I'm going to cast these out here before we get started. On the top are two reports printed in landscape. They are from Black Dog Pills trail data. So these are live trail numbers. Well, live is when they were printed this afternoon.

and the DERC looking at census data, then you need no, you need not worry because you have reading material before bed tonight.

This packet here, and I will supply you with each month, is called R2P2.

and the partnership is participating in a pilot program and R2P2 is just an acronym for Illinois EDC.

They have started a new economic development data analysis research branch and they put a call out to communities within Illinois that were interested in participating. The partnership signed up for that So what they were providing for us as part of this program, free of charge, is community profile data.

So this is all Stevenson County as live data.

So it's not necessarily census, but some of it's pulled from census.

But we're looking at some July numbers within here.

Some of this information I've supplied to you before in the Illinois Department of Employment Securities, Job Listings Report, but it's a little bit more comprehensive here. So I will continue to provide this to you each month as staff. We continue to review this and see what changes, what doesn't, where the trends lie. Also will be forthcoming most likely in the first quarter of next year is industry cluster analysis. And this is what we're really interested in at the partnership.

We know what our major industries are within Stevenson County, Northwest Illinois, but delving a little bit deeper into kind of the specifics of those clusters, along with looking at supply chains that serve those clusters, helping us really pinpoint potential businesses, suppliers that are within those industry clusters that could be attracted to this area, because maybe they already do business with businesses that are here. That being said, I'm just leaving this with you. Please feel free to digest. If you have follow-up questions, I'd be happy to answer.

I know the IDES data was supplied in your board packet as well. But as the trend continues, we have more unique job postings than we have employees looking or workers looking for jobs.

That trend continues. I have noticed within the last six weeks, the prevalence of manufacturers posting on billboards, Elpay, Berner, TriStar, all looking for workers. So it's a very competitive environment. And our employment number, unemployment number, excuse me, was around 3.9 in Stevenson County, which is very low.

moving on from that, we continue positive conversations with a quick service restaurant that is reviewing potential locations. We are helping them go through that process and look at potential incentive packages. We have met with Freeport School District's HR, new head of HR, about establishing an alumni network here. We know that this is not worth the partnership with LEAD, but we would partner with them. We look at it as advantageous. A way to target market, excuse me, workforce recruitment efforts or come home campaign, getting those that are familiar with the area to come home. From a school district standpoint, Alumni Network is always helpful in recruiting former students back to the area to fill empty positions. Also, when you're looking to fundraise or that sport team or Showtime or the theater department. It's always wonderful to have a network of alum who might be willing to donate. So more to come. We continue working with Civencia Colina as they have some very specific hires and workforce that they're trying to relocate here from France on a semi-permanent basis. Again, their expansion last year was to facilitate their brief bites project. And so this was development of a small brie size, small bite size brie. And this is the first time it would be produced in the United States. They're already producing this at a plant they have in France. So they are bringing some talent over from France to help train and start the process and the line here. As always, it is difficult to find housing that needs a worker's specification that's in their price point.

So it's been a challenge between Lena and Freeport kind of one-on-one trying to source those through networks that we know, people we know who are probably going to be selling a house. A lot of them are utilizing temporary housing Airbnbs right now, but that's not a long-term solution.

So I just as we talk about housing, we see its impact on area lawyers having a shortage of it.

We're working with multiple local businesses on their business development journey.

An existing business that's been longstanding in the community is looking to transition to current owners are looking to retire.

So they do have a current buyer who is looking to take over that business and expand, which is great.

in the past month we've met with two I would say hospitality destination related businesses one of the glamping site that's out in Stevenson County they're looking to develop I think what was a former site that was destined for destination camping if you will they're from the city they're looking to purchase it they were going through the due diligence phase and I'm very excited the other was looking to purchase a prominent home on Stevenson Street that has a lot of history and historical architectural character as well, and redevelop that into a single family home as well as potentially a retreat center.

So we're working with both entities. Leslie in our office, who and I have all met, has submitted a grant application for Small Business Administration's scale program.

This is supply chain acceleration and logistics enablement program.

if we were to be awarded. That would be a two-year program. We would probably bring on some part-time staff to help with that program. Again, really delving into industry clusters, supply chain analysis.

To do that work, we would be most likely hiring a consultant to help us with that. So we hope to know before the end of the year whether that would be awarded. We are busy. I mean, maybe you've seen on social media that a certain prominent former baseball player is going to come to town on September 5th. Nicole is working very closely with Little Cubs Field on logistics, the permitting, the things that need to be put in place to manage what we foresee as being thousands of people in the city for hopefully at least an afternoon and maybe an overnight to meet Ben Zobrist.

and again the CEO program which I've talked to you before about creating entrepreneur opportunities this is for right now in this school year that's just about ready to start high school juniors and seniors at Freeport High School a facilitator for that program has been hired there was a parent and student orientation that was held last Wednesday at the district and class will begin next Thursday so we're excited to get that off and running and I know Troy Barr is the hired facilitator. 14 Boys is the inaugural class so his hands will be full but he's already busy talking with business leaders about creating tours and who will be coming to do visits and so on and so forth. So we're excited to see that program get off the ground. I'm happy to answer any questions. I'm not going to go over a lot of trail data because I know Steve's going to talk about that in just a bit but anything that I've discussed happy to answer questions.

Mr. Chairman, may I ask a question?

Certainly.

I was wondering if you have, I don't know how much you are in contact with Mercy Health, you know, what their plans are, you know, we used to hear that they were going to build a hospital, now I hear they're not going to, my major question is, what happens to the old hospital, are they planning on utilizing that, or?

It's a $64,000 question.

I don't, to be honest with you, I do not know the answer. Okay. I know I've heard probably many similar rumors that you have. We are trying to get in contact with their facilities, the head of facilities, because not only that building, but they own other land, other buildings. We would like to have conversations with them as we try to do hotel attraction, just what their plans are. How How can we help support them and see what would align? So I don't have an answer for you. But yes, we're very curious.

That'd be nice if they would. That's still in the end. But yeah, okay, well, thanks.

Yeah, it would.

Okay. Well, thanks. Yeah, it would. And it's definitely conversations we're continuing to try to have.

Okay. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Anyone else? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Missing Williams.

All right. Deposit for the month of July, not June, in my report was $8,072.92. The total deposit to date to the general fund is $175,726.18. That is well over our projected $120 for the year, which we're excited about.

Another, we received another no permit list from the assessment office for Kent Township.

We issued six code enforcement violations for the month of July, five for no permits, and one for the property on 26th North. We received two FOIAs pertaining to the solar, two solar were received.

One nuisance complaint was received this month. An administrative hearing was held on July 22nd for the two properties, one in Scioto Mills and one on 20, no, not 26th North, I'm sorry, for Fairview Road for an abandoned camper on a parcel. The property owners did not attend the hearing, so fines were assessed more than $70,000. If an appeal is not made prior to August 26th, we can issue liens on either both of those properties. August 26th will be another administrative hearing and that's for the property on 26 notes again. I still have not heard back from our attorney to see what we can do for foreclosure on that but he's working on it.

