WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.800 We're in the meeting of planning development meeting for April 6th, 2026. 00:00:05.640 --> 00:00:07.340 Hale, would you like to open us with a word? 00:00:07.340 --> 00:00:08.300 Sure, thank you. 00:00:09.280 --> 00:00:14.920 Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing this group together tonight to do the best of work for the county. 00:00:15.740 --> 00:00:23.740 Thank you for all the blessings and watching over our county and citizens and guide us through this meeting tonight, Lord. 00:00:23.840 --> 00:00:25.560 We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:00:26.200 --> 00:00:26.440 Amen. 00:00:27.220 --> 00:00:29.360 Steve, we have approval of the agenda. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:53.400 All in favor say aye? Aye. Motion carries. On to the minutes from March 9, 2026. Motion to approve. Motion to second. Motion to second. Aye. Opposed? Aye. Motion carries. On to claims. We have a total this evening for 00:00:53.400 --> 00:01:11.190 for planning development of $550.89. Motion to approve. Second. All in favor? Aye. Motion carries as well. At this point we have a public comment. 00:01:11.190 --> 00:01:51.840 It's an update reference, Zach Jeffries Quarry, located at 466 West Fairview Road, Freeport, the entire eastern length of that property borders my property, at the end of this month, it's been a year since I first expressed concerns to the zoning director, per reference, Mr. Jeffries telling me his intentions for the quarry, 00:01:51.840 --> 00:02:02.340 Mr. Fricke, your interest in the issue is appreciated and you're welcome to come out again to update the photos you took from my property in mid-January 00:02:02.340 --> 00:02:07.920 so much has changed in three months instead of planting trees 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:15.720 as required Mr. Jeffrey has ripped out nearly all of the mature trees that had provided partial screening 00:02:15.720 --> 00:02:45.720 from the end of February into mid-March for two and a half weeks Mr. Jeffrey had not stopped unattended fires burning please refer to the county burning ordinance specifically 224-4B commercial trade waste which requires him to use an air curtain and scent radar instead of 24-7 unattended open burning there's still an extremely large pile of logs on the northeast 00:02:45.720 --> 00:03:04.940 He's sectioned very close to our shared property line. He put a whole bunch more brush there again today. He's also brought in multiple loads of walks and tree trunks from other locations. Over the past year, he has had multiple fires on the property. 00:03:04.940 --> 00:03:35.710 Mr. Jeffrey has dug and graded the northern portion rerouting the water. The water runoff from the property east of me flows mostly through a drain tube under my lane and empties into this area. The water used to flow westward. He has built a large, hot plateau in part with this excavated dirt and rock and widened his drive on the northern end rerouting the water flow. 00:03:35.710 --> 00:03:44.450 Mr. Jeffery has been in violation of a number of EPA regulations. He should also be cited at the county level. 00:03:45.910 --> 00:03:58.450 Beth, has Mr. Jeffery complied with the county's conditional use permit requirements listed in the violation notice stated January 20th of 26th? 00:03:58.790 --> 00:04:03.690 Again, it's been a year since the quarry activities were brought to the county's attention. 00:04:03.690 --> 00:04:43.350 why is Mr. Jeffrey continually allowed to operate without compliance I don't think we can answer that tonight if somebody could get back to me though I mean that's multiple questions please yeah give me a call come out you coming that's from my front door you have a beautiful view of this so so thank you 00:04:43.350 --> 00:04:58.450 Any other public comment? With that, we'll move on to reports to the committee, but we can start with a very good partnership. Thank you. 00:04:58.450 --> 00:05:10.390 Good evening, everyone, and happy Easter. I'm going to pass a couple of articles out to you and walk you through some of these and then just provide some general updates. 00:05:10.390 --> 00:05:23.590 But the first thing you see is kind of an outline of efforts and methodology in targeting hotel recruitment, our Freeport and Stevenson region. 00:05:23.590 --> 00:05:34.770 So since the partnership's inception, we've been tracking occupancy data of the three most consistently run hotels, Country Inn and Suites, Hampton and the Baymont. 00:05:34.770 --> 00:06:02.850 What we do know is that consistently our occupancy is 70% or higher. That's even during the midweek where we have a lot of business travel. So that leads us to believe that our area would support another hotel development. Obviously, with that would bring the opportunity for additional hotel motel tax, sales revenue, support of our tourism and events, 00:06:02.850 --> 00:06:08.670 which aligns very closely with some of the other things that are happening in the area especially 00:06:08.670 --> 00:06:13.530 thinking of Highland and their addition and supports facilities and the opportunities that 00:06:13.530 --> 00:06:20.750 come along with that with potential tournaments that could be hosted here. So and the other thing 00:06:20.750 --> 00:06:27.610 that we well personally and professionally we hear amongst businesses and we ourselves we don't have 00:06:27.610 --> 00:06:39.290 Hotel Complex that helps an event center or a conference center, which really limits our ability to host any regional or statewide conferences at different associations. 00:06:39.950 --> 00:06:42.210 We also heard that from a number of businesses. 00:06:43.410 --> 00:06:48.930 So it would be our goal to try to attract another flagship hotel with conference space. 00:06:48.930 --> 00:06:54.950 so we're looking at the process of what data that we need to start aggregating as well as potential sites 00:06:54.950 --> 00:07:02.110 that we could try to vet. We're also exploring different funding options to make that 00:07:02.110 --> 00:07:10.230 enticing to a developer. Star Bonds is something that we are broadly examining. This is a new program 00:07:10.230 --> 00:07:16.050 the state of Illinois has put out and it's really around development similar to a TIF district except 00:07:16.050 --> 00:07:33.210 In fact, it doesn't work with property tax, it works with sales tax generation, and it's developed with a geography, or it's outlined in geography, a specific geographic area that you're trying to target to build an event center. 00:07:33.750 --> 00:07:39.250 The idea is really trying to attract people from outside the area for tourism-related events. 00:07:39.250 --> 00:07:44.050 so we're still doing the due diligence learning more about the program and seeing if there would be a 00:07:44.050 --> 00:07:49.510 location that would make sense it's a long process with the state again they're developing this is a 00:07:49.510 --> 00:07:54.930 new program that they currently don't have so there would be a letter of inquiry that we would send to 00:07:54.930 --> 00:08:02.450 the state if we were interested middle of the year then that puts us in line to file a formal application 00:08:02.450 --> 00:08:08.310 that would be that would happen at the end of 2026 and that the state would evaluate so there will be 00:08:08.310 --> 00:08:36.050 more to come. And you'll hear me talk about this as well. The second one, the flyer that you see, and this is, I've mentioned this before, this is the Midland CEO program. So it's creating entrepreneurship opportunities. And this is a program that we didn't originate, but we're trying to develop a chapter or where we are developing a chapter here in Freeport in conjunction with Freeport High School. 00:08:36.050 --> 00:09:05.870 So this is set to launch in the next school year and it is targeted towards juniors and seniors and it's really they undergo it's a year long class credit hour class and they work with local businesses to to be mentored to understand what it takes to develop a business build relationships with existing businesses to develop their own business and both as a group and then an individual and it culminates in a trade show. 00:09:06.050 --> 00:09:12.450 visit around this time of year, time of the year. Some of you might be familiar with Whiteside Area 00:09:12.450 --> 00:09:18.130 Career Center, which is similar to our CareerTech host. They already have a CEO program. Actually, 00:09:18.190 --> 00:09:25.170 they have two branches of it or two cohorts. And so towards the end of this month, we will go down 00:09:25.170 --> 00:09:31.010 and check out their trade show. But we're in planning. Currently, student registration at 00:09:31.010 --> 00:09:59.950 High School is ongoing for next fall. This is one of the course offerings that will be there. We're also in the process of hiring a facilitator for this class. This is a program that is at no cost to the district or the students that are involved because it is facilitated and designed to be supported by the community, specifically the business community. So we have business investors, some of which sit on a CEO. 00:09:59.950 --> 00:10:02.960 some of which sit on a CEO board and help operate this program. 