Will County Gazette

City of Braidwood City Council met Jan. 23.

Here are the minutes provided by the council:

Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Braidwood City Council Tuesday, January 23, 2024 Braidwood City Hall 141 W. Main St., Braidwood, IL 60408

Call to Order: The Regular Meeting of the Braidwood City Council on January 23, 2024 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 Wilczak and Mayor Hart

Absent:

Appointed Officials:

Present: City Clerk Weaver, City Administrator Altiery, Chief Goodwin, City Engineer Dave 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: Matthew Skwarczek: 935 Madison Ave; I just wanted to say that Public Works are going a great job getting the streets done the way they were today and every other time they were out.

Approval of Minutes: Commissioner Wilczak made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Money, to approve meeting minutes from the January 9, 2024. Regular Council Meeting. Motion carried with 5 ayes: 0 nays; 0 Abstain (Money, Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart)

Mayor's Report: Hart: I have a couple things I wanted to bring to your attention. On January 22, 2024 I was with the ESDA and the Illinois Plan for Radiological Accidents. It's a group that gets together with Will County and all the municipalities and its because we have a Nuclear Plant here. Then we have a plan if something happens. We got together and will continue to get together. One of the things that I wanted to bring to you out of that meeting was that we were talking about transportation and how we would evacuate. It came from my thinking about my incense; if people are in a wheelchair or if they have oxygen. How do we know where they are at? How do we know to take a bus there to transport them out? So, I am asking you, if anybody has a wheelchair or any special needs that they would please call the PD or call City Hall and let us know. We will start to make a list. There was a survey sent a few years ago asking that but we probably need to do it again. If you have that interest, please let us know. We need to know what your needs are and where you are located incase something like that happens. We can also use it if there is something like a tornado or a flood or for any other reason we would have to evacuate.

Administrator Report: Altiery: Wanted to let you know that we have few more businesses coming into town. We had a company come and buy the building south of Dairy Queen, they are going to move their corporate office down here. We are working with 515 Fitness to get them open. They will be in the mall over by Subway, hopefully to be open in the next month. We are working with some new developers, where the old restaurant is up at Coal City Road and 113, trying to get that building removed and get some nice property up there and some tax dollars coming in.

City Clerk Report: Weaver: The only thing I wanted to say is to remind everybody with the cold weather we've had a lot of phone calls of frozen water meters and pipes. When we have a cold snap, remember to leave your cabinet doors open and maybe trickle the water a bit or if you have open places in your crawlspace or trailer you may need to get some heat tape and close up those areas to help keep them from freezing.

Engineer Report: No Report

City Attorney Report: No Report

Accounts & Finance Report: Commissioner Money made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Wietting, to approve the Payment of Bills, in the amount of $162,244.92 as identified in the Accounts Payable General Ledger dated January 23, 2024. Motion carried with 5 ayes: 0 nays. (Money, Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart) Commissioner Money then made a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Wietting, to Approve Payroll Expenses, in the amount of $86,977.13 as identified in the Payroll General Ledger dated January 19, 2024. Motion carried with 5 ayes; 0 nays. (Money, Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart).

Streets & Public Improvement Report: Walsh: I would like to echo what Mr. Skwarczek said and thank the street crew because it has been a rough week and half here. They are doing a great job like they always do.

Public Property Report: Wietting: On the agenda there is an announcement for applications. We are still reviewing some processes so that is going to be put on hold for now.

Public Health & Safety Report: Wilczak: I would like to welcome everyone to year 2024. Some of the hardest working public servants we have working for us in Braidwood include our Police Officers and Fireman. The employees of these two departments put their lives on the line and do a lot of other hard work to make our city safe and secure. I have experienced this firsthand, when my house burned down a year ago. Chief Goodwin of our Police Department is working really hard to make sure Braidwood safety and health is the best it can be for all Braidwood citizens. In light of that and this being a new year, we are going to take a few minutes to let you know about and recognize a couple of new officers to our Braidwood Police Department. I would now like to ask Chief Goodwin to present and comment on the two officers as I would like to welcome them and have the council and audience recognize them.

Goodwin: Officer Manos, front and center please. Officer Zachary Manos is currently a member of the Illinois National Guard holding the rank of Staff Sergeant. He is assigned as a Fire Direction Chief with an Artillery unit. He has participated in several missions some of which were with Turkish and Spanish forces. These experiences have given him the opportunity to work with people from different ethnicities and backgrounds. Officer Manos was hired on July 24, 2023 and graduated from the Police Training Institute Academy in Champaign Urbana on December 21, 2023. He is currently in week 5 of his 16- week field training process, which should conclude sometime in May 2024. Officer Manos' passion for service to community is the driving force behind why he became a Braidwood Police Officer. He is supported here tonight by his wife Dana, and their daughter Enzley. It is my pleasure to introduce to you Officer Zachary Manos.

