Will County Gazette

City of Braidwood City Council met March 25.

Here are the minutes provided by the council:

Call to Order: The Regular Meeting of the Braidwood City Council on March 11, 2025 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 Earling, Commissioner Wietting, Commissioner Walsh, Commissioner Wilczak, and Mayor Hart

Absent: None.

Appointed Officials:

Present: City Clerk Weaver, City Administrator Altiery, Chief Goodwin, and City Attorney Wellner

Absent: City Engineer Sean Kelly

Quorum: There being sufficient members of the corporate authorities in attendance to constitute a quorum, the meeting was declared in order.

Public Comment: None

Public Hearing: Commissioner Wietting made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Wilczak to Open Public Hearing. Motion carried with 5 ayes: 0 nays; 0 Abstain (Earling, Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart)

City Clerk Weaver: This public hearing is being held for the purpose of hearing testimony regarding the proposed annual budget for the City of Braidwood for the fiscal year beginning May 1, 2025, and ending April 30, 2026. Pursuant to the law, that a notice was published in the Braidwood Journal on March 12, 2025, notifying the public of this hearing and the proposed budget has been available for public inspection with the office of the City Clerk since February 25, 2025.

Comm. Earling made a couple of amendments to the budgets in terms of labeling line items. Under Police Department, change Sergeants to Salaries/Wages, and under Recreational, change items listed as itemized to have listed at Community Assistance only.

Comm. Wilczak commented that the wages and salaries are for the entire police department except for the chief. That is why it should be labeled as such.

Comm. Earling wanted to comment that under water and street department salaries, there is funding for a supervisor for each department.

Also, there is a capital outlay- water main line item for two new generators and two new water pumps for $800,000.

Comm. Wietting added that the two new generators will be about $400,000, and the new well pumps be about $120,000.

Comm. Earling made note of an offset of the Audit and the difference will be paid out of administration. There are 46-line items in the general fund for revenue, which is $5.5 million. There has been talk about the city using enterprise funds to run the city. The $5.5 does not include any money from the water fund.

Comm. Wietting wanted to clarify that $5,570,900.00 is separate from the enterprise fund at $4,503,600.00

Comm. Wilczak explained a bit more about the police budget. The goal is to have 2 officers and 1 sergeant per shift. There are 4 shifts. That is a minimum of 12 officers. We have 20 officers, 5 part-time school resource officers, and 4 sergeants. There has been a steady increase of calls for service, which requires enough officers to answer those calls.

Comm. Earling gave an announcement of the budget for some of the department figures.

Wayne Kancler asked since there is a balanced budget but if there was an emergency, is there funds available if something broke that needed to be fixed and it is not budgeted for?

Admin. Altiery responded that from the generators, there is about $200,000 extra there, there is $250,000 for water/sewer infrastructure. So, if needed, there is about $450,000 available in the budget.

Liz Dixon: Had a question to the street department about possibly purchasing another truck in the capital outlay?

Comm. Walsh stated that when they came into office there were some vehicles that needed work and we are in the process of updating the fleet.

Commissioner Wilczak made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Wietting to Close Public Hearing. Motion carried with 5 ayes: 0 nays; 0 Abstain (Earling, Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart)

Commissioner Wilczak made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Walsh to approve Ordinance 25-12 Approving the Annual Budget and Appropriations for the City of Braidwood for the Fiscal Year Beginning May 1, 2025, and Ending April 30, 2026 with the amendments mentioned in the meeting. Motion carried with 5 ayes: 0 nays; 0 Abstain (Earling, Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart)

Approval of Minutes: Commissioner Wilczak made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Earling, to approve meeting minutes from the March 11, 2025 Regular Council Meeting. Motion carried with 5 ayes: 0 nays; 0 Abstain (Earling, Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart).

Mayor's Report: Hart: Tomorrow is the second Blood Drive from 2-6pm, but it was moved from City Hall to the Fire Department because of Early Voting.

Administrator Report: Altiery: Update on Federated Bank. They are moving into the old Busey Bank and they will be a full-service bank. Right now, they are just a commercial loan bank, but will change in the new building with savings, checking, and loans. They are hoping to be open by the end of April, they had some issues with mold because it was empty for a while.

The data center is getting some more paperwork ready and they are hoping to be in front of the zoning board by May.

City Clerk Report: Weaver: By April 4th the garbage company will be mailing out flyers for the seasonal clean-up dates. The Spring clean-up is scheduled for your garbage pick-up date of either Monday, May 5 or Tuesday, May 6. The flyer listed acceptable and non-acceptable items.

Reminder yard waste will start April 1st.

On our website, we now have a submittable form for the EPA Service Line Survey that is required. This is required for the homeowners and the city to have a material inventory list from the homes they supply water to.

Early voting is still going on here at city hall until Friday from 9:30 to 4:30 pm.

Engineer Report: Absent

City Attorney Report: No report.

Accounts & Finance Report: Commissioner Earling made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Wietting, to approve the Payment of Bills, in the amount of $351,014.18 as identified in the Accounts Payable General Ledger dated March 25, 2025. Motion carried with 5 ayes: 0 nays. (Earling, Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart)

Commissioner Earling then made a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Wilczak, to Approve Payroll Expenses, in the amount of $89,290.59 as identified in the Payroll General Ledger dated March 14, 2025. Motion carried with 5 ayes; 0 nays. (Earling, Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart).

Comm. Earling introduced spokeswoman Sara McKenna, from WIPFLI to recap the fiscal year 2023 audit. Sara McKenna is a Senior Manager for WIPFLI and this is the third audit she was part of for the city and the second time presenting to the board. Sara presented a PowerPoint packet of the overview of the audit. There is the financial statement and TIF Fund Audit. Sara McKenna read through the packet of highlights of the audit.

Streets & Public Improvement Report: Walsh: They guys are out working with Surf helping the water department with locating, cold patch, and a storm drain repair that was damaged by Nicor.

Public Property Report: Wietting: Update on the tower outside is patched and sealed up on the inside. We are still working on fixing some valves.

The EPA lead line survey is very important for the city. We need to get these completed to be compliant with the EPA.

Public Health & Safety Report: Wilczak: The Braidwood Police Department Press Release for March 11 - March 25, 2025. Total number of calls for service are 271, case reports 20, total subjects arrested 2, total arrest charges 4, total number of traffic stops 105, citations 34, written warnings 61, semi-truck violations 1, and total number of P-tickets 1.

Read a letter about the work all the city employees put in together to get things done.

Planning & Zoning Report: George Kocek: Held a planning and zoning meeting on March 17 for a public hearing for a Comprehensive Plan for the City of Braidwood. I am requesting a motion for approve Ordinance 25-13 from the council. Commissioner Wilczak made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Walsh to approve Ordinance 25-13 Adopting an Official Comprehensive Plan for the City of Braidwood.

Commissioner Wilczak read a letter presented by the CMAP representative. Motion carried with 5 ayes: 0 nays. (Earling, Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart)

Old Business: None.

New Business: Walsh: There is a community garden clean-up on Saturday, April 5, from 10 am to 4 pm at the coalition on Reed Street. We are also working on a community clean-up day for the town possibly on April 12 from 2 pm – 4 pm.

Adjournment: Commissioner Wieting made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Earling, to adjourn the March 18, 2025 regular meeting of the Braidwood City Council. Motion carried with 5 ayes: 0 nays. (Earling, Wietting, Walsh, Wilczak and Hart)

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