July 19, 2025 Local Stories in and Around St. Joseph, Illinois

Live Blog, St. Joseph Village Board May 11, 2021

We are here at village board. Van Buskirk is absent as is Davis.

Rapp, Cummings, Painter and Wagner are here as is the mayor.

Clerk, treasurer staying the same for four years. Village attorney is new- Marc Miller. The village engineers will continue to be Clark Dietz. #causetheyhavebeentheengineersfor30years

They are currently discussing the money they have in their accounts. #theyhavesome

Rapp discussing how they water flowers the village gardners planted. He is concerned with the cost of watering them.

Every year the village gardners are given $2,500 to beautify downtown. A portion is put in an account at Schuren and the remainder is given to the village gardners for other expenditures. They provide the village with a breakdown of how it is spent, ect. All the work is volunteer as far as planting them and maintaing them except for for watering which is done by the village workers. “We get compliments all the time,” the mayor said.

The village gardners need some new members to work on the baskets around town FYI.

Rapp saying it costs five times as much to water them as it does to plant them.

I routinely get asked who does the flowers in downtown saint joseph by other boards.

Art is voting no. Motioned past 3 to 1.

Art claiming they spend $10,000 to water.

“We have had this discussion every single year,” Fruhling-Voges said. “The tractor has already been bought, the guys have explained numerous times why they do how they do it.”

Now he’s claiming its $12,000-$15,000 with time and wear on the tractor. Now he’s suggesting business owners water them or we contract it out.

Fruhling-Voges telling the board if they want to come up with a better and cheaper way to do that to make a proposal and it is pointless to have the same discussion every year.

Rapp saying he appreciates the effort but the tax payers probably don’t want their money spent to water flowers.

I actually think that the estimate is too high and it doesn’t cost $10,000. You have to pay the guys to work whether they are watering flowers or doing something else. Cummnings saying maybe some students can water the plants.

Fruhling-Voges saying either make a proposal or stop bringing this up because they have had the same conversation since Art joined the board. #yesIagree

I just did public comment #ionlydothatifiamtheonlyonehere
I did Dumpster Days and it was so efficient and I was really thankful that the village offers a place to get rid of my junk.

Reminding that the electronics recycling day is May 22.

The board members need to do their sexual harasssment training.

There is a zoning meeting later in the month.

Fruhling-Voges wants to push the next sewer rate increase to October. And then the following year, May 2022 they will have a smaller increase and will maintain that schedule. They agree to do that.


FOOD TRUCK TIME.

Terri Cummings- said there was baseball at the junior high field. There were two food trucks on Ethel. Kona Ice, and Brien’s Bistros. “I just want to understand do they fall under mobile food vendors on public property?

Seems the concensus is yes. They should have gotten a permit, if they had this ordinance active now. #buttheydidn’tso…. theydidn’tneedapermit

Now would be a good time to say that Island Sno Cones open on Memorial Day. Located in the IGA parking lot. 🙂

Painter saying he didn’t think food trucks were allowed until they had the ordinance in place.

They approved it. I will get it and break it down.

The Born Learning Trail will be installed Thursday at Kolb Park.


They are interviewing people on the 17th and 18th for village administrator. #itishappening

Budget update: They are discussing the pay for employees.

Discussing postponing the discussion on the proposal from Professional Outdoor Solutions for playing fields lasert leveling and enhancements of infioeld and outfield edge definiton.

Fruhling-Voges saying saying the pavillion roof may have to be repaired due to the cost of lumber, lights will need work, the tennis court lines will be repaired, ect. Spending $4500 on a park that kids just use two diamonds, ect. may not be a priority.

This is a slightly tense meeting. The tones are…. interesting. #imhereforit

Fruhling-Voges saying she hasn’t heard a lot of complaints about the field so why would they spend that much money on redoing diamond one and three.

Wagner is saying there is an issue.

Fruhling-Voges saying if the village hasn’t done their due dilligence with their own people she doesn’t think it is appropriate to just hand over $4,500.

Fruhling-Voges saying we can’t spend the money to water flowers but can pay to laser level a little league field? I think her issue is that a big was gotten for a project without the board fully approving the project or looking at other options. #Ilovesecondtermtami

Art saying if it’s a practice field why are they spending $4,500 on it? Wagner saying games are played on it. Tami is saying that according to the village schedule it is mainly used for practices.

“We have to do what is important to tha tax payers,” Fruhling-Voges said regarding the parks. “We get accused of neglecting Kolb park all the time because we are always spending money on the newer parks.”

Fruhling-Voges saying the ball teams could also help make improvements.
“I would like to see that done before they automatically think the village needs to do something with a laser and $4,500 later.”

#SPLASHPADATKOLB2022 (just my own little campaign)

Tami circled back and her issue is that a bid was gotten before other avenues were explored, ect.

The Garrisons sent a letter requesting some sort of guard rail on Peters Drive because their garage was hit by a car earlier this year. Terri pointing out that that giant daycare is going in on Peters so they need to make sure they do whatever they do right. #yes

I live near there and I walk with my kids/dogs alot and people do go fast and do not pay attention.

Discussing hiring more crossing guards. Mr. Sennert is saying they would prefer the kids to walk up to Prospect #shoutouttotheroadiliveon and cross there because it is safer. They have a crossing guard there.

Village discussing removing crosswalks to force students to the crossing guard at prospect.

The village saying maybe they should discuss with the school.

While they are discussing this I did some research- this time last year, Art did discuss the village gardners and flowers.

https://www.stjosephrecord.com/2020/04/28/live-at-st-joseph-village-board-8/

The official minutes say this: Fruhling-Voges reported that the St. Joseph Village Gardeners have requested $2,700 for flowers and material for the 2020 season. Rapp expressed concern regardingthe manner and cost of watering the flowers. Davis motioned and Wagner seconded to approve the $2,700 for the Village Gardeners. Roll call vote was taken: Rapp –Nay, Painter –Aye, VanBuskirk –Aye, Wagner –Aye, and Davis –Aye. Motion passed 5-0.Rapp wanted it to be noted that his no vote was not for the flowers themselves or for the Village Gardeners efforts. His no vote reflects his concern regarding his calculation of the cost of watering the plants which is between $10,000 and $15,000.Rapp used estimated manpower and depreciation on Village equipment in his calculations.* He also asked Mike Peters if there were changes in how the Village was going to water the plants. Peters said that the flower watering would be the same as in the past. Rapp feels this method is extremely inefficient. * These costs were not calculated by the Village staff using actual hours but are a rough calculation by Rapp.

So the $10,000 is a guess.

They are discussing jack-a-slab construction raising verious sidewalk locations for under $4,000.

meeting is over.



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