewalk, even though we have it in some of the places, is very, very poor. And some of the poorest people in our city use that. I've seen people in wheelchairs on their sides because they're so poorly maintained. So, you know, I want to make sure that this money is being spent in the most beneficial way to all of the citizens 00:47:49.450 --> 00:48:00.070 and Freeport, and not just being put into a certain part of the town based on what some data analysis guy comes up with. 00:48:01.350 --> 00:48:15.890 Yeah, so just to point that out, I couldn't agree with you more on that point. However, the Federal Highway Authority requires equity and diversity be part of the inclusive process here. 00:48:15.890 --> 00:48:47.130 and so obviously you know that as a nation we focus a lot of energy towards the equity portion of the projects and people that may or may not need it. I thought this project fit Freeport well because some of our diverse areas need the most help, right? So again, if we're talking about, just theoretically, if we're talking about a roundabout at Empire and Walnut to make that a safer intersection, 00:48:47.230 --> 00:48:52.350 it's got to be required about the safety. Equity is just part of the program. It's not the number one 00:48:52.350 --> 00:48:58.470 factor. It's really reducing crashes and making the city a safer place to be. 00:49:00.090 --> 00:49:05.610 Matt, I appreciate you presenting, you and your partner. Thank you for coming out and going over 00:49:05.610 --> 00:49:11.790 this stuff. Are there anything else before we close? Annis? Thanks for having us and hope to see you tomorrow night. 00:49:11.790 --> 00:49:28.750 Okay. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Item number eight is discussion on a resolution approving a retainer with Napoli for potential litigation for PFAs at Albertus Airport, presented by Manager Blair. 00:49:29.350 --> 00:49:39.410 Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, forever chemicals, perfluorinated compounds, PFAS, PFOA, these are all the same things. 00:49:39.410 --> 00:49:51.970 for many years starting in the 70s. These chemicals were produced sometimes under the trade name of Teflon and various other forever chemicals. We are in the process. 00:49:51.970 --> 00:50:19.940 We are in the process of replacing our current water, source water, to get away from our, the old treatment plant that had issues in the raw water supply of the perfluorinated compounds, and we have worked with Napoleon Shikolnick as our, as our litigator for this process, and we've been very successful, and they've been successful in terms of negotiating settlements for the communities involved in this. 00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:49.400 This is kind of a logical extension of what we've already been engaged in. There is a dramatic amount of use of these firefighting foams. It's been used at airports all over the country, and there is residual at those locations. So this is essentially a continuation of what we've already been doing with the water supply, except there's going to be a new lawsuit related to aviation or airports. 00:50:49.400 --> 00:51:08.800 Airports. So, we're, Napoli Shakolnik is asking us to work with them on the next phase of this program, which is airports. And so, it's my recommendation that we continue to work with them and as we navigate this future litigation. 00:51:08.800 --> 00:51:38.800 just a little if I could add on that a few weeks ago if you noticed in the in the minutes and the notes that you had this was discovered that it was a item at the airport it wasn't originally thought that but this this company has already worked for us on the other plants with the fire department I believe and all the situation and there has been a major loss a lawsuit that has been won in 00:51:38.800 --> 00:52:08.780 in favor of getting monies into the city, so this is basically really a continuation of that to add the airport on to it if we could. So any discussion, any questions? Yeah, one thing that I do want to know, have everything been conveyed as far as the water, I hear the water, I hear about water, now I hear about the airport, 00:52:08.800 --> 00:52:32.340 Now I hear about the polyfoam. All of these things have they have been conveyed to us of all the detailed information and why now that these situations are coming up and that they're almost like mandated. Is it because of the lawsuits that has been presented to the city? 00:52:32.340 --> 00:52:38.820 Do we have a mandate to put everything in perspective? 00:52:39.380 --> 00:52:51.860 Do we have all of the nuts and bolts of the reasons why we're walking into these venture programs, especially out at the airport? 00:52:51.860 --> 00:53:00.240 I'm trying to understand the connection with the airport and the water tower and the polyfoam and how the city is 00:53:00.240 --> 00:53:30.220 How is handling it? How is it that we as the city citizens not understanding the whole mechanism to everything? How is it that these things are beneficial to the city? Who does it support the most? How much of a debt does that put the city in? If the lawsuit is awarded, was there a lawsuit? 00:53:30.240 --> 00:53:49.580 lawsuit, was there a lawsuit awarded to the city to move forward to take care of these types of problems and that's one of the, I'm not done but the thing about it is I'm just curious but now I'm surface, I'm doing a little surface test here just to see where we're at. 00:53:49.580 --> 00:54:19.560 I'm sure manager Blair can answer all that absolutely uh a lot of these firefighting foams are used in aviation they're like the the one of the few substances you can use and it will snuff out the fires and they have been used for training in the past and I'm sure the fires chief could confirm or bring in in just a minute any other details he might have essentially all this is doing is if there is contamination of this sort at the airport which I'm not sure that we have but if there is we need to be going after 00:54:19.560 --> 00:54:23.040 or whatever revenue is out there because, well, I'm sure we'll be cleaning it up someday. 00:54:23.700 --> 00:54:25.540 So that's kind of the idea. 00:54:25.700 --> 00:54:30.040 And Chief, did you have anything you'd like to add on some of these, your experience with some of these? 00:54:30.400 --> 00:54:30.680 Sure. 00:54:30.800 --> 00:54:36.080 Well, I'm not familiar with any application of the AFFF foam out at the airport. 00:54:36.080 --> 00:54:45.000 However, we also practice the safe environmental uses of firefighting foam. 00:54:45.000 --> 00:55:14.680 So July 6th of 2023 we engaged a licensed waste hauler to take away the PFA AFFF foam that we were in possession of instead of us using it in the environment, using it in a fire, having strict guidelines to follow when you do use that PFA type foam, filing also with the EPA and the county EMA department. 00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:40.260 We chose just to get rid of it and now we have an environmentally safe substitute foam which is essentially soap suds. It's more expensive, you have to use more, but we're not exposing our personnel to that type of carcinogen, we're not exposing the environment to that type of situation, so we're 100% PFA free with our foams. 