00:10:03.780 --> 00:10:16.020 The partnership sees this as a great opportunity to help create entrepreneurial skills within our young talent as well as interpersonal skills. 00:10:16.160 --> 00:10:23.460 What we often hear about from our employers is those students don't have the soft skills when they enter the workforce. 00:10:23.460 --> 00:10:29.760 and part of this program is they meet with businesses each week, they go out, they tour facilities, 00:10:30.160 --> 00:10:36.560 they have a business mentor themselves, so it is really developing a professional skill set as well 00:10:36.560 --> 00:10:43.240 and also helping to create connections for that student so that they're less likely to leave the 00:10:43.240 --> 00:10:49.420 community for their career path or if they leave to return. So there will be more to come but we 00:10:49.420 --> 00:11:16.540 and we're excited to launch this program next year. Some other things that are going on, you'll hear me talk about opportunity zones. So this is another incentive zone that was really created by the Department of Revenue at the federal level in 2017. The initial program is set to expire this year. Each state is going through a process of reviewing eligible census tracts. 00:11:16.540 --> 00:11:42.460 census tracts are eligible based upon household income criteria, poverty rate, etc. We have a number of census tracts in Freeport that qualify. We have two currently in the existing opportunity zone that's set to expire. We have a total of five eligible census tracts. So that's the two original census tracts and three additional census tracts. 00:11:42.460 --> 00:12:08.140 What I'm working to do is to talk to developers, potential developers, property owners, to educate them on the opportunity of what an opportunity zone could potentially do for their business or future investment. And to garner a letter of support, it will be a competitive selection process through the state to have our census tracts included. 00:12:08.140 --> 00:12:16.100 and I'll back up here. Census or Opportunity Zone is really outside of any property tax or sales tax. 00:12:17.300 --> 00:12:25.940 You develop a qualified Opportunity Zone fund that allows somebody to invest in that fund. 00:12:25.940 --> 00:12:37.180 They can forego some capital gains tax or defer that capital gains tax depending on how long they hold that investment in that property or that project. 00:12:37.180 --> 00:13:07.160 So some companies and or developers are looking at this as a potential vehicle to reinvest while gaining those benefits. So that's the conversation I'm having. I'm aggregating letters of support and information from both public and private partners to then send down to the state so that the DCEO is then kind of aggregating this information and ultimately it will land on the governor's desk for his selection process. 00:13:07.180 --> 00:13:36.860 process, but trying to create a compelling argument that our census tracts are all added because there are potential projects in the pipeline. It's a long way of saying I can be happy to provide a follow up map as to what these census tracts are, where they are, and talk to you in more detail. But that's been I spent a lot of time kind of talking with developers and meeting with them in the past month. Additionally, we continue to work on enterprise zone boundary 00:13:36.860 --> 00:13:42.740 expansion applications for the Village of Lena and AutoSmart. We are also in the beginning stages of 00:13:42.740 --> 00:13:50.260 working with the City of Freeport, developing a parcel list to talk about potential parcels to be 00:13:50.260 --> 00:13:58.380 added into the enterprise zone to help facilitate residential development. The partnership is going 00:13:58.380 --> 00:14:03.340 through a meeting with all of the Village boards throughout Stevenson County, kind of giving them 00:14:03.340 --> 00:14:26.160 update on the 2025 annual activities that went on, giving them our annual report, answering any questions they might have, and or hear what's going on in their community. I know there's someone headed to Orangeville tonight, Dakota, tomorrow I'm in Rock City, and at the end of this week in German Valley, and I've already been to Cedarville and Pearl City, so we're making the rounds. 00:14:26.160 --> 00:14:48.360 We have a workforce initiative event this Wednesday morning from 7.30 to 9 a.m. I encourage any of you, if you're able to attend, we have reached out to our partnership level members to have a heavy conversation with business leaders, educational leaders to talk about our workforce alignment issues. 00:14:48.360 --> 00:15:18.180 we know at our last economic development roundtable we talked a lot about the trends in terms of migration information our aging workforce and how it's key to the economic vitality of this area to really make sure that we're retaining our talent able to attract new talent but one of the other things that we're identifying is when we talk to businesses a lot of especially our manufacturers have great career laddering opportunities 00:15:18.360 --> 00:15:23.940 but they're often not talking about that to their recruits or to their prospects and how can we help 00:15:23.940 --> 00:15:31.500 them become more aware of how to market that better and helping develop personas of who specifically they 00:15:31.500 --> 00:15:39.060 should be marketing to. Alongside that effort we do offer community tours for VP level recruitment 00:15:39.060 --> 00:15:47.640 for employers. We have done this pretty frequently since Mercy Health has taken over FHN. They have 00:15:47.640 --> 00:16:17.620 have been very heavy handed in their physician recruitment, which is exciting to see. And we are excited they're utilizing us to tell the story of our community, being the fact that many of them are newer to the community themselves and may not be super familiar. So very interesting to see it through the eyes of someone who's a newcomer. And typically they seem to be more optimistic than some people who have lived here all their life or for a long period of time. 00:16:17.640 --> 00:16:36.600 We've submitted Mill Ray's Crossing for two RFIs that were issued by Illinois EDC. We continue to market that location to logistics companies knowing that it still has the challenges of limited utility, but it does have ample land and it has great access to 20. 00:16:36.600 --> 00:16:44.300 Last but not least, we will culminate base camp at the end of this month with our pitch competition. 00:16:45.140 --> 00:16:52.820 We are very appreciative from the Illinois Farm Bureau for receiving a grant to help support that program and the pitch competition awards. 00:16:53.800 --> 00:16:57.760 Happy to answer any questions about anything mentioned this evening. 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:01.290 I do have a couple of questions. 00:17:01.290 --> 00:17:06.850 The first one is, and this may have happened before your time 00:17:06.850 --> 00:17:09.530 Well, what happened to the trailer parks in Freeport? 00:17:11.010 --> 00:17:13.270 Why are they, well, they mostly disappeared 00:17:13.270 --> 00:17:14.970 There's a couple of them that closed completely 00:17:14.970 --> 00:17:19.830 There's one out on Stevenson Street Road that's, you know, a quarter of what it used to be 00:17:19.830 --> 00:17:22.650 There's one on Waddell that's completely gone, I think 00:17:22.650 --> 00:17:27.290 I'm familiar with two, the one off of Walnut 00:17:27.290 --> 00:17:29.430 Okay, yeah 00:17:29.430 --> 00:17:53.430 and then the other one would be kind of as part of it goes behind Sullivan's yes that's still there although that there are a lot of vacant lots there if there were more than that and I'm not there was one used to be one down Waddell Street and help orient me where is Waddell 00:17:53.430 --> 00:18:23.410 There were two, there were two, there were two, yeah, just on this side of Sullivan's, well, yeah, you go in there by McDonald's, right, and then there's one on the other side of Sullivan's, and I was in Allen a couple years ago delivering Christmas dinners for church or something, and there was like a third of it, like a third of the trailer park was full, and the one on Stevenson Street Road, the reason this came up is, we were talking 00:18:23.410 --> 00:18:40.110 I was talking to somebody about the Pearl City School District losing the census and all the children that lived in the one on Stevenson Street Road went to Pearl City Schools and that's a shell of itself and I just wondered what happened to them. 00:18:40.110 --> 00:18:50.590 If the state changed something, I talked to Beth and she said as far as she knew there was no county regulation that hurt the... 00:18:50.590 --> 00:19:01.430 There's nothing that I'm aware of that was done to empty those. So I'm not sure that I can answer your question with any certitude. So, yeah. 00:19:03.010 --> 00:19:07.690 Theoretically, it's affordable housing. I mean, that was a big draw back in the day. 00:19:07.890 --> 00:19:08.750 Sure, sure. 00:19:09.110 --> 00:19:10.450 And I know we're looking for housing. 