Will County Gazette

Village of Mokena Village Board met March 19.

Here is the minutes provided by the Board:

Call To Order:

Mayor Fleischer called the Board of Trustees work session to order at 6:00 p.m.

Roll Call:

The following Trustees were present:

Debbie Engler

George Metanias

Joseph Budzyn

Jim Richmond

Joseph Siwinski

Absent: Trustee John Mazzorana

Also present were: Clerk Jillian Hersted, Village Administrator John Tomasoski; Finance Director Barb Damron; Public Works Director Lou Tiberi; Assistant Public Works Director Mark Detloff; Assistant Village Administrator Kirk Zoellner; Community/Economic Development Director Alan Zordan and Staff Engineers Dan Peloquin and Brian Fei.

Community Survey:

Assistant Village Administrator Kirk Zoellner presented this topic.

At its April 17, 2017 work session, the Board asked Village staff to research the possibility of conducting a Village-wide survey of residents.

At its May 8, 2017 work session, the Board indicated it was supportive of moving forward with some type of community survey in FY18, and subsequently budgeted $20,000 in the FY18 budget to potentially be used for the survey.

At its November 13, 2017 work session, the Board directed staff to seek out an outside consultant to conduct the survey rather than conduct an in-house survey. Staff recommended soliciting formal proposals from four (4) consultants that had been previously contacted informally regarding their potential interest in the project. The Board concurred with this recommendation.

At its February 12, 2018 work session, the Board reviewed proposals from each of the referenced consultants. The consensus of the Board was that it was generally most comfortable with a mail survey versus a phone survey, and support was voiced for a “benchmarking” component as part of the survey. Staff recommended the National Research Center (NRC) and the NIU Center for Governmental Studies (CGS) be contacted to arrange for personal interaction with the Board at a future date to discuss in further detail their proposed survey methodologies. The Board was agreeable to this approach.

Key features of the NRC and CGS proposals are summarized below:

Est. responses Contact/mode Cost Timeframe

NRC 300-450 Mail/online $14,985 ~150-180 days

CGS 500 Mail/e-mail $13,000 ~105 days

Tom Miller and Jade Arocha of NRC introduced themselves to the Board via internet and speaker phone. After providing a summary of NRC’s proposal and discussing survey approach/methodology, they answered questions from and otherwise entered into dialogue with the Board.

Discussion focused on response rate, timelines, survey questions, and length of survey.

Mindy Schneiderman of CGS introduced herself to the Board. She provided a summary of CGS’ proposal, discussed survey approach/methodology, and then answered questions from and otherwise entered into dialogue with the Board.

Discussion focused on response rate, timelines, and survey questions.

Discussion:

It was the general consensus of the Board that additional time was needed to consider each of the proposals. Staff was given direction to contact two or three communities that had utilized NRC, CGS, or both for community surveys in the past and ask them what they felt they had gleaned from those survey efforts.

Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) Discussion-

Village Staff presented this topic.

Discussion: Trustee Siwinski stated he was not in favor of having two years with no roads being resurfaced. The Trustees all were hesitant to have no road resurfacing for two years and asked staff to look at alternate financing options. Trustees Budzyn and Richmond also had questions about the sand filter replacement with a disc filter. Trustee Richmond requested some costs associated with fixing the 30 year old sand filter. Trustee Budzen questioned the maintenance performed on the sand filters by Village Staff and also wanted costs associated with fixing the sand filters and continuing to use this equipment. Staff and the Village consultant from Strand and Associates, stated that repair of the sand filters was not pursued because this would be repairing out dated processes that are not recommended in plant expansions or newer plant construction. Disc filter are considered to be the best and most efficient process for filtering wastewater and the disc filter also provides biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal which is recommended by the IEPA. There were also some questions about the biosolids storage building and if this was absolutely necessary. After some discussion Staff will research costs associated with upgrading the current sand filter process and review other financing options which include continuing road resurfacing on an annual basis and report back to the Board.

Clerical Staffing Discussion-

Finance Director, Barb Damron, Community/Economic Development Director Alan Zordan and Village Administrator John Tomasoski presented this topic.

Discussion: The consensus of the Board was to move forward with replacing the clerical position in the Community Development Department and the combining of the customer service windows with the administration department.

Staff Reports Staff updated the Board on a pending liquor license application and briefly discussed the new Class G liquor license category.

Alan Zordan provided an update on the Hickory Sage development and reported that it will be placed on the agenda for the March 26th Village Board meeting.

Lou Tiberi asked for Board direction regarding the trees that were marked on Front Street for potential removal. The consensus of the Board was to remove the tree in front of the Tribes Brewery and the dead trees at this time.

There being no further business to bring before the Mayor and Board of Trustees, Mayor Fleischer adjourned the work session at 9:04 p.m.

http://www.mokena.org/files/documents/VillageBoardWorkSessionsMinutes03-19-18100008041018AM1315.pdf