City of Braidwood City Council met June 27.
Here are the minutes provided by the council:
Call to Order: The Regular Meeting of the Braidwood City Council on June 27, 2023 was called to order at 7:00 p.m., by Mayor Hart in the Council Chambers of the Braidwood City Hall.
Pledge of Allegiance: Mayor Hart requested all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Roll Call: Upon Roll Call by the Clerk, the following members of the corporate authorities answered "Here" or "Present";
Elected Officials;
Present: Commissioner Money, Commissioner Wietting, Commissioner Walsh, Commissioner Mikel, and Mayor Hart
Absent:
Appointed Officials:
Present: Temporary City Clerk Weaver, Administrator Altiery, Chief Lyons, City Engineer Weber, and City Attorney Wellner
Absent:
Quorum: There being sufficient members of the corporate authorities in attendance to constitute a quorum, the meeting was declared in order.
Public Comment: Mike Chambers from Home Serve that represents the NLC Service Line Warranty Program. This program works with cities and municipalities all over the country to make our service line warranties available to the residents. They have about 12,00 communities across the country and about 60 in the state of Illinois, closet one to us here is in Kankakee. The reason National League of Cities got involved is because they understand the infrastructure has gotten older and older especially when it comes to water and sewer lines. The big part is the city is doing their part to maintain the main supply at the street. There are miles and miles of lines that connect to that system that often don't get any attention until there is an issue. That is the resident's lateral water and sewer lines. Most of the time when residents water lines freezes or sewer lines collapse, they call the city to verify the mains are still intact. But then the city needs to tell the residents that this is your line and you need to call a contractor and make the repairs. Most residents don't realize that they are responsible for these buried lines until they have this issue, and if they do, they don't have the funds to repair the $5-$7 thousand it takes to fix. This is where this program comes in and does a free educational program to all the residents to let them know these lines are their responsibility and give tips as well. Then they can enroll in this program that transfers the risk from the homeowner to this company with a low-cost monthly warranty. Good for the city because the company handles all the marketing, billing, customer service, and claims. No cost for the city to participate and this is optional for all residents. There will be 3 products available: 1. External water line coverage. 2. Sewer line coverage. 3. In-home plumbing and drainage. This company will use local based plumbers and contractors. For 3 years at 2 times a year this company will send out flyers about this coverage availability. Will only send out flyers once they are approved by the city. This program has fixed over 1.2 million lines saved residents over $500 million and about $25 million here is Illinois.
Commissioner Wietting asked how the response has been to this program. About 8-10% enroll at first then after about the 3 years its about 25-35%. Commissioner Money asked about option 1 & 2 and how do you delineate where it comes into the house. Mr. Chambers answered, it depends on your water meter. If your meter is inside your home, it covers where it enters your home into the meter and outside it goes to where is breaks through the concrete wall. Information packages were passed to council.
Approval of Minutes: Commissioner Mikel made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Money, to approve meeting minutes from the June 13, 2023. Regular Council Meeting. Motion carried with 5 ayes: O nays. (Money, Wietting, Walsh, Mikel and Hart)
Executive Session: Commissioner Mikel made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Wietting to go into Executive Session at 7:07 p.m. Motion carried with 5 ayes: 0 nays. (Money, Wietting, Walsh, Mikel and Hart)
Commissioner Mikel made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Walsh to close Executive Session at 7:33 p.m. Motion carried with 5 ayes: 0 nays. (Money, Wietting, Walsh, Mikel and Hart)
Mayor's Report: Mayor Hart asked Josh Bollatto to introduce Tom for Will County EMA and ESDA Presentation. Here to discuss how Everbridge works and the county uses it and how we can use it. Mass Notification Method using Email, text, and robo calls. We want to notify residents on how they want to be notified. Only 1% use landlines and 80-90% use cellular. We use a system called Everbridge to get messages out to the residents they way they want to be notified. This is a shared system, shared with county EMA, 911, other communities neighboring as well. Then all the comminates will share the cost and not one community has the brunt of the cost making it affordable. They call it a Community Alert Network not just the county. There is Emergency and Non-Emergency use for this system. Even if they city chooses not to participate the Emergency is always available. Tom is discussing using it as a non- emergency: Examples: Garbage delay for Holiday, parade route for road blockage. This program can target geographic area if needed. Residents can also sign up for multiple locations outside of Braidwood. Can set up for only certain departments can post messages. Messages are sent almost instant. If they City is wanting to use this there is an Intergovernmental Agreement between the City and Will County 911 system. This is a tired pricing based on population, we are in 0-10,0000 which will cost $1,500.00 a year and does prorate if needed. Multiple locations must be within Will County. All data collected will not be shared. Residents are able to opt-out if they want. Josh stepped up after presentation and noted how he subscribes to both Wilmington and Diamond and Diamond uses this program pretty heavily to notify residents. Josh has used an acronym for this system of B.E.C.A.N because of the shared system. Which stands for Braidwood Emergency Community Alert Notifications and include it's not only for emergencies.
