October 1, 2025 Meeting Minutes

             Village of Bishop Hill,      County of Henry, State of Illinois

                  web page: bishophillil.gov

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

MINUTES: Because there was not a quorum last month, Wigant gave each trustee the minutes for August & September.  Laub motioned to accept August & September meeting minutes, seconded by Strand. Voice vote, motion carried.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Light motioned to accept the August & September Treasurer’s Report, seconded by Nordstrom. Voice vote, motion carried.

PAY BILLS: Each trustee had the list of bills for September & October. Wexell presented a bill from Pollardwater Co. for $681.96 (EPA spill pallets) and a correction to the Ameren bill which should be $287.01. Nordstrom motioned to pay  bills for September and October, seconded by Laub. Voice vote, motion carried.

            There were two Bishop Hill residents present at the meeting, along with Cameron Meyer, Water Superintendent,  Dalton Whittington, our Certified Operator, and a representative from IDOT.

            Funke let the gentleman from IDOT speak first. He was there to have Funke sign papers for our Motor Fuel Tax audit consisting of the last 11 years. Wexell had everything in order and there were no issues. Funke signed the papers and the man left the meeting.

            The first resident to speak said he just purchased a house in town, he reported the water had been turned off. As Water Ordinance #2023-05 states, even if the water is turned off the resident still has to pay for garbage. He wanted to know if he still had to pay the monthly garbage fee of $8, when the house was empty of all contents. The Board said there had been issues in the past with people not living in their house but continued to use the garbage, so the ordinance was changed to reflect that problem. Strand motioned to make an exception to the rule for said resident, seconded by Nordstrom. Voice vote, motion carried.

            The second resident then asked about why the hydrant at the end of E. Main St. had not been fixed yet, if a fire happened what would happen to the structures down that street. Funke explained that it is only a flush hydrant and not a fire hydrant, the fire department cannot hook up a hose and pump off of it. Funke explained that when Strand was the fire chief, he made sure the fire department had enough hose (1,600 feet) to reach from the regular hydrants to the farthest away structures. The Board members have been discussing different options on what to do since they found it was broken. Funke told the residents that the village board was trying to wait until we ran the new water main down E. Main Street, but that entails getting an EPA permit and to get that permit you have to have an engineer which will be very expensive. At this time the village isn’t in a position financially to do that. A different resident on that street said he would periodically run his garden hose to keep the system flushed. Funke said we can install a regular 6” fire hydrant and adapt it down to the 4” water main that we have now. Then we would have to have an insertion valve so we would not have to drain down the entire water system to change out the hydrants. Whittington said if we drain down the whole system that can cause other problems. Whittington said with labor, water sampling, insertion valve, and hydrant we are looking at a cost of $18,000 to $22,000 for the whole job. The Board tabled the subject until next meeting.

            One of the residents said he also has brown water from time to time and his whole house filter has to be changed often. Whittington said if a resident doesn’t use enough water that can happen. He told the resident  to run the garden hose or the bathtub faucet for a while. The other resident that lives just down the road said he doesn’t have that problem.

            The first resident said he was concerned with someone charging $5 per car for parking at the Ag Days event this year. They were also parking vehicles in an empty lot behind the Vasa, that it could cause an accident.  Funke said we don’t have an ordinance pertaining to that situation. One of the Trustees said he didn’t think it was right to have a free event for the public and then charge for parking. Wigant said there has been parking in the lot behind the post office building before, although they weren’t charging anything to park.

OLD BUSINESS:

            Meyer said he is still waiting for help to run the water connections. Whittington said Meyer needs a licensed plumber to hook from the curb-stop to the new water main and run trace wire on the new piping.

            Wigant reported that she collected all raffle tickets and money for the drawing of the bench made from the old water tower wood. The total money collected came to $1,281.58. The drawing was held Saturday on Ag Days at 1:00, at the Prairie Arts Center. Village Trustee, Amanda Laub, was present and videoed Cathy Johnson picking the winning ticket. The ticket was fitting for a long-time resident of Bishop Hill to win, Roland Krause. Wigant said who knows how many times he had walked past that wooden water tower.

            Wexell said that the JULIE company is starting a new program January 1^st, 2026. It is called JULIE’s Positive Response System and will require Wexell and Meyer to enter a certain code into the JULIE website every time Meyer does a water line locate. As soon as the code is entered it will show a date & time when the locate was done. They have used the new system a couple of times.

            Funke said he had not heard anything further on getting the roof painted on the Municipal Bldg. He will have to call Mike Massie about when it could get done.

            Wigant said she had not heard any news on IDOT’s broken drain. She did report that Funke had asked the Township Road Commissioner to put gravel down on the deep ruts on Bjorklund St. before the Ag days event, at no charge. Funke asked if Wigant had received a bill from Bell Trucking for the gravel, she had not received one yet.

            After the earlier discussion about the Water Ordinance the Board decided to not make any changes to the Water Ordinance

NEW BUSINESS:

            Wigant had a letter from Jeff Goard, owner of Goard Pottery, he wanted to close a section of Bjorklund Street for his annual Pottery and Art show, Saturday October 11, 2025 from 10 a.m. to 4 pm. He would have vendors set up on the side of the street. Funke said as long as the other business owners on that street are fine with it. Light motioned to allow Goard to close part of the street, seconded by Laub. Voice vote, motion carried.

            Whittington received 2 bids; both were for a new 45KW Cummins stand-by gas generator for the municipal building. First one was from Cummins Co. for 65,700, the second quote was from Rock River Electric Inc. for $59,793. Rock River also told Whittington they would submit a letter to the EPA stating that they had a portable generator the village can use, if needed, until the permanent one was installed. Whittington said the installed generator would run everything in the Municipal Building; lights, heat/air, chlorinator and well #1 pump. Funke said the Municipal Bldg. could be a warming station like the fire station. Wexell said we do have a bank CD maturing this December, we can use that to pay for this in full. Light motioned to use Rock River Electric to install the generator, seconded by Nolan. Voice vote, motion carried. Wexell will call Rock River Electric and find out if they require a down payment.

            The Board discussed getting a new water salesman. Whittington said when the new system was put in, they put in a new 2” valve for the water salesman, but there are some parts that will need to be replaced because of age and inactivity. He also said the EPA does not like water salesman and the Board has to also consider how much it costs to make the water - i.e. electricity and chemicals. Light tabled the subject until the November meeting.

            Whittington had completed the updates that the EPA demanded. He installed an eye wash station, and spill containment pallets for each of the chlorine tanks. The EPA had also given the Village 6 months to purchase a generator, which the Board just voted to buy and have installed.  

            Wexell said we now have a Village charge card through Community State Bank that is connected to the General Fund. It will be used for the yearly cost of WIX/village webpage and the Text Alert fee. It can also be used for other village purchases at our local businesses or online. Previously Wexell, Wigant, and Light were using their personal charge cards to pay for above items.

            The Board decided to put the snow plowing job out for bids. Laub will put an ad on the Bishop Hill Village Facebook page and Galva Facebook, Ready Set Grow. Wigant will put it in the Prairie News publication. We will open bids at the November meeting.

            Wigant said she and Wexell are trying to get a grant for the cemetery to fix and replace stones. 

    Funke asked the Board what day they wanted to have Trick or Treat in town. Laub said Friday Oct 31^st from 5 to 7 p.m., the rest of the Board agreed.

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