Will County Gazette

City of Braidwood City Council met March 12.

Here are the minutes provided by the council:

Call to Order: The Regular Meeting of the Braidwood City Council on March 12, 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 Wietting, Commissioner Walsh, Commissioner Wilczak and Mayor Hart

Absent: Commissioner Money

Appointed Officials:

Present: City Clerk Sarah Weaver, City Administrator Tony Altiery, Chief Bret Goodwin, and City Attorney Hannah Lamore

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: None

Approval of Minutes: Commissioner Wilczak made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Walsh, to approve meeting minutes from the February 27, 2024. Regular Council Meeting. Motion carried with 4 ayes: 0 nays; 0 Abstain (Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart)

Mayor's Report: Hart: I want to bring to your attention about what has been in the news, stories and cases about measles. If none of you know, I am a nurse, measles is an extremely infectious and spreadable disease that can cause long term damage. It is also controllable; through the last fifty years we have been giving vaccines and we have had virtually no measle cases. The reason we are seeing them now is because people have not been vaccinated. I cannot encourage you enough; kids and adults, if you haven't had one and you are around someone, it is very spreadable. All you need is one person in the room that is infectious and you will have measles. Please be aware.

We are now going to recognize four middle school IESA State Qualifiers for wrestling. I am going to turn this over to Dale.

Comm. Walsh: I am going to introduce Coach Yale Davis, the team placed 15th in the state and four individuals that did very well at state.

Coach Davis: I am going to bring up Coach Victor Gastelum also, he is going to speak first. Boys, come on up.

Coach Gastelum: The first thing I want to say about these four is, we had a bigger team than last year, but these four were outstanding. Out of the entire team these four were active learners. They were easy to coach. They looked for their mistakes and improved their mistakes. That is the reason why they went to state. Two of the boys placed and one placed first and Cole Harris placed fourth in state. It is one of the biggest opportunities to go to state, as a coach I am extremely proud. I am proud of the coaching staff and parents. Especially the parents because they take their kids and spend the entire day at tournaments giving them food and support.

Coach Davis: There are too many thank you's to give out. I am very proud of the community and these guys. Cole Harris went 27-5 this year, he is one of our team captains. He had an incredible year, he started with a little bit of adversity with his thumb but he never wavered. He wrestled straight through it. He made it to state where he placed fourth. He went 4-2 on that day which is impressive. He lost the second match of the day and then battled back and got all the way to the third-place match and got fourth. Colton Drinkwine came in as an eight grader and I was excited to coach. He went 36-0 for the season. He was at multiple tournaments this year where he dominated. One thing I can say about Colton was he was able to stay in control through all his matches, which shows what type of wrestler he was. Through the state series he won a lot of 4-0 matches and 6-0 matches and went all the way to the state finals where he went into overtime and won 8-6 and became the state champion. He is also a team captain. Braydon Pratscher is a seventh grader and went 25-9 this season. Which is very impressive for his weight class. He is one where his improvements have been immense this year. It great to see how much he has grown mentally and physically. Braydon came to the tournament with a tough bracket. He won his second match of the day with a 9-0. I can't wait to see what he does next year. Nathan Vogler, eight grade, team captain. He ended his eight-grade year at 27-6. He came out at the state tournament with a dominate pin. In the quarter final match, he had a tough kid and came up a bit short. It happens sometimes where your backet can be more one sided. He had beat most of the kids that placed in the state of Illinois. He did not place this year but we are very proud of what he is going to do in the future.

Comm. Wilczak: Thank you everyone for coming. You did a fantastic job. We wanted to recognize you and give you a token from the Police Department to each of the players and coaches.

Administrator Report: Altiery: The only thing I have is that the development on Coal City Road and 113 will be at the Zoning Board on April 1st. So, we can move forward on that. It's been a busy week with calls for businesses. This year is looking up.

City Clerk Report: Weaver: I just wanted to remind everyone that yard waste will be starting April 1st. So, that can will no longer be a garbage can, only yard waste.

