Live at St. Joseph Village Board

We are here. They are discussing bonds.

The village has a really nice Christmas tree up. What’s your favorite Christmas show? Frosty? Rudolph? Charlie Brown Christmas? The Grinch?

They are still discussing bonds. They are trying to reduce the debt and save money.

Trustee Art Rapp is asking questions. Rigdon and Wagner are not here.

Wagner has arrived.

The only purpose is to lower interest rates and save money.

They are approving the tax levy. $324,300. “This is where our tax dollars go,” Julie Hendrickson just pointed out. (FACT. It’s not a ton of money.)

Luke Fisher- Last week Illinois Department of Labor showed up and “got us on some stuff.” Fisher said 70 percent is taken care of. The remainder of the stuff are issues at the sewer plant such as fall protection, railings, ect.

“Luke has been working very hard on that and he has knocked out the majority of it,” said Mayor Tami Fruhling-Voges.

The village will probably be asking for an extension to fix some of the issues because it will take some time to order what is needed to be fixed, ect.

Dan Davis- Food Truck time- wanting to meet with local people who have concerns.

Art Rapp- asking about a park meeting that was held. There was a meeting to discuss the community building but it was private citizens, ect. The village has $317,000 in CDs for the purpose.

Rapp saying that Wagner, who is chair of the Park committee, should attend the meeting and Fruhling-Voges saying that isn’t necessary because it isn’t a village committee. “It’s a community-driven initiative,” Fruhling-Voges said.

Roy McCarty saying that this has already been explained when Jim Page originally presented the board with information.

Max Painter- discussing putting an advertising sign to enter St. Joseph- get the businesses to sponsor it. Upcoming events, ect. “Like what the high school has,” Painter said. Painter will follow up.

A few years ago they spent weeks discussing the size of signs with businesses in town… this thing would have to be pretty large.

Fruhling-Voges: Bringing up the Boy Scout Building- which is really the village’s building that they let the scouts use. Fruhling-Voges said there are some liability issues that need to be addressed.

McCarty provided the scouts with questions in 2018 that he needed answers for and they were never answered.

Davis is still looking for information on a temporary skating rink. For a holiday festival in 2020. He doesn’t want to rush it and make it not spectacular for 2019.

Clerk discussing how the board packet information needs to be ready to go on Friday so if people have questions they can ask them over the weekend because people are unhappy with the information provided in the packets and answers given during the meetings.

Rapp saying that the open meetings act requires “supporting information” to be given to the board in advance and that they get piles of paperwork before the meeting.

I am just going to say that the board gets a lot of information beforehand and a lot more than other boards and way further in advance than other boards. This village is very, very transparent. I always get the agenda early and if I have any questions they (the Clerk or Mayor) always answer them ahead of time if possible.

Joe Lierman reminding people not to hit respond all because then it is a MEETING.

The board members, except for Roy and Dan Davis, are lamenting having to read a lot of information in a short period of time. McElroy-Smetzer pointing out that often when things are put in their mail boxes on a Friday it is still sitting there on Tuesday and she has even offered to HAND DELIVER the information.

The trustees aren’t really discussing the open meetings act. There is no open meetings violation. The agendas are much more detailed than other villages and they post notices for everything and in 10 years they have went into closed session about two times. This is more of a house keeping issue that is getting blown way out of proportion.

Meeting adjurned. 8: 26 p.m.