Yeah. It's 5 o'clock on February 12th. This is the meeting of the Public Works Committee, and I would like to call ahead and call the meeting to order. Item 2.0 is the approval of the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. Moved by Mr. Maduro, seconded by Mr. Jogerst, any discussion? With none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion is approved.

Item 3.0 is the review and approval of the meeting minutes from the last meeting that was January 8, 2026. Is there a motion to approve the meeting minutes? Sure. Yes. Moved by Mr. Jogerst, seconded by Mr. Montero. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion is approved.

4.0 is the approval of the claims for $82,898.30.

It's a pleasure of the committee.

I'll make a motion to approve the claims.

I have a motion to approve the claims.

Is there a second?

Second by Mr. Maduro.

Any discussion?

I do have a question.

Go for it.

I saw that we paid Sir Boxx a lot for your new facilities, and we also paid the animal hospital. Yes, because the animals are still, it's going to be probably two payments for a few months because they're still over there too. You don't have the crating? Right. We don't have the tentacles. Thank you. Except the puppies. Now the puppies are at the new desk. Thank you. Yes. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of opening the claims, say aye. Aye. Motion is approved. 5.0 is a public comment. I don't see anyone here tonight.

Let's start with the department of reports, animal control. Okay. So we started taking the cats again.

We had 21 intakes, six were surrenders, four were city transfers, three were county strays, and eight.

We had two separate owners passing away, one had six cats. Outcomes, we had 10 transferred to rescue, two are adopted, one was reclaimed, and we have eight adoptables. Dogs, we only took six in, one surrendered, three county, two cities, three are adoptable, one was rescued. The two that are on straight hold time, they actually were county dogs that the owners opt to sign them over and I believe both of them will be going to friends forever either Friday or next week they were almost a border collie one was border collie mix know anybody that just fluent Spanish the one loves when you talk to her in Spanish because her old family was and they tested out at the college and she just lit up when somebody started talking to her in her language she actually knows so hopefully somebody that knows can maybe take her because I think that would be ideal for her current inventory as of this report was 10 adoptable cats two pregnant those two actually have been transferred to a rescue already 10 adoptable dogs are two Jessica Jones court case dogs her court date has now been pre trial set for three four So we've had these dogs since 7-17 of 24. Andrew Price's six running at large tickets are on to 1-22. He was supposed to be getting an attorney, a different attorney.

Other things, Ben and Jerry, who are one of our longest, two of our longest residents, were adopted together. They're doing wonderful.

Facebook and PetFinders is all current on all our adoptable cats and dogs and I try like if it's one that we've had for a while I always share them when I add new because they get lost in the shuffle I also enrolled in an online shelter training and enrichment and that's also in your packet kind of the outline of the program and then I put in the breakdown of the donations from 25, 26, and the GoFundMe. The GoFundMe all will technically be in the 26th because we haven't withdrawed any, so it will go in for the 26th once we start withdrawing. I do have, I think, two more $250 checks that came in, and then Myers' training outside of Lena, he's going to donate $25,000 for kennels. So we should be getting that next week, I believe. We talked quite a bit.

I was reached out to, is it Freeport Pod?

Freepod.

Freepod. And they're going to do an interview with me on Wednesday of next week about the new building.

They just reached out to me today, actually. One of the new stations reached out, but they never, after we talked to liability they've never reached back out so at least that one's local so hopefully that will get us more public otherwise that's it for that plans were just the two rents and then the updated intake is updated with new hope on it I got that Tuesday I think it was for their January January and December or usually the slow months that picks back up on February for intakes.

All I really have, any questions, concerns?

How long is that course supposed to run?

The course is actually open for a year for me.

Oh, okay.

It's basically go on your own.

So it's the first steps.

I just started it last week.