00:55:40.260 --> 00:56:11.150 Mayor Boyer, follow up. Thank you. I'd just like to also add, we've kind of gone full circle. This started to become pretty prevalent or on the radar of a lot of different, not only communities, but companies in the mid-2000s, early 2000s, and as time went on, there was testing done. Freeport was one of the pilot communities to have our source water tested in, I believe, about 2015. 00:56:11.570 --> 00:56:35.890 We've been working through and that's why we have the Burchard, new water plant, Burchard, and that's why we need to finish out our redundant capacity with well 12 as coming up, but essentially this is just a natural aggregation of what's been happening here with these agents that are toxic and they're also in our environment. 00:56:37.890 --> 00:56:38.770 Alderman Monroe. 00:56:38.770 --> 00:56:53.830 Thank you, Alderman, Clemm. Chief, do you know, did we use the AFFF foam at the airport at any point in the past? Or would we have records of that that we could pull up? 00:56:54.650 --> 00:57:07.930 As I indicated, I'm not familiar with any events that took place out at the airport that required the AFFF type foam. I'm not sure how far back our records would go to show that. I mean, we could do a query for 00:57:07.930 --> 00:57:16.330 are based on that address and based on that incident type, but again, I'm not familiar with any involvement out there. 00:57:16.950 --> 00:57:24.490 I know many years ago, it was permissible to use that for training. Actually, to this day, my understanding is 00:57:24.490 --> 00:57:34.310 AFFF foam is permissible in extreme emergencies only. There's some large towns who have a vast quantity of 00:57:34.310 --> 00:58:02.950 and they still go ahead and utilize it when appropriate, but again, they're exposing, potentially exposing their personnel to carcinogen of PFA, they're potentially contaminating the environment and the soil, and then the paperwork required to be filed when you do use that type of firefighting foam is pretty rigorous with EPA and also with the county EMA. 00:58:04.310 --> 00:58:33.070 Yes, thank you. And so the reason I ask is have we ever tested the ground groundwater at the airport since they are on well water to see if anything, you know, prior to your being here, my being here, if it had been used and if the groundwater was safe and had been tested out there? Because one of the reasons why I'm asking this is we've been trying for years to get water and sewer out to the airport. 00:58:33.070 --> 00:58:42.610 and that becomes a pretty big safety issue if it is in some way, you know, damaged our environment out 00:58:42.610 --> 00:58:47.810 there as well as anybody's wells that may be around that area as well. Just thinking out loud. 00:58:51.020 --> 00:58:57.820 Correct. I'd have to check, James. I don't know the answer to the testing question. I assume based on all 00:58:57.820 --> 00:59:03.100 of our testing requirements that the well water out there has been tested, but I will find out that 00:59:03.100 --> 00:59:32.980 answer for you. Another reminder I just wanted to say is remember these types of lawsuits are class action suits, right? And so since Freeport was one of the first 500 municipalities located with PFAS, POFAs, it would be natural for us to know that, you know, at some point some of these chemicals leached into our water fields or we wouldn't have them, right? So they're just offering us an owl branch to be part of the class action 00:59:32.980 --> 00:59:49.960 suit based if there is financial monies coming, which we all know on the water side there is money coming that's already been determined. What they're doing is holding the makers of these chemicals responsible. They knew producing these and putting them out that they were alive. 00:59:49.960 --> 00:59:52.740 and putting them out that they were a liability to our environment and they continued to produce them 00:59:52.740 --> 01:00:01.080 and sell them without exception. Alderman Sanders. Yeah, one of the things that I wanted to observe 01:00:01.080 --> 01:00:13.400 is the study that took place to make these determination whether we should go or whether 01:00:13.400 --> 01:00:43.380 and we should not follow through with it. How did we come up with the study to know that there's contamination possibly? Because right now everything is at a presumption at this moment and has not been definitively been factual at this present time. And I'm just trying to figure out where is the presumption of anything that might be happening? 01:00:43.400 --> 01:01:13.380 out at the airport. Was there a filing complaint? Was there a lawsuit taking place to bring this complaint to the city? And the fact that we're contemplating possibly changing things out there at the airport to make things right and what it will cost, if it's going to cost the city anything? Or do we have lawsuits that are going to be done? 01:01:13.400 --> 01:01:37.220 to offset the expenses for the chemical, possible chemical well water contaminations that are going on, if there is, because we're still under the presumption, if there is anything going on, where's the study analysis that we can look at, that we can see where these things are coming in at, because as far as I am concerned, 01:01:37.220 --> 01:02:05.920 When I look at this thing, a pre-lit, what was it called? A litigation per and poly kind of thing, what was the decision made on whether the defective poly foam out there is the reason why we're making changes to bring water wells and checking water wells and all these. Who's doing all of these studies? 01:02:05.920 --> 01:02:35.920 that's that's because it's an expense it's it's going to be an expense at the end of the road and I just wanted to see where we're at with that. Manager Boyer can answer that but please remember you know all we're asking for at this point is a resolution to go with the company that we have there's no cost to us as part of a class action suit it's a matter of receiving funding back but go ahead. If I could address some of your points sir Alderman Sanders the 01:02:35.920 --> 01:03:05.900 as far as I understand so we haven't we haven't kind of got to the scope of the issue so we're we need to work through that and so to be participate in this part of the process is going to be identifying the scope of the issue if any exists we don't at this time know that there's an issue we just presume that there may be due to the fact that these foams were used quite extensively at any at airports in general we don't really know if they were used to it at 01:03:05.900 --> 01:03:37.360 Albertus. However, we're going to, you know, it'd be great to work with Napoli Shikolnik in case we run up and find that we do have some issues there. So essentially all this is doing is kind of lining us up as the kind of the second step on getting remunerated for these types of contamination. Okay, thank you. Any questions? We need a motion and a second to move this forward to the next meeting. 