Yesterday, 6th of the day, they're going to keep overnight, so, for Dale, Dale, yes, well, do you need the agenda?

Actually, let's go ahead and open this meeting.

I'll call it to order. First item up is the approval of the agenda. Second. A motion and a second by Morrow. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed. Next we want to review and approve the meeting minutes from August 13, 2026.

Sir, motion.

Move approval.

In a second.

We're just going to take it.

Yeah.

We'll move by Monterey in a second.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Approval of the claims for, let's see, I'm getting out of, $515,678.49. Is there a motion? Sure. Seems like I have a motion. Second by Maduro. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? We don't have anyone here for public comment. There isn't anyone, so let's go right into the departmental reports.

Cat and Animal Results.

Well, for cat intakes, we took in 15 pets, five were surrenders, nine were part of the eviction case, one was coming stray, four have been transferred to rescues, five are adoptable, five are on hold, and one of the younger ones passed away.

Okay. Dog intakes 14, 11 commie strays, three were eviction dogs, two are adoptable, 11 were reclaimed, one is on hold, and current inventory of cats are 14 adoptable, 18 hold, so 32 total, and dogs, we have 14 dogs adoptable, one on hold, so that should be 15 total.

um Nia has started the work on the website um she's been working on it today actually it didn't publish so I don't know so I'll have to look into that she was working on it today she's reamping it um two of our longer longer residents have been adopted Kenzie went home um she's been with us since April and Sasha will be going home Monday she's been with us since January um we have on here it says six puppies left. We actually have five. We had one adopted yesterday. October 10th, we will be doing the adoption fundraiser at AutoSmart. We'll have more details later. We're going to do a cleaning orchard fundraiser, hopefully October also, either at the building or at the brewery.

I moved the sign that was at the highway department to the building by the sign that's existing out there Jerry signs is getting me an estimate on the roadside and the van lettering head to toe is supposed to be getting me an estimate on plaques and lettering for the van also. Neither of them have got it.

Okay. It's yes. Any questions on that? The animal hospital, the Freeport Animal Hospital does takes for three or four different counties. I found that they screwed up some of our August. So I'm working with them to get the funds figured out. They were either issued Winnebago tags should have been Stevenson or vice versa.

so the checks were off so we're going through that trying to fix that otherwise caught up on mail caught up on online I have a deposit going tomorrow for $5,000 and I have another one that will be going in on probably Tuesday for this week's money coming in we're still waiting on the animal hospital check so that will go in probably Tuesday I was going to get it here today, but we've had several people come out to the building. More people are coming in to look at cats and dogs. I think we have two cats getting adopted this week yet, so we're moving animals. Iowa County did reach out to me again for what list of animals we have, and it sounds like they'll pull again, and usually they pull at least 10 animals at a time.

so hopefully they pull some puppies, kitties, whatever they pull I'm happy with.

The claims for the dog kennels, the building rent, and our software was on there this month.

I did do an updated list of metals drive donations on the actual link.

didn't have the total. So the total is on your guidance copy. I reached out to the Department of Ag for our license because it's supposed to be mailed to here. You guys said you didn't get it. So I reached out to them while they emailed me a copy. The copy didn't have the right. It didn't have the suite. Would that have mattered? It shouldn't have. But it doesn't matter because the address is listed at the Freepore Animal Hospital.

so the lady that does those was out of town until I think she gets back tomorrow so if she's going to fix that and send us an email me and mail a copy and I did update to have the suite on it also so we should be getting it but either way they're going to email me a copy.

The other thing in your packet is the inspection from the Animal Welfare Department of Ag, which has the 420 address on it. He physically came, so he just didn't, I don't know, he printed this from his computer. So everything was on par, everything was acceptable. We got no dings on us.

He didn't tell us anything that we needed to do different. So we'll get on that part.

Yeah. We're way better than what we were. So he's very happy with the kennels and everything else. But having a cat isolation. Any questions on that?

It's a pretty good question.

Yes, yes.

You said you're making a deposit tomorrow and then a deposit on Tuesday for this week.

What you're depositing tomorrow isn't through today, deposits received.

It won't be like the paperwork that I collected, like the animal hospital and all that.

That will be done Monday or Tuesday.

I guess what I'm asking is are you depositing tomorrow everything you have on site?

The mail and all that stuff it won't be like the stuff I can try to I'm going to try to do it in the morning do a second deposit so it's all in otherwise it's just you're standing you have unopened mail is that no it would be like the stuff I collected from the vet clinics on today or yesterday.

Okay. So that stuff, and I'm waiting on the Animal Hospital because I'd like to do all the weeks, like the Animal Hospital, TLC, not TLC, they don't get money, Paws and Caws in Orangeville and the Animal Hospital for that week, all in one deposit. So the Animal Hospital should have their check done tomorrow. So then I'll have that. So if I don't get it first thing in the morning, then it won't be until Monday.

Okay, which is fine, but I want you making deposits weekly at a minimum.

Yeah.

I'll hang you on to check, sir.

God forbid you have cash out there.

Yeah.

Yeah, excuse me, tax.

Well, I don't know.

I have quite a bit of cash, but that's why I want to get that.

Cash should be deposited every day.

Yes.