00:19:11.390 --> 00:19:19.870 It is. And yeah, it can be a solution. Also thinking about how it is not assessed as real property. 00:19:19.870 --> 00:19:49.850 so there's an implication or you know that has ripple ties in terms of if you're creating if families are living there and you know there are going to be students in a school district that relationship to funding I'm not saying that that's a reason to not have them just stating that fact but check Dan and Cheson see if he has any idea I mean I don't really know where to go from here to find out I don't know if there's just not there was an interest 00:19:49.850 --> 00:19:57.290 or people moved out because they knew it would have to go out in Stevenson Estates was that there was always a problem getting 00:19:57.290 --> 00:20:02.320 There's always a problem getting the owner of the facility to do the maintenance work. 00:20:02.760 --> 00:20:14.180 A lot of those mobile homes out there were owned by the owner of the facility, so they were rentals on top of being mobile homes. 00:20:14.180 --> 00:20:17.680 So that was a problem to some extent. 00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:27.040 And I think we always forget about that mobile home park that's right there next to where they're tearing down the old Holiday Inn. 00:20:27.040 --> 00:20:29.080 Oh, Ray's, Ray's mobile park. 00:20:29.300 --> 00:20:30.820 Oh, yeah, I did forget about that one, yeah. 00:20:31.400 --> 00:20:36.260 And so there, and Nolwood State seems to be doing mobile. 00:20:36.560 --> 00:20:37.540 Nolwood's doing a little well. 00:20:38.540 --> 00:20:43.760 You have to also, the one out on Baileyville Road, I can't think of the name of that one right now. 00:20:43.920 --> 00:20:46.900 So, I mean, there's still some mobile. 00:20:46.900 --> 00:20:55.920 and it depends on housing costs too. If you can buy a home that doesn't blow away as easily 00:20:55.920 --> 00:21:00.600 in the wind, you probably like that a little better. And, you know, the maintenance might 00:21:00.600 --> 00:21:05.720 be the problem with the other two. It could have been very easily the yard. And I know the 00:21:05.720 --> 00:21:11.940 one out behind Sullivan's was used for, they were doing the pipeline through here. It was 00:21:11.940 --> 00:21:18.640 used for the workers that had their own mobile homes that they brought in, and they used 00:21:18.640 --> 00:21:23.800 that facility for that as well, but there's a lot of empty spaces out there. 00:21:24.900 --> 00:21:25.600 All right. 00:21:25.780 --> 00:21:26.300 I don't know. 00:21:27.340 --> 00:21:27.580 Okay. 00:21:28.980 --> 00:21:35.700 The other question is about employment in our county, and we've been looking at the numbers 00:21:35.700 --> 00:21:41.920 for several years, and the open jobs seems to maintain a, you know, 00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:55.440 right around 1,100, and the unemployed is right around 900, and those two numbers should just equal them, you know, write themselves off, you know, in a perfect world. 00:21:55.440 --> 00:21:56.500 In a perfect world. 00:21:56.920 --> 00:22:06.560 But my question is, and I certainly don't know individuals, but what are these 900 people that have been looking for a job for years, what are they doing? 00:22:06.560 --> 00:22:13.860 I don't understand how, I'm assuming that most of the same 900, I don't know that, of course. 00:22:16.860 --> 00:22:31.940 I can't answer that with 100, with, you know, yes, I know that speaking from employers, there's a certain amount of churn, you know, and they see the same individual kind of work their way through the system. 00:22:31.940 --> 00:23:01.920 um that's probably not the full story for all 900 individuals um I will have new data for you uh next month good they were going to release January so because of the shutdown they're still delayed in releasing um unemployment information okay so I should get January's uh on April 8th um but yes look 00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:28.040 I was just looking at this before tonight's meeting. December was the lowest that we had seen in four open jobs. And there was somewhere around, I want to say 900, open publicized job openings. And then by February, it had jumped back up to 1100 and some. 00:23:28.040 --> 00:23:33.180 So, you know, you sometimes see some of that curve through the holidays. 00:23:33.180 --> 00:23:42.520 I don't think we saw as much holiday, like retail hiring as maybe we have seen in other years. 00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:47.000 There's certainly some, but maybe not as prolific as it has been. 00:23:48.140 --> 00:23:49.600 But yeah, it still seems to be. 00:23:49.700 --> 00:23:55.400 So part of the conversation on the Wednesday morning is not necessarily diving into what are those 900 doing? 00:23:55.400 --> 00:24:25.400 but I think making sure that as we graduate how do we make sure that those graduates aren't leaving and also knowing that some of them will pursue Highland or trades or go on leave the community to go to school but some of them will enter the workforce right away and how are we making that on ramp as easy as possible because there are some really fantastic opportunities here that you can start and make a very decent 00:24:25.400 --> 00:24:31.080 hourly wage. And there are a lot of opportunities to expand. I was just visiting the local manufacturer 00:24:31.080 --> 00:24:39.060 and they talked about they will provide the education and training and even send someone to 00:24:39.060 --> 00:24:46.000 school on their dime while they work. So, you know, there are good opportunities, but I don't always 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:54.400 know that those students realize that. How can we make that more seamless? Yeah, I know that the school 00:24:54.400 --> 00:25:00.500 I went to their working on their mission statement at a couple of minutes. 00:25:00.620 --> 00:25:01.260 You know, you were there. 00:25:01.480 --> 00:25:01.680 Yes. 00:25:01.880 --> 00:25:08.380 And that was one of the things they talked about was retaining the students and trying to bring some of them back. 00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:11.140 So, you know, they're aware of that too. 00:25:11.420 --> 00:25:12.100 So, yeah, that's. 00:25:12.680 --> 00:25:13.700 And we'll take their partnership. 00:25:14.180 --> 00:25:14.300 Yeah. 00:25:14.300 --> 00:25:14.560 For sure. 00:25:14.880 --> 00:25:15.020 Yeah. 00:25:15.640 --> 00:25:15.880 Okay. 00:25:16.760 --> 00:25:17.100 All right. 00:25:17.440 --> 00:25:17.880 Well, thank you. 00:25:18.060 --> 00:25:18.300 Sure. 00:25:18.540 --> 00:25:19.520 Well, one other thing. 00:25:19.560 --> 00:25:23.280 I got a call today wanting me to go to work for some company. 00:25:23.280 --> 00:25:29.480 They said that my resume, and I'm 72 years old, I said, no, no, thank you 00:25:29.480 --> 00:25:34.540 Get rid of that resume 00:25:34.540 --> 00:25:38.140 It must be on LinkedIn or something, I don't know 00:25:38.140 --> 00:25:41.280 Steve, you have any questions if I could 00:25:41.280 --> 00:25:41.580 Sure 00:25:41.580 --> 00:25:48.920 The hotel leakage data, 28,000 marine nights a year, so approximately 2,000 in a month 00:25:48.920 --> 00:25:52.580 Does that mean people are coming to town but staying elsewhere? 00:25:53.280 --> 00:25:57.840 Yeah, we often see the spillover. They're going up two in a row or they're staying in Rockford. 00:25:58.560 --> 00:26:04.320 We have some information from a software we call LASER and that tracks via cell phone. 00:26:04.320 --> 00:26:15.980 We also have a call or we purchased some STR data. I can't tell you, I forget what STR stands for, but it's really more delving into a hotel leakage. 00:26:15.980 --> 00:26:32.780 and again they will capture the bulk from larger chains they're not necessarily going to the townhouse motel and finding that information but we're looking at when someone's coming to visit an area they're typically wanting to stay in a chain they recognize. 00:26:32.780 --> 00:26:49.840 Sure. Okay. And then also the workforce initiatives meeting on Wednesday. I got notified of this, I think, a week ago, Tuesday. Was there a previous invitation sent? I looked in my email and I didn't see it. 00:26:50.940 --> 00:27:01.560 There might not have been. I think there was some delay in us getting that sent out due to some just, I think, spring break and getting that finalized and scheduled. 