01:03:37.360 --> 01:03:39.760 I make a motion to move it forward 01:03:39.760 --> 01:03:43.750 Do you need a voice or 01:03:43.750 --> 01:03:45.390 Voice is fine with me 01:03:45.390 --> 01:03:48.910 Okay, motion to move it forward 01:03:48.910 --> 01:03:51.110 All in favor signify by saying aye 01:03:51.110 --> 01:03:51.630 Aye 01:03:51.630 --> 01:03:53.190 Opposed, same sign 01:03:53.190 --> 01:03:55.950 Motion passes 01:03:55.950 --> 01:03:58.570 Item number nine regarding 01:03:58.570 --> 01:04:02.610 ESRI Municipal and County Enterprise Agreement 01:04:02.610 --> 01:04:04.510 for GIS by 01:04:04.510 --> 01:04:05.710 Director Suttman 01:04:05.710 --> 01:04:06.950 Oh 01:04:06.950 --> 01:04:36.950 I'll first just kind of go through basically what's in the memo that you guys all got the background in 2011 the city I kind of built the GIS for the city the water and sewer system at first it was just on my computer wasn't super useful we say over the years we started kind of handing it out to more and more of the water crews to the point where now if you're using it kind of a big part of this enterprise agreement 01:04:36.950 --> 01:04:41.310 is we want to put in even more people's hands and increase that functionality even more. 01:04:43.310 --> 01:04:49.110 And GIS is Geographic Information System, and I'm going to explain in a minute here what that is. 01:04:53.890 --> 01:05:00.690 One of the biggest places we think this agreement will help is definitely with water and sewer and kind of the field crews. 01:05:01.870 --> 01:05:06.710 The idea is to put all the information they would need day-to-day directly in their hands on a tablet 01:05:06.710 --> 01:05:11.490 so they're not having to go back to the office necessarily and look through paper records. 01:05:12.330 --> 01:05:21.930 It's kind of a two-fold advantage because then also they can add data in the field and doesn't have to wait and go to drafting and touch a lot of hands to get into the real-time system. 01:05:24.080 --> 01:05:34.200 The financial aspect of this is it's a little over $30,000 a year, and this is a three-year agreement. 01:05:34.200 --> 01:05:40.680 this was approved for the 2025 budget and it will probably be split out about 21,000 water and sewer 01:05:40.680 --> 01:05:47.560 and 9,000 city funds will be the breakout. Aaron, does this have to be approved or is it just 01:05:47.560 --> 01:05:55.580 informational? Ultimately, you would need a motion at the committee level, motion second, a vote in favor 01:05:55.580 --> 01:06:01.140 to then get it on to the council agenda. So that's our intention tonight is to give you a lot of 01:06:01.140 --> 01:06:04.380 information and hopefully get it moved on to the next meeting for approval. 01:06:05.740 --> 01:06:12.880 And as I state in the memo, I do believe it hits every, basically every strategic vision we have, this would benefit. 01:06:13.800 --> 01:06:20.380 Now as far as what GIS is, when I was just getting into GIS, people would say it's AutoCAD with data attached. 01:06:20.880 --> 01:06:23.180 And I didn't really know what that meant until I saw it. 01:06:24.660 --> 01:06:26.620 So on the screen here you have a map. 01:06:30.790 --> 01:06:30.950 Yeah. 01:06:32.510 --> 01:06:33.890 So this is our data. 01:06:34.190 --> 01:06:37.190 This is storm sewers, sanitary sewers, and water main. 01:06:37.190 --> 01:07:09.270 and right now it looks just like lines so that's not a lot different than a paper map but if you zoom in you can actually click on these and when it refreshes here go click on one and you can kind of see the data attached so that one there it's a 24 inch clay pipe so you know that just by clicking on it it's it's not terribly useful to go around and click on it but you can also ask GIS questions not like you'd ask an AI you know you can you can write queries 01:07:09.270 --> 01:07:16.850 But you could say, so when we're out in the field and we gather data on these, which is a little data at this point, you know, we raided them. 01:07:17.450 --> 01:07:22.810 You know, inlets with blocks falling out of them or a sanitary manhole looked like those were backed up. 01:07:24.330 --> 01:07:28.410 For project season, you could go and maybe ask a question, something like, how many do we have backed up? 01:07:28.670 --> 01:07:29.770 You know, how many linear feet? 01:07:29.890 --> 01:07:31.750 So it's a great planning tool as well. 01:07:34.160 --> 01:07:35.820 I do have a little presentation. 01:07:36.000 --> 01:07:38.220 I don't know if we need to go through it, but we'll rip to it. 01:07:38.840 --> 01:07:39.160 Yeah. 01:07:40.640 --> 01:08:11.600 When you brought up the GIS study, have we already had that mechanism for the city at one time? And who was governing it then? Who was supervising that GIS study? Who was doing the supervising of that particular? Because what the data that you're demonstrating right now is 01:08:11.600 --> 01:08:29.920 pretty much was data that was already accumulated back when, I don't know when, but I'm just trying to figure out what firm or company was supervising those particular studies, those GIS studies. 01:08:29.920 --> 01:08:44.640 And if that is the same study, can't we also use that data as well, I mean, to increase what it is that is going on within the city? 01:08:44.640 --> 01:09:10.420 So this GI, let's frame it as the water and sewer system. That was created by me between, let's say, 2011 and 2017. And that was done through a combination of the paper records down at water and sewer, which those guys did an amazing job for the last 100 years, digitizing those into the computer, and then also went out in the field in hand-verified depths, condition, things like that. 01:09:10.420 --> 01:09:39.630 that my supervisor at the time would have been the city engineer throughout that but this data will go into the new one it's always keeps accumulating on top of itself what this is is it almost it's the value here is the deployment to others it's putting in the hands of staff to make their everyday tasks faster easier better 01:09:46.050 --> 01:10:15.800 So this is how a citizen can go to pull up their address. Other parts of the data is a little more difficult to make. 01:10:16.140 --> 01:10:57.220 If I could, Curt. 01:10:57.520 --> 01:10:57.700 Yeah. 01:10:58.020 --> 01:11:06.840 First off, I want to thank you and congratulate you because you've been around a while and I know how hard you've worked with us over the years. 01:11:07.320 --> 01:11:14.860 And congratulations to you guys, as Curt said, for keeping the records that they have for 100 years on it. 01:11:14.860 --> 01:11:43.140 City of Freeport, fortunately, is very far ahead of other communities on this as far as what's recorded, as far as any breakage, anything they know, need to know, they know instantly, which is worth the fortune as far as number one, how do you fix it, where is that, what's affected by this, so this is really good, and the GIS to be able to get that 01:11:43.140 --> 01:12:03.740 and pass it on without a doubt would be helpful, whether it be a developer, whether it be anything, you know what you have in the area so you can draw from. So I appreciate what you've done so far in this and look forward to doing this, you know, but thank you guys for what you've done. Alderman Sanders? 01:12:03.740 --> 01:12:36.940 Yeah, the accumulation of the data that is being retrieved without going into great detail, what I'm concerned about is when this program starts, when you start implementing this study, how much feed data that you have, where have you not been, 01:12:36.940 --> 01:13:07.920 where's the demographical areas that you have not been to do studies and then we still need to accumulate more data to put into the system so that overall, the city overall will be something that will be accessible to our, what I want to say, people that are supposed to be in the know that is doing these projects that needs this information. 