You don't have safety.

Yeah.

Every day, cash should be deposited.

Okay.

If you need help with that, work with George.

Okay.

can't leave cash laying around.

I mean, it's a locked box, but it's not in a safe form.

If we could get that safe, though.

Well, even so, you shouldn't get cash on site.

I do have one other thing that I didn't have on the list.

So I had a...

I didn't have on the list. So I had a weird situation with the sheriff. I had a lady call on Wednesday.

She was missing her dog. She believed somebody took it out of the yard. I took the information.

I told her to text me a picture of the dog just in case we got it in. Then that was Wednesday.

Thursday, we get a call about a deceased dog in Winslow. We go get the, Mia went and got, she volunteered.

Nia went and got the dog, scanned the dog on sight, the dog had a microchip, the dog's microchip led to this young lady's mother, so then we called it, I called the sheriff, the sheriff actually, I was getting ready to call them before we realized what was going on, they ended up calling me, I'm like Nia's on her way, I'll tell her how to touch anything, because it kind of, the picture she, the original lady sent me, of the dog, deceased dog, looks suspicious. So I'm like, I'm going to call the sheriff and have them come do pictures and do investigations. So we got that dog back to the animal hospital. We knew who the owner was. They went out to that house where she was living, trying to locate her. That night, Thursday night, I got a call from the sheriff at the house in Lake Somerset that they found the daughter's dog deceased.

um she the mother claim admitted to killing all three dogs we are still missing one dog um it's she's in the mental ward I believe she's not been she's been arrested but I think she's hospitalized obviously she's mentally unstable that's all we know the two dogs that we have are in the animal hospital's freezer as evidence, I don't know what's going on, but yeah, so that was, I, yeah, not, I don't know, people, I don't know, mental health is real, and this lady needs help, and unfortunately, the dogs paid the price.

Have you ever had another case before you had an investigation down?

Oh, there's been a few. This is probably, it's been a while. It was just the whole, I don't know. It was just weird how it all, like, I didn't ask the daughter, like, who do you think stole, you know, took the dog. I thought maybe ex-boyfriend type thing, but it was actually her mother that lived with her.

and we hope the cat really did get booted out of the house but she basically told her that if I die you're not taking care of my animals so mental health I'll help because that could have been prevented. NEW SPEAKERS ARE THERE ANY OTHER INFORMATIONS?

NEW SPEAKERS ARE THERE ANY OTHER QUESTIONS?

for it. Thank you. Thank you for the report at this time. Who's the high with? Scott had to go about 345. A hose broke on the paver, I believe it was. So he had to go out to the field to help at him with it. So he said he was probably not going to be here.

But they've been working, obviously, patting, patching pot holes. They've finished up all township seal coating, mowing, cutting brush. We're hoping to start the Orange Hill Road project. They got the cold in place recycling done last week.

and we're just waiting for the moisture test to come back to be 2% or less.

And at that time, they'll do a double pass of seal coating on that to complete that project.

I think that's all for the maintenance department.

And for highway updates for projects, like I said, the Orangeville Road is, we're just waiting on the moisture to be below 2%, and then we'll see, we'll put that, finish that project off.

Cedarville and Dakota Road, we've started that full depth reclamation.

Again, on those projects, we're just waiting for the moisture to get lower, and then they'll come back with and put the four inches of hot mix over top. So hopefully you get that completed here in the next week or the week after.

here. The railroad crossing out on Five Corners, Fishers was awarded that contract, still working with them to get that project going. Hopefully by the end of this month, that will be, it shouldn't take very long, so hopefully by the end of the month it should be done.

the West Point Shippey Road bridge has been completed so and they're going to be starting the second bridge on Shippey Road here in the next week or so hoping to get that that's a smaller project than the first Shippey Road bridge so that you should be able to get that done um yes coding Orangeville Road yeah and then McConnell Road intersection They had a pre-con, Martin was the low bidder, but we got an email from NICOR yesterday, just they had some concerns about the gas line and stuff in the intersection, so they're working on fair grant on that to see what can be done, but we're still hoping to get that constructed this year.

They were hoping to start this project this month, but I don't know, with NICOR now coming out and saying that there's potential issues, I don't know, or if that's going to entail.

That's all I got for making a comment. I went on to look at that bridge on Shippey Road. That looks really good.

And like I said, the second one is a lot smaller project, so it shouldn't take nearly as long, but I think we'll start.

at the pre-cal and everything. Look at the call on that bridge.

I didn't notice they fixed a lot of that gravel that had washed out state's boats.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, a lot of, we started, we worked, I know Scott was working on that just to kind of fill from the guardrail to the road.

And then the guardrail project, Helm and Galantine, they're going through the, like, on the other side of the guardrails to fix and reseed and blanket over.

Yeah, correct, perfect, okay, great.

And that's at no cost of the counter.

Yeah, so good job, sir.

Any other questions regarding local items?

We might as well go ahead and do the current budget status.

That's not sure.

Current budget status, we're still doing okay. We did it recently. Just get an $8,000 bill for a tractor, and then we're still waiting on a Berkey's invoice for, and Scott thinks it's going to be about $14,000 to $15,000 for a tractor.

Oh.

You did make it.