I should have the information from our building inspector early next week, which I already have that. So he did go out to all four properties. He provided us with his reports and both the letter and inspection reports were mailed out to each individual homeowner. Two of the property owners have been in contact with me and Mr. Rominsky. He's handling the logistics of everything right now. He will be conducting a follow up inspection at the end of the month.

and we now have two more properties that I have to add to the list. I met with Chad Eckman from the IBEW. We just discussed data centers, upcoming solar builds and mill race. I attended the UCCI seminar on data centers. Nicole and I had a virtual meeting with the two individuals that are highly interested in the special use approved plant ground located on Tower Road, like Andrea was discussing. That sounds like a fruitful venture there.

and then I had a virtual meeting with the contractors of the solar project in the corner of Van Brocklin and the Lake Creek Road. They're looking to construct towards the end of fall. Any questions?

Sounds good. Do you have anything to do?

No, nothing.

Thank you, Pat. Soil and Water, I did not make their meeting, but I would make you aware that Soil and Water Conservation District, due to the the cuts that were made at USDA they really no longer are in the office on Galena they're only there for their monthly meeting once a month Trina is working out of her home but so that's where they're will she still do the NRIs then for solar and all of that well they're still gonna yeah okay good they're not out of business okay it's just that NRCS USDA said we're no longer supporting you, allowing you to use our offices.

So that's why they're not there.

And if you, I don't have it right now, but if you want her direct number, I get that for you, or you can call Abby and she'll connect you to.

Okay, thank you.

So, yeah, so they do the leases too, right?

Yes.

That's about the appropriate time So with that, I'll turn it over to Recreation and Trails and I know Mr. Albeck's here if you want to come on up and Dale, if you have any comments ahead of time No comments?

You can rent an e-bike now go on their website you can find the location they're renting from I'm not sure what material you've seen and so I have a pair of copies of the government agreement.

Thank you, Steve.

The current goals for your budget, and comments on .

I look for the committee members, and Chairman, but Brian, we can share.

Regent, Chair, and Phil Benz here, Dan, I'm single, but his background partnership began in 1999 with the signing of the intergovernmental agreement attached to the statute, which supports that endeavor.

Board. The language of that is it was borrowed from existing trails in the government agreements for full-time emergency projects in Toronto, Illinois. As I mentioned there, that it was from a field tank road trail in the Blackboard area. The feature that made the relevant pair of discussion here means straight-year lowest budget, and that copies the language that from the Intergovernmental Green got the rates for that, and the three-year budget at the end of each year that passes the additional, or the extension budget for these trees, they're rolling here.

So the benefits of that is the agency organization provides some continuity, provides cooperative coordination for agencies which have different fiscal years that provides them more practically speaking the matching funds and the matching funds that any granting agency is going to require.

And these grants are generally going to extend over multi-year periods.

So from the point of application to the, hopefully, and as we've been very successful in proceeding awards to the design and implementation and final close out of the grant, could be two or three years.

so we want to be able to commit ahead of time to the funding of both.

The most notable recent ones required operational trust program grants to do needed bridge repairs primarily, identified in 1990, present 2000, developed in San Bridge Inspection Report.

identified at that time the likely need for upgrade at this point, started that process with RTP grant for $250,000, of which $200,000 of that was grant funds and the local share came from over a two-year period from the local assessment for the four funding unions.

the current assessment for the three partners, the larger partners in 16,500, the Village of Orangeville, notably, is sought to participate and they contribute 8,250.

So that provides ongoing maintenance, needed flowing, bridge repairs outside of the normal or the major project repairs, upkeep to the other facilities, or some facilities, parking lots, and so on.

I wasn't quite sure what the committee's interest was or concern was with the budget or the intergovernmental agreement, if there are people that are items that would like to have a presentation, I'm going to be happy to discuss them.

Mr. Chairman.

Sure. Steve, thanks for bringing all the information and coming down and talking. Who decides when you increased from $16,500 in the $25,000, $26,000 to $20,000? Where did you come up with that number and how does that process work out?

He attended most of the meetings over the briefs that the annual budget consideration period.

in the budget consideration period, there was a sense that we're going to have outstanding expenses and there was a proposal to increase the assessment to that $25,000, but that was proposed and we pushed back from some of the other agencies and this one we changed that proposal to the original $16,500 plus.

So that was handled at our normal monthly meeting?

Yes. Okay.

I would propose that any kind of a change in the amount of funding that you're asking, you would bring that to the finance committee When would that beat Scott on the debt?

Anytime now. We're just beginning the budget process now for 27. That'll start on Monday.

Okay, so middle of?

Well, it's part of our parking rest budget. So that's, we won't be discussing that this month, I don't believe, will we?

I don't have a number in for that. I have everything else.

can have everything at any time.

So instead of handling it at the Park District meeting, let's, if you could.

It's not the Park District.

No, I mean, at the Park District, at the Park District meeting, I would prefer that you brought that, an increase to the Finance Committee.

We are, any proposed increase has been extended.

and what we're proposing this budget is the past six years.

Okay.

Okay.

The note that the stipulated that the commission does not have the power to accrue any of the budgets.

They have to recommend that they say the proposed budget sent to the member agencies for their so it requires this body's approval for the common boards, the park districts, the village of Orangeville and the city of Freeport before we can act on, before final approval is given to act on the budget.

Well, I would just, I would recommend that you would bring it, if there's a need for more funding, that you would bring it to the finance committee and, you know, explain what's.

what the need is. That would be my recommendation.

MR. Yeah, we will work through you and any representatives you recommend to us for any kind of solution related to the trail solution.

MR. So this would be the budget that we would look at, finance.

That's right.

Keeping the funding, Sam.

Yes.

Okay.

The current agreement has expired.

That's what I, that was my next, yeah.

The case in my first process, I mean, the GA would need it.

Because out of the word of that, there was an expiration date.

That's what I was reading, and I don't see one on the, are you good?

No, no.

I don't have anything from this.

I'm sorry.

just like most of the others that I've seen at least for cooperatives are ongoing until there's a there's a provision for dissolution of the commission for their 60 and 65 and then note that this one was amended in 2011.

The original was 99, that's what amendment was related to a subject to allows for a commission to acquire property because there was a short piece in Boyntville that needed for a connective and that's the the original conditions and would it be possible for us to have Mr. Larson because this is from 2011 John Bloom and Vicki Ode were up and I think if you hang on a second all caps there might be a newer version okay well we're looking for that Steve do you want to talk about the trail counts is that something you were going to address or not?

The information received today relates to two of the new credit counters that were installed with the black pot bills in May of 2025.

There are still four others that are, you know, self-employed counters that don't have the updated counter.

We're working with Black Hawk Hills to determine if a couple of those will be abandoned because they're redundant for newer ones and maintaining the remains one or two.

These give us a trail count in a couple locations, side of the mills, which is kind of midway, and one at the state line.

So there are some gaps yet that we still want to cover.

