Public Comment: Nora Anderson is here to discuss chickens. Anderson, 9, is urging the board to consider allowing chickens within the village limits. She said they help sustainable living by allowing people to feed them table scraps and much more. She also told the board that a lot of area towns allow chickens within village limits. She also said that most towns only allow hens, which she supports because “they are quieter.”
The board thanked her for her presentation.
Next is the consent agenda. That’s where they approve the minutes from last meeting and a bunch of housekeeping stuff.
Art, who wasn’t here at the last meeting, is taking exception to the minutes because when they voted to approve the agreement with the rec board regarding the community building, no one asked any questions about funding.
He asked how they expected to pay for utilities. Mayor Jim Page told him through rental fees. He asked what happens when they don’t make enough in rental fees. “We are trusting the process,” Page said.
Art voted no on the consent agenda.
Now it’s audit time.
Art is asking what is included in the “culture and recreation.” Basically, its park and recreation. I think he is thrown by the culture part but previously the parks and rec department did put on summer band concerts, ect. which I would consider culture and not recreation.
Anyway, moving on.
Auditor is talking about the contract with the Champaign County Sheriff since it is kinda unique to the village.
Now talking about IMRF.
Talking about suggestions to management. IT security is a suggestion they give to all their clients. #noonewantstogethacked
Art is talking now about how they are recommending blending the parks and recreation fund into the general fund but the village just pulled it out a few years ago. “Are you aware of that?”
“Yes, I am,” the auditor responded.
You can read the audit here. Basically, they passed with flying colors.
Julius Hansen is here, he’s the interim public works director. He wanted to say publicly that he has enjoyed serving the residents of St. Joseph.
They are discussing brush pick up.
The Burn Boss is broken. Hansen cannot get the company to fix it and no mechanic will fix it. He’s recommending replacing the Burn Boss because other options are way more expensive.
Here’s the text of Julius’ memo to the board.
“Based on the information gathered to date, the damaged machine used to burn the brush is not
repairable. I cannot get the manufacturer to repair the machine. They will not send me any parts to fix it,
and I cannot find a mechanic in the area to evaluate it. At this time, I have ruled out the possibility of
repairing it as a practical solution.
The manufacturer (mentioned above) has a new machine currently available for $100,000 plus shipping
at ~$4,000 with a 15% increase on 9/12/26 for all new machines they sell. They also have the next size
up for $160,000 plus delivery. Buying a new machine is the most expensive option as far as purchasing a
machine goes. More on those two machines and the possibility of purchasing used machines later in this
memo.
If the village does not purchase a machine for this fiscal year to continue the method of burning, a few
options are available but not many. The least expensive thing to do for now would be to stockpile all the
brush and burn it during the winter months without a machine. That will probably be over 1000 cubic
yards of brush to burn before Spring. This would not be a method for the long term, but it is a way to
dispose of the brush that has accumulated since our machine can no longer be used to burn it. This
allows for a delay in making a purchase until the next budget cycle (if funds are not currently available). I
am not recommending to do this but if we cannot make a purchase now it’s a possibility. Eventually we
need to purchase a machine to continue burning brush based on our program to provide this benefit to
the residents.
We have a couple other options to dispose of the brush until we can burn it, but it will cost money that is
better spent buying a machine.
The City of Urbana will take the brush at their landscape recycling for $11 per cubic yard (maybe we can get a reduced rate if you talk to them). It is a 30-minute round trip and 30-minutes to load and off load so each trip would take 1 hour. If we pick it up off the street and take it directly to Urbana that will slow down the brush removal off the street. We generate on average 40
loads per month with each load being around 8 cu yds. This equals 320 cubic yards costing $3,520 in
dump fees. The 40 truck loads would take 40 hours of labor (one driver for a week) at $25.00 per hr.
equaling $1000. The fuel to travel is 80 gallons to travel the 800 miles for the 40 loads equaling $300.
The grand total per month is $4820 at 7 monthly occurrences equaling $33,740 annually. These numbers
will vary based on quantity of brush, but it gives a good representation for all the costs related to this
method. This is probably going to be the cheapest option if we cannot burn it.
Homer Tree Service gave me a quote early this year at $28.00 per cubic yd to haul out the brush to their
location. That would cost $8960 (per month) compared to the same exact quantity calculated above. At 7
monthly occurrences that equals $62,720 annually. I asked them to give me a cheaper method (chip it or
grind it on site), but they do not seem interested in doing that. The cost of hauling as quoted is so
expensive we could probably hire a contractor to perform the entire brush removal program to include
removing it off the street in addition to removing all the brush from the Village for the same amount.
Burning the brush is the most cost-effective way to dispose of brush even with the initial high capital
investment of purchasing a replacement machine using a conservative ten-year return on investment
(more likely a 15-to-20-year maximum effective life for the machine).