I'm actually, yeah.

Can it all fix?

Fairly.

Yeah.

But everything else, we're still, we've still got quite a few projects and stuff like that, so we're getting bigger and voices and stuff coming here, but we're still looking okay.

And those projects, they'll go over a bunch of those.

What's that?

None of the projects that you think are coming up.

Oh, no, no.

And some of those budgets, we got like grant funding and things like that, like the Cedarville project is grant funding, so none of that, I mean, and that's below budget, Dakota Road, we, I got the manual plan here for the ARPA funds, and then also from the funding that you guys gave us last year, or passed last year for this year's research, so we'll start using that also.

Any other questions?

Everybody good?

We'll move into old business.

Item 7.1, animal control budget.

And the supplemental request.

So animal control budget.

Let's walk us through it again real quick so we can take a look at where we are going forward.

So I want to make a statue tour.

So the Illinois statutory fees are, so when it's the difference between a intact dog and a spayed and neutered dog.

So let's say we charge the $80 for the three-year tag for a dog that's spayed and neutered.

So out of that $80, $41 of it goes in that line.

The rest goes in the regular registration.

administration. So that's where that money comes from in that line. The microchips are just the chips that we do for pickup dogs or they're kind of like a low cost type microchip that the city pickup dogs can have or any dog like that can have because we have to technically have like a microchip clinic and that's how we do it.

any dog that's picked up Stevenson County or Freeport does the microchip. So we get $10. Out of the $15 charge, we get $10. The vet gets $5. But now since a lot of our dogs are getting done at the college, we will get the full $15 for any dogs that we do on our own.

and donations. I don't know. I don't know if I'm too high on that. I'm having a problem with that one. Animal pickups, any reclaims, some of that money for pickups, some of that money is supposed to go to the Illinois statue fee also.

So I think it's like $20 or $25 of that goes into that.

So it's divided also.

Let me stop right there.

On the donations, what make you think it's going to be, you're going to take in that much forward?

That's what I'm having.

I just think we'll have more fundraisers and stuff and more events in that year.

But I think it's too high, probably.

You're going to pay for $35 for $20, $26, right?

and you're broadcasting 30 for next year, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

Geez.

Are they tax deductible?

No.

No, it's for government.

Gotcha.

If we were tax deductible, it would be amazing because people would.

I was thinking maybe you'd get some at the end of the year.

More people would donate.

I mean, a lot of people don't care, to be honest.

We said $35,000 we're on track for Yeah Just a question while we're on revenue Registration fees, you're on pace for $88,000 for the year $88,000 I know you forecasted $97,000 through $26,000 Do you think you can make up that $8,300 $27,000 difference between what you're going to collect Supposedly in 26 Is that a realistic No. 97?

I don't see that you've ever made it And this 26 is going to be the worst year for it Yeah If your numbers aren't true And maybe they won't, maybe they will This is as of the end of August So you've got full Right, right I don't need an answer right now No, I think we will just because Nia's in the office now and she's really getting into the program now, so.

Okay, so help me understand that because you have help now, the registrations will go up?

Yeah.

So are you turning people away?

No, just they'll...

The amount of registration should be somewhat static regardless of how many employees you have.

The notice was, we'll get out sooner, and like, the second notice is, we'll get out sooner Like, does anybody, um, vet with TLC or Lena?

They both Okay So, one of the new vets at TLC, um, used to vet, or put the vet up in Wisconsin, which is the vet that the owners of the building uses so she's going to try to get them to do takes for us so that would help out a lot to be honest because then we won't have to send more notices out because they'll go and get the take like everybody else goes and gets their takes we have to go back and send notices out again because they got the shot and get a take I think that will help a lot because like the stacks that come in from those two vets we could get it at least TLC on board would be ideal.

You can go finish it up.

You said adoption fees.

Adoption fees should be going up also due to the fact that the dogs are at a nice facility where we will be able to show them properly and I can take pictures and do videos of them.

And we do transfer a lot of dogs out, a lot of animals out so that we don't get money for that. That's another problem that when we transfer to tan the animals out, we don't get any money for that. But we also don't have manpower. We don't have to feed them or take care of them.

So, again, Sarah, so far, that there should, well, it's in my deposit I have now, and there will be some for the next deposit to the puppy, the two puppies went home and a cat is going we're hoping today and so we'll get miscellaneous in case something come up that didn't fit lines.

Do you want to have anything else to ask regarding?

We have concerns about actual revenue for 26, it's tracking at 138, that's with 20,000 of ARPA money.

The 20,000 of ARPA money, it has not been transferred. We can do that if things get rough. There's also an allocation in the capital fund for a 40,000 that was approved last year.

a supplemental request that is available for the department as well.

What is that for?

That was for, it was kind of one or the other.

If the donations came in really well, then she wasn't going to use the capital money and vice versa.

What was the time to have the capital money?

For improvements to the facility, kennels, that type of thing.

because there's a corresponding expense right here, the building maintenance.

Now, if we don't use that money, does that look bad because we asked for that money and we're not using that money and somebody else could have taken that money?

Well, you're limiting what you could spend it on.