00:27:01.560 --> 00:27:05.160 So if you can't make it or if there's someone else you could send in probably 00:27:05.160 --> 00:27:12.240 I had, you know, a little more notice, I'm probably going to rearrange my schedule, but unfortunately I can't 00:27:12.240 --> 00:27:18.120 So I was just curious about that, I looked like I hadn't seen it before that, so anyway, okay 00:27:18.120 --> 00:27:25.680 We will make sure to kind of encapsulate what happened and what was discussed and send those out to the full group 00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:27.600 Okay, thank you, thanks Steve 00:27:27.600 --> 00:27:32.240 Alright, thanks Andrea 00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:41.440 Alright, the deposit for the month of March totaled $11,566.78 00:27:41.440 --> 00:27:48.100 Total deposits to date to the general fund are $135,030.97 00:27:48.100 --> 00:27:52.480 We issued three court enforcement violations for the month of March 00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:55.060 We closed two of the cases and one is pending 00:27:55.060 --> 00:28:01.180 Nicole performed nine inspections. I performed 12 for the month. We had our monthly meeting with the 00:28:01.180 --> 00:28:07.720 representative from the IBEW. Nicole completed the records disposal paperwork for the Secretary of 00:28:07.720 --> 00:28:14.200 State. We met with Ms. Hummel on the 31st to review the paperwork. We are now awaiting our final approval 00:28:14.200 --> 00:28:22.220 which will then allow us to start the disposal process properly. I attended the annual IFSM 00:28:22.220 --> 00:28:27.840 Illinois Association of Floodplain and Stormwater Management two-day conference in Champaign. 00:28:28.660 --> 00:28:34.700 Ms. Newcomer and I met with Carrie McBride of Diamond Brothers Insurance to discuss a situation 00:28:34.700 --> 00:28:41.280 involving a property owner's failure to maintain their property and to evaluate whether to and what 00:28:41.280 --> 00:28:46.140 to extent the county should be involved in cleanup efforts if the property does not comply following 00:28:46.140 --> 00:28:52.160 an administrative hearing. This would be the property on 26th North. Ms. McBride did receive 00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:56.920 guidance from the insurance carrier. They stated it would be a good idea to go ahead and clean up the 00:28:56.920 --> 00:29:02.080 property and to try to recover the cost from the homeowner. It was stated this mitigates further 00:29:02.080 --> 00:29:08.300 risks and that they are generally seen with uncut properties in addition to removing an eyesore 00:29:08.300 --> 00:29:14.140 and doing the right thing for the community. It was recommended we document everything as well. 00:29:14.640 --> 00:29:19.720 The county can hire a third-party attorney or we can take this on ourselves. I also spoke with Eric 00:29:19.720 --> 00:29:27.640 Bornemann, our zoning office attorney, and he recommends continuing to send out the violation notices. 00:29:28.900 --> 00:29:33.720 More than likely, this individual will not comply, have another administrative hearing, 00:29:34.260 --> 00:29:40.620 then we do have that on the books that we can either hire a third party to go clean up or have 00:29:40.620 --> 00:29:47.100 the county go clean up. And he also is looking into a judgment of foreclosure on the property since we 00:29:47.100 --> 00:29:55.820 already have the $60,000 lien on it. I attended a conference seminar held in Springfield on data centers. 00:29:55.820 --> 00:29:59.240 Hilton Springfield on data centers. And Nicole and I met with Sheriff Stovall to discuss a road use 00:29:59.240 --> 00:30:04.400 agreement related to wind, solar, and energy storage projects. He attended the Township Road 00:30:04.400 --> 00:30:08.780 Commissioner's meeting that was last week where an agreement was discussed. So he came in and talked 00:30:08.780 --> 00:30:18.960 to Nicole and I about that. Questions? Yes. Why would we pursue foreclosure before we clean up? And why 00:30:18.960 --> 00:30:21.420 That would be cleaned up before not the order of the property. 00:30:22.620 --> 00:30:31.060 According to liability, that it's a good idea to, since it would mitigate risk to the area, that's just what we were told. 00:30:31.060 --> 00:30:33.580 Not necessarily risk to the county. 00:30:33.940 --> 00:30:46.720 Correct. Right. And according to our attorney, he recommended having one more hearing to get that on the books so we can have that as a judgment as well. 00:30:46.720 --> 00:30:49.880 and we know exactly how this person is. 00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:53.960 She's a hotel down in Jacksonville. 00:30:54.300 --> 00:30:54.460 Yeah. 00:30:57.910 --> 00:31:01.810 Before we clean anything up, can we talk about that a little more? 00:31:01.910 --> 00:31:02.370 Oh, definitely. 00:31:02.570 --> 00:31:05.530 We have to have, I have to send out all the formal letters and everything. 00:31:05.670 --> 00:31:07.850 So there's the whole long process we have to go through. 00:31:07.850 --> 00:31:09.730 I would really like to pursue foreclosure. 00:31:09.930 --> 00:31:10.490 Oh, definitely. 00:31:11.390 --> 00:31:13.030 Yes, that's what Bornemann recommended. 00:31:14.650 --> 00:31:16.950 We were, I think, just getting more information. 00:31:17.030 --> 00:31:17.210 Right. 00:31:17.210 --> 00:31:19.210 We were trying to figure out all scenarios. 00:31:19.210 --> 00:31:39.340 aggressive. Make sure we are covered. So I just have a question. Because we talked about this one property on 26, because we see a lot of people traffic by there. But what about the jump yard that's in the middle of Winslow? You ever hear anybody talk about that? Winslow is not my territory, unfortunately. And yes, I tried to help them out. 00:31:39.340 --> 00:32:08.980 Stevenson County. They're incorporated. I have also, they've reached out to my office and I helped them two years ago. I sent Mr. Kramer a letter off the books stating, you know, I've been asked by the village of Winslow to help out. And he did clean up some, but he brought just as much back as he did. So unfortunately, I can't, anything that's incorporated, even with the new statute, the new code, 00:32:09.340 --> 00:32:16.180 that they have dangerous buildings and such, we can't touch incorporated health department would have been able to, but we can. 00:32:17.180 --> 00:32:24.780 I talked to somebody, so I can't remember who it was in the village and they were going to contact the Illinois UPA about that. 00:32:25.220 --> 00:32:26.300 I don't know if they ever did. 00:32:26.740 --> 00:32:28.700 I don't remember if they have or not. 00:32:28.780 --> 00:32:31.860 I know Ryan Pena is the board president or mayor. 00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:35.560 I don't know how they, there's a lady that contacts me. 00:32:35.620 --> 00:32:37.660 I can't remember her name off the top of my head. 00:32:39.340 --> 00:32:40.340 Yeah. 00:32:40.340 --> 00:32:49.340 Mr. Chairman, anything of interest from the seminar about data centers? 00:32:49.340 --> 00:32:50.340 Yes. 00:32:50.340 --> 00:32:52.340 I'm doing a lot more research. 00:32:52.340 --> 00:32:54.340 This was put on by an attorney. 00:32:54.340 --> 00:33:08.340 So he was more or less telling us how we should and what we should include in our codes that like the closed loop systems only use that amount of moderate water. 00:33:08.340 --> 00:33:17.280 So at one point in time, of course, they're going to have to use some evaporates here and there, but they're never going to have to take up that big of volume of water again. 00:33:17.620 --> 00:33:21.960 But there's a lot of things that we he gave us that we still need to research and everything like that. 00:33:21.960 --> 00:33:26.560 So, yeah, I would comment on that as well. 00:33:26.700 --> 00:33:36.800 We I attended two meetings on data centers, one over in Rockford, more on AI than it was on data centers. 00:33:36.800 --> 00:33:47.700 but then the question always comes up as we talk about AI. We need, if we're going to continue to grow, expand AI, the data centers are going to be an issue that I have to deal with. 00:33:48.260 --> 00:34:01.880 But Highland did their Boyer Colloquium on AI and data centers and there was a really, one of the best crowds I've seen at the Boyer Colloquium as I talked about this and there was a lot of concern. 00:34:01.880 --> 00:34:25.320 and I think I don't know where you get specific data and you can say exact you hear a lot of different things on the water, whether it's a closed loop or whether it's water that comes in contact with equipment or whether it's water that just goes near equipment as it does in other cooling situations. 00:34:25.320 --> 00:34:56.700 but I think we've gotten not just our community but I think we've gotten communities in general concerned over AI and at this point other than those areas down around DeKalb and some of the other areas out east where there's a lot more of them built or in the process of being built is and I already told you that I've solicited for one for 00:34:56.700 --> 00:35:08.080 We're looking at property form, but we're looking at it. It would take 10 years to get one from think about it stage here now until it was going. 