June 4, 2025 Meeting Minutes

Village of Bishop Hill web page: bishophillil.gov

County of Henry

State of Illinois

JUNE 4 th , 2025

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, , Mike Keup, Jim Nolan, Amanda Laub, Sharon Wexell, and Terri Wigant were all present. Ben Strand was absent.

MINUTES; Laub motioned to accept the minutes, seconded by Nolan. Voice vote, motion carried.

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

PAY BILLS; Wigant overlooked removing Whittington’s bill for $650, it was paid last month. Wexell also pointed out that the cemetery mowing bill should have been 1,888.00. Wigant put the Pollard/Ferguson bill on the bill list, which was paid last month, Wigant just wanted the Board to know Pollard had not received the check at this time, just in case Wexell had to write a new check. Wexell said there were a couple of addresses on the bill, she must have sent the check to the wrong one. Wexell did contact their office and explained what happened and they took off the all late charges. Nordstrom motioned to pay the bills with the above corrections, seconded by Light. Voice vote, motion carried.

OLD BUSINESS;

Wexell had sent in all the bills for Well #2 insurance claim, she had not heard anything since. She did however send them an email explaining how difficult it is for a very small town to deal with 5-6 different agents/adjustors for a claim with all the repeat requests that they made.

Wigant and Wexell received an email that the Village did not get the T-Mobile grant for the flagpole and sidewalk. Wexell said we will resend the request in T-Mobile’s second quarter.

Blue Jay Tree Service had not yet taken down the trees on Kronberg street or trimmed the state’s tree that broke our baseball field light. They were having equipment troubles.

Wigant said she called Massie, the Village Attorney, and he said it was ok for the Village to run a raffle to pay for the Colony Flagpole, We can also use a GoFundMe page for the flagpole.

The Board discussed raffling off one of the benches made from the old water tower wood to raise

money to restore the Colony Flagpole at the S.E. corner of the Bishop Hill Park. All agreed that would be a good use of one of the benches. We can raffle the other bench for something else, if this raffle is successful. The Board thought that the tickets should be $5 apiece. They also discussed starting a GoFundMe page to raise money and maybe use Venmo. Laub volunteered to make a Bishop Hill Facebook page, she would then create an event on the page after all

the raffle arrangements are done. At that point GoFundMe can be used through the Facebook page. Keup said he would be willing to sell tickets. The Board did agree not to use Venmo. Nordstrom said she would check B&B Printing in Kewanee to see what their charge would be for 1000 raffle tickets. Wigant said Kathy Johnson, from the Prairie Arts Center in Bishop Hill, would display the bench at her shop and she would sell raffle tickets. Wigant will talk to Todd DeDecker at the BHHA and some other store owners in Bishop Hill to see if they would sell tickets for the raffle. Light said to ask the people at the Galva Legion. Wigant said she would, and she would also ask Hathaway’s in Galva. Wigant thought that the drawing should be during a Bishop Hill

event, maybe on Ag Days.

Funke said he talked to Whittington about replacing the broken flush hydrant on E. Main St. and

adapting a regular fire hydrant to the smaller water line. Whittington said why spend that money, wait until the Village can put in the new 6” water main extensions and a new fire hydrant. He said we can just put in a garden hydrant to flush or have a resident run a garden hose most of a day to flush the line. Keup said he would be willing to run his water to flush. Funke said we have to have an EPA permit, which could take a year to get, and to get that permit, we have to have an Engineer to make the plans. In addition, the Board discussed water main extensions and hooking up services. Meyer was asked to get an estimate for all of Olson St down to Wexell’s on Front St. for hooking up services.

NEW BUSINESS;

Wigant stated that she had someone interested in being buried in a certain spot in the Bishop Hill

Cemetery, but the record book and the site is not matching. Wigant also asked Chad Ponder from Lacky Monuments to help find the burials. The dates on for the burials listed are before vaults, so Chad said probing won’t work. He said Viola had a college class run GPR on their cemetery. Wigant asked the Board if she could investigate some colleges about running a GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) in that area and depending on the cost maybe in other areas of the older burials. The Board told her to go ahead and get some information and prices.

The water at 510 N. Bishop Hill St. needs to be shut off, but the valve is broken. Meyer said he will

leave the curb valve in the ground but remove the riser because the house is going to be tore down.

The Old Settlers Association requested to have N. Park St. to Maiden Lane closed July 27th for the car show. Keup motioned to allow the street closure, seconded by Nordstrom. Voice vote, motion carried.

Todd DeDecker from Bishop Hill Heritage Association requested to have Christina St. closed July 12, 2025 from approximately 12:30 p.m. until the end of the Dancing Queen/ABBA concert. Food vendors would be parked on the street. Light motioned to allow Christina St. to be closed for the vendors, seconded by Keup. Voice vote, motion carried.

Wigant asked the Board if she could purchase a shop-vac to clean the Municipal Building. Laub

motioned to allow Wigant to purchase a shop-vac at a cost of $150 or less, seconded by Nordstrom. Voice vote, motion carried.

Wexell said the Village insurance is going to need renewed, she reminded the Board they previously agreed to omit Porter Hay as our representative for Illinois Municipal League insurance. Porter Hay charges 10% percent which amounts to over $500 per year. Wexell usually deals directly with IML anyway, so we can save that money.

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