01:13:08.380 --> 01:13:36.980 because you're going to have existing problems within the city system, and we need to be able to evaluate that through our GI studies, our GIS, and that that information has to be part of the situation, that you're able to go back that far back and look at what was the structural linings and things of this nature with the piping, the water lines, 01:13:36.980 --> 01:13:42.900 and all of these kinds of things. You would need a history count of everything that's been going on 01:13:42.900 --> 01:13:51.000 throughout the city over decades, and that would help you to understand what you're up against when you 01:13:51.000 --> 01:13:56.580 approach any project problem or whatever the case is. I just wanted to understand that this is where 01:13:56.580 --> 01:14:03.400 you're headed. This is what you're continuing to develop. This is what you want to put into your 01:14:03.400 --> 01:14:09.980 program, and that we can spit it out at the other end when you do your assessment studies. 01:14:10.700 --> 01:14:15.840 Yeah, so we did as much as the city as we could. I think there's a few curb stops we couldn't find with the 01:14:15.840 --> 01:14:22.740 wand, but that's right there's the main goal. This is a living document. Yeah, okay. So it's all the 01:14:22.740 --> 01:14:28.500 history, and we do have some of the guys who do the draft now that have been here a long time, and that's 01:14:28.500 --> 01:14:31.860 part of the, one of the reasons we want to do it now, too, is to make sure we get that institutional 01:14:31.860 --> 01:15:01.680 knowledge kind of baked into it. Yeah. Well, we can. So I'm supporting Curt on this. The utility really needs an upgrade to this system. One of the, Curt and I discussed this earlier today, we still have people that are drafting on mylars down at the wastewater treatment plant regularly for updates that we make. It's very antiquated. It's very time consuming. We calculated some numbers today 01:15:01.680 --> 01:15:31.600 that we believe this system will pay for itself in modern upgrades. Also, when we do project work, and I'll pick Adams Avenue, for example, the way we track our systems and the way we build them, we will be able to actually port that information to Curt's team, and he'll be able to drop it right in there, and the new data will all appear magically as we do the construction inspections. We track everything now with our GPS equipment, and that will continuously update 01:15:31.600 --> 01:15:36.740 the system as construction updates are made throughout the city. The system that we currently 01:15:36.740 --> 01:15:43.160 have, that's not capable of doing, and the upgrades are tough, and another point that we have is that 01:15:43.160 --> 01:15:49.220 we're probably using the system that we have right now beyond our means because we don't have as many 01:15:49.220 --> 01:15:54.580 licenses as we need to actually use it, so we're kind of cheating the system a little bit right now, 01:15:54.640 --> 01:15:59.000 just trying to make it work, knowing that we would get to an upgrade that would be budgeted for this 01:15:59.000 --> 01:16:38.980 Chair. Absolutely. Alderman Parker. Do we need a motion to move this forward? I'll make the motion to move this forward. Okay. Alderman Parker. Okay. Okay. Do we need a voice vote? Okay. Okay. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Same sign. We had a question over here. Go ahead. Did I understand you to say that it's going to cost about $30,000 a year? Yes. 01:16:38.980 --> 01:16:42.420 And it's in three-year terms? 01:16:42.860 --> 01:16:45.860 Each, yep, it's a three-year term, so it's $30,000 every year. 01:16:46.140 --> 01:16:51.060 And that it was budgeted for the 2025? 01:16:51.880 --> 01:16:52.300 Yes. 01:16:53.080 --> 01:16:53.480 Okay. 01:16:55.080 --> 01:16:59.400 So if we're budgeted for it, hasn't it already been approved? 01:17:00.060 --> 01:17:01.160 Not the agreement. 01:17:02.040 --> 01:17:07.700 The funds are allocated, but the agreement to enter a contract with ESRI hasn't. 01:17:07.700 --> 01:17:08.740 That's what this is. 01:17:08.980 --> 01:17:17.060 okay i just wanted to add if i could do we move this uh till we move to the next one i'd really like to 01:17:17.060 --> 01:17:23.300 thank also i thank eric and and uh kurt for all the work they did but all the work fair graham done and 01:17:23.300 --> 01:17:29.700 also tom glendening as we know tom glendening put his heart into this to really start to move it forward 01:17:29.700 --> 01:17:36.420 but thanks to all the people involved to this point uh next item is item number 10. yeah tom you actually 01:17:36.420 --> 01:18:11.860 you've actually got to take take take the vote so you got to do all those in favor still you got to take the vote now you got a motion in your second you had it no because I had a question all in favor signify by saying aye aye aye opposed same sign you take the vote okay item number 10 regarding resolution adopting Northwest Illinois safety action as part of a precip as part of participating in Stevenson County's 01:18:11.860 --> 01:18:20.160 application to the Department of Transportation Federal Highway Safe Streets grants, and this will be presented by Darren. 01:18:21.680 --> 01:18:35.780 Yeah, so not to confuse the subject because we talked about the City of Freeport's program, we are also part of a small piece of the Stevenson County SS4A plan because we're part of the county. 01:18:35.780 --> 01:19:04.340 their configuration includes I believe five other counties so it's a much larger broad-based program we started that program I believe just over a year ago they're getting towards their finality of it and as part of their plan they're asking us to have a resolution stating that we are a part of their plan and if they go to implementation 01:19:05.780 --> 01:19:29.580 which would be the final reporting that we're just signifying that we're part of the plan. We have been from the start. City Manager Boyer sits on their TAC team and has represented the city. Again, the reason we did two different programs, not to confuse it, is there's a much broad-based program that's covering six counties. Freeport is just covering Freeport. 01:19:29.580 --> 01:19:41.760 So, this is, as Darren explained, this is no cost to us or anything else. It's just being part of the county's program. I have a motion to move forward. So moved. Second. 01:19:50.930 --> 01:20:21.010 All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Item number 11. Discussion regarding distressed communities grant funding presented by aldermen Stacy and Monroe. Good evening. I wanted to bring this to the council to gather a little more understanding on this distressed 01:20:21.010 --> 01:20:24.010 Grant program. 01:20:26.030 --> 01:20:33.550 City Manager Boyer, can you tell me how many times and when we have received this? 01:20:35.270 --> 01:20:43.410 We received it one time, and I believe it was the end of 2021, and I, yeah, so. 01:20:43.410 --> 01:20:55.650 One time in 2021. Can you tell me how much we received? Off the top of my head, I think it was about $81,000. 