We have one, for instance, at the Vandering Street Bridge, which would pick up a lot of the traffic we get, that may not get up as far as, you know, there's quite a few things.

and another one, I don't know, but one or two of the others midway between some of those endpoints that the new ones pick up and that are reflected in the numbers we have here.

In the previous panel, we estimated and adjusted with the algorithm that Dan might be able to address more to account for out-and-back sort of users or so in that over time that we're seeing about 20,000 in that range, 20,000 uses per year.

Steve, I was wondering, and you probably said this at our meeting, but is there one of the new cameras located relatively close, like at Scioto Mills, Is there an old camera and a new camera in that area?

So you could compare the two numbers, what we were catching before and what we're catching now?

The close one is just north of the West Black Trailhead.

So that's another mile or two down the trail from the side of Mill Street.

So that one we may take out, discontinue.

So when we get the numbers from Blackhawk Hills, then we can compare the old camera to the new camera?

Right, just see if they're matching up, right?

Okay.

Did you find anything?

No.

An old one.

I will look.

Tomorrow I have one in the office.

I have a budget resolution that's for three years and expired in 2022.

so it isn't what I thought it was okay so trying maybe ask Steve all the questions that you have and then we can get the documents all put together for September's meeting for you guys to consider at that point okay if you're comfortable with that that sounds great we're looking for some more information on the formal under government agreement or the three-year budget and that concept for any and all.

Yes, for any and all.

I personally think we should revisit the intergovernmental agreement, but maybe it isn't necessary, but, you know, like I said, it's through 2011.

That's a long time ago.

The 2011, I'd say that only dealt with one amendment, which dealt with approving the commission to actually pay deed to a short piece.

Okay, small piece of property. The rest of the thing, the wording is exactly as it was in the 1999 board that talks about, I think, a five-year plan for the trails, what you've accomplished, things like that.

as we go. We don't have a formal document. We can provide some of that. Usually in the course of consideration of the budget, there's some discussion of activities on the trail.

If there'd be a need for that, we'd be happy to put together a manual report that outlines some of those issues.

and some of those issues you wouldn't address, grants and repairs that have been made or plans for additional needs.

And I don't remember how long ago it's been, but I think Jack Carey was still part of the Park District.

And maybe I'm remembering wrong, but I thought that there was a 10 or a 20-year bridge maintenance plan.

That's what I was referring to earlier with the three RTP grants, which we have been awarded, The current one was we intended to start construction on any date now.

That was a bridge and picture report done, I think, in 2010.

And that's what we based our applications, successful application for our TP funding, add up 80% of it.

I think for our purposes, since there's a three-year budget ask, three years, it would be good to know what the plans are for the next three years.

We can go to the engineers and have them identify the priorities for the next repair that needed and letting know what that's on.

Sure.

And not just the bridges, but anything else that you're considering or your group is considering.

I mean, it's been a while since I was on the trail commission on behalf of the county, but I'm just trying to remember.

where I go to so many meetings, I can't put it all together, but just a plan for the next three years for your budget cycle each year, what you're looking at.

So your fiscal year starts July 1st, I believe. So July 1st, 2026, 27, 28, just what your expenditure plans are looking like.

And that would help us as far as if you're looking at, if 16.5 isn't a realistic number anymore based on that three-year plan, and it's easier for us as a finance committee to budget that.

I understand. They have to put that together. It'll be primarily the capital sorts of projects to make things start fairly even, fairly flat from year to year.

That would be helpful to me. I mean, I don't know about the rest of the...

I'll do the same for the other members.

That'd be great. Thank you.

Thanks, Steve. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

and thanks for all the work you do on that. I know you put a lot of time into that trail.

I said I'm retired, but that's fine. That was the favorite part of my job when I was being paid, so.

Sure.

Now you just do it for free, right?

Right.

Well, we'll move on and we have Dan K. with us this evening from Black Hawk Hills.

Good to see you, Dan.

See you, too.

Hi, everybody.

Yes, hello.

It's been a while.

Well, it's been a while, about a year.

So, good evening, everybody.

So, I want to talk about a little bit of work that's done both as a council and some specific to Stevens County.

And then I'll also talk about some of the work that I anticipate coming up in the new year.

So, county year, fiscal year, et cetera.

But I think one of the projects that I probably talked about last time I was here was a project funded by the Department of Transportation, and we're still working through that because it's a multi-year project, but one of the things that's paid for as a result of that project, which is now been brought up by two of the prisoners this evening, was the deployment of trail counters.

And I, again, may have noted this last time, but one of the things that we really like about new counters is that they're remotely accessible and that they provide data to us. We don't have to go to the site. So there's also a module that you can just go look up the information. So I know that Andrew had provided reports, but on our Northwest Illinois Trails website, which is nwiltrails.org, which I will say that we're hoping to update. It's looking a little bit rough around the edges, but there is a link to trail user counts on the top that you can click on to see what the trail counts are on not just Steve's accounting, it's trails, but the other counters that we've deployed. I'll also just add that we are looking to, although it would be outside of the scope of the funding that we received from IDOT to deploy additional counters because we like them and comfortable with them now.

And an example there would be that we worked with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to deploy counters on the stretch between Savannah and Fulton, Illinois, which was exciting for us because we, in this case, were offering support to a federal agency to help them with something that they had done past with the same type of counters that we had first used, the traffic counters, which are a little bit more simple.

So getting those out there and providing counts to agencies so that they can make decisions about when they plan for upgrades, what kind of events they can do, I think is important. And as we replace or remove our old encounters, we're looking for new opportunities. So I think there might be some opportunities on the Jane Addams Trail, especially with it being a big trail for one or two more encounters in the future.

One of the other projects related to the SPR, the state planning research from IDOT that I want to highlight is the walkability assessments. We've been reaching out to communities and now have finished six walkability assessments and need to issue reports for them, but essentially that's an opportunity to look at the sidewalk and pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure in the community.

It might be a small corridor, it might be a neighborhood, but the idea is to get those communities into a place where they can do some planning.

You just mentioned that there was a bridge capital improvement plan that was used to apply for grants for the Jane Addams Trail.

So in doing this walkability assessment for our various communities in the region, they can use that document and point to it when they're applying for funding.

and, in fact, that was the way that the Village of Dakota, one of the reasons they were able to secure planning assistance, we eventually helped them with the Safe Routes to School Grant, which we pointed to some of the deficiencies in the sidewalk network in Village, so they used that as a backing document.

Going forward, again, this is outside of the scope of the IDOT work, but we would look to support other communities, whether that's sections in Freeport or the entirety of smaller communities like Pearl City and Orangeville, and just giving the communities a planning document, which they don't typically have, and allowing them to move forward with infrastructure activities that they would apply for when grants come about.

Related to just thinking about opportunities, and since we've mentioned trails, knowing that Stevenson County has trails, but also assets that could be considered parks, I want to note that there is the open space land acquisition and development grant available through IDNR right now.

We have previously helped communities apply for that. In distressed areas, it's up to 90% funding. In non-distressed areas, it's 50-50. But for example, we worked with Rock Falls to get a grant that allowed them to replace their existing tennis courts with a combination of tennis and pegawall.

