City of Braidwood City Council met Sept. 26.
Here are the minutes provided by the council:
Call to Order: The Regular Meeting of the Braidwood City Council on September 26, 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, and Mayor Hart
Absent: Commissioner Mikel
Appointed Officials:
Present: City Clerk Weaver, City Administrator Altiery, Chief Lyons, and City Attorney Wellner
Absent: City Engineer Dave Weber
Quorum: There being sufficient members of the corporate authorities in attendance to constitute a quorum, the meeting was declared in order.
Public Comment: Greg Cholek 176 Harbor Landing: I see Commissioner Mikel isn't here today, but I have an idea for him based on a previous discussion we just had. One of the hot topics seems to be the amount of truck traffic going down Braidwood streets that are not designated truck routes. Commissioner Mikel does a great job of presenting at every meeting statistic and how many calls there were and different statistics of that nature. So, I am just asking for him to just think about going one level deeper and say how many traffic tickets were issued in the two-week period that were due to truckers, illegally going on routes that were not designated truck routes. Maybe at the next meeting present that number or total number of tickets year to date through September and then just every two weeks after that how many occurred at each meeting. I think that will help the citizens of Braidwood, who might be under misperception that it is not being enforced. So, then we know it is being enforced. Let's make that information public knowledge so people know that this is being handled.
Liz Dixon 195 N Lincoln: I know tonight you are voting on this (National Life Chain) and I know we cannot stop them because of Freedom of Speech, but is there any way that we can stop the posters of the dead kids. I have drove past them and they have abortion pictures and I don't want to have to explain that to my 7-year-old granddaughter because she shouldn't have to see it or any other kid in Braidwood to see abortion pictures. I know they say they aren't going to put any pictures up but I know they do because this has been done more than once. That is all I'm asking; I know you can't stop them because it's Freedom of Speech and they have their right. But at some point, can we control what is actually being done in the street compared to what they are writing.
Admin Altiery introduced Surf Internet: Jennifer & Garret: Jennifer Alvarez from Surf Internet, we are looking at Pheas ability test here in Braidwood, we currently have Coal City which is the nearest town
here for service and an office there. I am from the Rock Falls office, I am the regional market area for Illinois, we just launched in Dixon this week. We cover a wide variety of towns bringing fiber into the home and other businesses. Surf has been in business for 20 years bringing 70,000 homes connected with surf. Fiber internet is 25times faster than traditional cable internet. There are a few different packages to choose from based on your needs and have price lock guarantee unless you change your package. We are here reviewing Braidwood to build, if you have interest, we ask that you visit our website. We don't need interest we would just like to partner with the town. If it's a good fit for both of us we would like to move forward. This is just our first step in moving forward and introducing ourselves to the town and telling you who we are and that we are considering Braidwood.
Approval of Minutes: Commissioner Wietting made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Walsh, to approve meeting minutes from the September 13, 2023. Regular Council Meeting. Motion carried with 3 ayes: 0 nays; 1 Abstain (Wietting, Walsh, and Hart)
Mayor's Report: We have Halloween coming up and always the big question is when are we going to Trick or Treat? We are going to Trick or Treat on October 31, Halloween, the hours will be from 5-8pm.
Administrator Report: Not sure if anyone has noticed, but we are starting to get workers out on Coal City Road according to the planners they are going to start doing work on Coal City Road from the highway to 129 and 53. They are going to start recapping the road hopefully next week. So, you are going to see more traffic there.
I talked to Warren and Dale last month, we are looking at new trucks. I am going to reach out this week and try to get numbers on them.
City Clerk Report: I am asking for a motion from the City Council to approve the National Life Chain Event on October 1,2023 from 2:30-3:30 pm at IL Route 53 and IL Route 113. Where participants hold a sign with life-affirming messages while they stand quietly and pray. Commissioner Walsh made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Money. Motion carried with 3 ayes; 0 nays; 1 Abstain (Money, Wietting, and Walsh).