01:21:01.400 --> 01:21:08.660 Okay, because that number is much, much lower than what it was when you and I spoke the other day. 01:21:09.500 --> 01:21:13.780 And I also mentioned that I didn't have it on top of my head, but I thought it was a certain range. 01:21:13.780 --> 01:21:43.780 but since then we've got the actual documents and you have a copy of it now. Yes, I have I didn't know if the document that I have received was partial to the money that was received. I believe that was the whole thing however the money never came through the city it went directly from ComEd to the contractor so I don't know if that included any 01:21:43.780 --> 01:21:49.800 Discounts on light fixtures or whatever, but that was the information that I had. 01:21:58.750 --> 01:22:10.130 So, Manager Boyer, kind of moving forward, I know there was a lot of discussion about the distressed community grant funding and, you know, the actual title of distressed communities. 01:22:10.410 --> 01:22:20.890 Do you see that as being a negative for the city of Freeport as we move forward to be titled that and to have that as kind of a slogan almost? 01:22:20.890 --> 01:22:39.330 I don't have an opinion on it, for getting funding from ComEd to do lighting, I'm not really in a position to tell them what to call their grant funding, but I understand it's now called the Select Communities Grant, and it looks like we have a representative here that might have some more information on that. 01:22:41.530 --> 01:22:42.850 Okay, for all the... 01:22:42.850 --> 01:22:43.730 Oh, it's fine with me. 01:22:43.850 --> 01:22:49.930 George, would you like to speak on this, please, since it's a ComEd? 01:22:50.890 --> 01:23:20.870 and we thank you for coming and while he's you're welcome, George Golarap, citizen of Freeport, Illinois, employed as external affairs manager for ComEd, we no longer have the distress community program, it's now called Select Community, last year, Select Community, so last year, when I was talking about Freeport being on the list, I said, you know what, I said, what a horrible name, is there any possibility we can change this? 01:23:20.890 --> 01:23:26.190 because Rockford had been on it and still is on it for many years since I've been over there. 01:23:26.910 --> 01:23:31.130 They receive discounts on the lighting, different programs that we do have. 01:23:31.450 --> 01:23:33.390 It's not so much of a grant program. 01:23:33.390 --> 01:23:38.930 It's certain things that communities can do to receive either discounts off. 01:23:39.410 --> 01:23:42.090 So Freeport is a member of the select community. 01:23:42.710 --> 01:23:48.250 So when they go and buy light fixtures that are assembled or produced in Illinois, 01:23:48.250 --> 01:24:18.250 there's a 10% reduction in the cost and we have many other reductions in costs and all these are stackable which means you don't get 10% only you can go through the program and stack these up to 100%. It's a great program. It's listed for communities that do struggle. Out of 400 communities that ComEd serves there's 125 communities on this list. I mean you know 20 01:24:18.250 --> 01:24:46.210 25%. I mean, it's a lot. I mean, Northern Illinois does have a lot of issues. And with your support, and with your administration support, you can dig out of this. And it can be much better for the city itself. So I have been working with Rob Boyer and Mayor Miller since August, July of last year, I believe, to try to move things forward and make sure that you are eligible for these stackable discounts. 01:24:46.210 --> 01:24:49.330 I'm just a little 01:24:49.330 --> 01:24:56.200 last week we were told 01:24:56.200 --> 01:25:02.110 well why didn't we know it was select and not distressed 01:25:02.110 --> 01:25:03.770 first of all 01:25:03.770 --> 01:25:05.030 second of all 01:25:05.030 --> 01:25:08.470 why did we not know that we're 01:25:08.470 --> 01:25:10.590 on 01:25:10.590 --> 01:25:11.810 this 01:25:11.810 --> 01:25:17.770 select community grant 01:25:17.770 --> 01:25:21.470 I found out about it last week in an 01:25:21.470 --> 01:25:23.310 internal staff meeting 01:25:23.310 --> 01:25:40.650 I was very excited about this, and as soon as I found out about it, I communicated this with Manager Boyer, but he said he had already seen a letter from ComEd earlier that Freeport was eligible, but they're still under the old name, not the new name. 01:25:41.070 --> 01:25:53.270 So if anybody, if you want to blame anybody, you can blame me for not knowing earlier than last week, but we had an internal meeting, and I was really grateful to find out that Freeport was on this list and is eligible. 01:25:53.310 --> 01:26:11.510 It's, it's not about blaming anyone, um, Mr. Gorab. It's about understanding what we have and what we're able to do with what we have. 01:26:11.510 --> 01:26:23.170 Yes, and you're also working with a group called the Will Group. Um, they're the ones that provided the city with an application and we're trying to make sure that that application is acceptable. 01:26:23.310 --> 01:26:45.930 There were some mistakes put on there by the will group inadvertently that Mr. Boyer pointed out, so those have been corrected. I'm working with two outreach people, Ian McAdams and Eric Hennessey, to make sure the application does get accepted, and that's step one on the first set of discounts on the project. 01:26:46.390 --> 01:26:49.890 So we're still at the application level, though? 01:26:49.890 --> 01:27:19.870 It's completed. It had to be in by January 30th, and it was. We're just making some corrections. And as we go on, you become more eligible for more and more discounts along the way. So some of the discounts. What ComEd wants you to do is be energy efficient. So they want you to take the old high pressure sodium lights or whatever lights you may have and reduce the wattage, not reduce the brightness of the light, just the wattage to 01:27:19.890 --> 01:27:42.550 to new technology. And I believe for every watt you reduce, it's $1. So if you take a 400 watt light and you reduce it down to a 60 watt light, you have $340 of credit on each light that you do. And that adds up rather quickly. Darren, do you have any other? 01:27:42.550 --> 01:28:12.470 Yeah, so I want to clarify something to the council. So George and myself and city manager have been working for over a year, actually probably two years now, on getting the select community, distressed community, whatever we're calling that, it's ComEd's designation, not the city of Freeport's designation, trying to get back on that list. 01:28:12.550 --> 01:28:42.530 We were on it in 2021. Somehow we were off the list. We were trying to move forward with lighting projects, but the cost was not acceptable to us knowing that we qualified for these larger rebates. So George is the Northern Illinois Affairs Manager for ComEd, so we contacted George. We also contacted our congressman. We also contacted our area reps, and we sent letters down 01:28:42.530 --> 01:28:49.510 State to plead with our state because ComEd is not the only party that has to agree to put us on this list. 01:28:49.810 --> 01:28:54.570 The state of Illinois also has to allow to it. By evaluating the list, we saw that there were 01:28:54.570 --> 01:29:00.450 communities in much better shape than support that were already on the list. And so that's what we've 01:29:00.450 --> 01:29:06.750 been trying to do. And we've been waiting to get the select status. We actually had a project in the queue, 01:29:06.750 --> 01:29:14.010 which was to remove the high pressure sodium lights down the IDOT corridors because they're all older lighting. 