Right. But I'm saying does that. Yeah. Yeah. If you have capital expenditures, you can't use it to just prop up the revenue. No, no, no, no. That's not what I'm saying. It's not a bad thing to not use backup plans. Thank you. That's what I want. Because I'm like, now I feel bad that we don't need it, which I hope we don't need it.

Your budget is good as long as you're operating efficiently.

Without those donations, there would be issues, for sure.

Yeah, we've got to keep that thought about that.

So, any other problems or any other thoughts here?

I'm not happy about the last day of get-ups, but she's done good.

All right, well, we'll take a motion for moving this to finance if you're comfortable.

That is fine, and well, if you're fine, Mike, excuse me.

No, a second.

The motion you have to lay over to next month, are you okay with that?

Yes.

Yeah, I don't have a problem if we can still get it for retirement.

So it sounds like there's some numbers that will change quickly.

So, or shoot inside, so, so, yeah, for a more complete picture, are you able to update through 930 for next month?

Mm-hmm.

Please, motion by Mr. Wilbers to, and a second by Mr. Monty Wilber, that's what, all in favor?

All right.

Those for letting it over to next month.

Thank you for letting me have been.

And the other part of this is supplemental requests.

There aren't any from your department, but there is from I, I'm not ready.

There are, but I guess I didn't include that.

I totally spaced it.

I didn't include it in here.

Or do you guys?

Well, I think the link is odd.

It hasn't changed from last month.

We've got the roads and you have the chipper.

Yeah, correct. Okay. Correct. Yeah.

Can you give us your background on that chip word that we're...

The chip spreader, again, oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. I forget you're here.

You know a lot about that.

The chip spreader we have needs a fair amount of work.

I've been holding off on that work anticipating that it needs to be replaced it's got a lot of hours on it there are certain items on it that will not parts not available anymore like main mainframe parts like differentials axles stuff like that and their new machines and the new the axles they get for their new machines do not interchange they change the frame so they don't you can't mount them that way if one of the axles went down we're probably screwed with it because you probably have to hire a crane to come in and lift it off set it off the road and there was a county I think that tried to get some parts machined for it, got it done, put them in, happened again, within a week, so those are things that concern me, I mean, there are a lot of wearable parts on it that I have not done anything with that need to be done if we're not going to replace it.

There are, we did, so, the chipper has a fuel tank that's mounted between the frame rails. It's part of the frame. They now have a replacement kit that you put in, but you have to cut the top of the frame out to drop this in. It's pretty labor intensive.

we put a temporary tank on the side to get by this year because we had fuel leaking when we were sitting so we mounted something temporary we can get by with that for the rest of this year but it's just a frame mounted on the side it's kind of in the way but it works. So Larry, is this the only one you have? Chipper?

the ticker. Well, we have an antique one sitting in the shed that needs to be sold. This is the only one you have? Yeah, this is the only one we have. Okay. This is the only one we have. Another one that was good or this is? Yeah, this is what we'll use. Yeah, and we only have one. Okay. Yep. I'm trying to think what else I wrote down. There was possibly, I don't know if that's even a thing anymore. There was actually a county up in Minnesota looking or something. But at the time, I couldn't get rid of, we couldn't get rid of ours because I needed it to finish the year. So I think they would have been willing to pay like $50,000 to $60,000 for the way it sounded, but that doesn't, it's not peaceful.

So, given some of the troubles we've had, if this was approved, got ordered, you have a guess as to when it would be ready for our use, six months, okay, they're actually, yeah, I think like right now, if I had it ordered, right now, I think March.

Okay So we still have time to get one in the queue for next season They're actually Yeah, no, they actually have caught up kind of, they've done pretty well on catching up on chip spreaders Okay So yeah, it's feasible to get it for next year As far as trading it into Etnair, they basically said they want nothing to do with it because of that axle deal They don't want to have to deal with selling, try to sell to somebody and tell them, yeah, it's going to be good for a while, but we don't know And I'm not saying the axles will go out next year or the year after, I don't know It could last for five years, it could last for five days To your point, if it goes, it's gone Yeah, and then we have a, I don't even know how to deal with that problem I think, actually, I think the county that was looking to buy ours was actually looking to buy it for parts and use the axles from ours and theirs or vice versa. So that was the type of deal they were going to do to get themselves back in business.

So It does seem worth pointing out what's written on there this specific machine is vital to our future preservation plants and so again thinking about protecting ourselves in the future this seems pretty important to that Yeah, I mean I'm pretty happy with what we've done over the past years, a few years with Dale and where we've gotten.

I mean, yeah, there's a lot more work to be done, but I feel like that we've preserved the roads, kept things moving forward and not falling backward.

Well, we could keep the program, but it'd be packed, the work that we, like, on a nearly basis because you'd have to hire it out or.

Yeah, if you hired all the seal code out, I think you'd probably do half, maybe half the miles that we're going out.

Just because, not that our labor's free, but we're working it in and we're working the roads.

We're doing some things, I think, that wouldn't get done if we had to hire them.

Any other questions you've got?

Chip's there.

All right, well, we have on our agenda to approve the supplemental requests to move that forward to finance, so I will entertain a motion to do so.

I'll just move the rule.

Who would I want?

A pair of all of them.

There's not enough money for all of them.

Okay.

