I am here so you don’t have to be.
On the agenda tonight- discretionary spending discussions.
They are making some appointments.
Community Festival Commission Appointments: Nora Maberry, Angela Page, John Dwyer, Drew Artega, Sandi Paprzyca, Jeremey Yohnka.
Planning and Zoning Commission Appointments: Jeff Klotz, Matt Crider, Jeff Kern, Gary Garrison, Javier Zenil Pena.
Parklet dining is returning at El Toro and Rochs.
They are discussing the consideration and possible approval of Amended Professional Services Agreement between Clark Dietz, Inc. and the Village of St. Joseph, Illinois for Contract Operator at WWTP. The village can cancel it with 30 days notice if they decide to sell the WWTP. COST: June 1, 2026 through May 31, 2027: $39,900
June 1, 2027 through May 31, 2028: $41,900
June 1, 2028 through May 31, 2029: $44,000
They hired LAUTERBACH & AMEN, LLP to do their audit because it’s legally required that someone does an audit and there aren’t a lot of places that do it.
They approved a request by GAM Properties, LLC to waive preliminary plat portion of Subdivision process for proposed development north of Regan Drive in South East Portion of Village.
DISCRETIONARY SPENDING!!!!!!
You can read it in detail here.
1. Payment for demo of Baptist Church
Joe has shown the church to another person. (I saw him yesterday)
He has another showing tomorrow and a person is looking at it next week but they basically want it for free.
TIF money can be spent on demo.
“It looks like one thing on the outside and looks like another thing on the inside,” Joe said.
Joe has shown it to 15 people.
Art wants to list it with a realtor.
Just a note, I’ve been in there and …. I would be hesitant to buy it. You would have to put a ton of money into it to make it able to be used for pretty much anything.
DEMO would be put in the budget but Art doesn’t want to demo it until late Fall of 2026.
I bet they demo it in the Fall. Just saying.
Contribution to Capital Costs for CCES Recycling. The CCES mission is to advance improved local and regional options for recycling, composting food scraps, and the safe and convenient disposal of household hazardous waste. Walsh saying he is willing to do $2,000 a year for three years.
Comprehensive Plan Update. The village is 3 years overdue. It would cost $53,000. “Is it going to kill us to put it off a year, Joe?” Jim asked.
Joe saying no but it would need to be done the following year.
A comprehensive plan is just basically a zoning review update and what the village anticipates the land around the village being used for. It’s not strategic planning.
Page wants to put it off a year because the state is looking at doing a Building Up Illinois Developments (BUILD) plan and that could effect the comprehensive plan.
Fireworks- they are going to do the fireworks. They are expensive though. They are staying with the company the village has used previously. They are doing a three year commitment.
Animal Control: Page saying there are 12 stray cats, a few animal dog bites and some escape artist dogs.
Now it is an hourly rate.
They are putting $40,000 in the budget and will discuss the actual contract at the next meeting. (Just cause it’s in the budget doesn’t mean it has to be spent)
Digitization/preservation of historical records. No quote on this yet. Proposing up to $25,000 per year until completed. The village has a lot of historical documents that need to be preserved. I’ve seen a few that are literally falling apart despite their best efforts to preserve it.
Fun fact: They have meeting minutes from 1890s and in the meetings they discussed lose dogs and neighbor disputes. #somethingsneverchange
Joe saying that if something would happen once the history is gone, it’s just gone. “It would be nice to preserve that.”
They are preserving the history. #itsimportant
Jim wants to start off with a part time parks and recreation director.
1. This person would handle event permits.
2. This person would handle FOIAs. (This is kinda a weird thing for a Parks and Rec Director to handle honestly.)
3. Game scheduling
Andrea saying its good to budget it but supports starting with a part time employee to see how busy they are. #fiscallyresponsible
Joe saying he has to research what their “peer” towns are doing and what the market is.
I would love to see what communities who don’t have a park district are doing versus towns that have a park district.
“I don’t know that it’s full time,” Andrea said.
Art is adamantly against this. “We just now got the park and recreation on solid footing,” Art said.
Art saying they had a parks and recreation director previously and it didn’t go very well. #heaintlying
“I think this is premature,” he said.
Oh he’s against it because it would have to come out of the general fund. I think he thinks there is no way Parks and Rec budget could absorb this.
“I am a hard no on this,” Art said. “I would vote against the budget on this alone. It didn’t work well before.”
Matt Walsh saying that if the Parks and Recreation Director has set hours it may work better.
Page saying that it doesn’t have to be eight hours a day, five days a week.
Page is saying there is money to pay for this.
“I disagree,” Art said.
Steve asked why it failed last time and Art didn’t really have a clear answer but I think anyone who was around then could say the summer program really failed because it was ran during the same time as the sports camps and stuff. So there weren’t enough campers.
It kinda sounds to me they just want a part time office worker to do FOIAs and Scheduling. That’s not really a parks and rec director, I don’t think. I think a Parks and Rec Director usually oversees staff and budgets and develops community activities.
They are still discussing the time spent on FOIAs. Page seems a little annoyed by the amount of FOIAs they are getting. I know some “news” organizations just send FOIAs for fishing expeditions. A school district I cover, not SJO or SJGS, got one asking how many kids passed a math class. That seems…. pointless to me but… I don’t really submit a lot of FOIAs.
I have submitted exactly two FOIAs in my entire time cover the village. 1. Because Mayor Hackler asked me to give him a little coverage on an issue with a business owner on a sales tax refund (I will let you assume who). 2. For text messages board members were sending each other during meetings. St. Joseph has a lot of their info available on their website. They are pretty transparent for a municipality.
Discussing how Stark needs some dirt and the village may be able to provide it, ect.
They are going into executive session
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