But an example where I can think of, especially just because I was there this weekend, but the Blackhawk Monument, just thinking about improvements that could be made to the site, not necessarily required land, but there are certainly, it's actually looking for the slide that used to be up there and it's not out there anymore.

So thinking about just if improvements were to be made either to the picnic shelter or to preservation for the monument, that would be potentially a good opportunity for the county to secure some funding for improvements to the site.

So that's due at the end of August this year, and if it's not in the cards for this year, then that's certainly an ongoing program.

That's something that the county could pursue in the future.

Another area that I wanted to highlight was our housing design competition, which is now in the stage of our housing sign exhibition. We're actually exhibiting at the public library at Creeport right now, and that was a many-month process of having architects inviting them to participate in a cash prize competition to submit designs for single Family Homes that wouldn't just be affordable and wouldn't just be accessible, but a number of criteria that we wanted to promote for the region that was partially funded by the AARP, and we were able to get 11 entries and handed out six awards for that.

But going forward, what I hope comes of that and something that we advertised during that competition was actually working with the architects to either build, in some cases, maybe on the sites that they proposed for the competition or coming up with designs for any number of places where we target what's called infill development.

and that really just means land that has previously been developed on that either previously been developed on that either is abandoned now or an empty lot. And I will say as an organization, as I speak with my board and work with other entities in the area, it would be my goal to eventually work with a few communities on doing kind of test homes, test balloons. How cheaply can we build a house that's still substantial, that still supports the kind of jobs and population growth that we want in the region?

So looking at starting with small communities, then potentially working up to, say, a free port or a sterling-sized one But we're not going to be able to build 1,000 homes, not even 100, especially right away But now that we have interest in that and have established certain principles, we want to see if we can actually do it and encourage other small-scale developers to get in on that side And although our region certainly in most cases experiences some level of population loss over time, but with the censuses, even regions that have that in order to, one, stabilize and then to encourage growth within the region really does need new housing because in order to invite somebody into the region, we need a place to put them.

That's been an issue I know even for our organization with a new staffer trying to identify a home, which she eventually did find, but it took a couple of years of renting through the region, but finding a house of hers and then also working just, again, with, say, first-time public servants, maybe anybody that's got a child, they're just by nature of having a child and being a small family, being a lower income bracket, being able to get them into a house that makes sense for them, of the initial years. So looking forward to working again with those communities and putting some of the plans put together. But tonight, I will also say if you can get out of the library, check out those designs. You can also go to the website, housing.blackwalkhills.com to see winners and just all the entries. There's everything from the designs to people's connections to the region. So I would encourage you to do that if you can.

Another area that I want to point out is that we launched at the end of last year a community funding pilot program project and this is something that we promoted through our newsletter and I will encourage you all to go to our website and just click the sign up button if you don't currently get emails.

I know I previously subscribed folks but sometimes those get eaten up so I encourage you to take a look but we had essentially tried to put together an amount of money that we would annually commit to people's ideas they have about community development projects or public health projects or public safety and see if that was within our goals and then from that try to fund those organizations and this was kind of a test.

We ended up funding two entities more on the kind of public health, public safety, a little bit farther from our core mission, but we'll be re-evaluating that to figure out whether we would do that going forward. We've got the structure for that, but knowing that we're interested also in things like developing housing, we also realized that one of the ways we can inject, I guess, money or investment into a community is by doing some of our own projects too.

So that's something we want to think about, but we're at least able to test the idea and invite people to submit applications to that program.

Capital improvement planning, I mentioned this because we have had previous cohorts or groups go through our program, which we have set people up to be able to think about their next five years as a municipality, as a county, maybe even as a department or some kind of agency.

And the idea is to look at five years, see what limited resources you have and how you're going to spend that rather than just at the end of the year putting everything together and hoping that it works out for your individual agencies.

And one of the reasons I mentioned that tonight, other than we'd like to continue to work with counties to be able to implement capital improvement plans, we're in the process of hiring essentially a programming consultant to help us refine our program that we developed a little bit more.

And when I mean program, I mean actually computer program to make a little bit more user friendly for some of the displays and so on.

So I believe in it enough as a program, the way that it was developed to continue to invest in it and knowing that it's a fairly cheap way that we can offer that service aside from the organization has to have access to our GIS, which is a GIS program.

This is a way for them or us to hopefully help somebody with the most basic plan that a community can have.

Another area, just highlighting, we had worked with the Highway Department for Stevenson County to help them secure a rural and tribal assistance pilot program.

That'll be for intersection improvements just outside of Lena, I think, at the Forum or Roundabout, but they'll be working on that.

so we are excited to see that come through and I've mentioned previously the Safer House to School for Dakota which we may be helping out with some further planning on that and also some grants administration.

Finally, I just want to encourage the county, we simply looked at hazard mitigation plans just to see if our counties were up to date and I think some are going through the process, some are expired.

I think Stevenson County is still current but getting close to the deadline and needing to be updated and one of the reasons that's important is because it opens up opportunities to apply for funding at the county level.

I know we had briefly talked with the county about potentially applying for brick funding to update or in this case establish building codes for Stevenson County which at this time didn't make sense but we'd like the county and just anybody that we're working with be in a position to be able to apply for that in the future if you get through the planning phases and decide that's something you want to pursue. So making sure that that's on a list of projects that's part of your hazard mitigation plan is going to be pretty important. So just would encourage that.

Then also potentially working with IDOT on the Truck Turning Lanes project on US-20 to facilitate businesses that are in not great areas for trucks getting on 20 and are up to speed and so on. So that's something we're going to be exploring in the next year to potentially help institutions. And again, going forward, looking at those housing issues, looking at capital improvement planning, continued deployment of cellular trail counters, and another area which we have helped in the past, which we're talking with one community right now is that we also want to do some more comprehensive planning and so to the extent that our communities again need basic plans to kind of guide them, whether it's over a strategic plan that's five years or a long-term plan that's 20, we do have resources and we have been offering those services essentially aside from your participation and time free to those entities just using our existing staff.

So I'd encourage, if that's something that you are pursuing, to talk with us about it. At the very least, we can potentially supplement efforts that you have going with other consultants and so on. So those are some of the ones that I wanted to go over. There's always other planning and other types of opportunities, but that's what I saw. I like tonight, but certainly willing to take any questions about Black Hawk Hills, regional development.

and so on.

Questions?

Well, yes, sir.

Dan, do you have access to DCEO site readiness grants for information?

I mean, we haven't directly, well, we talked a little bit with Galena and Stockton about their effort pursuing those grants.

Stockton, you probably saw that Stockton was successful in Miami one.

So we weren't directly involved in that effort, but we've participated in some of the initial planning for identifying land in that, but I mean, the short is, no, we haven't written a grant, but we have had ideas for folks and what they might be willing to pursue and what they should look at.

