May 6, 2026 Meeting Minutes

Village of Bishop Hill, Henry County, Illinois

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, Carsen Meyer , Sharon Wexell & Terri Wigant were present.  Jim Nolan, Lisa Nordstrom was absent.

MINUTES: Light motioned to accept the April minutes, seconded by Keup. 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 said the Rock River Electric bill of $10,000 for the back-up generator is being funded via the General Fund, not the O&M account as listed. Also, the 2^nd invoice from Carpenter Construction for $16,000 should be listed under the State Grant Fund as this is the account Wexell has been depositing  fund raising dollars for the Colony Flagpole project. Light motioned to pay bills with the changes made by Wexell, seconded by Nolan. Voice vote, motion carried.

            Wexell presented the Annual Treasurer’s Report seeking board approval. Light motioned to accept the Annual Treasurer’s Report, seconded by Keup. Voice vote, motion carried. Wexell also reminded the board that on May 1^st the USDA pulled (ACH) the principal and interest payment in the amount of $16,185.88 for the village’s water project loan.

            Funke went to new business. Ricky Newcomb, Senior Planner, Bi-State Regional Commission, was present at the meeting. Newcomb said the resolution he was presenting was meant for pre-disaster funding (i.e., generators, storm sirens, safe rooms, etc.). The resolution is a 5-year contract can be amended with no obligations for the Village. Newcomb said it just opens up more funding/grant opportunities for the Village. Meyer motioned to adopt Resolution 2026-02, Henry & Stark Counties Multi-Jurisdictional Local Hazard Mitigation Plan, seconded by Strand. Voice vote, motion carried. Light abstained, as he would like to see more information. Wexell said she will email the board the 159-page Henry-Stark County Mitigation Plan.

OLD BUSINESS:

            Cameron Meyer said (hopefully) next month he will start hooking up water services to the new water main on Olson Street, depending on weather. Funke said he would rather have City of Galva Water Dept. refund money to the Village for the 10 stop boxes that were the wrong style; Meyer would let them know.

            Wigant said she was getting a quote from Blue Jay Lawn & Tree Service to cut out some big bushes around headstones and trim back some trees and apply a chemical to kill volunteer trees. Wigant also is getting a quote from them to fix the gravel road (the loop) on the east side of the cemetery. They said they can dig out where the tire tracks go and then put gravel in the ruts, it would look like the main road. Wigant is hoping to get this done with left over money from the Cemetery Relief Grant. Strand said he dug out the ditch on the west road, Cemetery Street. Funke said the culvert on that road needs to be replaced and the road is not in good shape. Funke asked if they should oil and chip it or are there other options. Strand said they would go down and look at it after the meeting. Keup said the road on the south side of the Methodist Church needs gravel, it is mostly mud. Meyer said he needed to fix the hole/culvert by the church parking lot.

             Keup said because he mows the ballfield, coaches are calling him to see if the diamond is ready for practices. Keup said he would take care of the diamond, but felt if it was going to be a steady job for 10 -12 weeks and would like to get some compensation for the gas and use of his equipment. Light motioned to pay Keup $400 on a separate contract for taking care of the infield for this season, seconded by Strand. Voice vote, motion carried. Keup said maybe ask GYSA for a donation and if there is a tournament we could charge $100. Keup said the ballfield isn’t big enough for 12 U teams.

NEW BUSINESS:

            Wexell had an agreement from Crawford, Murphy & Tilly Engineering (via Dalton Whittington).  The firm would charge the Village no more than $1,000 to prepare our IEPA permit to install the back-up generator. The same generator the IEPA forced the Village to install at a cost of $59,793.00. Strand motioned to accept CMT’s agreement, seconded by Keup. Voice vote, motion carried. Funke said he will be hooking up the gas to the generator.

            Wexell said the audit firm of Blucker, Kneer has quit doing municipal audits. Wexell had been in contact with Sam Simic from Simic Irwin CPA. Wexell requested board approval to accept Simic-Irwin as our new audit firm. Strand motioned to use Simic-Irwin CPA, seconded by Light. Voice vote, motion carried.

            Wexell also stated that our Certified Water Operator, Dalton Whittington, had applied for a Letter of Participation through GovMVMT which would provide a 5% to 20% discount on numerous supplies through USA BlueBook and Amazon Business.

            Keup stated that a sidewalk on East Main St. is not in good shape and the property owners wanted to know if they could do something different with the sidewalk that a tree has grown around. Funke said as much as the Board would like to fix all the sidewalks, we can hardly afford to fix the ones up town where the tourists walk. Strand motioned to let the homeowner do what they want with the broken sidewalk, seconded by Meyer. Voice vote, motion carried.

            Wexell learned, via Jim Nolan, that the Zoning Board was not meeting on a regular basis but said we should table the subject until Nolan, the Zoning Officer, is at the meeting to discuss the matter.

             Wigant said the resident that had not paid their water bill since January had just paid their bill in full as of this meeting day.  Funke said if it happens again, follow the Water/Garbage Ordinance and have their water shut off.

            Wigant brought up the subject of having a village board float in the 180^th anniversary parade for Bishop Hill this year. The Trustees tossed out a few ideas, but agreed to go home and think about how they want to do one.

            Wigant asked the Board if they wanted to make a donation to the Burns Boosters 4-H group for their help on the cemetery spring clean-up day. Light motioned to donate $100 to Burns Boosters, seconded by Keup. Voice vote, motion carried.

            Wexell told the Board that the Apex Big Blue Grant, she applied for, was awarded $1,000 for the Colony Flagpole Restoration Project.

            Wigant handed out a sheet of details from the April 17^th Trivia Night fundraiser. Wigant said the total was $3,397 plus a gentleman gave $4,000.00 that night towards the restoration, bringing the total to $7,397. With Wexell’s grant we collected $8,397.00! Wigant said we are short a about $10,000 and was hoping the Board would approve paying for what is left of the $42,500 bill which would put the Village paying a total of $26,000 for the restoration of the Colony Flagpole and donations amounting to $16,500.

             Wigant stated that Whittington needed a new firehose for water testing. Keup said the fire department would be testing hoses that week, maybe they would have one for him.

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