Engineer Report: Absent

City Attorney Report: None

Accounts & Finance Report: Commissioner Wietting made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Wilczak, to approve the Payment of Bills, in the amount of $196,598.74 as identified in the Accounts Payable General Ledger dated March 12, 2024. Motion carried with 4 ayes: 0 nays. (Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart) Commissioner Wietting then made a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Walsh, to Approve Payroll Expenses, in the amount of $82,976.53 as identified in the Payroll General Ledger dated March 1, 2024. Motion carried with 4 ayes; 0 nays. (Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart).

Streets & Public Improvement Report: Comm. Walsh: Commissioner Walsh made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Wietting, to approve the City of Braidwood to participate in the State of Illinois Rock Salt Joint Purchasing Agreement. This is where many local towns and suburbs get together and order salt for the winter in bulk. So, we can get a cheaper price. Motion carried with 4 ayes; 0 nays. (Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart).

Public Property Report: Comm. Wietting: We have lot of things in play right now. I will have more information at the next meeting. Well #2 is in process. The clarifier project is complete.

Public Health & Safety Report: Commissioner Wilczak made a motion, second by Commissioner Walsh, to approve Ordinance 24-5 Waiving Competitive Bidding and Approving the Purchase of a 2024 Ford Police Interceptor from Terry's Ford for use by the City of Braidwood Police Department. The Police Department found this vehicle at a discount price. We have a need for additional squad cars. We have a car that has had engine failure and two that are very old. We will probably be requesting a new car at least once a year because we also have new officers. So, we will see how this works. This does fit within the budget and we feel we need to purchase this and save thousands of dollars. Motion carried with 4 ayes; 0 nays. (Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart). Commissioner Wilczak made a motion, second by Commissioner Wietting, to approve Ordinance 24-6 Amending Section 50-31 to the City of Braidwood Code of Ordinances Regarding Police Personnel. This is for our police personnel to increase positions on our staff. This will make sure we have proper staffing for all levels of our service. The difference from before is that we are increasing one lieutenant and one sergeant. Motion carried with 4 ayes; 0 nays. (Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart). Next, I would like to report our police activity for February 26 – March 10, 2024. The total number of calls for service 214, case reports 12, total subjects arrested 6, total arrest charges 7, total number of traffic stops 89, citations 26, written warnings 34, total number of P- tickets 11, and total number of P-tickets issued to trucks 9. Last, I would like to give the activity for E.S.D.A. They are volunteers and provide extra service and help with any type of emergency activity. They have assisted the Braidwood Fire Department on 2/3 for a structure fire on West River Rd. in Custer Park. They also assisted the Braidwood Street Department/Public Works on 2/6 with traffic control on Main Street during a water service line repair. They also did some weather monitoring. The number of hours they have committed this last month to the Fire Department was 12.5 manhours. The fiscal year manhours are 44.5. In assisting the police department, they have 14 manhours and 352 manhours year to date. The total number of man hours supporting are agencies are 41 and 716 manhours year to date. I appreciate all the activity from our E.S.D.A group.

Planning & Zoning Report: None

Old Business: None

New Business: Comm. Walsh: There is an inventor that in invented something called LifeVac. It helps people who are choking. It's like a pump, it goes over their mouth. His name is Arthur Lee, and what he wants to do is provide every school in America with one of these, on him, it's free. So, anybody that works for the school and I am going to go to the school board meeting and ask them. There is a website, schools@lifevac.net. It has saved thousands of lives already. If you use it, he will replace it for free. It's saved thousands and his goal is to save millions.

Mayor Hart: It's easier than doing the Heimlich.

Comm. Walsh: You don't have to pick anybody up.

Mayor Hart: There is one thing, but I don't think New Business is where it belongs, but I wanted to thank the Fire Department for their quick action. We had a utility pole, where the transformer caught fire. It was pretty scary but it was fixed very quickly and Edison was out there and were not without power very long. Thank you to our Fire Department and our local people, you did a great job.

Comm. Wietting: I would like to add to that. I got a text when it happened and Rob was out there resetting services. They were on it and within a few hours ComEd had everything back up and running.

Adjournment: Commissioner Wietting made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Wilczak, to adjourn the March 12, 2024 regular meeting of the Braidwood City Council. Motion carried with 4 ayes: 0 nays. (Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart) The next regular meeting of the Council will be held Tuesday, March 26, 2024 at 7:00pm.

https://www.braidwood.us/