May 21, 2026 Local Stories in and Around St. Joseph, Illinois

Live at Ogden Village Board, August 4, 2022

Ok so the blog crashed and the convo for the first 15 minutes was pretty heated. But the basic gist of the first 15 minutes is former Trustee Sonja Vickers had a petition with 79 signatures asking the board to revisit their decision to allow Ted Hartke to use the alley near his business for parking. Vickers said it’s not fair to other businesses and blocks access to a door on the mason building.

Jim Acklin is not in favor of revisiting it. He said signatures on a petition don’t mean much to him. Sue Esposito asked if he wanted 80 people to come into the board meeting and he said yes.

Acklin said he doesn’t agree with every board decision but he doesn’t go out and try to gather public support for overturning it. Esposito said she does if she feels strongly about something.

A village employee signed the petition and Vickers asked that they not hold it against him. Ben Smith found it insulting that she would think they would do that.


They are going to invite Hartke back in September to discuss it further but I honestly can’t see it changing.

The NE drainage project went to bid and the bids came back at more than a million dollars. The engineer is saying that means the companies didn’t really want to do it. Multiple companies said since it was funded by federal grant dollars they didn’t want to bother with it. They will put it out to bid again in the winter.

Beautification: Little Library is going to be put up soon. They are discussing a welcome sign.

Back to the petition. Acklin claimed residents had told him they didn’t know what they were signing but the petition clearly states: : The below legally registered voters of the Village of Ogden are petitioning the village of Ogden trustees to reverse the decision to rent two parking spots in the alley between the masonic lodge, 111 S. East Street and Ted Hartkey’s building, 109 S. East St. We believe that public street parking, which is less than eight feet from the front of Mr. Hartkey’s building is more than adequate to serve any parking needs his tenants may have. The ordinance passed was unnecessary and should be reversed.

Vickers collected signatures from July 26 to August 4.

Discussing sewer rates now. Haan is suggesting is adopting the $13 fixed feet and the $1.25 cent rate. Basically, if I remember last time the ordinance and the bills don’t match so this will make them match.

The board seems to think this is too complicated. The board keeps saying it’s a computer glitch but the Clerk is saying it is not a glitch the program is only set up for two costs but needs three or more.

They are discussing spring riders at the park. They need to be replaced.

The board has a lot of questions about things that probably could have been asked before the meeting. Like how the replacement options were chosen or how they came up with this company.

MAPPING OGDENS FUTURE CHECKING ACCOUNT TIME. They want a checking account. St. Joe did MAPPING previously and so did Homer. Is it worth the time? I guess it depends if you implement it or not. Basically, Haan doesn’t want checks made out to him because he doesn’t want to be taxed. This makes it all nice for the audit.




Banner
Related Posts

Live at St. Joseph Village Board, April 9, 2024

April 9, 2024

April 9, 2024

It’s a full house tonight with the girl scouts presenting, the Baptist Church being honored for donating their building and...

Live at St. Joseph Village Board, Nov. 28

November 28, 2023

November 28, 2023

I am a little late. But I am here now. Discussing how Middle School Cross Country would like a Cross...

Girl Scouts plan for Community Christmas Tree

April 24, 2024

April 24, 2024

Girl Scout Troop 2191 wants to make Christmas a little more merry in St. Joseph.  The troop presented the village...

Village votes no on TIF

February 7, 2019

February 7, 2019

After two years, the answer is no. The village of St. Joseph has voted not to proceed with a residential...

Live at St. Joseph Village Board August 9, 2022

August 9, 2022

August 9, 2022

I am the only one in the audience so far. Thanks to MX electric for sponsoring our live blogs. They...

Live at St. Joseph Village Board Oct. 26

October 26, 2021

October 26, 2021

I am live at village board so you don’t have to be. Visit Champaign County is here. I feel like...

Live at St. Joseph Village Board, Aug. 23, 2022

August 23, 2022

August 23, 2022

I am here with five people in the audience. #hugecrowd Plus, the usual Mr. Sennert doing IT and Mr. Miller...

St. Joseph Village Board, Sept. 26, 2023

September 26, 2023

September 26, 2023

You can watch on Youtube. Public comment:Dana Dow lives on Douglas.“I had a neighbors tree, dead, refuse to take it...

Village accepting bids for Boy Scout building

August 5, 2022

August 5, 2022

A piece of St. Joseph history will be sold. The village board is moving forward with selling the “Boy Scout...

Live at St. Joseph Village Board, Dec. 17, 2024.

December 17, 2024

December 17, 2024

 I am here so you don’t have to be.  It’s a special board meeting- meaning they combined two December meetings...

Live Blog April 13, 2021

April 13, 2021

April 13, 2021

They are supposed to discuss food trucks. #MAKEITHAPPEN And give an update on the village administrator. Doing investments. Doing bills....

Chittick Eye Care to open in early March

February 24, 2020

February 24, 2020

Chittick Eye Care will open its ninth clinic in downtown St. Joseph in early March. The clinic will be staffed...

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

May 11, 2021

May 11, 2021

We are here at village board. Van Buskirk is absent as is Davis. Rapp, Cummings, Painter and Wagner are here...

Email billing to start next month for sewer

July 28, 2022

July 28, 2022

Starting next month St. Joseph residents can get their sewer bills in their email. The paperwork to sign up is...

Live at Ogden Village Board, Feb. 10

February 10, 2022

February 10, 2022

I am here so you don’t have to be. Ogden Youth League is going to take place this summer. The...

Comments
Leave a Reply