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.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Ted Odendahl.

Here.

Kathy Wilken.

Here.

Kathy Aldensee.

Here.

Kelvin McIlwain.

Patrick Sellers.

Here.

Okay.

We have a quorum.

The first order of this is the approval of minutes for the April 20, 20, 26th meeting.

I need a motion in the second, please.

So moved.

I'll second it. Motion by Altensey, second by Wilken, please take a look at the minutes if you haven't done so already. I like that bigger font. Me too. I like it too because I'm getting old myself. I'm black. Nice. Is it raining? Oh my goodness. Yeah, it's supposed to. Oh, I didn't get my rain barrel out. Yeah. Got to start it. Are there any questions on the minutes? No. I digressed. Sorry. Okay.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. The next order is approval of bills payable. Motion to second, please. Motion to approve. I need a second. I'll second it. Motion by Odendahl, second by Wilken. Please take a look at the bills payable if you haven't done so already. I have a question. Yes. The resume genius, is that? Resume genius is for the Jumpstart program. That's what I thought. That's what we use to build resumes.

Teaching them how to do it correctly. Yep. Yep. That's what we use it for. Thank you. Okay. Are there any questions on claims of demands, trustees? Nada. Seeing that there is none, Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Wilkins? Aye. Altensey? Aye. Odendahl? Aye. Sellers? Aye. Motion passed. McIlwain? All right.

We just did the bills. Do you have any questions on claim to demand? No, I saw them already. I didn't have any questions. Okay. So can I put you down as a yes? Yes, you can. Thank you. All right. The next order of this is the supervisor's report. I don't have anything to hand out. And that's the report. I will have some jumpstart numbers for you guys for the next meeting and probably some client numbers for you guys too. Okay? All right. Next order of this is the assessor's report. Okay.

Okay. Mr. Benz, this is trustees report. Trustees.

All right. Well, I will mention that we're, we being the yield program is planting some trees.

Okay.

And these are to be large trees, so they need to be printed appropriately.

But if anyone in the town wants a shade tree, we will come to their house and if they need help planning it, we'll plan it for them.

Is there a cross to that?

No.

No, no.

What kind of trees are they?

Primarily oaks, although there are some other kinds, but they are all, well, all, we've got four smaller bushes, but all the others are large.

If you could have someone send some sort of write up for that right there. I could put it on our Facebook page so everybody could see it. We can do that. I've got something. The pretzel meal prep is up and running again for the pantries. And so if anybody wants to come and help us pack up the meal prep bags on Thursday at the Y at 915 until we get it done.

so if anybody wants to do that they're welcome to come out and join us. YW or YA? The YW, out by Highland, the Highland. Or YM. YM, excuse me, YM. YW is no longer. Thank you for asking. Yeah, you'd never find it if you went to a YW. Well, not a free porcelain or a Rockford. Not anymore. Yeah, out in Highland, 915 until it's done and then and then a couple different days we'll be distributing but I don't have that information with me so I think they have enough people to do that so we just need a few more hands to help us pack because it'll go a lot faster.

What's your head count as far as how many?

Well, last time we did it, we had, I think we had over 600 bags that we packed and we took to different places and I think we're up and we had got enough money through donations to do at least that much again and probably a little bit more That's wonderful. Food pantries probably really need it.

Yeah, they do. So it's different food pantries we're doing.

And we've got, what, four of them, right?

Oh, there's more than that because there's little church ones too.

Oh, that's right.

Some of the smaller church like New Jerusalem and, well, the big ones, you know, like Salvation Army and SACC.

Yeah, SACC, St. Penny's.

Yeah.

Mount Calvary.

Mount Calvary is another one that we're doing.

Yeah.

Then I think we do have for the high school as well that we did that before.

so I think we're doing the high school pantry and I know there's some other ones too that we're doing but I don't have them at the top of my head so okay okay I'm sorry tell me again when you're Thursday this coming Thursday at 915 at the YMCA so just come in and they'll point you where you need to go at the main building yeah it'll have the we'll have We have it all set up and we have to go and pick up the food from Aldi's on Thursday morning. They take it over to the Y and then we get to busy.

Keeps you off the streets, right?

Keeps me busy, yeah.

Good.

So if you can come and help, we'd appreciate it. If you can't, that's okay, too.

It's a good cause.

Yeah. Do we know, I know that they made the change to SNAP recipients, like the job work requirements kicking in or started May 1st. Do we have any idea of what the impact would be on Freeport and what profile a recipient would be affected?

I was going to look before I came here, but I didn't have time today.

I don't know. I know we have a significant amount of people in this area that are seeking disability or pending disability. I don't know how that's going to affect those individuals. But I know that this, I think it's 20 hours a week, this is going to, I don't know how it's going to affect around here. I don't know yet.

But I'm sure we're going to start seeing some increased phone calls. Folks are going to be trying to find places to go because that's the thing. You don't have a whole lot of places that are that are taking people to do community service things.

All right. And a lot of it happened because everybody's so afraid of liability. Nobody wants nobody to go in and tweak a muscle, tweak a back or do something to get hurt.

and all of a sudden your insurance and that, you know, take that into consideration as well.