00:35:08.920 --> 00:35:15.700 We do have one that had contacted Nicole and I out by the wind towers, wind turbines and the solar. 00:35:16.560 --> 00:35:26.280 Axiona, they had discussed a smaller size adding on to the wind turbines and the solar to create the extra energy that they would need for that data center. 00:35:26.700 --> 00:35:33.320 and their plan was a five-year plan. The other one creates the problem though is that we can do that 00:35:33.320 --> 00:35:40.000 they're looking at they have some power availability because of the wind farm as we talked at this last 00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:46.160 meeting it was and to give you an example we had a solar facility looking at some property and 00:35:46.160 --> 00:35:52.200 anything that's on the southeast or southwest side Freeport is already out of the picture because 00:35:52.200 --> 00:36:19.680 the substations on the south side of the county can't handle any more power coming into them so that if they built more solar facilities they're going to sit there because they don't have a way to get in plus they've got to pay the two million now than it is to get connected with ComEd but that's going to be our bigger concern is how can they generate the power then you've got to go back to Dale's thing what do you want Dale? 00:36:19.680 --> 00:36:28.040 I do see one question to ask of the committee and the board. 00:36:28.460 --> 00:36:32.600 If anybody ever knows of these meetings that are happening, I don't know about them. 00:36:32.660 --> 00:36:35.140 The IECBM ones, I do not get the emails. 00:36:36.660 --> 00:36:39.240 Mr. Hadley was the one that would tell me about those. 00:36:39.640 --> 00:36:40.880 I know he's going to be off the board. 00:36:41.400 --> 00:36:49.660 So any meetings, any webinars, anything that has to do with solar, wind, energy storage, data centers, zoning, anything. 00:36:49.680 --> 00:37:16.310 please shoot them my way so I can attend Nicole can attend somebody in the office can attend so we can learn more. Did you talk to Kelly Murray about it? I did. I asked her to be put on the list again and she said she'd get to it so let me know if you don't see anything so I get emails from them at least once a week. Okay, perfect. Yeah, I haven't gotten any since I went to that one. So yeah, that's all I have. 00:37:16.310 --> 00:37:39.310 Okay. On soil and water, interesting conversation there as well, when you look at data centers, is that some counties and some states are wanting to employ the soil and water conservation districts to do water use studies so that they can provide that information to those companies and to those counties that had the potential to have 00:37:39.310 --> 00:38:08.870 have a significant portion of their water used for those type of facilities being built, so they're concerned about what's that mean for them. That was an interesting conversation there. They're in the process now. Springfield work is soon to be here, and they're working with the farmers to get their programs that they have as far as waterways and conservation projects 00:38:08.870 --> 00:38:16.990 completed and in place so that they can approve those and move them down the line and help those guys get their mailbox money. 00:38:18.030 --> 00:38:21.030 So pretty much all I have. 00:38:21.110 --> 00:38:22.030 Recreation and Trails. 00:38:22.630 --> 00:38:23.610 Recreation and Trails. 00:38:24.370 --> 00:38:35.070 They were, we discussed the $16,500 that we gave towards the Jane Addams Trail, and they were expecting $20,000. 00:38:35.070 --> 00:38:46.800 and I told them that with our financial situation, you know, $16,500 is what we thought we could afford 00:38:46.800 --> 00:38:53.460 and they weren't very happy with me because I didn't communicate that to them. 00:38:55.300 --> 00:39:03.580 So anyway, I talked to Mr. Helms about it and I suggested to Steve Elbeck that someone comes to a finance meeting 00:39:03.580 --> 00:39:09.920 like many other entities do and explain to us why they need extra money, how much money 00:39:09.920 --> 00:39:15.980 they have, and Steve said that I should let him know when that opportunity arises, and I 00:39:15.980 --> 00:39:20.980 wanted to ask, do you think we should be getting a monthly statement or a quarterly statement 00:39:20.980 --> 00:39:25.760 from the, I'm assuming we don't, I mean, I see them at the meetings, but do you want to 00:39:25.760 --> 00:39:29.120 see a financial statement from them quarterly or monthly? 00:39:29.120 --> 00:39:31.960 I don't know that we've done that. 00:39:33.060 --> 00:39:34.060 I don't think we ought to have. 00:39:34.060 --> 00:39:39.840 We'd ask the BAC to do that, an income statement, the balance sheet at the end of their fiscal year, which you could do the same for them. 00:39:40.260 --> 00:39:40.420 Okay. 00:39:40.900 --> 00:39:41.640 If you want. 00:39:41.820 --> 00:39:42.760 I think it'd be a good idea. 00:39:43.000 --> 00:39:50.940 So when we're talking about, you know, giving them the money, you can see what they have in reserves and just like the BAC. 00:39:51.320 --> 00:39:53.340 Well, we're following the agreement with them. 00:39:53.340 --> 00:39:53.360 following the agreement with them. 00:39:53.940 --> 00:39:55.900 I was going to say, I just wanted more. 00:39:56.140 --> 00:39:56.300 Yeah. 00:39:57.220 --> 00:39:59.060 And they assumed that they were going to get it. 00:39:59.220 --> 00:39:59.700 You know, they just. 00:40:00.980 --> 00:40:02.300 Well, we had an agreement. 00:40:02.420 --> 00:40:03.640 I think we had a three-year agreement. 00:40:05.380 --> 00:40:10.400 So it just renews it automatically that, I mean, if it's a three-year agreement. 00:40:10.600 --> 00:40:11.200 I think it does. 00:40:11.260 --> 00:40:12.340 We'd have to look at it again. 00:40:12.340 --> 00:40:22.520 It's the same conversation I had with them pre-2022 when I was in your slot. 00:40:23.520 --> 00:40:25.640 So it's not new to them. 00:40:26.140 --> 00:40:27.500 They may not be remembering. 00:40:27.880 --> 00:40:28.660 It's not new. 00:40:29.480 --> 00:40:32.120 I mean, I like the trail. 00:40:32.320 --> 00:40:38.460 It's a good investment, but there's a lot of other things that we obviously need to fund. 00:40:40.260 --> 00:40:42.480 Well, maybe we talk to Steve about that when it comes to them. 00:40:42.480 --> 00:40:43.680 I'm assuming it will be Steve. 00:40:44.780 --> 00:40:46.060 He's still the chair, I think. 00:40:46.260 --> 00:40:46.660 Yes, he is. 00:40:47.660 --> 00:40:48.060 Okay. 00:40:48.480 --> 00:40:50.820 Other than that, I think anything else is going up smooth. 00:40:51.900 --> 00:40:54.420 I had a tree fell over on a bridge and damaged the bridge. 00:40:54.620 --> 00:40:55.560 They're getting that fixed up. 00:40:55.840 --> 00:40:57.160 Didn't take the bridge completely out. 00:40:57.280 --> 00:40:59.700 Just took out some of the handrails and stuff. 00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:00.780 They're getting that fixed. 00:41:00.900 --> 00:41:04.020 They didn't take out the bridge. 00:41:04.080 --> 00:41:04.760 Just their handrail. 00:41:06.360 --> 00:41:07.840 Maybe leave with that next time. 00:41:07.840 --> 00:41:08.400 Sorry. 00:41:08.400 --> 00:41:37.400 for you. I think we're responsible for a third of that expense. I don't have anything from Blackhawk Hills unless, Mr. Chairman, you. Oh, sir. Okay. And I've already added enough in my conversations here, and I don't know if we have any report from facilities. 00:41:37.400 --> 00:41:45.200 Oh, Wally stepped in my office today just to let me know he was going to get the mower serviced and tuned up and ready to start mowing. 00:41:46.140 --> 00:41:47.080 Yeah, he came on to my office. 00:41:47.080 --> 00:41:56.800 I'd like to have some sort of a end-of-year plan for both the truck and the horsey things set up the way it was handled this time. 00:41:59.300 --> 00:42:01.720 If you can relay that maybe to Wally gently. 00:42:03.240 --> 00:42:05.920 Okay, I have no other old business on the agenda. 00:42:05.920 --> 00:42:17.140 So with that, we have new business, which is who will have a temporary use permit for the Pearl City Historical Organization for use of Blackhawk Park. 00:42:20.660 --> 00:42:24.320 If you would like to just let us know what your plans are. 00:42:25.240 --> 00:42:26.580 Tell me the top first. 00:42:27.860 --> 00:42:28.940 I sent them in. 00:42:29.120 --> 00:42:30.420 Did you bring squid? 00:42:31.120 --> 00:42:31.560 Yes. 00:42:31.560 --> 00:42:56.580 Well, what we would like to do is we're having a day of history in the making. I have talked to a lot of people because I didn't know we needed a permit before I started on this. But I'm going to have vendors come that will teach us skills of the past. Like there's going to be rope making. 