01:29:14.430 --> 01:29:26.190 And so that's the program that we had been working on when we started talking about this safer areas that Chief Shenberger had applied for, right? 01:29:26.190 --> 01:29:35.870 So we just found out, Rob actually texted me from the city manager's conference that we were selected as a select community. 01:29:35.870 --> 01:29:43.850 and that's how we found out and we we spent a lot of time last week fixing the paperwork to get it in in time to 01:29:43.850 --> 01:29:47.040 to get it in in time to qualify for the IDOT corridor lighting. 01:29:48.000 --> 01:29:56.160 So, when this money cometh, I'm going to speak it into existence. 01:29:57.020 --> 01:29:58.140 It's not money. 01:29:58.480 --> 01:29:59.280 It's credit. 01:29:59.480 --> 01:30:00.680 It's credit cometh. 01:30:01.000 --> 01:30:01.520 Discounts? 01:30:01.720 --> 01:30:03.620 This discount cometh. 01:30:03.720 --> 01:30:04.040 Yes. 01:30:04.040 --> 01:30:04.240 Yes. 01:30:05.340 --> 01:30:09.800 Is it going to be limited to a certain area? 01:30:11.300 --> 01:30:11.600 No. 01:30:12.000 --> 01:30:41.680 My understanding from reading the information that George gave us is that we qualify for it citywide, right? It's a community function. It's just we have to remember if what he said earlier, if you're reducing wattage, there's more of incentive than increasing wattage. So in the areas of our safe streets, we will be looking to increase wattage, which will reduce some of the stackable credits, but there's still other credits, correct? 01:30:41.680 --> 01:30:57.920 So we might not get as deep of a discount, but we'll still be able to stack other items like made in Illinois or other designations there. I won't say that the application isn't kind of confusing because it is. There's a lot of different information on it. 01:30:57.920 --> 01:31:27.900 So, Alderman, Stacy, if you would like, I'm not for sure the next city council meeting or the one after that, what I'll do is I'll get all the discounts and we'll put examples in if you qualify for all these, what the total cost would be at the end of the day. I'll work with city manager and also with Darren to get that and we'll put it in easy form to figure out because a lot of times things from combat aren't in easy form to figure out but we'll simplify it and get back to that. 01:31:27.920 --> 01:32:03.040 to the council. I just, I just want something that's going to affect all of Freeport and just not a certain area because to my understanding, the last distress slash select grant we received, all that funding went downtown. I can answer why that is. Okay. Because the downtown lighting, 01:32:03.360 --> 01:32:09.540 was our number one bill for the city of Freeport. It was a huge expense because those were all 01:32:09.540 --> 01:32:17.300 incandescents. By switching them to LED, city manager Boyer reduced the cost of the city greatly in the 01:32:17.300 --> 01:32:22.600 amount that it takes to light the downtown regularly. So that was the whole purpose and mission behind that 01:32:22.600 --> 01:32:30.740 project. Okay. That was city manager Bucus. Bucus, but city manager Boyer was the public works director 01:32:30.740 --> 01:32:59.880 at that time. Because we had 150 wattage and that was traded out with LEDs at about 32 percent lighting and that was one of the biggest mistakes made by the city when it come to lightning our city. 01:32:59.880 --> 01:33:03.540 Are you saying the lights downtown are less bright? 01:33:03.620 --> 01:33:05.340 No, I'm not talking about downtown. 01:33:06.000 --> 01:33:07.320 Downtown is lit up. 01:33:07.480 --> 01:33:15.010 I could go down there at 2 o'clock in the morning and walk my three miles with no fear. 01:33:17.590 --> 01:33:30.050 I'm just saying that these other concerned areas that we must and will start working on has got to get better. 01:33:30.050 --> 01:33:37.070 I want to thank you for what you did do on Salone Park. 01:33:37.070 --> 01:33:37.470 Okay. 01:33:39.710 --> 01:33:42.990 I respect that and I acknowledge that. 01:33:44.590 --> 01:33:48.910 It still was not enough, but thank you for your efforts. 01:33:49.150 --> 01:33:49.270 Okay. 01:33:49.690 --> 01:33:52.390 Well, the intersection is well lit. 01:33:52.530 --> 01:33:53.550 Salone Park is not. 01:33:53.990 --> 01:33:54.170 Yes. 01:33:54.190 --> 01:33:56.330 But again, Salone Park is private property. 01:33:56.590 --> 01:33:57.030 Yes. 01:33:57.030 --> 01:34:07.430 And it would be pretty tough to use taxpayer dollars to light a private property. So whoever owns that is the one that needs to put a light in. 01:34:08.630 --> 01:34:09.470 Thank you. 01:34:09.550 --> 01:34:24.790 But one thing, I did receive some bad news. I mean, Oak Street was sprayed with gang symbols on the utility poles. I think Rob Boyer and the Public Works Department, they went out and painted over those. 01:34:24.790 --> 01:34:48.450 and at the same time we discovered a light over on Elk and Cherry that wasn't there. The city's, you know, supposed to be paying for a light but it wasn't there so the city will get credit and we'll get a light up there so and I'm sure there's other examples in town that you may find there too. Okay and thank you again. And Alderman Sellers, thank you. 01:34:48.450 --> 01:34:50.850 Broadway and Cherry, because Oak doesn't hit Cherry. 01:34:52.810 --> 01:34:56.570 Elkin, Elkin, Cherry, okay, I'll double check. 01:34:57.150 --> 01:35:06.890 And can you, once again, just give the number out, if you have a street light out that they can call, our citizens can call you directly. 01:35:06.890 --> 01:35:13.150 Yeah, so the number you want is 1-800-334-7661. 01:35:13.850 --> 01:35:16.310 So it's 1-800-Edison-1. 01:35:16.310 --> 01:35:46.030 If you want to contact me directly, you would have to go through the mayor, city council member, public works, or the city administrator, and they can contact me. But the easiest way is a straight line. Agreed. Thank you. You can also do call public works because I've called those and they call them in right away and get it done too if you call public works. Or you can call Alderman Sellers because she has my phone number. Thank you. 01:35:46.030 --> 01:35:56.730 Thank you, Jerry, I appreciate it. Item number 12, discussion regarding fundraising money collected for downtown decorations presented by Alderman Stacy and Monroe. 01:35:56.730 --> 01:36:14.180 Well, I had hoped to discuss this tonight. However, the person that could proudly answer my questions, for whatever reason, is not here. 01:36:14.180 --> 01:36:42.140 and so I would just like to carry this matter to the next council meeting the 18th of February since I was the second I would agree to that as well is this the is this 13 item number 12 12 okay move to the third meeting of the month please the 18th of February 01:36:42.140 --> 01:37:25.650 Okay, we got Stacy, all in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Aye. Okay, so that'll be up on next week's agenda. Item number 13, discuss potential $2 million Illinois Department of Transportation Surface Transportation Program Urban STU funding for streets. 