So, and I have to go on a long tangent, but we finished a strategic plan for City Rochelle, a corridor, actually an industrial corridor down there. And one of the reasons that we did that plan, we applied for funding, got funding ourselves, and then did it for Rochelle, Stewart, and Lee County. And we did it because we wanted to, there was the idea that they needed to do this type of roadway improvement to increase, improve truck travel and make it safer.

but our contention was that it might not actually work and do the things that they wanted to do and I think the study suggested that that probably wouldn't work and these are the things you could do instead. So I would liken that to the site development type programs is that at very least in these processes I think we do a fairly decent job of recommending like I know you want to do this but let's take a look at this too and potentially come up with alternatives as part process rather than putting all your eggs in this 20 acres or this 80 acres.

So, that's great. Do you have a grant writer on staff?

I mean, to some extent, we're all grant writers on staff. I would say the closest thing that we've got to it is one of our regional planners handles the bulk. I usually work in tandem with her to develop those. And also, depending on the project or specialty area, I'll have other staffers supporting her, but one of our regional planners, Abby, does the lion's share of that.

And I think maybe two years ago, I could be wrong on the timing, but Blackhawk Hills had iFiber, the program that was sold, solved, there were substantial dollars, I know, that came in for that.

Yeah, what was used, so what were they used for?

This is kind of a long-term planning process for us, but they haven't been used.

They are being invested, at least some of them initially, but the reason that I'm able to sit here and talk about us potentially working in the development space for housing is that we have those dollars in place to be able to use for some of our targeted initiatives.

so I also mentioned the test program for distributing funds for people that's good project ideas that was an initial attempt to get a sense of like how do we make investments with funds that we receive on sale of iFiber's assets so we're in the combination of I guess light investing which is more passive and in the form of CDs and that to looking at how do we be more active so do we invest in and people's projects locally, do we make investments in bonds, stocks, and so on, which have obviously greater risk, but greater return, and certainly we could dedicate part of that than to a fund, do more projects, but when I think about the projects that we want to be focused on, given the constant refrain, I begin to focus on housing or other types of planning initiatives, and if you're thinking about returns, where the value stays, in the region. Housing is one of those areas. I think our board is especially interested in the sense committee, which is the comprehensive economic development strategy meeting that meets fairly frequently. That's one of the areas that we're angling to invest those loans that we receive from my fiber going forward. But right now, they're in a lockbox between our savings and the CEs that we call this organization.

All right. Just so everyone's aware, too, Dan, George, and I are going to start meeting quarterly.

Again, it's been quite a while, I think, since we've had a real update, but I'm trying to be more proactive and get more feeling from all of you and what you're looking for.

I think we've kind of just been a little lax on that. So trying to get more proactive forward.

Yes, yeah, thank you. Thank you, Dan. Thank you.

Well, I don't really have a specific chairman's report tonight, just a couple of brief things.

If you look at your emails that come, U of I Extension is one of those organizations that we support significantly with tax dollars. And one of the things I would have you look at is that they have, if you look and look for them, they have some really good webinars and seminars that are available for you to learn about resilient communities and so on.

I know Andrea and I have participated in numerous ones of, you know, if you have a rainy day or whatever, and some of them are recorded, so you don't have to be there for that.

But they do have really good information there in regards to things that we can be looking at so that we can utilize some of these organizations' dollars down the road, too.

So I'll just point that out. And then I'm going to go off something a little bit, but Beth had that question about soil and water and making sure that are they going to be available to do the things that we need done.

And in the past, we had provided some funding to that organization through a county fund for them. And I would like to explore doing something like that again, so that we can support that because as we go down the list here, we're going to find that soil and water conservation and District. If we look at data centers, they're going to be the organization that comes first with land use recommendations, water use recommendations. We don't want to lose their expertise. And so I'm not saying it has to be a lot of dollars, but I think it would be something that we may want to look at for the future. Again, they're not in the position they were when we quit funding.

So I'd like to explore that kind of where I'm coming from there.

If I could, real quick, Georgia, maybe have Reanne look at the last agreement that we did have with soil and water and email that out to the committee just so we can hear more of that, please.

And maybe a 10-year history of funding, if that's worthwhile.

Yeah.

I mean, it went from...

It's been a long time.

It's been a long time.

Yeah.

I think it's been since before 2019, since we last funded, or maybe 2018, somewhere there, it's been a while, I think it's one of them, could be, could be If you did, did you have a chance to look at Mr. Remmer's report, facilities maintenance, I don't know if you, anybody else wants to comment on that, I can get it to and Mr. Rivers was looking at the 100-plus-year-old cemetery, I don't know how many years old that cemetery really is, out on the corner of Lamb and Route 26, out by Menards, and some of the monuments there that need some repair, and just some of the groundwork there that gravesites have settled, and it's difficult to know. And in order for him to do that, he needs some dollars, but he also needs to get a permit to do that. So I guess you probably had more conversations with Mr. Rembers than I have.

Yeah, I think if you recall, Mayor June, I came to this committee and talked about the condition of it and how I'm committed to making sure that we did that to where it should be.

and Wally was thinking filling in holes and dirt, straightening monuments or headstones.

There's several that are broken in half, missing pieces.

Some are just not even there any longer.

So it's going to be a project.

I don't want to do it halfway.

He talked about not having a lot of time before it gets cold this year to really dedicate that with the amount of mowing that he's doing.

so talked about finding dollars for the 2027 budget to at least start the first half of the program to try to get up to speed and finish it maybe in 28 if we can't do it all in 27 but if you haven't driven by it I would really encourage you next time you're out of the yards to just turn on the corner 26 and land the road just look if you're going south and then east just look on your left you can see it from the road and the conditions that it's very sad.

It's a reason there's a curve in the road.

A hundred percent.

A hundred percent.

I don't think that spot is ideal for a cemetery the way it's been developed, but it is a cemetery.

So we need to do, in my opinion, better than we have.

If you do go out there, you get a chance to stop, read the monument that is there.

The county erected a monument, and there's a plaque on it.

I would encourage you to read it.

And there are serious regulations.

I mean, you can't move a spoonful of dirt out there or add a spoonful of dirt without a permit from Hydeanon.

Yeah.

Because of desecration.

So comments on that?

Anybody else?

All right.

You have, and we've already talked some about the Illinois Department of Employment Security report. Any comments, anybody noticed on that as you were looking at it?

Would you want any additional comments? Okay. With that, I don't have any other old business, so we can move on to new business approval to authorize the intergovernmental agreement for the operation of an enterprise zone in Lina. Who's taking care of that?

So you've heard me talk about this, I think probably more than you care to hear me talk about this, but before you, this evening is a resolution and an ordinance to amend the boundaries of the enterprise zone to add in Thank you.

subdivisions. Again, the enterprise zone has substantial capacity. We have up to 20 square miles. With these two resolutions added into the zone, we would be looking at capping off the zone at 13.84 square miles. So there would be ample space for future boundary amendments, which I foresee happening in 2026 and into 2027. I am happy to answer any questions you may have. I would also add that the Lee Wynn School District has signed on to a resolution for property tax abatement for these parcels when they're added. That would be per the regular property tax abatement schedule that is standard throughout the entire Northwest Illinois Enterprise Zone. That's 100% of the value of the improvement for three years for residentially zoned property. Same thing for commercial and for industrial zone. It is for five years. Again, this would only be adding residentially zoned property into the village. Can we do the approval of this resolution and the ordinance amendment at the same time.