00:42:56.580 --> 00:43:00.220 I have a rug making 00:43:00.220 --> 00:43:02.320 I have 00:43:02.320 --> 00:43:05.040 a blacksmith coming 00:43:05.040 --> 00:43:09.040 and he's using charcoal because I've told all the people that are coming 00:43:09.040 --> 00:43:10.160 there is no electric 00:43:10.160 --> 00:43:12.980 and there's only a hand pump 00:43:12.980 --> 00:43:15.340 there's no water hookups or anything like that 00:43:15.340 --> 00:43:17.620 everything they have to provide themselves 00:43:17.620 --> 00:43:20.900 let's back up just a little bit 00:43:20.900 --> 00:43:24.660 the idea of it is a fundraiser for our historical organization 00:43:24.660 --> 00:43:54.660 Yes. With the new museum we have, we now have more expenses than we had, so we're exploring different areas to fundraise in. We would like to use the Black Hawk Park because of the historical significance of it. And what Lynn's talking about is the different events we want to have there, but there will be a fee to come in onto the property just as a fundraiser type thing. It's a one-day event. We want to make it historically 00:43:54.660 --> 00:44:01.940 as accurate as possible with the different crafts and different skills and different talents that they had back then that we might not even have anymore. 00:44:03.540 --> 00:44:07.360 So that's the basic idea of what we're trying to do here. 00:44:08.600 --> 00:44:18.120 Yeah, most of it, like we're going to have Jake Andrews come and he's going to sit beside the monument and tell about the people that are buried there. 00:44:18.780 --> 00:44:22.260 So it's a learning experience for kids and adults. 00:44:22.260 --> 00:44:28.320 it's gonna it's we're trying to get it to be family oriented it's from 10 in the morning to four in the 00:44:28.320 --> 00:44:37.000 afternoon um well I call them vendors but they're they're classes sort of they're teachers because 00:44:37.000 --> 00:44:42.320 we have Jo Wenzel's gonna bring out a whole bunch of quilts and talk about her different quilt maybe 00:44:42.320 --> 00:44:49.020 patterns I'm not sure what all she's going to do she's also going to have some maybe a little craft 00:44:49.020 --> 00:45:19.000 asked for kids to do like some different stitches she can show them how to do stitches and things like that Dr. Dahman from Lena has agreed to come with some of his Civil War memorabilia and medicine he's had I don't know if you've all heard Dr. Dahman speak probably he's fantastic yes very good so he's he said he would come we're having a lady that's from my church her she and her family are going to teach us how to do hand dip candles 00:45:19.020 --> 00:45:30.300 and I said this could be interesting and they're playing around with it because in June 30, 90 degrees, the hand in candles may be a challenge but she says we're working on ice water and things like that. 00:45:31.120 --> 00:45:37.640 We have a sort of rising creature stopping by walking through the property because that was a very important thing at that time. 00:45:38.280 --> 00:45:48.540 I've also we have a high-wheeled wagon at the museum and they were talking at the meeting they needed a wheel's grease and I said whoa whoa whoa don't be greasing those before the event 00:45:48.540 --> 00:46:14.160 Because that's a big thing. How many people have seen a high-wheel wagon take the wheels off and grease them and put them back on? So that's going to be one of the projects they're going to have that day. I've contacted some wood carvers. They're coming. And the Rock Valley Wood Carvers Group is going to come. And some of these will have items they will sell. But most of them are teaching. 00:46:14.160 --> 00:46:44.120 but we said if they're coming and they have items we will allow them to sell if they want to sell things we're charging a $20 boost fee it's not much but if they say that helps us build our things we've got a basket weaver blacksmith rich Tobin is bringing a bunch of wooden games they're Indian games that for kids to play he does a lot of rendezvous he does rendezvous and he's got a whole 00:46:44.120 --> 00:47:13.200 a bunch of different games. I've got some pictures that he's going to bring. He's also going to do beadwork that he does beadwork. Ken McCleaver is going to do some Native American stuff and maybe sell some books. We also have Alan Harris. He's from Dixon. He's a teacher in Dixon, and he's going to show Native American tools and weapons and spears or life skills that were used back before the Indians even. 00:47:13.200 --> 00:47:43.180 and I have soap making Nikki Kellner from the extension office wants to come she takes care of the plants out there I don't know if you guys knew that or not she does the flower beds and stuff out there she wants to do a project with Native American plants she'll have the kids you talk about them and show them and things like that so we have some more embroidery and needlepoint maybe too I haven't got a I would sort of like to get someone that would work with 00:47:43.200 --> 00:48:09.260 with leather so we can show because that was an important thing that they're, you know, all your horse finances and stuff like that. And also maybe a fur trader. I don't know. We've got some trappers around. They can maybe bring some traps and show, explain why they did it and things like that. So that's why we're having this. It's our first year, but a lot of people are excited about it in our group. 00:48:09.260 --> 00:48:40.770 and so I don't know what do you want to know about it well I think I think you've done yeah go ahead go ahead Fisher no go ahead I have a couple of questions um first I guess you're talking about putting quarter highs out there which I think is great well there's one there but we're going to get more you're going to have two additional yes right what about garbage the trash cans from the um 00:48:40.770 --> 00:48:44.390 They've got a bunch of trash cans they said we can use. 00:48:44.570 --> 00:48:45.310 So we've got them. 00:48:45.310 --> 00:48:47.190 So your organization would handle? 00:48:47.330 --> 00:48:49.050 We would handle the trash sheets. 00:48:49.670 --> 00:48:49.750 Yeah. 00:48:52.430 --> 00:48:54.510 Monument has been recently repaired. 00:48:54.850 --> 00:48:58.730 I guess I'm only just concerned if you're going to have. 00:48:59.190 --> 00:49:00.330 Well, it's messed up. 00:49:00.610 --> 00:49:02.610 Yeah, there's a little fence there. 00:49:03.050 --> 00:49:04.150 Well, with laying there. 00:49:04.150 --> 00:49:05.550 I just want to make sure that. 00:49:05.850 --> 00:49:07.090 No one's climbing on it. 00:49:07.090 --> 00:49:07.750 Protect it. 00:49:07.850 --> 00:49:08.290 Oh, yes. 00:49:08.290 --> 00:49:10.690 Especially it's a grave area. 00:49:10.770 --> 00:49:39.530 as well. Sure. Food trucks, correct? We haven't asked him, but they will be on the outside in the original parking lot. We're going to have them there. Okay. So that way, if they want to purchase food and then they can go into the sheltered house and eat it, they won't be. A blacksmith and looked at your certificate of liability. It's fairly vague, which is normal, but I'm assuming they're going to have 00:49:39.530 --> 00:49:41.250 It's pretty hot. 00:49:41.590 --> 00:49:42.650 He uses charcoal. 00:49:42.870 --> 00:49:43.710 He uses charcoal. 00:49:43.990 --> 00:49:46.510 He uses charcoal for his heating element. 00:49:46.630 --> 00:49:47.610 He doesn't have anything else. 00:49:47.670 --> 00:49:52.050 He might have a bellow to magnify it a little bit, but he's more into like... 00:49:52.050 --> 00:49:56.260 bit, but he's more into like making spoons and stuff like that. I've seen them up at the Beckman 00:49:56.260 --> 00:50:05.120 Mill, North Harrison, and that he does small stuff like that. Sure. He said he doesn't need, 00:50:05.540 --> 00:50:10.680 he wants to have like a five-gallon bucket of water with him all the time. So, and I said, 00:50:10.680 --> 00:50:14.040 there's no problem. There's a pump there. You can fill your five-gallon bucket. 00:50:14.040 --> 00:50:16.400 As long as we're pumping, pump fast 00:50:16.400 --> 00:50:32.580 Yeah, well, and also, there's, have any of you been up there lately? There's like a sandbox up there, too, and I thought I was going to put him close to that sandbox because that would be a good place to, you know 00:50:32.580 --> 00:50:33.980 You don't extinguish any flames 00:50:33.980 --> 00:50:35.380 Yeah, any flames 00:50:35.380 --> 00:50:40.700 The certificate of liability, the county does need to be listed on that as an additional insurer 00:50:40.700 --> 00:50:47.180 I got a new one, I think, because Stanley was asking, or we were told we were sent that 00:50:47.180 --> 00:50:48.440 Yeah, that's perfect 00:50:48.440 --> 00:50:56.260 I think this is the one that can be, this is Stevenson County and Blackhawk Monument 00:50:56.260 --> 00:51:03.820 The address is the correct way, yes, you just need to list the address here, 50 West Douglas Street, not the monument itself 00:51:03.820 --> 00:51:08.280 So Stevenson County needs to be listed with our address here 00:51:08.280 --> 00:51:10.780 which you do as Douglas, I know, I worked here. 00:51:10.940 --> 00:51:11.440 Yeah, perfect. 00:51:11.740 --> 00:51:11.960 Okay. 00:51:12.220 --> 00:51:12.440 All right. 