So we're keeping an eye out, keeping our ears out and, you know, trying to stay ahead of this if we can.

All right. Yes, I know Rockford kind of have projected a number. I haven't seen anything for Freeport.

I was just wondering if maybe you had or anyone else.

What I could do is it's difficult to get a hold of a live person at DHS. Very hard to get a hold of a live person.

So I spent a lot of places.

I will talk to Billie Jo. She might have a contact there, somebody that we can talk to and say, hey, what is going to be the potential impact for the Freeport area and see if we can get some information for you guys.

Is the office still open here in Freeport?

I think so, but it's not a lot of people working there.

No. A lot of retires.

Yeah, so usually when you call you are getting getting electronic voices and all that stuff. And, you know, they encourage everyone to do everything online. They told us that we encourage everyone to go online to do things. They don't encourage people to come to the office or to call. So, I'll see if we can track down some information for the board. I'll definitely give it a shot. Thank you.

I'm curious, Kelvin, I don't know if you've heard anything in this regard, but I was getting the impression that when they estimate how many people may lose benefits, that a lot of cases they're thinking people are going to lose benefits not because they're not eligible, but because they just can't navigate the new system. And I don't know if you've heard. Yeah, I've seen like multiple things, so I'm wondering if you, that's why I was having some clarification, because I've seen like multiple Yeah, I've heard, yes, because of people not understanding the requirements, I also saw something where there are some people who have disabilities and might get caught in that requirement, but it was kind of unclear how that scenario actually plays out, like what form of disability would fall under a work requirement.

So, yeah, so between that and then the piece you just mentioned, so I was wondering if anyone had any more clarity on?

You know, last week sometime I heard that they were requiring people that were able to work 20 hours a week.

And that, to me, makes sense. That gets you in the, you're not just sitting at home.

Yeah.

Like back in the day.

But, but, but the question is where? Where? Yeah. Yeah. And how are you going to get there? Right. And who's going to monitor it? Because you don't have enough people working at DHS to monitor this stuff. So who's going to monitor this stuff? You know, so that, that's going to, the, the, the, the big question is, is, is, is where? And I know for us, if you are pending disability, or if you are pending disability, going through the, the disability process, you're not eligible for community work and training. Is that the same rule for DHS? Yeah.

We don't know. This is very unclear.

And I think the part where I'm more concerned with is are there people that might get, are there people who have a legit real need that might get caught in the cracks of this work requirement where like someone's disabled, realistically they can't, but yet the requirement is such worth making them.

Yes.

So that's the way to me, because if it's someone who's just being lazy, then I'm not worried about that. It's mainly people who, yeah, who really legitimately, or someone with daycare, or someone with kids and you can't find daycare. What do you do? I mean, that, I mean, that's just a real, because daycare is, you know, there's a shortage and it's expensive, so.

And it used to be years ago that when someone was going through the disability process, do we still do work for other townships as far as getting them a 245 grant and then when their disability kicks in, they pay township back.

Right, yes, we still do that, but during that process, they're not eligible for community work and training because they're pending or seeking disability.

I mean, it's not the fact you're telling us, well, I'm with disability.

Well, until you show us that you're actually doing it, you're eligible for community work and training.

But the second we get the information that you are actually pending disability, you're no longer eligible for community work and training.

So how does that translate over to DHS?

We all follow the same rules.

So if that's the case, if someone's playing a disability or is disabled, how does that work for them?

Yeah. Well, if we do find that there is a gap of a set of people where there is a realistic need, a person would like to see if that's a gap that Township could possibly fill.

Already working on it, Kelvin.

Okay, cool.

Already working on it.

Yeah.

Already working on it.

He's taller than you and he's ten steps ahead of you.

Already working on it.

Yeah, we've had that discussion, my staff and I. What about the ones who fall through the cracks? You're going to have some that are going to fall through the cracks. So, yeah. Perfect. Already working on it. All right. Anything else, trustees? Any of the business coming forward? Oh, any public comments?

Shane Oil, you guys all know me. I just wanted to put out there that along with all of the people that are going to be in need here, the high school is doing a shoe drive. They're collecting shoes. You can just drive them off on the front door. They've got a big box out there. You can do that. The second thing that I wanted to talk about is communication. Something that I've always appreciated about the township is that you guys had the conversation in the room.

It's respectful, all of that. You guys get information to the people as they're watching. Some of the people are growing increasingly frustrated in the community because we're not getting that information in other places. So if you guys have information that you can relay, I like hearing that you're going to post stuff to Facebook and stuff like that. People gain access to information in all different ways. So if you guys can keep up the conversations and post or send out information, in various ways. I know I appreciate it because, you know, if I'm stuck in a gym all day, I don't necessarily get everything through some communications that other people do. So, you know, if you guys can just keep up those conversations and get as much information out there to the people as possible, I would appreciate it. I know there are some other places that need to do that, but I won't bring that right here. So, thank you guys.

All right, thank you. Any other public comments? Any other business comments for the town? Seeing that there is none, I intend a motion to adjourn until Monday, May 18, 2026, at 4.30 p.m. So moved. Second. Motion by McIlwain, second by O'Neill. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Meeting adjourned. Thank you, guys. Thanks, Mike.