Will you?

This one.

This one.

The 400, that's what I was referring to.

Yeah, just that So I didn't even Yeah, you want to just talk about that other, I mean, we didn't even So we've got all your thoughts Yeah, because the other highway request Let's see what we have there Is there any of that that, in my goodness we may I think it would be a little great for the finance director to talk about the amount that's available what's already occurred in other committees, which is not necessarily relevant to what you're doing. It'll all get fleshed out in finance. Sure. So we have, you can see the total of all the requests at the bottom of the sheet. Currently, we have $708,000 available.

$108,000 available in the capital fund for these capital improvements. I'm not really sure what is going to happen as far as the gym memberships, but in public property and safety, that committee agreed to possibly pay for half of the benches, half of the cost of the benches for courtrooms one and four.

that there might be some more funding coming to fruition with those.

So it might be half of the $67,000.

It might be none of the $67,000.

As far as the squad cars, the committee suggested two squad cars, but all five are going to be in front of finance.

And the sheriff agreed that he could deal with two squad car purchases.

So that is where we stand Or I'm just going back to You can see the capital fund is where that money comes from and there's $70,000 So we're entertaining the motion for the $400,000 that's where the amendment is that where your motion is not on the $1 million that's that's what I thought we were talking about but if we just want to clarify yeah okay okay I didn't know what that was um but since there are others that I didn't see immediately um would it be best if I track that so we can talk about some of the others just to have them all in conversation well all you're really doing is prioritizing the two though all just like Adrian said for the public safety

All five squads are going to go into finance with a recommendation from the oversight of two.

It wouldn't be any different from you if you're recommending that you do do the chip spreader for $400,000.

That's what will go to finance with the full request.

We don't want to overcomplicate them soon.

Yeah, so I'll maintain the motion specifically to include the chip spreader at $400,000.

You still okay with that?

I've already got a couple of questions.

Please.

Before we go, I have, so, obviously, this is a new one, is there such a thing as a gently used?

I already asked that question.

Okay, I didn't know what was out there.

You could end up with something worse than you have.

You don't know, I mean, well, actually, there's nothing available because Even a year-old one or two-year-old one or something, nothing out there, huh?

Okay, well, that's what I was saying.

I asked the salesman because I thought the same thing. He said most of the time when they get them in, they are about where we're at.

So, you know, they end up with putting a lot of money into a used machine. Actually, he said right now there's absolutely nothing available.

Okay.

So.

Got it.

Yeah.

I'll be okay to send it to finance while we're getting the tires on everything, I think, so All right, we've motioned, and I have motioned a second to send the $400,000 for the ship for in the finance, all in favor again, aye, aye, any one of those, that's our recognition, thank you, Dan, that takes us into our next discussion, so just so the supplemental for the million, like there's nothing, like that's not even like a reduction, I just, you want to be able to tell Dale, talk about it, make, If you guys want to make a separate motion to send it, I just think that well, you know what, I don't think you think, just tell me what we want to do I feel like we should talk about it so that we can make an informed recommendation, even if that is nothing. Okay. Do you want to kind of talk about some of the things that are in that second one just so Yeah, I was just, I didn't want to step on your toes I just want to make sure I'm telling Dale the right thing and stuff. And I just, this was back when Jerry Clay was on the board. We went 20 years with basically a stagnant funding that the highway department was going through every year. And I think what he was saying was every year other departments were getting increased in funding. And I don't know the reasoning behind that, but I think that was where this million dollars came from, from the years.

and that was kind of to be made whole after so many years.

That's just kind of, and then we've done Baileyville, we've finished off McConnell Road, we're going to be finishing Cedarville from Lena to Cedarville and this is all from the additional funds.

This year we're working on Dakota Road just like from 75 to the school and then the plan was if we got more funding each year just to finish slowly finish Dakota Road as and that just kind of shows you where the funding is going so that's where you're thinking if we had the money this will be correct yeah it would just it would go directly to the Dakota Road um finish off from like the school road where where you go right to that there we're right there this year continue and then just continue to rock road Okay, so, and I know, and I know what you're trying to do, but as we are looking at what we have worked with, it just, this is me, it doesn't seem like it's realistic for us to put a billion out there when it's less than 700,000 to work with a key event.

So, what we brought forward, that doesn't mean that somebody could bring it up in finance or in the board of our meetings, should somebody appear that we are not, you know, we're not filing for it. But right now, the most realistic things, I think, I would be, I think, willing to entertain a portion of that, but I know that once you start cutting it down, it's not a one-to-one dollar batch per mile or whatever. Well, I was just thinking, last year we asked for a million dollars and you bumped it down like $286,000. So that's what I was just kind of, yeah, yeah, like again, I didn't, no, no, no, no, yeah, no, you got to ask, you're going to expect anything. That's The problem, to your point, Sam, was we know how much we'll probably be looking at even cutting this down or bumping right up against that number just from my right.

So my first thought was, yeah, let's look at that 286 number.

But even that puts us the silver bear.

And I think she said 700.

Right.

Yeah, we're already 400 out of that.