Administrator Report:
City Clerk Report:
Engineer Report: Engineer Weber talked about working with Commissioner Wietting and the city administrator about the various issues with the waste water treatment plant and water treatment plant. The water treatment plant is officially 30 years old. It is getting to the end of its service life as well as others issues found from reports. Stepping back to the risk and resilience study done for the EPA a year ago. Study the water towers, here at City Hall and the one on the south side of town. They are in need of maintenance, specifically painting. The cost of painting them with the type of "leg structure" that they are is very expensive. Among starting to investigate a possible new water treatment plant, possible replacing the towers with a larger, newer one. Most of all the city had 5 well and if you recall in the past 2 years, we have worked on three of them, which had substantial cost. Well 4 is 350 gallons per minute, which is relatively small the other 2 wells we have spent over $100,000 each on and they only produce 150 gallons per minutes. They are insignificant but as a whole they contribute to the supply so they are essential to the city. Looking for possible new well locations to have maybe one big well. Perhaps long- term plans of water treatment plant and elevated tanks. These are long term planning even if started today we would not see construction until about 5 years. The immediate needs were a new scada system, chlorination system and repaired a softener as the water treatment plant. Now at the waste water side we have few lift stations that are in need of immediate repair and improvements. Right now, there is a lot of behind the scenes of planning and preparation and hopefully in a month we can come back with a plan.
City Attorney Report:
Accounts & Finance Report: Commissioner Money made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Wietting to approve the Payment of Bills, in the amount of $85.988.63 as identified in the Accounts Payable General Ledger dated June 27, 2023. Motion carried with 5 ayes: 0 nays. (Money, Wietting, Walsh, Mikel and Hart) Commissioner Money then made a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Mikel, to Approve Payroll Expenses, in the amount of $84.356.32 as identified in the Payroll General Ledger dated June 23, 2023. Motion carried with 5 ayes; 0 nays. (Money, Wietting, Walsh, Mikel and Hart).
Streets & Public Improvement Report:
Public Property Report: Commissioner Wietting wanted to reiterate what Engineer Weber talked about having a comprehensive plan for the future water treatment plant, towers, and the wells.
Public Health & Safety Report: Commissioner Mikel asked to table the motion on the agenda for the Resolution to Approve Benefits to be Provided to Braidwood Chief of police Todd Lyons. From June 12- 26 the police department had total subjects arrested was 8 and total arrest charges were 8. There were 228 calls for service. There are some upcoming summer events: June 28, 2023 Officer Chase will be attending the Wescom public education event for children ages 3-6. On July 21, 2023 we will be teaming up with the Fossil Ridge Library to host an outdoor movie night, this will be 1 of 3 movie night events. August 1, 2023 we will be hosting our National Night Out event from 5-8 pm. On August 2, 2023 a Braidwood Officer will be at Lemont Cruise Night 6pm start time. In mid-August Braidwood Police Department is working with McDonald's marketing to host its first coffee with a Cop.
Planning & Zoning Report: Mayor Hart just reminding the announcement of the next zoning meeting was changed to July, 10, 2023 because of the 4th holiday.
Old Business:
New Business: Commissioner Walsh wanted to remind everyone of the Q & A dates with the City Administrator. July 25 @ 6 p.m., September 26 @ 6 p.m., and November 28 @ 6 p.m. These will not be streamed.
Adjournment: Commissioner Wietting made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Money, to adjourn the June 27, 2023 regular meeting of the Braidwood City Council. Motion carried with 5 ayes: 0 nays. (Money, Wietting, Walsh, Mikel and Hart) The next regular meeting of the Council will be held Tuesday, July 11, 2023 at 7:00pm
https://www.braidwood.us/_files/ugd/4cd10a_7078572dc8db44558a60b90fe06655f4.pdf
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