The first step is basically working one of your own dogs through some steps and then you pick a shelter dog to do it and then there's cat enrichments and different things. I've always wanted to do it. This building will allow me to do it on breaks and stuff. I can go and start working with animals and make them more adoptable because they'll have some basic stuff done to them. Plus the enrichment part, I've done a lot of research on that.

and that makes the animals so they're not so stressed so they're not like pacing in their cage and so they show better for the people and when I talked to Nick the dog trainer we talked about and I agree with this I've seen it in several shelters where you don't even allow the doctors to go back into the kennel area you kind of screen them and find the animals and bring the animals out that you think would be best fit for their family because then they're not seeing them the dogs don't show well and Kevin is usually, they're barking, carrying on, there's people, there's people, so this way you actually pick up animals and bring them out and show them, and then if they still want to go back, then obviously you take them back, but this kind of helps, cats are a little different, but the dogs, they just, they're idiots, they honestly are, when people come in, it's no different than when I get home, my dogs are idiots because they know I get at home, they eat, and then we go play, so it's the same, so that program's in a kind of, and actually the program says, we'll see, I believe it, that they have a program where it actually teaches the dogs to be quiet in their cage when people come in. So, if that's true, it's well worth my money spent.

That was my question. You're paying for this out of your pocket?

Yeah, I paid for it, yeah.

If there is no room in your budget?

I mean, it's not a big deal Is it expensive for you?

It was like $200, I think You obviously don't feel like it's a free No I mean, it's not like $40 No It was actually on sale I think it's like a $400 program Oh So I'm like, yep, buy now And you got a year to do it To finish it Yeah, and you got a year that this program is open that you can go back and look at it, which I'm like, it would be nice if it was open all the time, because we're not going to be in the building right away, and then I'm like, should I have bought it? And I'm like, ah, I can take notes, it's fine. And they actually give you printouts, and you actually take a test after each thing, so you get printouts, so you can use it later on, but it's only open for the year.

Oh, thank you for checking that. It looks like it's going to be a job.

Yeah. So far, I mean, I've only done a few steps. I mean, I've been training docs since I was 12. So, it's pretty interesting that I'm learning new things already. It's interesting. I didn't think of it that way. Good.

Any other questions?

Did you say January 22nd or did you say January 22nd on that?

Thank you, Chris.

Um.

Um, not a big deal. It's been postponed so many times that, yeah, yeah, I agree. Probably when I did this report, it was. Probably after any person. They both get so continued with it.

that was now it's 227 is the new court date do you have a certificate of occupancy for the new building would I get that through there's an email I sent you back in January the city of Freeport building inspector needs to go through that building the fire marshal before you can occupy it anyway okay so if you have animals in there you need to get them out okay Do you want me to resend the email to you?

Yes, please.

Have you applied for the special use permit for the outside fence?

It was put up before we got there, though.

You're putting something up outside, aren't you?

Well, eventually, but not for a while.

It's about a 90-day process to get the special use permit from the city of Freeport.

That was also an email I sent you, but I will resend it out.

Okay, thank you.

I think also the administrator, the inspector from the department of ag is also needing to go through the building Yes, he said we can have animals there though So have you asked him to come and do the inspection?

He says he will do it once we get the kennels in He's been out there, yes He's seen inside the building He was out, yeah He was out shortly after George and I talked about it He was in the area doing something and I said, hey, he came out to talk to me. He's like, I'm like, do you have time to go through it and see if you think the only thing he recommended was like a mock sink type thing to dump the shop vac that we're using for the kennels into that. So they're already measured and they're, they have one on order. So, no, he, he thinks the building's perfect. Way much of an upgrade.

what ventilation was also a criteria is we have there's been yeah there's actually fans exhaust fans in there so that one's fine and both the dog room cat room and the grooming area that was something they added so the registration receipts are down three thousand dollars for our monthly goal we were we were down in December as well so you blame that just on the December and January always seems to be the slow months for some I know like December is probably because Christmas but January is usually slow and then it picks up I said I think 200 notices out last week so and like the notices I know are getting into people because they're coming in or they're paying online so they're definitely getting there because I always write on the notices like if I'm doing like let's say Lena doesn't give our takes out and I get all their rabies certificates on Friday I send a notice usually on Tuesday because I give them a little time they just got it done and then I write on the date that I sent the notice and I've noticed that the mail is actually getting there and they're actually doing it almost right away when they get it so even though Lena does give them a sheet that says how you can pay sometimes they just think that you know yeah well they catch it but they I don't think they realize they still email us their certificates so same way with TLC the six dogs that you brought in where they registered the county dogs yeah you had six six intake right we had surrender three county strays two cities the so none of those while the store