Circling back to purchasing a new machine, the details are as follows; the village can buy the smallest
machine that is made to be highly mobile on a trailer platform. That is the same machine we have been
using, but we do not need a mobile unit. It’s just the least expensive one because it’s smaller. The cost of
a new machine is $100,000 plus $4,000 for delivery. The cost goes up 15% according to the manufacturer
if we make the purchase (or give a verbal commitment) before 9/12/26. I’m not sure how firm they are
on that deadline, but that is what they said (see attached description).
The next level machine they have is larger and needs to be put on a trailer to move it. The higher
capacity machine costs $160,000 plus delivery. The site the village utilizes is a permanent one, so once
the machine is placed it does not need to be moved for our type of operation. This larger machine can
burn more (three times as much) brush per day, conservatively saving labor by 50% on a monthly basis.
This savings of $1000 ($25.00 per hour x 40 hours) in labor per month calculated over a ten-year period
equals approximately $70,000 justifying the additional cost of the larger machine if labor is a concern. I
like the idea of a larger capacity machine but it’s too expensive. I am not recommending the bigger
machine because of the cost, but it’s good information to know when considering all the possibilities.
The final consideration is purchasing a used machine and based on my research it’s the best choice from
a most cost-effective perspective. I have done extensive research on finding a used machine and not
many of them are currently for sale. It is a unique machine so it’s not common on the market.
I found one that is the same exact model we have been using, but it is a 2025 model. Making it about ten
years newer than the one we have. It is listed at $77,500 with only 279 operating hours, which seems
correct equal to a year of operation. This is a small business owner that needs a bigger machine. It would
not have a warranty. It is located in Ames Iowa about 300 miles from here, and we can pick it up to save
transportation costs.
Another used machine that I found is the same model also made in 2025, and it is basically brand new. It
is located in Minnesota. It does not have a warranty and they are asking $95,000. However, this small
business owner is interested in our machine as a trade in. We could offer our machine and cash to lower
the asking price. I think they want to fix our machine and use it to reduce their business costs for the
new machine they have but do not apparently use.
The only other used machine for sale in this model has around 100 hours of operation at a cost of
$77,000. It is being sold by Burn Debris based in Georgia. They offer a 1 year or 1000-hour warranty
(because they repair their own fleet of machines). They might be interested in our machine as a trade in,
so I sent them photos. I don’t know how much they would give us for our machine yet. They would
likely take it on trade and fix it to sell. This is a national company that has the ability to repair the
machines they sell .
More importantly, the Burn Debris company has a second machine that is most interesting to me and the
one I recommend. It is a completely different model with a larger capacity to burn more material and
save time and labor as previously mentioned. Unlike the larger new machine that costs $160,000, this
one is used for $85,000 plus delivery costing $10,000. They are interested in our machine as a trade in
which lowers the cost to $75,000 plus delivery equaling a total cost of $85,000. They offer a warranty for
the life of the machine with a maintenance agreement that equals $15.00 per operating hour. With the
larger capacity (30 cubic yards equal to a large dumpster) we would cut operation hours to 24 to 40
hours per month with a cost of $2520 to $4200 annually depending on actual hours of operation for the
maintenance agreement that would serve as a warranty for as long as we want. I like the fact that they
offer this warranty and will fix it as needed.
The only downside to buying the other used machines is that they do not have a warranty. Getting these
machines repaired has proven to be problematic based on our recent experience. For this reason and the
price not to exceed $85,000 delivered with trade in I recommend purchasing the used lager machine
from Burn Debris.”
They are asking the board for direction on whether they want to lease or buy outright. Art is making a motion for them to lease for 15 years.
I am actually really surprised they aren’t just canning the brush pick up. It takes a lot of man hours and is expensive but the downside to not having it is… no one is going to drag their brush into Urbana. Plus, brush pick up is a great public relations item for the village. It’s a very tangible thing that the village does monthly (7 months of the year) for residents.
They are also discussing the parks and rec position later. You can read the memo here.
(I am expecting arguing to take place during this)
They want to post it in a week or two, open until filled.
Page talking about the work that went into the updated organizational chart and salary adjustments. Matt Wolfersberger is asking what they envision a person doing over the winter. Page said “Halloween Parade-, winter parade, fee schedule, scheduling process, ect.”
Walsh asking if eventually they will run the community building. “There will be some support,” he said.
Andrea “It does take some of the extra duties off the office personnel?” Joe saying it would take scheduling off the desk of the office staff.
Joe is saying it will not exceed 29 hours in a given week. This is basically so they don’t have to pay insurance. It’s 129 hours a month. Art voted no.
Now they are discussing whether they are staying in Enjoy CU. It’s $700 to be a member. They are also asking for a $300 donation for the basketball tournament.
Art claiming the businesses don’t participate in it so the “voids” are self induced.
Matt Wolfersberger voted no. The rest voted yes for the $700.
Reminder community garage sales are Sept. 17, 18, and 19 and Dumpster Day is Sept. 19. DO NOT Take your left over garage sale stuff to the Dumpster please. Instead, donate it to Fair Hope Children’s Home! Contact me if you have any clothes or small children’s toys and we will hook you up with a place to donate it.
Meeting adjourned.
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