You can have a committee on the county board for all doing them separately.

Just because they're all, they work together.

So are there any questions?

I would entertain a motion to approve this resolution as amended.

Motion to approve.

Motion, is there a second?

I'll send you.

Any discussion?

CAN YOU JUST SPEAK QUICKLY TO THE BENEFITS OF THE ENTERPRISE ZONE FOR THIS TYPE OF DEVELOPMENT? WHO BENEFITS? JUST THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF IT, PLEASE.

SO PRIMARILY THE BENEFITS ARE FOR THESE PERCELS THAT ARE RESIDENTIALLY ZONE TO HELP DECREASE THE COST OF BUILDING A HOME WOULD BE ONE IS THE BUILDING MATERIALS EXEMPTION CERTIFICATE.

So building materials that will be permanently affixed into the property, so it will basically be real property, that are purchased in the state of Illinois can be purchased without having to pay the sales tax on them.

Again, they don't have to be purchased within the zone, they have to be purchased within the state of Illinois, but the state sales tax is abated on the building materials.

That doesn't account for what we consider FF&E, furniture, fixtures, and equipment, but this would be for your drywall, studs, electrical systems, HVAC systems, anything that's permanently affixed into the structure.

The second is the property tax abatement portion that I just spoke to.

So, again, you can look at it as an abatement, or sometimes it's helpful to think about it as a freeze.

all of these parcels are already having property tax bill but there's no real property on parcel so it's a very low property tax bill. Once a home is built, basically that property tax bill will be frozen at its pre-built status for three years and then in the fourth year it would be assessed at its full value and all taxing bodies would receive the benefit of that investment. Does that make sense?

Chief. So the taxes that we're collecting right now, we continue to collect until the property is developed? Correct. Right. There is no, it's not like a tiff. There's no pot of money that the property taxes are going into. There's no abatement that's going to happen unless there's investment and development on the parcel. Good question. You said the abatement in regards to the the school district. So is it only the school district that's not collecting or is the county as a whole is collecting no property tax? That's another good question, right? So the property tax, the taxing districts that would be affected by Lee-Wynn or the Lena boundary amendment would be Stevenson County, the Village of Lena, Highland Community College, and Lee-Wynn School District.

What about fire return? They have not signed on.

And can you explain what requirements are needed to qualify for this residential side? What developer, do they have to create jobs? What do they have to do?

In terms of the residential zone, the residential portion, you just have to be in the zone. You don't necessarily have to be creating a job. And for commercial and industrial, job creation is important.

there isn't necessarily a minimal threshold that the state adheres to in terms of making the boundary amendment but we're seeing these amendments to enterprise zones all over the state because these are one of the only incentive tools we have especially locally controlled that helps spur residential development. We are fortunate in terms of the Northwest Illinois Enterprise Zone when it was set up. There is a residential component to it. Not all enterprise zones within the state have that.

How many houses are they planning to build in the next couple of years?

To me, there's about five parcels that are from my conversation with the village mayor that I'm looking to be built on as soon as this is done.

Who owns the lots currently?

A variety. NEW SPEAKER 1 So it's not a developer per se. NEW SPEAKER 1 No, I don't think that there's any one developer that's holding multiple parcels. A lot of these are privately owned. And so, you know, whether they're just looking to sell off the adjacent lot, or they've been kind of holding on to this with the idea of that future development for a house that they might own. There's no massive home builder that's coming into the area. NEW SPEAKER 1 Thank you. NEW SPEAKER 1 Yes, sir.

NEW SPEAKER 1 Excuse me. So, If I understand this correctly, 112 acres, a half acre lot, we have room for 200 homes, less the infrastructure of the streets and whatnot in that property.

So you're talking about five homes in the next year. So it's a long way to get to the cap on us.

So my concern is getting to this and then having less cap to do this going forward on other projects.

In terms of when you're referring to, just making sure I'm understanding your question, when you're saying cap, you mean cap in terms of the entire zone?

Correct.

So if we pass this, we'd be down to 13.

So we're adding 112 acres.

we have 13.8 square miles out of 20 square miles so we would have substantial area to add into the into the enterprise zone the other thing that we can do is we can remove property from the zone if it is a achieved its goal being it's already developments been built or something's happened in terms of land use, that you could remove it, it could no longer be built upon. So it would be likely, I'm not going to tell you a date and time that this is going to happen, but if we're ever nearing capacity within the zone, there are areas within the city of Freeport that are in a floodway that could not be built upon, and they were put in the enterprise zone before it was deemed a floodway.

I would suggest removing those that would free up some capacity. I think we could also look at some solar development where the enterprise zone was, we amended the boundary to support solar development before the state changed some of the incentives. Now it is no longer necessary solar development can get other incentives that do not involve the enterprise zone. Again, we can take that area out of the zone. It's a very similar process to add area into the zone. I mean, with all six units of government, they have to pass ordinance and resolution to add area into the zone as well as to subtract area from the zone. So, good question. I wouldn't lose sleep at this point over, you know, hearing capacity, but also to understand that there are steps that we can take so that we ensure that that there would be future capacity for future development.

Good to know.

Yeah, sure.

One final question.

I believe you said that the village of Lena is also signing off on this.

Is that correct?

The village of Lena has already signed off on the enterprise zone.

Yeah.

Including you're talking about property tax.

you're talking about property tax statement. Well, right. I mean, 112 acres, this can't be in a village, right? This is outside. This is in the county. No, 112 acres is all in the village. It is in the village. If it were, so if it were, it would be two separate applications because I really need one unit of government to be sponsoring. Because a question was asked, I think when I presented to the lead school district, there is a subdivision that's within the school district's that's just outside the village and why that wasn't included. And I specified for that reason. It's not in the village. It's within the county. There could be a conversation in the future if the county were to say we would like, you know, this area added into the enterprise zone. That can happen. But that's going to start with a conversation from this group here.

And that's the one to the east.

Correct. Yes.

Any other questions?

Thank you. We have a motion and a second to amend the intergovernmental agreement and amend the boundaries of the Enterprise Zone, Northwest Illinois certified Enterprise Zone. All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. On to a resolution to amend the intergovernmental agreement on the east side of Freeport for the auto smart and amend those boundaries. And that has to do because they bought the property and they part of their property should have been included in the enterprise zone and it's not. Is that You're stealing my thunder. Yes, exactly. It is. When the property was sold, there was always two parcels with the property for whatever reason. The one that has the former visitor center and now AutoSmarts building on it was in the enterprise zone. The parcel directly to the west, make sure I have my directions correct, was not. So they're just wanting to add that into the enterprise zone as well.

they're looking to expand, add another building to allow them to expand their showroom.

Didn't cover to do this.

We had conversation about it, but I don't think we actually did the actual amendment and resolution.

I mean, the intergovernmental agreement and the boundary change.

You're right.