I can't speak for our chairman, but I don't think that we realistically can find it, and I'm looking at my finances, and so I'm sure that we'll be informed if somehow or another that we miraculously made a mistake on what we have to spend for supplementals, but unless there's a reason that's why you really want to put it forward. I don't see how we're gonna these roads need to be looked at. Yeah, but the chip spreader seems like a more emergent need. I think that's probably pretty. That's still a hefty thing to pass forward.

I mean, it could go to finance with a recommendation of an amount or willing to accept this amount, a reduction.

There are some other avenues that are at our disposal that we will discuss in a little bit.

So I don't know if you want to kind of look at everything and then make a decision after that or Yeah, I just didn't want that to be like off the table and then like table and then like magically a money tree comes up somewhere that that's not part of it so I didn't but yeah I that's the that was my only question and concern I will get the entirety of the requests goes on what is going to be going to finance recommendation Sam yes Brian Grant you talk about the recommendation if you're committed the entire file to be there So with that understanding and clarification, I think we've still done what we need to do, you know, be there. So they don't know, everyone knows now. So unless you guys want to make a recommendation just on that million, just for them to consider, if it were to come available, then that's certainly something that we can It gives you 10 notes for us to know.

That 286, let's say that could be swung and that passed through for next year.

What can be done with that matter?

I know that's a fall part.

From 75, from what we're doing this year, that came in, I think, like $349,000.

So a low, probably less, less than what the length that, and what we did was about a month, close to a mile, right?

Now, I mean, maybe three quarters, somewhere between two thirds to three fourths of a mile.

So you're looking at probably maybe a half a mile.

And depending on what the oil is.

For sure.

I mean, anything the highway gets, you'll be able to see the improvement on Dakota, that Dakota Road is the project that it's going towards.

Do you currently have any grants or anything that we're working on?

We're working on that.

We're currently, I mean, not Dakota Road, not, and Dale always, we always keep our eyes looking for any unfunded roads or anything like that, but.

We'll continue to try to get grants as much as much as possible.

Is that something I'd say asking, is that real high on our list of priorities when the road to roads that are being listed for road improvement?

Grants?

The road condition.

Oh, yeah, Dakota Road is the top of the unfunded roads.

That's one of the first ones.

I mean, Cedarville was, McConnell was, Baileyville.

And yeah, usually when we get the funding from the general fund goes to the worst one It did meet with Darren LaHood today for a while, went over $13.1 million in needed funds, plus the bridges There won't be anything available in 2026, but they opened up federal grants in the first quarter of 27 He wasn't super excited about $13.1 million, but he didn't talk about Winnebago County getting a bridge on Winnebago Road replaced through this grant, and that was several million dollars, so that was a very rural section of Winnebago County, I gave it, I felt encouraged, but it's also an election year, He's probably going to tell me whatever I'm going to hear, but he could have told me $13.1 million is realistic and he didn't not.

So I'm also working with Jody Miller to get in front of Eric Sorens.

He's been very kind to Freeport.

So we'll see what we can do.

And we have applied for a grant in years past for the bridge improvement to the PIP grant that we've tried to get in years past that we didn't get it.

but hopefully they'll do that again and we're teed up and ready to apply for that grant again so that's a big one because we have a lot of bridges even bridges that aren't 20 feet that they don't normally inspect and stuff like that and these pulverts and stuff that starts to add up so if we could get that grant or kind of fix them before they're totally gone we'll save a lot of money but So, well, yeah, definitely, I know Bill's been great with applying for grants and stuff like that, so we'll definitely keep on doing that.

Yeah, I don't know about, I don't know where it would come down on a specific recommendation, but I think those numbers about how much even just half a mile would cost, I think that's valuable for that conversation when finance is looking at this general request.

So I don't, again, I don't know how YouTube feel, but I think if nothing else, passing on that information, this is what roughly half a mile is going to cost, and that's why the numbers are what they are Yeah, it's very expensive Well, you know, more actually, sometimes there is money to come available after election, when people are more comfortable with talking about money they can release, but this is more like a shovel-ready project.

We know what we got to do. If the money came available, we can move on to the first day.

So your thoughts about doing something you were speaking about, is there something you would like to, or there, is there anything you think you'd like to see us, you know, share with the full financed media, they made decisions, they said something.

for the purpose of having a specific request that we want to say 300,000, knowing it'll be, you know, cut down, but just to have a voice in there, or is that not even worth doing, do you think?

Make a motion.

We move this on with a recommendation of that is $300,000 as a kind of a floor of just for feasibility of make it worth the time.

Yeah.

I'll second it.

All right.

moved and seconded to move the project that's being presented here for the $300,000 record.

What do you say?

All of you say aye.

Any votes?

Thank you.

So then that's what we have.

And we do have a finance community person on the board, so you can take that.

Those are expensive.

up to help you out there.

Double duty.

We'll have to do double duty in finance.

Mr. Brandt won't be here.

Sam won't be here.

So we'll be representing the public works along with the administration.

Just like Wayne.

I can do it.

Hold on.

No pressure.

Brian's going to make it worth checking.

I don't know.

Moving right along.

So we're new business then. 8.1 says discuss manual check for balance or final balance of the eight funds that you can spend. Hang on, hang on. It's going to be the highway budget. Oh, I'm sorry.