Also, the Reed-Custer Middle School is working with the Food Pantry to help families in need for the holiday season that is coming up. They have a program where each child will receive an Amazon gift card to be used to purchase presents. The Amazon cards values will be based on the amount of donations. So, if you are interested in helping, please send the donations to the Middle School in care of Lucy Friedl and if you wanting to take part in this program there are forms here at city hall and at the food pantry that needs to be filled out and returned to the school by November 1st.
Engineer Report:
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 $102,797.49 as identified in the Accounts Payable General Ledger dated September 26, 2023. Motion carried with 4 ayes: 0 nays. (Money, Wietting, Walsh, and Hart) Commissioner Money then made a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Wietting, to Approve Payroll Expenses, in the amount of $94,388.71 as identified in the Payroll General Ledger dated September 15, 2023. Motion carried with 4 ayes; 0 nays. (Money, Wietting, Walsh, and Hart).
Being Commissioner Mikel was absent, Commissioner Money made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Walsh to approve Ordinance 23-11; Authorizing the Execution and Approval of a
Collective Bargaining Agreement between the City of Braidwood and the Metropolitan alliance of Police, Braidwood Police Sergeant Chapter 190 to be effective from May 1, 2023 to April 30, 2026. Motion carried with 4 ayes; 0 nays; (Money, Wietting, Walsh, and Hart).
Streets & Public Improvement Report:
Public Property Report: We put out bids for asphalt for our sludge building that was put up. We put out bids to US Paving; no bid came back; we reached out to them several times. Premier asphalt was at $48,212.00 and Lucas paving was at $32,983.00. Commissioner Wietting made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Money for Lucas Paving in the amount of $32,983.00 to pave the sludge building. Motion carried with 4 ayes; 0 nayes (Money, Wietting, Walsh, and Hart).
Public Health & Safety Report:
Planning & Zoning Report:
Old Business:
New Business: Commissioner Walsh: Reminder that the next Q & A with Tony Altiery the Administrator is Tuesday November 28, here, at 6:00 pm the fourth Tuesday of November. Also, we have new people that come up to us periodically, but there are some gentlemen that come to meetings all the time. If you want to find out the history of Braidwood or even the meetings here. Geroge Kocek is very good with that, also Wayne Kancler and Tom Tomasek, they are here all the time. If you would like to talk these gentlemen, they have been here a long time and have seen a lot of meetings. Also, Bob Jarchow has been here for 37 years you want to ask him things that have happened here in the past. Ron Wilczak and Greg Cholek. So, if you want to ask any them any questions about Braidwood and also Liz Dixon knows quite a bit about the town.
Commissioner Money: A couple weeks ago Administrator Altiery and I were at a meeting with our local representatives and during that meeting they gave us the great news that Route 53 repaving is back on the books. I believe it is from the Grundy County Line to north of Elwood. They are doing portions at a time. At least they are going to be repaving. Last weekend we were at the IML seminar and I was at the rail safety. I brought up the issue about the trains being parked out here and they are well aware of it. They knew about it as soon as I mentioned Braidwood. They have tried everything through the state, unfortunately federal law supersedes state law so they have not been able to anything that way. There is currently a lawsuit in Ohio with the Supreme Court and they are hoping through that lawsuit, if it goes our way, we should be able to make changes. There are a couple things they are proposing: One of them is to park the train in a different spot, one of them is to split the train, and last one of the reasons the train stops are because the crew has timed out and has to go home. Then they don't have the next crew ready to go. There is no reason they should not have the next crew ready. They are talking to the railroad seeing that can get the next crew ready to go when the other crew finishes instead of waiting a day or two for them to come back and get the train.
Adjournment: Commissioner Money made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Walsh, to adjourn the September 26, 2023 regular meeting of the Braidwood City Council. Motion carried with 4 ayes: 0 nays. (Money, Wietting, Walsh, and Hart) The next regular meeting of the Council will be held Tuesday, October 10, 2023 at 7:00pm
https://www.braidwood.us/_files/ugd/4cd10a_e6b903aa6b77433b929842db69bf0839.pdf
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