01:37:25.870 --> 01:38:12.560 by Darren. You're a popular guy tonight, Darren. That's okay. Apologies that I didn't have adequate time to get a map on the agenda. I have been working for probably the last three months with IDOT, working on trying to find an avenue to find more transportation money for Freeport. 01:38:12.560 --> 01:38:41.440 report. This map that I handed out, surface transportation program. So we were hoping to present a program that could still be pulled off in 2025. I found out from IDOT last week that even the modest plans that we want to do for these roads will require an ESR, which is an environmental survey report, which takes nine months to complete. 01:38:41.440 --> 01:39:11.240 So to give, you know, not belabor it, I've been working, we have an STU fund, I've asked IDOT to contribute two and a half million dollars towards this project, they will agree, Freeport will support the engineering cost, so the, just so the audience knows, the streets that we're looking to do, these will be milling overlays only with ADA ramp 01:39:11.240 --> 01:39:19.980 replacements and curbs. We would do Walnut Avenue from Empire to South. I would love to keep going on that 01:39:19.980 --> 01:39:28.560 project, but the north side is in too far of disarray to be able to just do a mill and overlay. That needs to be a full 01:39:28.560 --> 01:39:36.100 reconstruct. I would also like to finish the Adams Avenue project that we started this year. We were not 01:39:36.100 --> 01:39:40.740 able to pave completely from Float Street down to Exchange. 01:39:40.740 --> 01:40:10.000 to exchange. This would suggest that we would mill and overlay the rest of the road to make that project finally anew the entire length. Also in my travels, Lincoln Boulevard from West Avenue to Locust Avenue, I'm proposing to fix that section. That street probably had the most lead service lines that we replaced on one street. I believe there was 25 in that little section. It was almost every house in the 01:40:10.000 --> 01:40:16.840 Street's turned into a roller coaster and wasn't on any current list for replacement. Again, I would just 01:40:16.840 --> 01:40:21.660 suggest, based on the information that we looked at, is a mill and overlay and a few ADA ramps on that. 01:40:22.180 --> 01:40:33.620 And then another section of concern that I saw was Stevenson Street. From Locust Street to basically 01:40:33.620 --> 01:40:41.320 Park is starting to fall apart pretty heavily. It is savable yet without a full reconstruction. 01:40:41.940 --> 01:40:47.420 I believe we could mill and overlay three to four inches on that street, replace the remaining ADA ramps. 01:40:47.420 --> 01:41:00.340 We would also stay out of the west intersection. That's IDOT right away, so we'd stop short of each one of those areas, and again, it would just be a mill and overlay. 01:41:00.340 --> 01:41:04.820 Director, Darren, did you say Stevenson, Locust 2? 01:41:05.560 --> 01:41:16.980 On the sheet, we put Sunset because we're already doing a project in 2025 that's the intersection of park, and so this would just butt up to that end of that project. 01:41:16.980 --> 01:41:30.280 We were just hoping to finish that. On the 2025 streets program already, we have the park and Stevenson intersection being done where it's all falling apart with the railroad tracks and sinking, just that intersection. 01:41:30.340 --> 01:41:37.500 is getting redone. And so this project would bud to that. As you can see from the map that I gave you, 01:41:37.860 --> 01:41:45.800 I'm trying to attack streets where we have some of our heavier traffic corridors, trying to finish 01:41:45.800 --> 01:41:51.760 projects and connect projects that we've already done. Again, the city of Freeport, just for some 01:41:51.760 --> 01:41:59.060 understanding, we have a list of, they're called FAU routes, and IDOT established this list many years 01:41:59.060 --> 01:42:28.620 this surface transportation funding can only be used on those streets and so we can't just take this to Kiwanis Drive or Catherine Street or Santa Fe or any street we want to pick it has to stay on the federal urban assistant routes that IDAT established many years ago so anyway the reason I'm bringing it to you guys tonight is I would like 01:42:28.620 --> 01:42:35.600 some kind of direction as a council whether we want to move forward and have a contract brought forward 01:42:35.600 --> 01:42:44.340 to try to capture this money and do a program for 2026 with this funding or if we don't want to do it 01:42:44.340 --> 01:42:52.560 I don't want to spend any more energy or resources on it. A question if you would there. Yep. What's 01:42:52.560 --> 01:42:59.280 engineering costs on it. Engineering costs are what we have to pay for it to get to $2 million. 01:42:59.720 --> 01:43:21.920 Correct. On these type of mill and overlay projects, you could probably expect 7% to 8% for engineering costs to get it permitted and approved. These service transportation funds are federal funds, not state funds, so there's more requirements to do federal funds. Some of the most expensive costs will be ADA ramps, and under federal program, you have to design 01:43:21.920 --> 01:43:29.140 them in whole back 15 feet in every direction. So that survey time and the design portion of that is 01:43:29.140 --> 01:43:39.800 quite labor intensive. So again, what are we looking at cost-wise to accept this? So if we accept this, 01:43:39.800 --> 01:43:46.500 we would be accepting the engineering responsibility for the design and the construction engineering. 01:43:46.500 --> 01:44:16.480 the construction cost itself based on my estimates would pretty much wholly be covered by this program just for mill and overlays only so I know a lot of people have asked me before you're not replacing the curb on my street you're not you know doing this and that this would just be patching in areas enough to mill and overlay the street we're trying to treat everybody the same I know there's areas of these streets that you know the curbs not perfect I know it's not overlaid 01:44:16.480 --> 01:44:46.460 Perfect. If we don't attack something on this area of Stevenson Street soon, that section will turn into a total reconstruct as the intersections are falling apart. Again, our goal was always to finish the Adams Avenue project. We just didn't have enough money to resurface it all the way to Exchange. Walnut Street, we know is a problem, and I think North Walnut will be our next largest project in the city of Freeport because that is a full reconstruct and a 01:44:46.460 --> 01:44:53.200 Lincoln used to be a heavy throwaway through there until the street, you know, really got topsy-turvy with the lead service line. 01:44:53.200 --> 01:45:16.440 So, um, I think you misunderstood my question. Okay. What is it going to cost us to go after this money? Uh, so far, it has only cost you my public works time. I, I have this all, it's just a paperwork process at this time. Uh, probably a thousand dollars in paperwork to secure 01:45:16.440 --> 01:45:29.880 the money for these projects for 2026, and then we have to do the design, which would be about seven or eight percent of the cost of the project, which is two and a half million dollars. That's a pretty standard for engineering fees on a mill and overly. 