On the old business.

and I'm sorry, I did, thought we passed that last month, but I guess you did, you didn't pass Highway that last month.

Oh, I'm sorry.

You can take this.

Yeah, you go ahead.

So real estate taxes that you can see here that they have, the Highway Department has asked to increase real estate tax allocation.

So I kind of wanted to go through and explain that a little bit.

And this kind of gives you a breakdown of what she's going to go over to.

Like for the highway fund, sorry.

Oh, go ahead.

For the highway fund, if it goes to the 5% to the 3.7% or 0%, and it gives you what the fund would be if we raised that fund and then the county bridge is similar if we kept it as it is, this is the money that we have to put. I should say play with, but it's that.

Sorry.

Okay, so the county umbrella, so we're allowed to So we're allowed to ask for up to 5% over our previous year's final extension amount.

So that 5% is the magic number.

If we go over that 5%, then we have to have a truth in taxation hearing.

Just because we ask for the 5% and we are a capped county under PTAL, it doesn't always mean that we will receive that full 5% increase.

Okay, so if you take the final extension, this is what we received. And so we use that number and multiply that times 5%. And so the $530,521.70 is what we're allowed to increase our levy. That's the dollar amount.

So the BAC, and I kind of want to backtrack here. So the general fund, IMRF, liability, social security, those are the funds that I kind of manipulate if needed. Those are the budgets that I present that I'm kind of in control of, so to speak.

so if any other department like the BAC will come to us and and submit a request if they need more money they did that last year they're doing it again this year health department the same way they are in charge of health and tuberculosis nursing center if they you know I do believe a few years back they tried to increase their levy request it was it did not pass out of committee mental health the 708 board Board presents a request to our office, and they did so this year and asked for a $5,000 increase.

So we have to take all these components under consideration. So if we do not approve asking for more money, the levies can be switched around.

One can be deducted. Another one can get that money. So that's what happened last year. So IMRF is a very, very healthy fund. There's a large balance will be good for a number of years to come. So that money was shifted out of the IMRF tax levy and put into mental health and the general fund.

so they can be redistributed. As it stands right now, I don't see where $530,000 can be taken from one fund and put into the highway fund. So there is a way to do that. If you take that money away from the general fund, then all of the departments in the general fund will have to sacrifice and reduce their expenditures.

So there's many moving pieces we can manipulate in order to make this happen So all of the amounts in blue are what we would get if the amount was 5% And then I just, I mean, it can be any percentage from 0 to 5% So I took the CPI, which is 2.7%, and I reworked the numbers with that percentage does everybody does anybody have any questions on the levy itself and how that works and okay so I just wanted to sorry so um choice was up on the CPI I think so the CPI uh they came about that number how and if that number can go we can accept it or not exactly so that's kind of what it was always presented that way and it's really not we can do anything between zero and five percent. So a lot of times county boards would say, well, the CPI is 2.7 or whatever it was that year. So let's increase it that much. So I think that's where that idea came of taking the CPI or not taking it. The CPI percentage is already kind of baked into the calculation for the tax rates for the county. Does it mean that your individual taxes will go up 2.7%? No.

It's part of a very complicated formula to get to the tax rate.

Okay. Got you. I have a question.

So, if I was hearing it right, I mean, you don't say it, but you said that MRF is very well, doing very well.

Yes.

So, potentially, some of that could be moved into the general funds?

We did that last year.

So, you can see that the IMRF tax levy is only $100,000.

That was around a million.

We moved to a million last year?

Or how much did we move last year?

I believe it was $877,000, if I remember correctly.

So we gave the BAC $75,000 out of our $240,000 request.

There was a, I want to say it was $10,000 to $15,000 to mental health.

And then we did need to allocate the rest of those funds to the general fund to cover expenses.

Could it be an accurate idea of something else?

Out of?

That's a supplemental.

to iron grafts in general as a supplemental.

So I'm just currently only at $100,000.

So I don't know if we could take it.

I suppose we could take it to zero for this.

Not that I want to, but I was just curious.

Yeah.

Look at your face.

Take it to zero?

for a year and see where you can because the county's contribution only needs for the stock market to go backwards.

Oh, I do it. So I know. Yeah. So our preliminary IMRF rate went from 3.15 to 0.8. So that's our contribution for our employees. So that is why saving us a lot of money.

I don't think it's yours, but I know you're really talking about that on the house.

Yes.

So in 2019, yeah, so in 2019, 2018, 2019, I think it was kind of down to the wire.

I was not in the position I am now back then, but I think everybody was made to take a hit.

I don't remember what the reduction was.

You remember it was 10%?

10% I don't know What year?

2019 We basically hit a wall Yeah, that's right We hit a wall right before COVID Right, yes And had COVID not happened All those ARPA funding We got Oh, I know I mean, all we did is kick the can down the road for six or seven years Yeah at, well, we're paying for the inflation now, so, and what we are, grandkids, well, yeah.

I do want to point out that there, the treasurer has done a fabulous job with investing our ARPA dollars.

All of the money remaining outside of what the highway is going to spend with that manual check is all interest. It is, we are free to do whatever we want with those dollars.

My recommendation would be to hang on to it because the mill race TIF is going to expire in 2029 and we are still going to be paying that until 2031.