We have talked about this before, but this is, yeah, this is just the process and it will be approved by the full board, hopefully later this month, but I'm going around and having this conversation with all six units of government that participate and make up the enterprise zone. And this is not coming to the board until, or are you going to be ready for the board meeting next week? I will plan on, yes, next week, the 20th, yes.

I need a motion, so I'll make a motion Second? Any other discussion? And we have a motion and a second to amend the boundaries of the certified enterprise zone for the auto smart property and amend those boundaries and the intergovernmental members. All in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye. Any opposed? Aye. That motion carries. One, nay. Any other? Let's see. On to the text amendment for the zoning ordinance to define a data center. Yes. I love you, Beth.

We are currently looking at putting a moratorium on this for six months with we can do another extension if needed. Right now, this would define data center. We do not have data center in our code. I was not aware of this, which is ignorance on my part, that if we do not have something in our code, they can come in for a special use.

and as long as they approve, they make all seven LaSalle factors positive, then we have to allow them.

So right now we have no definition of a data center or anything. So we're going to add the data center definition and then do the moratorium. So this will give us time to determine how that, sorry, lost my train of thought here, it directs our staff to be able to consult with the ZBA, our attorney, anybody outside in the community that has questions, the county board members to have input on the development of a data center.

So we can include that in our ordinance. Currently, we do have Eric Bornemann with Henshaw and Culbertson working on the ordinance.

That's what you have to do during a moratorium. You have to make sure you're working on it.

The study that we're going to hopefully look into is addressing issues such as electricity usage, water consumption, noise, traffic, utility infrastructure, environmental impacts, and compatibility with the surrounding areas.

it's just more or less doing our due diligence to review best practices and address concerns to help with preparing the county for the future. Any questions? Sure, Sharon. Yeah, so you're in no way planning to put ordinances in place that don't allow data centers if you're just looking into what you're Correct. Yes. Yes. Mr. Jerry. Yes, sir. So we initially, when we, you and I talked about this, we talked one year or two years. I asked for two. You said one. Now we're down to six months.

Correct. On the advice of the attorney, he suggested six months because if we do have an application come in, they can legally state that that is unreasonable amount of time.

so that's why Mr. Bornemann suggested the six months and then if we're not ready yet in six months which I really don't think we will be because I do have other irons in the fire with Mr. Bornemann as well to help with the zoning office so he's swamped with us and his other caseload I think it will be a one-year oratorio but we will have to come back with another resolution to extend it in six months.

Do you know where the state of Illinois is in their potential moratorium?

Is it that conversation?

I've heard that they have stalled on it right now.

I know tax breaks aren't being given.

That's all I know.

I'm just looking at language, you know, if there was something to help.

Right.

I think the definition of the data center is our biggest concern.

Yes.

And I think within our ordinance, we can, you know, add in what we expect from them, if they need to supply X amount of their electricity, if they need to supply, you know, have a closed loop system with glycerine and instead of all water, you know, I learned that everybody thinks of model ordinance, we learned this at the seminar, yes, a model ordinance, everybody wants a model ordinance because then oh we'll just adopt the model ordinance.

I never realized that that model ordinance is actually just put together for that one local community.

It's not taking our community, our county, the rural area into consideration.

So what's good for Cook County isn't good for Stevenson County.

So model ordinance is something that we will never follow here.

The last thing I'll say about is, and Beth and I talked about this a little bit, I think eventually the state of Illinois will dictate in terms of any data center development, just like they did with solar.

What I would like to get out in front of is a data center company coming in and doing options on land wherever they think it would be best, putting moratorium on it.

for now at least gives us some control and maybe down the road we designate a certain part of the unincorporated section of Stevenson County where they can only be built. So again, you don't have somebody selling off 100 acres or 50 acres, whatever they're going to need for their own development that causes heartburn for neighbors.

But this ordinance does spell that out.

No, this isn't the ordinance, yes, this is so This just stalls in a special use department But they could still do options They could, sure The one, we were in talks, we just had a preliminary meeting with a company from Axiona, with Axiona and they wanted to look at potential small data center, which would approximately be the size of the highway department building out by the wind turbines and solar They were going to upgrade their wind turbines, upgrade their solar, add more solar, so they would be more self-sufficient, but you're not going to have all companies come in trying to be self-sufficient, and we just need to get ahead of that, because there's a lot of of that. Because there's a lot of false rumors out there, I guess it is, saying that our electric rates are going to go sky high because of these data sets. That's technically not true. There's X amount on the grid that's available. And there's just so much out there that you have to figure what's really true, what's not true. And it's just hard to decipher right now.

Well, I think what else we learned is at least from Ameron, we didn't hear from ComEd, but Ameron is requiring any data center company to come in and talk about how they're going to be creating or supplying their own electricity. I would assume ComEd would be doing the same thing, the grid is the grid is the grid, and they all have a certain amount of capacity, and that's it.

it's things like that that we want to make sure that we're out in front of maybe we can dictate they have to be a closed loop system so that they're not pumping millions of gallons of water through but yeah I just there's a lot of nuance to it and depending on who you talk to if you talk to the data center developers it's all sunshine and roses the best thing that ever happened to McHenry is it McHenry?

I think so. Somewhere. They just built, I think, Meta. DeKalb. That's DeKalb. Yeah. And they're just singing the praises about the revenue of the tax increment that they're getting.

And they also, a lot of people were giving them tax breaks. Don't give them tax breaks. They don't need the tax breaks. One company we learned installed water and sewer for, I don't remember where that was for, but they did a route of water and sewer.

that would be comparable from Lamb Road to Mill Race is what the company did for the county.

I did a call on that.

We had to put one of those at Mill Race.

Well, it's funny you say it because when we were at the UCCI meeting, that's exactly what I said is that if they're coming, if they're coming, that's a big if, why not steer them to a section in the county like Mill Race where that's the only place they can go.

now I'm not saying it will work but somewhat out in the middle of nowhere there's fewer neighbors at least but yeah I would much rather see it there than right next to a housing development or Willow Lake something like that just for example. Other counties have technology overlay districts. Alice Hinkle is she she would Lee County okay Lee County has the technology overlay district so. I don't think anybody's going to be burning our, or breaking our door down to get into Stevens County and necessarily do it, but why not be out in front of it? I feel like we weren't when it came to solar, so.

But I mean, I don't know whether you or you have had any, but they're already out there looking for land.

100%.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because I've had letters, I've had conversations.

For a data center?

Really?

Okay.

Because we're close to power.

Oh, right. But it makes things helpful. May I ask a question? It's okay. So I don't have a problem with this because you're on our side.

I just have a quick question in terms of the definition. And again, I've seen data center development. It looks like, you know, we always think of them as a very large power user, but I am seeing development on a smaller scale.

you have designed to draw 20 megawatts of power or more electricity at full build-out.

Is it possible that you can have a developer come in looking to do a small-scale development that would not fit this definition?

Yes.

And would the moratorium would not apply to them?

That is a question I would have to ask Mr. Bornemann.

I honestly do.

I'm just posing the question.

Right.

because, you know, you would still want to do the due diligence and understand even if it's a smaller scale.

I didn't know if there was a magic around the 20 megawatts.

