April 1, 2026 Meeting Minutes

The regular meeting of the Village of Bishop Hill Board was held at the Municipal Bldg. The meeting was called to order by Village President Mike Funke at 6:00 p.m.

ROLL CALL: Mike Funke, Patrick Light, Ben Strand, Mike Keup, Jim Nolan, Sharon Wexell & Terri Wigant were all present.  Lisa Nordstrom was absent.

Funke swore in Carsen Meyer as new Village Trustee, replacing Amanda Laub.

MINUTES: Nolan motioned to accept the March minutes, seconded by Light. Voice vote, motion carried.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Strand motioned to accept the Treasurer’s Report, seconded by Keup. Voice vote, motion carried.

PAY BILLS: Wexell noted the $33,700 generator invoice will be paid via the General Fund. Light motioned to pay bills, seconded by Nolan. Voice vote, motion carried.

OLD BUSINESS:

            Funke read an email sent to the board by Dalton Whittington concerning the progress on the back-up-generator. He said all electrical work is done, now the gas is ready to be hooked up and Whittington will be doing a scheduled shut down hopefully next week. The shut down will not affect the water supply to customers. Whittington also wrote that Scott DeSplinter from Crawford, Murphy and Tilly Engineering will do the IEPA permit, costing the village $1000.

             Cameron Meyer said that he will have a person from Galva help with the new water connections on Olson St. hopefully in the next few weeks. Meyer said when they get it all dug up and ready, Whittington will help with the hook-ups. Meyer also reported that some of the parts he received from the Galva Water Dept. were wrong. He will take them back to Galva and the Village will receive a refund.

            Wexell had the FY 27 Appropriation Ordinance ready. The Board requested a bump up for the legal and professional to $1,750 and an increase for street maintenance to a total of $55,000 ($25,000 General Fund and $30,000 MFT).  Funke requested to raise the ball park maintenance to $3,000 as we need to fix the light that a tree broke in a storm. Strand motioned to except the Appropriations Ordinance No. 2026-02 with said amendments; seconded by Keup. Voice vote, motion carried.

            Funke, Strand, and Keup agreed that if coaches want to use the diamond for practices, that’s fine, but if they are needing regular maintenance for tournaments or games, we should ask for a donation to cover the costs of the maintenance. Keup said we will have to see how the ballpark will be used.

            Light told the Board that the Old Settlers Association waived the rental fee for the Colony School for the Trivia Night fundraiser for the 1889 Colony Flagpole.

            There were no bids for a Well 2 enclosure.

NEW BUSINESS:

            Wigant had applications for 3 village liquor license renewals and 1 gaming renewal. Funke said Wigant doesn’t have to present the applications to the board unless there is a problem with a renewal.

             Wigant said she, Jeff Olson and Dianne Lindbom from the Old Settlers Association cemetery committee, met with Harvey Ponder, owner of Lacky Monument. They picked out a monument to honor the settlers in the unmarked graves. She presented a picture of the stone to the Board it will cost approximately $10,000. Wigant also said that we would need a much larger monument to have all the names on it for Section A, which is the oldest part of the cemetery. She asked, instead, would the Board be opposed to putting a QR Code on the monument that would lead to the village website where people would find the Old Settlers Association’s cemetery book. Jeff Olson had asked the OSA board if the OSA cemetery book could be shared on the village's website. OSA said yes. The Trustees discussed the size of the monument, since it would just have commemorative words instead of names, could it be smaller and less expensive and use the extra money to pay for more stones to be fixed. Wigant said they want the monument to stand out to be recognized and we do have a time constraint on how many headstones the Lacky crew can get done by the August 15,2026. There was also a suggestion to put the scan code on a plaque so it could be removed if needed, so it would not damage the monument. Wigant will discuss all this with Ponder, Olson, and Lindbom.

             Wigant put the Trivia Night flier on the Kewanee Voice Facebook page. They put ads in for free, but said other towns give a donation. Keup motioned to wait and see how much we use their site, if it is frequently, then we could donate; seconded by Strand. Voice vote, motion carried. Wigant said it was the first time she had used it.

            Wigant did ask about reimbursement for some of the prizes and things for the trivia night event. The Board agreed and said to give Wexell receipts for reimbursement.

            Wigant also reported that Lisa Nordstrom said she would take over the Bishop Hill Facebook page, to replace Amanda Laub.

            Wigant reminded the Board that April 4^th was cemetery clean-up day, with a rain date of Sunday April 12^th. Light would send a reminder on the Village wide Text Alert.

            Wexell presented a worksheet that she prepares each year and shares with the USDA. The worksheet provides information as to the number of active water accounts we currently have, the anticipated income versus average expenses per month.  The USDA requires we set aside $417 a month as an Asset Reserve Fund and $20,640 as a Debt Reserve Fund. The Debt Reserve is fully funded via CD 12553 and the Asset Reserve Fund is partially funded via CD 12579.  Wexell said we do not need to increase rates at this time. Keup asked if the best time to raise rates would be in January and Wexell replied yes.

            Funke talked to Shane Kaiser, an arborist. Shane said he would take down the tree by the cemetery flagpole and the entrance trees we could trim out what is dead. Keup said there are a lot of overgrown bushes that need to be cut to the ground, some are hiding the stones.

There was no further business Strand motioned to adjourn, seconded by Nolan. Voice vote motion carried.