So that money is available. I don't recommend using that. I think we should let that money grow and plan for the future.

where I just don't want to be in a situation like other municipalities are in where we have a deficit and we don't have anywhere to take it from. The only other option that I'm kind of thinking is I don't think we have liability insurance numbers quite yet. There might be some money available with not having the nursing center for a full year. We still have the building. We don't have the liability of the employees.

So that could be, we'll find out more information at the finance meeting, but I don't have those numbers yet. So that's another place that we could kind of potentially look, depending on what depending on what the wishes of the duty are.

So there's a lot of pieces in the highway funds that really keep the address.

Health insurance, we do not have numbers, and that's paid out of 005 and 009.

So a lot of highway and county motor fuel.

So I would say anything that has to do with health insurance or a tax levy, just do have to layover.

I don't know if Brian wants to go through everything again.

Yeah, whatever he does.

I'll make a motion to layover until that's going to.

Oh, sorry, I didn't want to get those numbers in for anything.

I'd do have a question.

I'd be honest, there's a truck in there, pickup truck.

Oh, for where, like in the budget?

Yeah.

It'll last your deal, talks about it, isn't it?

Oh, yeah.

For the engineer, that's what this is.

It's for his truck or Caden's truck, his block.

I mean, we're going to just pass on the truck.

Like, we're not getting rid of a truck.

He needs a new truck to run, basically.

It still runs, but there's been issues and stuff like that.

Dale's truck?

Yeah, correct.

Second.

And then we would just take Dale's old truck, pass it down to Caden, who's the civil engineer, or give it to the shop.

But I don't know.

50%.

I'm assuming it's construction equipment at Capitol.

It was probably the one, it could have been part of the five-year plan to replace the flag.

I think it was in the, it was in that, yeah, that capital, that equipment replacement.

Five-year plan to replace the flag.

I remember talking about that.

He talked about that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're going to kick it down the road, I think.

So, okay.

We'll shut up.

Is there anything else, Mr.

No, sir.

All right.

So you brought up, so we'll have a look at it.

Look at that.

I know the five-year replacement plan, I think, I didn't bring that, but I think it's like $343,000.

That's right.

So it's the truck.

I mean, even if we took out the truck, it's still, we're still short on that five-year replacement.

Fun.

Just in.

Gotcha.

That's why.

Maybe Dale decided to stay if you get new trucks.

I'm still trying to push them.

We already have a motion, a second to a motion by Tom Rowe, is that right?

Thank you.

All in favor to say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

We'll look at it again next one.

Thank you, thank you, Mrs. Anthony, I'm going to see what I saw, Steve, all right, it's a public video.

8.1, the manual check, balance of ARPA funds.

I should have known this, but ARPA funds that we've had, I guess the highway department needed to use them by, it needed to be spent by September 30th and so that's what this claim is for. This is for the Dakota Road, the project going on right now. So we were able to create the claim and this will be paid out for this month and we'll be able to use the 47,000 by September 30th.

You said $47,000.

Oh, did I say $47,000?

It's for more than that, and the other funds are from the capital funds that we already have.

But the $47,000 needed to be coming out of this claim.

Motion to approve the main chest.

I have a second by Larry I don't need to go in here I don't need to go in here All there can say aye Any opposed, thank you So we can move it on to the 8.2 HD 26-18 in the discussion and approval of the 2026 Route 26 and McConnell Intersection Reconstruction.

This is for the bed, letting, and for the intersection at McConnell and 26, just to be able to use the funds.

This is also a grant that we received, so it's no cost of the county, and it was for $1,087,192 with dollars and 19 cents.

I'll make a motion.

Second.

Motion by Larry and second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Yeah, we got five copies.

Just just the whole thing.

I should have signed a second line, but it's from the community, I'm sure, I should have signed for that.

Can I say one thing, I had an opportunity in our public safety meeting to just really talk about, you know, what did it look like if we were able to work for that one, set the tax again, because he would add a number of dollars to our budget.

Without getting to death, I just think the timing probably is better enough for us than it's ever been.

And we have a number of things.

We're not out of the woods with finance, as I know, but this certainly could free us up to get a lot of things done if we had an extra $3 million in our general fund.

so I'm not going to go into depth with that but it obviously would mostly be for public safety but if you could take three million dollars worth of salaries and other things out of our general fund I just think it would free our general fund to do a bunch of other projects that might that the board might come up with that need like that road project I don't know we could pay the whole million but I could see a day where we could have funded a whole role where we might not have been able to do that because we didn't have the money and we don't have the money in our general fund to do that at this point.

But if we did, wouldn't that be nice if we could have done an extra project?

Because there was a time when we had more money in our highway and we had to pull that out years ago.

So anyway, long and short, look for a day when we'll have a little more money.

But we'll all have to be on the same page and it cannot be political.

We're just asking me if we could do better our county with finances and that money, we have to have a good plan to make sure we do the right things. I'm sure we would. We've done a good job. Thank you, Mr. Helms and everybody that is a part of the board.

that is a part of the board of people that have settled there.

So that's all I have.

Motion to adjourn?

Sure.

Second.

Don't fight over it, gentlemen.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Everyone have a good evening.

Thank you.