That may be something he knows more of than I do not at this time.

I know we did talk about the smaller scale ones that were interested in our area, so I don't know.

I can get a hold of them and find out before this goes to the full board on Thursday, next Thursday.

I have to meet me too.

Anybody?

You can either approve it as is and amend it on the county board floor or you can lay it over the next month.

Those are the options.

I'm not saying they're...

Next month's going to be very busy with wind, solar, and energy storage because of our 29...

Does that have to deal with this?

It's already 99% up.

I know it's going to be a big, big...

You have to find out from Mr. Borman regardless.

I'll find out from him tomorrow.

Right.

It's up to you guys.

Well, when you think 20 megawatts, the 20-acre solar farms are 2 megawatts.

To give you an idea.

So if you see those, like, people out of Courier Road, there's a 20-acre solar farm out there, that's 2 megawatts.

So if you were looking at 20 megawatts, that's 200 megawatts.

Pretty big.

That doesn't necessarily mean their space is gone, but that's how many acres of solar it would take.

I think it's a very valid point that you raised.

For me, a moratorium is a moratorium.

I don't care what sides it does.

I could see removing that language.

You can amend it.

Has there a motion or is there a motion on Sunday on the floor?

We don't have a motion or a second right now.

So I'll make a motion to group this with the megawatt language stricken from a document.

I'll second that.

So we have a motion and a second.

And I can't bring this up, so I can't say the word.

when we're taking out, we'll approve the moratorium without the language on, make a what?

Restrictions.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

I think carried as well.

Thank you.

Can you still chuck with this?

I am.

I don't know.

Your turn again.

Yes.

All right.

So where are we at?

So the zoning budget, as you see, my COLA is 3.5. Nicole, the assistant director is also the 3.5. The code hearing unit, I'm bumping up to 3,500 since we've had an increase in cases. Building inspector, I'm increasing to 10. We had thrown 6,000 in there last year for a gentleman that wasn't here last year. We just started with the building inspector.

He is on the dangerous buildings, which is like a dilapidated building or something that people are living in that they should not be living in. We don't go after anything. We just see if someone complains about something, then he goes after them. So they didn't know the cost, what it was going to be. He's done four. His bill to me was $2,500, I think, for the first phase of his process.

so I'm going to bump that up to 10 because we're seeing more and more people complain about buildings for Deans for Zoning Board of Appeals I'm keeping at 2,000 office equipment I'm keeping at the 500 the mileage which is for assistant director and myself we each have a county vehicle and that's for the gas for it and any maintenance oil changes and such rent I'm keeping the same I talked to Brian at Highway. He never knows if it's going to go up or not, so we'll keep it there. Meetings and seminars, I'm keeping at 2,000, and that should be it. The only thing I didn't include, because I don't know where we're going with it, is the comprehensive plan. Land use plan is 26 years old, and it needs to be updated, so I don't know if we can find grants or how that could be funded, but it is something that that we need to look at sooner rather than later.

But that's my budget.

Do you have any questions?

I mean, we don't have to approve it tonight, we just have it ready to go.

We can get all of these done at once.

We don't have economic development tonight anyway.

Okay, we'll move on to, thank you very much, Beth.

Quick question.

Yes.

Should I, consensus, anything, should I include a line item for?

Well, in my mind, I think we should, but I don't know how much to say.

Right. I know they're over $100,000 minimum.

For 27,000.

Okay.

My opinion. Sorry.

My opinion. Sorry. Yeah, well, I don't know where we'd come up with that either. Right, right. That's, we're going to look into grants. In a perfect world. I know. We could utilize an organization such as GFP and Black Hawk. Yes. Yes. And I thought he made that comment when he was here. Yes, he did. Yeah. We have an appointment scheduled with GFP the following week after 24. Thanks, Chairman. All right. Sorry.

are we doing economic development too or not? I do not do that one. Okay, I don't have that highlighted here. Recreation and conservation. Yep. As you see, miscellaneous expense is staying at a thousand. Kent Monument will keep it $400. Bobtown Manning, stay at $450. Decreased the All Veterans Memorial Park electric due to funds previously used. Kent Monument maintenance, $3,000. I know we are over that right now, but that was due to extenuating circumstances with trees. Hopefully that doesn't continue year after year. Aiton's Landing is 3,000. I think we're over on that one this year because of tree removal as well. Maintenance and repair to Bobtown, we're going to keep it three. Brewster's Landing in Winslow, I knocked that down to 1,500. I knocked it down last year, 500, knocked it down to 1,500 this here. Nothing's done there. It just gets mowed. The shelter, I think, needs to be torn down. Other than that, that's it. West Block Landing, keep it 1500. The Poor Farm Cemetery, is there another name for that? According to the state of Illinois, that's the way it's named. I just, I always feel horrible saying that. It's Stevenson County Cemetery. Okay. I'll just call it that. I'll have Adrian. It's really Stevenson County.

and nurses on her, but it's called students and couch. Okay. We haven't added anything into that line because I honestly do not know. We're always working on it. Okay. And then Jane Adam's trail maintenance fee. I have that contingent upon a new signed agreement. Put $1,65 in there. Yep. And then mowing, decrease that to reflect funds previously used.

So total expenses are down 4% until we add the Stevenson County Cemetery numbers What do we have for Blackhawk? We need to do some work up there. We've got $3,000 up there. But the shelter house, I think, needs some improvement. Well, because we need to do that sign up there.

Yeah, the plaque, that's, that's, and I don't know what one of those costs, but not cheap.

Would that be like cherry signs or something? Do they do that or?

Are you talking about, just to clarify, you're talking about the booking for Lincoln sign? Yes.

Is that wood? Is that all made out of?

It's like a laminate and then it's got I think a plexiglass over it, doesn't it? I mentioned cherry signs for doing it. Okay.

You know, the Highway Department has a sign making machine as well. If you send me what the sign needs to look at, I can work on that. Okay. If you wouldn't mind.

No, because it's more, it's, it's not a sign. It's a plaque. Pictures of the infographic. Yeah, pictures and things like that. I don't have to go out there. Oh, we don't have a picture? I might. I do not. It's fine. I don't live that far from there. I'll take care of it. I'm also having a tree service go out there and do an assessment on all the trees just to see.

Trim them. Well, see what we need. It's, I think, better to figure that out going into it. If trees need to come down, we should probably take them down before they fall down.

That's usually the best way to do it. And there's some massive trees out there. Old trees.

Hey, we should plant some.

I'll for it.

Well, they can't make it so much by the other ones.

Well, yeah.

We did approve three treaties to be removed, but all three were taken out.

Yes.

I said three, I guess it was three, I can't remember.

Yes.

That takes a whole while.

So maybe come back, but we can figure out what we can do on that, and then we'll go for you.

Anything else for the good of the cause?

Chairman?

No, sir.

Talked enough.

Mr. Zimmerman, no comments?

Mr. Diddens, Brandt, you good? Baker, motion to adjourn. Second. Second. Baker, aye. Thank you very much for the time, guys. Thank you, ladies, for all the information. Appreciate it.