August 6, 2025 Meeting Minutes

Village of Bishop Hill web page: bishophillil.gov

County of Henry - State of Illinois

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

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

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

TREASURER’S REPORT: There were no changes to the report, Nordstrom motioned to accept the Treasurer’s Report; seconded by Nolan. Voice vote, motion carried.

PAY BILLS: Wigant reported she mistakenly put Lacky Monument bill under General Fund, it should have been under the Cemetery Fund on the bill list. Strand motioned to pay the bills; seconded by Nolan. Voice vote, motion carried. Wexell requested not to put the Eagle bill on the bill list until we have the current bill in hand as it's too confusing.

OLD BUSINESS:

Cameron Meyer was not present at the meeting, but reported to Wigant that hooking up residents to the new water main on South & North Olson St. would start in September or after harvest was done. He still needed to get a quote on the hook up for the house at 510 Front St.

Wigant reported that she collected raffle tickets and money for the Colony Flagpole fund, it came to $575.48. She will do the final collection of tickets and money the week before the drawing to be held during Ag days.

Keup talked to Shane Kaiser/Kaiser Tree Service about trimming the cemetery fir trees. Keup reported that it would cost $250 per hour, with a minimum of 3 hours =$750. Kaiser would supply his truck, chipper, and chainsaws and he would help us. Wigant called Tower Equipment rental in Kewanee, we can rent a 10” chipper from a Friday 4 p.m. pick-up to Monday 9 a.m. return for $350. Funke said we have pole saws. Strand said he could bring his dump trailer, Wexell and Light said they could dump the mulch at their houses. Wigant said she and her husband can pick up the chipper and take it back. The Trustees decided they could get together on Sunday the 24th of August to trim the fir trees. Strand made a motion to rent the 10” chipper for

$350 and do a work day on the 24th of August; seconded by Nolan. Voice vote, motion carried.

Wexell made a sample amendment to the Water Ordinance for pumping water from the hydrant to fill water tanks. After much discussion, the Board decided to amend the ordinance with just the amount of $10 per 1000 gallons and a $50 hook-up fee. We would like to help the farmers by pumping water for them, but that would mean someone would have to be on call to run the hydrant, that is too much to ask anyone to do. So, the amendment would only pertain to special circumstances and that would be planned ahead and probably only 1 or 2 loads of water for a day. Funke said maybe we should have a paper printed up stating who the water was pumped for, their address, how many gallons, the cost and have the buyer sign off on it, just so there is a record. The Board agreed. Wexell would have the new amendment ready to vote on at the September meeting.

NEW BUSINESS:

Wexell had a Resolution ready for the Board to vote on to move $15,000 from the General Fund to the Cemetery Fund to pay for mowing. Light motioned to approve Resolution #2025-01 to move $15,000 from the General Fund to the Cemetery Fund, seconded by Nordstrom. Voice Vote, motion carried.

Wexell said beginning January 1, 2026 all Julie Calls will be logged into a new system called JULIE’s Positive Response System. A unique code will be entered into the system reporting the status, the time and the date the Julie Call was marked.

Wexell requested that the board consider paying a percentage of Terri Wigant’s Mid-Century phone bill as it is her personal landline that is used for Village business. Nordstrom motioned to pay Wigant $75 per month for communication; seconded by Keup. Voice vote, motion carried. Wigant thanked Wexell and the Board.

Funke asked Attorney Mike Massie if the crew from the Kewanee Correctional Center, that built the new fence for the park, if they would be willing to paint the roof of the Municipal Bldg. Massie said there is a crew out of the Peoria area that would do it for free; we would just pay for the aluminum-based paint/materials. Light motioned to have that crew paint the roof; seconded by Nolan. Voice vote, motion carried.

Wigant reported that Hoerr Construction, from Peoria area, ran a camera down the drain on N. Bishop Hill St. at the N.E. corner of the park. They found that IDOT’s drain line was collapsed about 30’ North from the inlet drain; approximately in the middle of the walkway of Bjorklund St. There were a few IDOT representatives present at the time. Hoerr Construction sent videos to IDOT from their camera. Wigant took pictures, using a tape measure, to show how deep the ruts/erosion is all the way down Bjorklund St. Wigant emailed the pics to IDOT and said, in her opinion, the State should pay to fix Bjorklund St. since the damage was from the State drain being broken for so many years. The problem had been reported to the State many times and nothing has been done to fix it.

Wigant said that someone had removed the hinge on the cabinet in our public bathroom and stole all the big rolls of toilet paper, keys to the t.p. and soap dispenser. Wigant ordered new. She also said the bottom of the screen door fell off, but renter said he would fix it. The renter, Jeff Goard, said the air conditioning was not cooling. Wigant called the installer, Allen Plumbing, who found a loose fitting and the need for freon. Wigant asked Goard about changing the filter in the unit inside. Goard said he changes the filter often because of the clay dust from his pottery. Wigant asked the Trustees to look at the roof over the public bathroom, she believes it needs a new roof, and if so, could it be tin. She also asked if we could put metal doors on the kiln/storage shed because the wood ones are all rotten. Jeff Anderson had added plywood to the bottom of the

doors. Nolan, the Zoning Officer, said we cannot put metal doors on there.

Light said that a state employee called him and said someone had cut up a State-owned picnic table from the park and put it in the Village dumpster. Light believed it was a good Samaritan that saw it was broken after the ABBA concert. Light and Wigant ran the video from the cameras but could not tell who did it. Light used a thumb drive to record the information and gave it to the State employee.

Wigant said she talked to Carlee Hawkins about renting her bed and breakfast for the SIU teacher that is coming to run a GPR at the cemetery. Carlee will charge the village $95 per night. In addition, the village will pay his mileage which is all he requested in return for his services.

Wigant said that we had an IEPA inspection today. The IEPA is giving us 6 months to get both a

generator and double-walled containment tanks for our chlorine tanks to set in.

As there was no further business Light motioned to adjourn; seconded by Nolan. Voice vote motion carried.