00:51:12.520 --> 00:51:12.860 Thank you. 00:51:12.940 --> 00:51:13.380 Thank you, Steve. 00:51:13.480 --> 00:51:13.840 All right. 00:51:14.880 --> 00:51:17.720 So do I turn this back into the ladies at the office then? 00:51:18.620 --> 00:51:18.920 All right. 00:51:19.040 --> 00:51:19.280 Okay. 00:51:19.420 --> 00:51:20.300 Once we get a motion. 00:51:20.300 --> 00:51:22.120 Yeah, once I go through there, you still won't. 00:51:24.060 --> 00:51:25.240 And more questions. 00:51:25.960 --> 00:51:29.920 Have we ever had anybody this big here before? 00:51:30.240 --> 00:51:32.240 I don't know how big it's going to be. 00:51:32.360 --> 00:51:34.400 I like to think it's going to be huge. 00:51:35.100 --> 00:51:36.180 But it's the first year. 00:51:36.180 --> 00:52:00.460 It's during the time, you know, and Jake will be talking throughout the afternoon, and then he'll have a presentation at the end. Probably our ending will be the biggest. Again, it depends on the weather. We do not have a rain date or anything, so we're going to try having it no matter what, but we don't really know how well it's going to go over. 00:52:00.460 --> 00:52:25.000 The people that we've contacted and talked about, seemed very excited about, they want to be helpful and help us with and stuff like that, I'm hoping to use that as a recruiting tool for more members, but at this point, we don't know, we're hoping it'll grow over the years and it'll be, not only use the monument, but educate people about the monument, what happened up there in that area and stuff like that. 00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:31.640 Okay, well, parking, so if it gets to be bigger than what you expect, I didn't think you'd have the field next to it, but 00:52:31.640 --> 00:52:40.780 We have three spots, one even on the north side of Kent, where we'd have to help transport them, but we're going to have plenty of parking if it got big 00:52:40.780 --> 00:52:43.560 And then it says golf carts, too, rolling with it around? 00:52:43.880 --> 00:52:44.560 No, just 00:52:44.560 --> 00:52:51.980 Just, there's a little, I would call it pasture to the south of Black Hawk Monument 00:52:51.980 --> 00:52:53.540 It was on your map 00:52:53.540 --> 00:52:59.560 We're going to make a mock Kellogg's Trail that comes up, they park down at the farm, ride a cart. 00:53:00.100 --> 00:53:04.720 Most people will walk, and many for the elderly, we have a cart to be able to take up through the trail, 00:53:05.320 --> 00:53:09.540 and we'd have, like, well, pretend Buffalo Grove polo and stuff like that, 00:53:09.580 --> 00:53:13.640 and you'd have little stops on the Kellogg's Trail as it gets to things out there. 00:53:13.640 --> 00:53:15.560 See, we had it here on your map. 00:53:16.260 --> 00:53:17.940 Which is a train post, originally. 00:53:18.100 --> 00:53:22.340 And the gate to come into the park would be in the back side. 00:53:22.340 --> 00:53:51.920 there's like a fence line there so it's got a yeah it's got a break in it back about where the cabin used to be yeah and the vendors that are going to provide the items are all going to park in the main lot up here and none of the people that come to the place will park there they will all park here and there's enough cars for like 30 at the time I think I put in this parking lot but then Kim plans she lives like three-fourths a mile down the road 00:53:52.340 --> 00:54:10.080 and we're working on getting, I was hoping to get the antique engine close wagons and use tractors, you know, because they're enclosed and they don't run well. I just found that out today. So I'm still working on getting more transportation if we need it. 00:54:10.080 --> 00:54:12.200 We have parking spots 00:54:12.200 --> 00:54:13.540 We have parking spots 00:54:13.540 --> 00:54:17.060 The logistics how to get them there from there 00:54:17.060 --> 00:54:19.660 Because we don't want people walking 00:54:19.660 --> 00:54:21.660 Nobody got to walk on the roads 00:54:21.660 --> 00:54:23.780 We have to get through this part first 00:54:23.780 --> 00:54:29.320 I mean, I'll second it 00:54:29.320 --> 00:54:32.960 I'm very iffy just because it's pretty big 00:54:32.960 --> 00:54:36.420 We're hoping 150 00:54:36.420 --> 00:54:38.120 at the most, probably 00:54:38.120 --> 00:55:04.710 I don't know. You don't know. I know. Were you there for when they dedicated the monument? No, when they did the Lincoln statue. I was. How many people were there? Not many. There is not many there. And I sat right in the front row. Maybe 50 people, you were there, I think. Maybe, I don't think there were 50 there. Nicole Haas was there. 00:55:04.710 --> 00:55:13.870 and I felt bigger than I was there, too, but it's good for it to pass it to board and I'll ponder 00:55:13.870 --> 00:55:21.710 on it. I'm like, man, that's pretty, I mean, it sounds like a great event, but it's on county 00:55:21.710 --> 00:55:26.890 property and, but, I'll second it. 00:55:26.890 --> 00:55:32.090 I've got a question. Why, what are you worried about the county property it's for? 00:55:32.090 --> 00:55:49.210 I mean, this is used for smaller events, and your event sounds pretty amazing and big, that I don't know if there's enough, I mean, I don't know, I just, what happens if something damaged? 00:55:49.730 --> 00:55:52.490 The limits of liability is impossible. 00:55:52.490 --> 00:56:18.330 What is there? The shelter house, which the benches are not in good shape. And also, there's something you can put on the agenda sometime. That sign that tells the Black Hawk is just ripped in pieces. You can't even read it. That's horrible. It's horrible up there. You guys wouldn't want to own this park, would you? For a dollar. For a dollar, we wouldn't. That's not beyond the possibility. 00:56:18.330 --> 00:56:48.110 We'd be willing to entertain a discussion on that. It'll cost you a lot more than a dollar. Oh, we understand that. That's why I... Oh, yeah. We'd be willing to just tell you how much we spent on rehabbing the monument itself. Sure. Well, yeah, and that is, it does the very least. If I can, I think this might be a good test to see. The work was obviously never designed for something 00:56:48.110 --> 00:56:54.230 like this. Obviously, there's not parking, there's not water, there's not, I mean, there's outhouses 00:56:54.230 --> 00:57:00.450 basically. That's hilarious. If there's going to be more of these down the road and it's going to get 00:57:00.450 --> 00:57:06.830 bigger, we're going to have to figure out different logistics for them. I don't know how realistic it 00:57:06.830 --> 00:57:13.230 is to have people parking at farms. I think it'd be great if that's a good problem to have, I guess, 00:57:13.230 --> 00:57:43.130 right yeah getting all of that but it just I echo your concerns it was just never designed for what may be coming I guess but you know it's amazing how many people do come to this park you probably don't know it but I every time I'm up there there's people there well if they're reserving it we absolutely know well but I mean it's a public park so people like I went up the other day 00:57:43.130 --> 00:57:48.410 to look at some different, you know, measurements to figure out how I was going to put stuff. 00:57:48.850 --> 00:57:51.710 And there's this car comes in and, well, they were from Savannah. 00:57:52.170 --> 00:57:55.090 They just hadn't been up here before and they wanted to come see it. 00:57:55.490 --> 00:58:02.030 And I remember during COVID, my mom, my wife, family, there's five of us or so, we went out there for a picnic. 00:58:02.310 --> 00:58:05.590 There was three other families having a picnic out there that day. 00:58:05.670 --> 00:58:11.010 And it's like, you know, so it is used a lot more than you probably realize. 00:58:11.010 --> 00:58:40.910 A lot of locals even like being up and taking photographs of the sunrise and stuff like that because it's a beautiful location and the view is so great so it gets you it's more of a hidden thing to keep us down so hold that thought my last question was when you signed up did you ask in advance before or did you just say oh we're going to have it here like did you reach out to the Stevenson County to say hey we want to have this 00:58:40.910 --> 00:58:41.830 and we're looking at it. 00:58:41.830 --> 00:58:46.290 I didn't know we needed a permit until I started with the amortizing. 00:58:46.450 --> 00:58:50.690 I sent something to read a report because we are a partner. 00:58:51.690 --> 00:58:55.870 And she says, oh, do you have a permit for this? 00:58:55.910 --> 00:58:56.810 And it's like, huh? 00:58:57.590 --> 00:58:58.950 I didn't know I did. 00:58:58.950 --> 00:59:00.150 Sorry, this is the first one. 00:59:00.270 --> 00:59:01.030 That was actually me. 00:59:01.110 --> 00:59:02.910 That was actually me. 00:59:03.090 --> 00:59:07.850 We were responding to the email asking about the additional port-a-potties. 