01:45:31.260 --> 01:45:40.740 Yes, I think what you're getting at is the dollars. Yes. Seven to eight percent, as he mentioned, and a two million dollar, that'd be 140 to 160 thousand. 01:45:40.740 --> 01:45:44.180 Just to do the paperwork, the nine months 01:45:44.180 --> 01:45:47.640 Get it designed, get it approved by the federal government 01:45:47.640 --> 01:45:52.260 7.5% is $187,500 01:45:52.260 --> 01:45:54.520 just to kind of give you that 01:45:54.520 --> 01:45:57.980 it's actually closer to $200,000 down to $160 01:45:57.980 --> 01:46:00.060 if you go $2.5 million 01:46:00.060 --> 01:46:02.220 $2 million, it says 01:46:02.220 --> 01:46:04.000 Well, he just said $2.5 01:46:04.000 --> 01:46:06.880 Listen to the man 01:46:06.880 --> 01:46:36.720 Yeah, the sheet, the agenda tonight did say $2 million because I hadn't got the cost estimate fully ran, and you also have to remember when we do cost estimates, it's a very high level, we're not spending hours with our teams digging into this, we used some averages, so I'm saying around two and a half, it might be 2.3, it might be 2.6, until we actually dig into the engineering, I'm not going to be able to come up with 01:46:36.720 --> 01:46:49.880 with an exact cost. But I think it's rough to say that, in my estimation, $187 to get $2.5 million, and yes, we would have the construction, is a no-brainer. Anybody that wants to trade me that money, I'll do it any day. 01:46:50.620 --> 01:46:51.400 Alderman Sellers? 01:46:51.880 --> 01:47:01.480 I guess that's what I was going to say, Darren. If we could get, what, four streets done for $200,000, it's well worth it. 01:47:01.480 --> 01:47:30.680 Yeah, I just want to be clear, you know, we are really working hard in the background to try to address the infrastructure. I'm trying to be creative with what we come. And again, I want to citizens to know that, you know, Stevenson Street, I would say is one of our heaviest local traffic streets in Freeport. We're treating it just the same as we've done every other street. It's a mill and overlay project. It's not all new curbs, not all new sidewalk. I've said this numerous times at the council floor. 01:47:30.680 --> 01:47:35.300 for the citizens of Freeport. I know that's what we deserve, but that's not what we can afford. 01:47:37.970 --> 01:47:38.810 Alderman Station. 01:47:39.350 --> 01:47:49.330 So these four streets that you mentioned is in addition to our five-year planned streets. 01:47:50.510 --> 01:48:00.230 Yes. Yes. What we would do is we would stack these on top of next year's program, but we got it. 01:48:00.230 --> 01:48:30.110 I don't want to say we got it. That's not a good statement. I want to say if we really want to do it next year, we have to get a contract signed because the environmental requirements from IDOT are a minimum of nine months. And if we don't go through that process, it just will push it another year. And that is their new federal process. And it's making the projects drag out longer and farther. And you asked me to start trying to bring stuff to the couch so we could discuss it. 01:48:30.110 --> 01:48:41.610 and entertain it. So instead of just bringing a contract to the next meeting, I wanted to have a discussion whether we want to move forward this as a group. And I think it's a good decision, but it's ultimately your decision. 01:48:43.270 --> 01:49:09.620 We have a motion to move it forward? So moved. Second. Chair? Yes. So you'll have an agreement? We're moving forward an agreement? We'll have an agreement at the next meeting so we can start the process. Okay, thank you. 01:49:09.620 --> 01:49:15.100 So would we want more than a voice vote on this considering dollars and cents? 01:49:16.180 --> 01:49:16.300 No. 01:49:16.360 --> 01:49:17.260 It's not necessary. 01:49:17.480 --> 01:49:17.640 Okay. 01:49:17.760 --> 01:49:20.060 All in favor signify by saying aye. 01:49:20.260 --> 01:49:20.620 Aye. 01:49:21.140 --> 01:49:21.640 Opposed? 01:49:21.740 --> 01:49:22.280 Same sign. 01:49:23.900 --> 01:49:24.940 Motion passes. 01:49:26.020 --> 01:49:28.240 Item number 14, public comment. 01:49:29.860 --> 01:49:31.300 Yes, Mr. Tate. 01:49:31.580 --> 01:49:33.740 Please state your name and your address. 01:49:33.980 --> 01:49:34.880 We appreciate it. 01:49:34.880 --> 01:49:35.940 Not address. 01:49:36.040 --> 01:49:36.520 Not address. 01:49:36.700 --> 01:49:36.880 Name. 01:49:36.980 --> 01:49:37.980 Name, please. 01:49:37.980 --> 01:49:38.240 Name. 01:49:38.400 --> 01:49:38.640 Okay. 01:49:38.940 --> 01:49:39.260 Sorry. 01:49:39.620 --> 01:50:09.600 Thank you. 01:50:09.600 --> 01:50:38.360 While I was on the Airport Commission, Mr. Darrell Jensen brought it to the attention of the Commission. At that time, it was publicly known that it was hazardous material. The Commission immediately decided to get rid of it. There was a small trailer with, I don't know, six, eight, five-gallon cans, and we called up the Freeport Fire Department. I have no idea where it went or what they did with it, but the Freeport Fire Department disposed of it, and that was about 12 years ago. 01:50:38.380 --> 01:51:13.850 So before that, to my knowledge and since, I don't know that foam has ever been used at the airport. But there was foam there, just in case, and it was disposed of about 12 years ago. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Tommy? I want to tell Ashley, she's doing a good job of public alignment. Thank you, Tommy. And Travis Davis, she's doing a good job of the police department. 01:51:14.110 --> 01:51:50.030 Wheat. Thank you, sir. Diane Dickinson. What's this about the Holiday Inn? The Holiday Inn is closed. Stay away from it. Don't make any reservations. Don't make any reservations, and we are working on getting rid of or demolishing it. No, go ahead, Alderman Monroe. Thank you, Alderman Clem. I just want to remind everybody, if you missed the previous 01:51:50.030 --> 01:52:00.290 I pass on demand opportunity. There's another one coming up February 21st, 830 AM to 6 PM at 314 West 01:52:00.290 --> 01:52:07.930 Stevenson Street. If you don't know where that is, it's real close to this spot. And, you know, it's a really 01:52:07.930 --> 01:52:14.430 good program. Otherwise, you've got to go. I think the closest place now is the Belvedere Oasis, and that 01:52:14.430 --> 01:52:46.040 is a pain. So if you want to replace your I-PASS, come here to City Hall and they will help you on the 21st of February. Thank you. No problem. Any other public comments? I would like to then we'll talk about going into executive session pursuant to 5ILCS120-C-C-15 to the purchase or lease of rental property, real property for the use of public 01:52:46.040 --> 01:53:20.200 Board, including meetings held on for the purpose of discussing whether a particular parcel should be acquired. We need a motion and a second to move forward. So moved. Second. Clem, aye. Monroe? Aye. Aye. Doesn't matter to me. No, I'll do it. Simmons? Aye. 01:53:20.200 --> 01:53:34.720 Parker? Aye. Stacey? Aye. Shadle? Aye. Sellers? Aye. Excuse me, Sanders? Aye. And we have Sellers. Return to the regular session.