Officer Victor Gastelum, front and center please. Officer Victor Gastelum is currently a Private First Class in the United States Army Reserve as a Petroleum Supply Specialist. He has received many awards thus far in his Army Reserve career to include the Iron Soldier award, the Army Achievement award and most recently the Army Commendation medal. Additionally, Officer Gastelum is an assistant coach with the Reed-Custer Middle School wrestling team. He is also an active member in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and has completed mission work in El Salvador and Belize. Officer Gastelum was hired on April 17, 2023 and graduated from the Suburban law Enforcement Academy on August 18, 2023. It should be noted that while attending the academy, he received the Raymond A Murelo Leadership Award. He has completed all of his field training and has been cleared for solo patrol. He is supported here tonight by his wife Elyse. It is my pleasure to introduce to you Officer Victor Gastelum.

Wilczak: Thank you everybody for welcoming our newest officers. This is a nice thing we can do to recognize them as they go forward in serving our city.

Next, I would like to explain that due to retirements, departures and other circumstances our current Police Department officers have been working a lot of overtime. This is both hard on the personnel and is more expensive to our city to plan, manage and have officers working overtime. It also takes a lengthy period of time to get new police officers. From the beginning of the hiring process to the completion of training and the time period where they can perform completely independently can take up to a year to a year and a half. To address this situation, the department is working on a few fronts to handle and improve the situation for the city. First, we have these two new officers who have completed the Police Academy or the other training. They will now learn from the experienced staff for the time it takes to become self sufficient in our Braidwood Police standards. Second, we have arranged a one-year compromise with the Police Union on how to handle scheduling to reduce some of the overtime expenses the city is incurring. Third, we will look to hire and get trained additional officers to handle the expected needs for the department one to one and half years out. With all this in mind, I am making a motion for Ordinance 24-3 to adopt a "Memorandum of Understanding" between the City of Braidwood and the Police Union (also known as "Policeman's Benevolent Labor Committee") for the help in changes to scheduling and work items resulting in less overtime for our Policemen and less overtime expenses to Braidwood. Commissioner Wilczak made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Walsh to approve Ordinance 24-3 Authorizing the Execution and Approval of a Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Braidwood and Policemen's Benevolent Labor Committee to be Effective through December 29, 2024. Motion carried with 5 ayes; 0 nays. (Money, Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart).

Now I would like to give the statistics for the police department over the last period from January 8 to January 22, 2024. Total number of calls for service 196, case reports 13, total subjects arrested 0, total arrest charges 0, total number of traffic stops 42, citations 11, written warnings 12, total number of P- tickets 11, P-tickets issued to trucks 11.

Next item, I would like to provide clarification to my report at the last meeting regarding ESDA on their year-to-date hours. I want to clarify that year to date is Fiscal Year to date so it is from May 1st through the current period. Those hours I mentioned last time were not from the end of year, they were from May 1st and I will report on their statistics at the next meeting.

Planning & Zoning Report: No Report

Old Business: None

New Business: Wilczak: There was an article in the Braidwood Journal on the 17th of January regarding one of our local establishments called Polk-a-Dot. There was a TV episode on that last May. I just wanted to mention, this is part of the Route 66 Histologic places. I would encourage everybody to patronize them because we would not want them go away like the Rocket Man in Wilmington but also, they have good food.

I also want to mention that we have an empty chair there, our editor from the Braidwood Journal. She has also reported that the activities that go on in Braidwood are always reported in the Braidwood Journal. I would like to suggest that if you are interested in getting more information that you can get a subscription to the Braidwood Journal online for $50 a year.

Walsh: I get my information from Stacy Ross, she posts everything from the speech club winners to cheerleaders to basketball to football, everything. I noticed that the 8th Grade boys' basketball won 20-0 this year. That's pretty good for basketball. They are in the playoffs, so I wanted to say congratulations to them and their coaches.

Hart: I would like to say we have two new grandfathers. Dale is a proud new grandfather of two baby girls, twins.

Walsh: Their names are Ellis and Etta

Hart: They were preemies and are doing very well. How many does this make now? Walsh: 6 and 7

Hart: Our City Administrator became a grandpa for the second time. He has a grandson named Vincent. Vincent's daddy is Chris Altiery, who is Detective Sergeant in the police force. So, congratulations to the them.

Adjournment: Commissioner Wilczak made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Walsh, to adjourn the January 23, 2024 regular meeting of the Braidwood City Council. Motion carried with 5 ayes: 0 nays. (Money, Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart) The next regular meeting of the Council will be held Tuesday, February 13, 2024 at 7:00pm

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