The three county dogs, the two of them that were signed over, actually one was from Wisconsin, we crossed the state line, and he was signed over to us. If they get reclaimed, they have to, we make sure they're current. So only, none of those dogs that reclaimed that we took in. So if they get reclaimed, they have to pay the pickup fee, they have to pay rabies and registration if they're not current.

So with that show on this revenue sheet as a pickup, is that where you would put that?

Yes, if we had pickup, yes, but we didn't have anybody reclaim.

Yeah, we didn't have in December either.

Yeah, and that's the problem, you don't know, pickups are hard, because we can go months with all these strays coming in, like starting spring, March, we get all, you know, it starts opening up again, and dogs are running, and then we have nobody reclaim any of them.

So these dogs, you took them straight to the pre-part animal hospital for the rabies shot?

The county ones that I picked up?

No, the six that we took at, they're housed at the animal hospital, but we don't, the vaccinations get done at the college if we do anything.

But if they're like adopted or reclaimed, then they have to have their rabies shot and they have to be registered So I'm confused Yeah, I'm confused too If they came in Intake means like, so one was surrendered over, I can't remember which dog that was Three were picked up as county studies, one was the Border Collie, the other one was the Border Collie Mix Those dogs weren't reclaimed, so there's no registration for those dogs until they get adopted but more than likely they're going to transfer to friends forever so we'll eventually see it if they're adopted in our county we'll get that registration but right now there are properties still so and then the two city that dogs I'm assuming they're probably two up for adoption why did the city bring us dogs because if we didn't take them they were going to be put down so we kind of they're full we have a a little bit more room but that's going to change with the new building they're going to have to we're going to have to have a agreement a contract with them yes the bank account fund 16 we haven't been getting an update on that for the last couple months okay I can tell you that that the fund balance is around $21,000

Unfortunately, that balance contains all the donation money as well, so it's being blended with our regular operational money, which is something I was hoping to always avoid, but the only way to do it differently is with having the Treasurer set up a separate bank account, so we're trying to avoid that, but if we take the donation money back out, which you claim is $11,900, we're down to $9,500.

I'm going to stop you for a minute.

The GoFundMe technically is not in there.

Okay.

The GoFundMe hasn't been withdrawn, so that's not in that bank account.

It's still in the GoFundMe account.

Yes.

So that one hasn't been.

But yes, the rest would be.

Which leads me to another thing is I've asked for the donation report to be itemized.

It was on our meeting minutes we just approved that I asked for it last month.

The sheet that I have, the last time I have an updated detailed donation was from the 19th of November.

How do you want it?

Someone from the committee has seen something other than I have.

How do you want it right down?

I don't know.

Just like what you were doing.

Okay.

And then you stop.

Last thing I'm going to bring up is our website.

I've asked again and again and again to keep that donation page going, and it's hot on there. I've just looked again today and our fundraiser page has got information on there from back in October with the Lena Brewing Company. Anyone else have any other questions? Okay, thank you. Before we move on to highway, I'm going to pull a request to enter into an executive session.

I'm going to state 5 ILCS 122C, which is the employment matters, the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees.

employees. So with that, I would like to make a motion to go into executive session. I will need a second and a hold on.

Absolutely. Second. I have a second for Mr. Newton. Was there any discussion about it?

Seeing none, all those in favor, say aye. Roll call. Roll call. Sorry. Mr. Newton. Aye. Mr. Jogerst, or Mr. Moderow, sorry. Aye. Mr. Jogerst. Aye. And Ms. Williams. Aye. Thank you.