00:59:08.710 --> 00:59:09.350 Yeah. 00:59:09.350 --> 00:59:23.550 Yeah, yeah, because so then we were like, oh my gosh, because I had all the letters, I still have them to send out to the vendors to have them, you know, like contracts this calmer, and I still have them because I didn't 00:59:23.550 --> 00:59:26.450 We put the brakes on real quick once we realized some of our mistakes 00:59:26.450 --> 00:59:28.990 Absolutely, all right, I'll second it 00:59:28.990 --> 00:59:32.790 Okay, any questions? No, no 00:59:32.790 --> 00:59:35.010 Any other questions? There's no certain 00:59:35.010 --> 00:59:49.630 All those in favor of granting the permit? Signified by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much for coming. Go to the county board next week. 00:59:49.870 --> 00:59:51.950 Right, and we should show up there, too. 00:59:52.530 --> 00:59:53.490 More than welcome to. 00:59:54.030 --> 00:59:55.550 Very few people ever do. 00:59:56.110 --> 00:59:58.230 Well, we've got them on our calendar. 00:59:58.390 --> 01:00:00.690 Yeah, we're going to see them every time, too. 01:00:02.370 --> 01:00:04.610 My daughter did that in the Pearl City. 01:00:04.610 --> 01:00:06.110 I don't know this, but we have these every time. 01:00:07.570 --> 01:00:09.270 I'm here tonight. 01:00:10.710 --> 01:00:13.190 Stephanie, we're at the board meeting in Pearl City. 01:00:13.990 --> 01:00:15.830 Oh, this is terrific. 01:00:16.110 --> 01:00:17.590 And they asked her if she went in front. 01:00:17.590 --> 01:00:35.240 and she says, I don't think I can have any steps in the floor and I just passed out some, 01:00:35.240 --> 01:00:38.240 I don't know if you want to see the slide there. 01:00:38.240 --> 01:00:40.240 Is that part of the packet? 01:00:40.240 --> 01:00:41.240 No. 01:00:41.240 --> 01:00:44.240 No, Mr. Fricke, I'm going to do this morning. 01:00:44.240 --> 01:00:45.240 Gotcha. 01:00:45.240 --> 01:00:49.520 These are just some pictures from this office building that you will have. 01:00:49.520 --> 01:00:50.520 Thank you. 01:00:50.520 --> 01:00:51.520 They're going to have for sale. 01:00:51.520 --> 01:00:56.840 I would say that I did a good job of taking the best representative pictures. 01:00:56.840 --> 01:01:01.200 There's a couple there that show how the office area looks now. 01:01:01.200 --> 01:01:07.660 I was really looking at some of the other areas that were not out there to the public where 01:01:07.660 --> 01:01:14.600 if we were to look at potentially using it for county offices, it should have access to 01:01:14.600 --> 01:01:24.460 Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Access to computer space and networking areas and that sort of thing. 01:01:24.460 --> 01:01:32.360 So that's what those pictures are. The reason it's on the agenda here is we have this available. 01:01:32.360 --> 01:01:41.360 We had a price of $2.50 on that. I'm sorry, $3.50 on that. 01:01:41.360 --> 01:01:49.400 The question is, are we even interested in pursuing this any further? Or maybe we should 01:01:49.400 --> 01:01:55.880 talk to them about, you know, are there other alternatives that they would have to make it 01:01:55.880 --> 01:02:08.140 less expensive for us? Or do we, are we content with where we are because of our track record 01:02:08.140 --> 01:02:13.720 of building maintenance and so forth? So that's why it's here tonight. Because we 01:02:13.720 --> 01:02:18.520 We can, we have the opportunity, but if we're just going back. 01:02:19.040 --> 01:02:21.580 I think it's worth looking into. 01:02:21.880 --> 01:02:23.840 The building is, it's only one story. 01:02:24.220 --> 01:02:24.340 Right. 01:02:24.520 --> 01:02:31.940 So the maintenance, you know, there are two main maintenance, but it's not a 10-story building 01:02:31.940 --> 01:02:35.080 you're trying to maintain at all at one level, you know, makes it easier. 01:02:35.520 --> 01:02:36.960 I think it's worth looking into. 01:02:38.660 --> 01:02:41.980 Well, I don't know who makes that decision. 01:02:41.980 --> 01:02:43.980 I mean, do you take it to the county board? 01:02:45.800 --> 01:02:49.340 Well, there's no money in the budget to purchase a building for 26. 01:02:49.700 --> 01:02:49.900 Right. 01:02:50.860 --> 01:02:53.020 And their representative knows that. 01:02:53.940 --> 01:02:59.860 Ideally, I think what we looked at the contract and we currently have run through 29, I believe. 01:03:00.500 --> 01:03:01.980 Yes, April 30th. 01:03:01.980 --> 01:03:02.260 Yeah. 01:03:04.840 --> 01:03:09.880 I've been talking to someone else about another building, but that's been very slow going. 01:03:10.280 --> 01:03:11.760 It's not even... 01:03:13.220 --> 01:03:41.920 It's hardly even worth mentioning, I guess, how slow it's going, but we probably need to do an assessment of what needs the 10th floor, the 5th floor, and our storage that we utilize here, what that actually is, and try to find a space, and maybe this is, maybe this works, find out what the build-out would be, how much that would cost, and then plan for it in a future budget. 01:03:41.920 --> 01:04:13.650 that means the building may be gone too by the time you get there but I don't know that we have a good idea beyond what's here right now what the needs are but I have no idea for IT infrastructure you know what that's like in that building that's probably I shouldn't say it's the biggest issue but it is an issue yeah I just want to know what kind of shape the roof's in the 01:04:13.650 --> 01:04:19.210 HVAC. Well, I think I'll need to know what our needs are before we get real. You probably 01:04:19.210 --> 01:04:24.310 got to know what the needs are anyway to be sure for reference. Yeah, sure. Well, we do 01:04:24.310 --> 01:04:32.070 know that the roof is new. Perfect. We do know that the exterior is basically new. We do know 01:04:32.070 --> 01:04:37.770 that the heating and air conditioning units are less than five years old. Perfect. So 01:04:37.770 --> 01:04:43.070 So there's a, and whatever you want that's inside it is included. 01:04:44.410 --> 01:04:45.130 That's good. 01:04:45.990 --> 01:04:47.030 That's all there. 01:04:47.790 --> 01:04:54.250 Plus it's designed, since it was redone on the inside, for easy access, for IT. 01:04:55.150 --> 01:04:57.270 That's why it's set up the way it is. 01:04:57.310 --> 01:04:58.390 It's pretty open right now. 01:04:58.470 --> 01:05:06.370 I mean, it's an open room, except for the spaces on the outside where there are going to be rooms large enough for conference rooms. 01:05:06.370 --> 01:05:16.130 I think there's three meeting rooms, a policy room that would be large enough for a board to meet in, not the size of bigger space than this. 01:05:17.330 --> 01:05:19.590 So I didn't have that one in my pictures. 01:05:20.430 --> 01:05:22.370 Parking seems to be adequate, isn't it? 01:05:22.650 --> 01:05:33.330 You get that whole parking, except for about the front door of the ice cream place. 01:05:33.330 --> 01:05:46.210 Why can't I think I'm doing it, Gary? I'm about the front door. East, that belongs to the cleaners. I think there's a hundred and some spaces. 01:05:47.270 --> 01:06:02.410 We've got the municipal, well, not that far away beyond that. And it does have access, not front and rear, so there's no, it doesn't have to be just one spot on. 01:06:02.410 --> 01:06:13.360 Exchange, or Douglas, just an opportunity that came along. I don't know where we go from 01:06:13.360 --> 01:06:19.460 here. Well, as far as asking, I would have Georgia put together some sort of assessment 01:06:19.460 --> 01:06:24.200 for the needs for the 10th floor and the 5th floor, figure out the space. Size-wise, and I 01:06:24.200 --> 01:06:29.200 mean, we've got pretty simple to figure out what space we currently have. I have no idea 01:06:29.200 --> 01:06:33.140 on the 5th floor if it works for everybody. I would assume it does. Nobody's told me it 01:06:33.140 --> 01:06:37.440 doesn't, with having the assessor, the clerk, all together like that. 01:06:38.620 --> 01:06:41.960 I would assume if it's been working and nobody said anything, it is working. 01:06:43.020 --> 01:06:44.700 And we know that size. 01:06:45.700 --> 01:06:48.740 You know how big your offices are. 01:06:51.470 --> 01:06:54.910 So it shouldn't be too tough to figure that out, how much square footage we would need. 01:07:00.440 --> 01:07:00.920 Okay. 01:07:01.640 --> 01:07:02.700 That's the discussion. 01:07:02.940 --> 01:07:03.660 That's all I've had. 01:07:05.420 --> 01:07:08.640 We can at least go from there, see what's available. 01:07:10.140 --> 01:07:13.900 Anybody have anything else for the pause then? 01:07:15.100 --> 01:07:17.340 No. Motion to adjourn. 01:07:17.340 --> 01:07:19.900 So moved. Second. Aye. Aye. 01:07:19.900 --> 01:07:21.900 Aye. Aye. 01:07:21.900 --> 01:07:23.500 That goes on the pictures. 01:07:23.500 --> 01:07:26.250 Oh. 01:07:26.250 --> 01:07:28.250 You all say that. 01:07:28.250 --> 01:07:31.810 Yeah. Thank you. Thank you all. 01:07:33.610 --> 01:07:35.490 I wasn't able to be on the walk there. 01:07:35.490 --> 01:07:37.410 Yeah. Yeah. 01:07:37.410 --> 01:07:38.890 Where the city looked at.