November 6, 2024 Meeting Minutes

  Village of Bishop Hill                web page: bishophillil.gov

  County of Henry

  State of Illinois

  November 6th, 2024

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, Amanda Laub, Sharon Wexell & Terri Wigant were all present.

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

TREASURER’S REPORT; Nordstrom motioned to accept the Treasurer’s Report, seconded by Laub. Voice vote, motion carried.

PAY BILLS;  Nordstrom motioned to pay all bills, including the added bill for Whittington for the heater housing materials for the water tower, seconded by Nolan. Voice vote, motion carried.

OLD BUSINESS;

 Whittington, our Certified Water Operator, was present at the meeting, he told the Board that there was no news on the new water main project for E. Main St.

Funke said that he talked to Jeff Olson about the inmates, that fixed the park fence, if they could coat/paint the metal roof on the Municipal bldg., stain the bleachers and clean the leaves at the baseball field next spring.  Olson said he would look into that project, and see how much it would cost. Funke had asked Joe Case, about coating the Municipal roof. Case did go up and look at it, he said the roof still looked solid, the metal just needed to be painted, unfortunately, he wouldn’t have time to do it.  

Whittington said that Wirth Heating & Cooling from Geneseo would put in the new hydrant on E. Main St., but they didn’t know when. All materials and labor would be between $10,000 to $13,000 dollars, also it has to be a licensed contractor to do any digging for the hydrant or water mains. The Board said if it is $10,000 or more, we have to have another bid. Funke will get in touch with Dooley’s Plumbing from Kewanee to see what their cost would be and when they could do it.

Whittington was also saying that well #2 is not in service, so we currently are only using well #1. Well #2 was pumping 160 to 120 gallons per minute and then it went down to 60-70 gallons per minute. Swanson Electric checked the motor and wiring it was good. Whittington said the pump must have failed. Wigant told Whittington that we had a storm mid-October and the electricity was doing the brownout effect for quite a while, maybe that caused this problem? Whittington said that could have done it and it was about the same time it lost pumping capability. He also said the new VFD does not have a delay switch, that could have helped with the brownout. Peerless was coming on November 11th to check things out.

Whittington was also at the meeting to renew his contract. He was asking for an increase of $75 per month for the 4 visits per month. The contract was for 2 years and he did not increase his hourly rate for additional hours. Wexell said that there was a new Illinois law, Paid Leave for All Workers Act, which gives employees 1 hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked. Wexell said she would figure out the number of days and give the information at next month’s meeting and let Whittington know too. Light motioned to accept the contract as written, seconded by Nordstrom. Voice vote, motion carried. Whittington signed the contract, along with Funke and Wigant, then he had to leave the meeting.

At last meeting Wigant asked the Board to discuss the Signage Ordinance again. The ordinance said only a 2’x4’ or 1’x8’ sized signs were allowed. There have been complaints that those sizes don’t work well for some store owners. Pat Fossberg, a Village resident and a long-time sign maker, said signs really should be size appropriate to where they are being placed. At a previous meeting, Nolan said maybe omit the size on the ordinance, the business can present what they would like to have as their signage to the historical board. Wexell wrote a new sign ordinance stating that “Size will be determined by the Zoning Officer in Concurrence with the Historical Zoning President and Board. If there is a dispute , the Zoning Officer will present the findings to the Village Board, who will make the final decision”. Laub motioned to accept Ordinance No. 2024-04, seconded by Light. Voice vote, motion passed.

Funke found out that Mortenson will send new benches for the picnic table, the first ones were broken in shipping. Nicci Dillon, owner of the Filling Station, wanted the picnic table and any other benches that are not spoken for. The Village Board said they would put one by the door of the Municipal Bldg.

NEW BUSINESS;

            The new owner of P.L. Johnson’s Restaurant, Jennifer Jude, talked to Wigant about getting a liquor license for the restaurant. Wigant told her she would talk to the Board, because currently the Liquor Ordinance says only three (3) liquor licenses for the Village. Wigant asked the Board what they wanted to do. They did not see a problem with having four (4) in town. Keup motioned to amend the Liquor Ordinance to say four (4); seconded by Light. Strand made a motion to amend Keup’s motion, and make it five (5) Liquor Licenses in town, then maybe we won’t have to change it again. Nolan seconded Strands motion to change it to five (5) Liquor Licenses in the Village of Bishop Hill. Voice vote, motion carried. Wexell said she would present the amended Liquor License Ordinance at the December meeting.

            Wexell presented the 2025 Tax Levy Ordinance to the Board. Nordstrom motioned to pass Tax Levy Ordinance 2024-05, seconded by Laub. Voice vote, motion carried. Roll call, there were #6 ayes.

            Wexell asked the Board if they would agree to drop Porter-Hay insurance as the agent for our Illinois Municipal League Risk Management insurance. Wexell said she is the one that handles the requests that IML has about the Village, sends in any forms they need and pays IML directly.  Wexell asked the same question to an IMLRMA representative, that person said that we didn’t have to have Porter-Hay as our agent. Wexell said Porter-Hay receives 10% of IML costs. If we drop the agent, it would save the Village approximately $537 per year. We do have to pay them this year, but if the Board agrees, going forward we won’t pay that fee. Light motioned to not have Porter-Hay as our agent, seconded by Nordstrom. Voice vote, motion carried.

             Wigant said a resident in town has 2 trees on the Village right-of-way that are rotten. The resident wants them removed. Wigant had called Funke and reported the situation, he said to go ahead and call Ron’s Tree Service. Wigant met with Modesto and he said about $800 dollars for the trees and to take off a bad branch on a 3rd tree that is on Village property, there are a total of 4 trees on Village property. Funke said to call Modesto back and tell him to take down all 4 so we don’t have to worry about it again. Wigant said she didn’t know how much more the cost would be. Light motioned to have all 4 trees taken down if the price is $1,600 or less, seconded by Laub. Voice vote, motion carried.

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